Everyone who plays poker remembers their first time.
Maybe it was at the kitchen table with grandparents. Maybe in a college dorm or fraternity house with close friends. For a generation of players, it happened in 2003 while watching Chris Moneymaker turn a $100 satellite into a WSOP Main Event title on ESPN.
Fins Poker Show, a new poker YouTube channel, is trying to recreate that moment by starting with people who have never played the game before.
Total newbies on TV
Fins Poker Show is the brainchild of Lea Anne Wolfe, who has twenty years of experience and multiple WSOP cashes. She also commentates, when time allows, on livestream cash games at Bally Poker Live at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, CA.
Fins Poker Show is the brainchild of LA Talent Agent and semi-professional poker player, Lea Anne Wolfe“My passion for the last two decades has been poker,” says Wolfe. “That's always been a very serious hobby. I’ve also done private coaching for a while, which was a lot of fun. I've always just liked that role in life of lifting up others and creating a safe space for people to learn the game.”
For Wolfe, poker has long been a parallel track alongside a career in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. That experience gave her access to a group she believed would be perfect for a show built around learning the game from scratch.
“I've been a talent manager in Los Angeles for the last 15 years. That allowed me access to a great group of young professional actors. I knew they would be a fun group to teach how to play poker."
But the idea grew into something so much larger than a casual home game with friends. Wolfe began to see the project as a way to give something back to the game that had given her so much pleasure over the years and introduce a new generation to poker simultaneously.
“The seed of the idea is getting a fun group of people who I think would actually be an asset to the poker industry as a whole. I wanted to introduce them to the game, film it, and see what happens.
“After we did that, I realized, this really is something special. You can read all the books you want or watch videos about what is a big blind, a small blind, etc. But actually, watching people learn that concept themselves in real time, that's how you can really learn.”
Producing a quality poker show with HD cameras, proper lighting, and professional audio isn’t cheap. Instead of pitching investors, Wolfe decided to fund the entire project herself.
“Poker paid for it. I've been a poker grinder in cash games for twenty-something years. It was my poker bankroll that took care of it.”
Fins Poker has already dropped its first episode on YouTube.First season launches
Fins Poker has already dropped its first episode on YouTube.Fins Poker’s first season brings together a group of young professional actors with zero poker experience.
The cast Wolfe assembled includes Savanna Gann, Cyrus Arnold, Nikki Bruner, Ella Rouhier, Benni Latham, Jaden Betts and Jarod Bainbridge.
For many players, that first time sitting down and being dealt a hand is a moment that sticks forever. Wolfe believes that’s exactly what makes the concept of teaching complete newbies work.
“You know what's so wonderful is when you're first learning the game, you're not attached to an outcome. I think nobody in our group of players expected to win anything. They just went in with the aspect of learning how to play the game. But what I can tell you is this: the river is brutal whether you're a beginner player or whether you are a seasoned professional.”
And that’s the space the show lives in offering a new perspective the industry rarely has seen televised, the early moments when the game was still undiscovered, the stakes were low, the pots made your heart beat a little faster, and the focus was simply on learning and having fun.
