Wednesday, February 20, 2013

That Time of Year...


         

Well, like the title says, it's that time of year again. Time to dust off the carry-on bag, grab some magazines, and get ready to hit the skies for another season with The Heartland Poker Tour. It's been 3 long months since I last worked with the crew, so I'm looking forward to making TV magic with them again. Speaking of the crew, the HPT was kind enough to add all our bios to their website. You can check them out at this link here. Now, in hindsight, mine needs a new picture and to be reformatted, but that was because of a misunderstanding on my part, so know that going in.

        

We'll be starting off season nine with one of our biggest events on the tour, Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. It's typically one of our largest prize pools, so we like for it to go smoothly. Of course, one of the reasons I love working in TV production is because of all the hidden factors that nobody ever sees in the final product. Of the many small challenges that come with setup at Golden Gates (and every venue big or small has their own), the biggest one has nothing to do with the venue or our equipment. What is it? Altitude sickness.

This was a minor problem for a couple other crew members and myself last year when I traveled to Black Hawk for the first time. Coming from an area of Kansas that sits at about 1000 ft above sea level and ending up around 10,000-14,000 ft above sea level over the course of about 5 hours doesn't exactly acclimate you gradually. You literally feel like you have a mild case of the flu and want to throw up. Luckily it does start to fade after being up there for a while, but you could imagine how much it might effect a production if the entire crew were still feeling the effects of it during setup or even when cameras started rolling. But you still have to end up with a good production every time, because that's television.

Thanks for reading, see you in Colorado!
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