There have been many exciting developments for the Hustler Casino Live recently, one of which saw the popular poker stream partner up with GGPoker, the largest online poker site, to take things to a new level.
The HCL Million Dollar Game is set to return this April as well, promising to be bigger, better, and more exciting than ever before, and this is something that’s bound to put a smile on any poker fan’s face.
We were eager to find out more about plans for the near future and also learn about how things work behind the scenes and what it takes to keep the show running. To get these answers, we reached out to none other than Ryan Feldman, the man who makes the magic happen, and he found some time in his busy schedule to satisfy our curiosity.
The Million Dollar Game in April: Bigger Than Ever
As most of you are probably aware, HCL is set to run another edition of its already legendary Million Dollar Game. According to Feldman, although lineup details are still being finalized, it will be an improvement over the last year, with even more action and sicker lineups.
Some of the players we already know will be in the mix are Alan Keating, Texas Mike, and Peter, and those three names together spell crazy action.
One big change that Feldman let us know about is that this year will see breaks between sessions. Players will play on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while days in between will be used for media coverage, to talk about the biggest poker hands, and to preview the upcoming sessions.
The HCL also recently announced a special $25k satellite tournament, where the winner will receive $1,000,000 that they have to use to enter the Million Dollar Game. In Ryan’s words, this introduces a “wild card element,” giving a player who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate a seat at the big table.
Right before the million dollar game starts, where we’ll do a 25k buy in invite only at Hustler. With mostly a recreational player pool from people that play on our show where the first place gets a million dollars to play in the Million Dollar Game.
Putting the Lineup Together
We all love watching action players clash in massive pots, and once you get them together in a game, cards, and chips will do the rest of the work. However, bringing together a lineup of players both capable and willing to put a seven-figure buy-in on the line is challenging, to say the least.
Feldman explains that he usually starts planning a few months ahead of time, reaching out to players to see what dates work best for them.
I start by going to the key players that others want to play with the most, who I can build lineups around. I try to figure out their schedule and cater to that. Then I go from there and see who else I can get.
For this year, I first found out if there were any certain dates when Peter was available. He was good with whenever, anything April or later. I went to Keating around the same time, and he was pretty open; he committed early on and said that he would be good with whatever, most likely.
Feldman admits that getting players together isn’t easy and that it actually gets harder and harder every year to get people to confirm, and that he, like any game organizer, also has to deal with cancellations and finding replacements.
Texas Mike was tough to nail down until recently and it looked unlikely that he was going to play a few months ago. Then I started trying to brainstorm who else can I go to that’s fun to build around and start reaching out to different people. It was a lot harder this year.
Talking about this year’s Million Dollar Game, he also explains that, due to everything that’s been happening around HCL, he wasn’t able to focus too much on the organization. So, a couple of months ago, after confirming with a few key players, he decided to pick a date, announce it, and let people come to him.
Is There a Secret Ingredient to HCL Success?
The Hustler Casino Live stream has achieved tremendous success in the poker world, becoming the go-to source of daily content for thousands of fans worldwide. To achieve and maintain such success, Ryan had to overcome many challenges on a daily basis.
One of them is certainly figuring out and bringing together lineups that are exciting to watch, but it sometimes involves dealing with some of the biggest egos in the poker world. So, we were curious if there was a secret to making magic happen.
I would say the hardest part is being able to navigate different player personalities and demands. These are the skills I developed over time and I am able to really communicate with these players. You will never make everyone perfectly happy, but I do my best to find what is the most important to people and cater to them.
He admits that it is impossible to make everyone completely happy at all times, so he has to constantly balance a fine line. What it really boils down to, though, is figuring out what’s really important to those key players that games are built around and going from there.
There is no perfect formula or secret sauce to putting together these lineups. It is about having a good feel for it and knowing how to put together a lineup of players who want to play with each other. I start from the ground up, looking for the most fun, most entertaining recreational players to build around. Better players always want to play, and I can fill them in later.
As far as success is concerned, Feldman explains that the number of viewers, while very important, isn’t the only thing that motivates him. He is also very happy when players come to him after the game with compliments, as he aims to put together the softest, most action-packed, and most entertaining lineups.
I get excited seeing a really cool lineup I put together. When the players come to me after the game and say that was the best game I ever played in, that really makes me tick.
In that vein, he says that from all the streams they did, one moment really sticks in his head: the record-breaking $3.1 million pot between Tom Dwan and Wesley. This became the largest pot in the history of poker shows, and that moment really struck home for Feldman.
We are not High Stakes Poker, PokerGO, Poker After Dark; we’re not Triton. We are Hustler Casino, a small operation in comparison, yet we were able to put together the biggest game ever with huge names, and we just happened to have the biggest pot on our show. After that hand, I got emotional, realizing what happened, like – holy crap, we did this!
The Dream Lineup
Over the years, Hustler Casino Live has treated us to numerous great sessions and memorable moments, but new challenges and possibilities are always on the horizon.
Feldman explains that when the show was first launched, the definition of the dream lineup was the one featuring some of the biggest stars of the game, like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Daniel Negreanu. At this point, most of these players have appeared on HCL, except for Negreanu, who will, hopefully, soon make an appearance.
Now, however, the show is looking to expand its horizons, learning from some past lessons. About a year ago, when HCL hosted the Mr. Beast game, it was a huge success, and it’s something people still talk about to this day.
With that in mind, Feldman’s dream lineup consists of several mainstream celebrities like Neymar, Mr. Beast, Kevin Hart, Drake, and Bruno Mars, together with a few poker players like Alan Keating and Phil Hellmuth. He believes this is the recipe for success in bringing poker to a much wider audience.
With Feldman at the helm, the latest GGPoker partnership, and ambitious plans for the future, we look forward to seeing what comes next from Hustler Casino Live. It has been a fun and exciting journey all these years, and by the looks of it, the best is yet to come!
We’re really just trying to continue to deliver a great game and a great product, and improve improve upon previous years by having more action and sicker lineups.
