888Ride is the popular Youtube feature where David Tuchman meanders around Vegas in a silver Cadillac Escalade with an 888poker logo on the door and a poker personality in the passenger seat.
One of the latest guests was Jeff Platt, who joined Tuchman for an interview about being poker’s best-known interviewer.
Platt has become a household name in his role as a poker commentator. His “stand up for me” interviews are now an integral part of the annual WSOP broadcasts. He also plays the game, having won a WSOPC Online ring in 2017, an MSPT Main Event in 2022, and a small RunGood event in November. He also made it to five WSOP Online final tables and one live, not to mention several deep Main Event runs during the 2010s.
In his interview with Tuchman, Platt talks about his poker background, how he built his media career, and whether he prefers being behind the mic or a chipstack.
Behind The Mic Or A Chipstack?
On this first topic, Platt was adamant—he prefers the broadcasting.
“I really do love the work,” Platt said. “I’m sure you do too. We’re fortunate to have a real, legitimate, genuine passion for what we do […] To be able to go into what we call ‘work’ and do what I love… Yeah, sign me up for that!”
Then Tuchman turned to Platt’s prior poker performances—some early deep runs in the Main Event before he “was even broadcasting much.” On this topic, as with several others throughout the interview, Platt took a humble line.
Nowadays, he says, he studies poker for “at least one hour a day, even if that’s just looking at preflop charts on the couch.” But back then, he told Tuchman, “I must have been bottom 10%, maybe bottom 5% in the field as far as skill was concerned. I didn’t have a clue.”
Throughout the interview both his and Tuchman’s affection for poker is clear. The two men fanboy about the WSOP Main Event as “the greatest poker event” and possibly “the greatest event, period.”
Platt’s love of the game comes through in every anecdote. Like the story of playing with Maria Ho on a feature table and busting just as his parents arrived to watch him. The disappointment of his final exit still seems a little raw, but doesn’t color his obvious thrill at having got to play with a great player before he was a name.
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Stand Up With Me
Now, of course, Platt is one of the names in poker himself and the kind of player who others are now excited to sit and play with.
When the conversation turns to how Platt became the commentator we know from poker broadcasts, the turn it took was a full circle. “You actually covered one of my first 888rides,” Tuchman reminded Platt. “For PokerNews. I was doing one with “the Grinder“ and you met us at the car dealership!”
From there, Platt opened up about the stresses of each new big project—the nerves before big interviews with the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson‘s (“Only two men in poker have that kind of aura,” he says. “Doyle and Phil Ivey.”
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“What’s Next For Jeff Platt?”
As the Cadillac got close to its destination—Platt is on his way to play an event at the Wynn, Las Vegas—Tuchman asked one final question: “What’s Next For Jeff Platt?”
“I’m so passionate, so invested in the game, I just want to keep getting better at it,” Platt replied. “But you can’t put pressure on yourself to aquire specific results. Like, I’d love to win a World Series of Poker bracelet […] but I know that over the course of time, if I’m getting better, if I continue to put in the work, then the results will come. That they’ll be there.”
However, on the broadcasting front Platt was more certain.
“I could do this every day for the rest of my life and be absolutely thrilled.”
On that note, Tuchman pulled into the Wynn parking lot and Platt decarred before headed onward towards his next poker game.
Upcoming Episodes of 888Ride
PokerNews has it is on good authority that more superstars will feature on 888Ride during the 2023 World Series of Poker.
Make sure that you subscribe to the awesome 888poker YouTube channel so that you do not miss any future 888Ride episodes or any of the other fantastic content the online poker site’s team is piecing together.