Regular readers of this blog (I THINK some of you exist) will know that I have been trying to get onto the Big Game. It started back in September when I made an audition video, and since then I have filled out a questionnaire, done a phone interview, and now I have done a video interview.
I found out last week that they wanted a video interview. I had to go and buy a cheap webcam because my webcam was literally 6 or 7 years old. That brings my monetary investment into this Big Game audition to like $45, grr 😛 Someone suggested that I try to return it since I’ve only used it once, but I think trying to put it back in the packaging isn’t worth the $22 I’d get back!
I had my video interview with Jessica Cummis today. This blog gets a lot of random hits because people are googling that name and getting my posts, lol. If you are one of these people, welcome!
Jessica asked me all the obvious questions you’d expect for someone interviewing for a poker show. One of the questions was: who would you like sitting at your table if you make it onto the show? I said definitely a rich businessman 😀 But if I can’t have one of those, I’ll take Hellmuth or Negreanu just for fun.
She recorded the 15 min interview and said that it gets sent to the producers. They watch it and make a decision.
The good news is that this is apparently the last step in the selection process. I asked her how many people made it this far and she said about 20. Considering there were ~6,000 people to begin with, it’s pretty cool that I made it to the top 0.5%.
The bad news is that only 4 of us are going to be selected. The other bad news is that none of us are going to be held over for another season. So if I don’t make it and I want to try again, I have to start the selection process all over again.
The reason only 4 of us are going to be chosen is because they have people held over from last season. For various reasons they didn’t get a chance to play last season, so they’re playing this season. This leaves less spots open for new people.
Apparently I got a really good evaluation for the phone interview (where that guy tested my poker aptitude), so it’s probably going to come down to demographics. So basically if they have another young female that they rate slightly better than me, I will be cut.
She said that I’ll hear back either way in the next few weeks. 2 outer one time? 😀
4 Comments
Good luck Courtney 🙂 I’m sure everyone would love to see that video!
Btw may I suggest making the font on the website a few pixels bigger, if possible 🙂 It is very hard to read right now especially for someone who doesn’t sit too close to his monitor. I’m sure some other people might have had the same problem (I use Chrome btw, if that helps) 🙂
Again, good luck!
Hey thanks for the feedback! When I’m back in town, I’ll take a look and see if I can make the font bigger.
Thanks also for the luck, I’ll need it 🙂
-Courtney
Hey Courtney, love that show, and excited to hear how close you’re getting to be on it! Hope Negreanu’s there with you, he’d def be one of my top picks. I read your post a while back, about the phone interview, but what exactly did they ask you? And what did you answer? So interested to know what sort of things they were actually testing, since you’ve obviously rocked that part. Anyways, wishing you lots of luck (you’ve come this far on your own, so you prob don’t need it!), and keep the updates coming!
Hey Jake, thanks!
The phone interview was just a few hand scenarios and questions about what my action would be. He basically just gave me hole cards and then a flop and asked me what I would do.
I am pretty confident that anyone with a solid understanding of basic poker theory would do fine during this interview 🙂
-Courtney