After going about five months without cashing in a live tournament, I finally put an end to the streak at the France Poker Series High Roller event in Evian. It was a beautiful destination up in the mountains and it drew a lot of players from Germany and Switzerland as well as France. I ended up finishing fifth and got a chance to play for a long time with ElkY, who came in fourth and Eugene Katchalov, who unfortunately busted right before the final table.
As much as I love playing, I've been spending a lot of time working on a few exciting poker-related projects. I recently began co-hosting a radio talk show called Docteur Poker. It is an hour long and airs every Friday night at midnight on RMCSport, one of the biggest radio stations in France. In the booth with me are Benjamin Bruneteaux, one of my frequent French TV commentary partners, Olympic fencing champion (and poker fanatic!) Hugues Obry, and top soccer journalist Daniel Riolo. We're having a great time doing the show and are thrilled for the opportunity to expose such a wide audience to the game we love.
I'm also about to film the third series of Le Maison du Bluff in Portugal. It's a reality show for French TV with a really fun concept. It's a mix of Survivor and Big Brother, except instead of having to win physical challenges to earn rewards or advance further in the game, the contestants have to play poker. Aside from the regular weekly episodes, people can also go online and watch the action in the house through live cameras 24 hours a day. The cast is a mix of French celebrities, athletes, and regular people who qualified online. My role is not only doing the commentary while they're playing, but to coach them as well. The final player standing on the show wins a sponsorship contract worth €100,000 and another €50,000 in prize money is given away over the course of the show.
In past editions of Le Maison du Bluff, a clear divide always emerged between the good players and the total novices. However, without fail, there was always one player who started of totally clueless and ended up getting really good. It's great that we can show people that with study and practice, anyone can play. The way the show works is that every week, players have the opportunity to win enough chips to stay in the game. In every episode, people bust out and leave the house, but in an interesting twist, each week a new online qualifier moves in. So, as more and more players are eliminated, the new online qualifiers have fewer opponents to face. It becomes increasingly valuable to join the game the later it gets because you'll be that much closer to the final. We also have some really cool guest coaches planned for the contestants including Jonathan Duhamel, Gabriel Nassif and ElkY.
I'm really excited for the shoot. The show is getting bigger and bigger every year and I think this series will be our best yet.
Julien Brecard is a member of Team PokerStars Pro