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Written by Beatrix | Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Scotty Nguyen will be the three poker pros to feature in the new ESPN magazine issue, a special edition of the popular sports magazine.
Gary Belsky, the editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine, a Disney-owned magazine commented; “We’ve always been committed to showing fans a different side of the sports and athletes they love. This issue, from the amazing photos to the innovative journalism, is just our latest effort to do that. We’re very happy with the results.”
Besides these 4 poker pros, the special issue will feature a total of 80 athletes who all participated in the many photo shoots. These 80 individuals are a mix of every sports sector ranging from mainstream sports to poker, tennis to sumo wrestling to poker and surfing.
Some of the poses are a bit risqué with the sportspeople revealing quite a lot of skin and asked to remove most of the clothing items. However, the shoots are very classy, elegant and of taste thanks to the wise camera angles and shots taken.
When asked why these particular 4 poker pros were selected out of the many pros out there, ESPN’s Belsky replied; “We were looking for big names and you can’t really get bigger names than those”. This poker inclusion together with all the sportsmanship out there proves how big poker has become and how respected it is a type of sport.
Harman and the others accepted the offer, although Negreanu did deny twice before accepting. The latter decided to accept the offer when he got to know who the other poker pros would be - “It’s not like they were going to have Patrik Antonius or Gus Hansen there. I said, ‘I can fit in with this group. I worked out (beforehand). I had a nice tan going. I sucked my belly in, and I was good to go.”
Following the 2 hour shoot, Jennifer Harman commented; “I got a phone call from one of my friends at ESPN. He said that it was going to be a good shot and that it would be done with a lot of class. The atmosphere was pretty laid back, pretty easy going, a lot of laughing going on. I felt comfortable. I’ve known these guys forever.”
Still, Harman admits to having being a bit nervous waiting to see the final result especially since she was the only women with the 3 poker males; “I didn’t really give it much thought because poker is a co-ed sport. It’s not gender-oriented. Women and men can play poker with the same abilities. I’m not trying to be the best woman poker player in the world; I’m trying to beat the men and the women.”
The Lady behind this shoot; general editor for ESPN Sarah Turcotte stated; “This was the only co-ed photo shoot we did for the magazine, so that’s huge. To go topless in front of your competitors, that’s tough…But the other players immensely respected Jennifer going into it, having already competed with her in high-stakes poker games.”
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Written by Beatrix · Filed Under news · |
