Brent Hanks and
Jeff Platt is the real-life friendship they maintain outside of the grind of their everyday broadcast lives. Their connection was immediate when they met for the first time at an audition and theyâve taken any opportunity to work together since, rising among the ranks of commentary teams to become a regular fixture of the broadcast booth in the
PokerGO Studio at Aria Resort and Casino.
Hanks, a former elementary school teacher from Western New York, hit pay dirt after he left the teaching profession to focus on playing poker more than a decade ago. He found immediate success when he moved to Las Vegas to pursue professional poker, winning the PokerStars Sunday Millions in his first weekend in town and eventually a gold bracelet at the 2012 World Series of Poker. In the time since he has steadily built a career as a poker broadcaster, using his knowledge of the game and his outsized personality to create a wide variety of poker content.
Dennis Blieden Sentenced to Six-and-a-Half Years in $22M Embezzlement Case
5 Min read
Former World Poker Tour champion Dennis Blieden was sentenced on Wednesday to 79 months, or more than six-and-a-half years, in prison for embezzling more than $22 million from a digital marketing company. Blieden pled guilty in 2019 to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with funds stolen from California-based StyleHaul, where he worked as the controller and vice president of accounting and finance from October 2015 to March 2019.
Dennis Blieden collected $1 million and a “Remington” for winning the 2018 WPT LA Poker Classic, but he had already embezzled at least $15 million from his employer at the time of his win. (Image: worldpokertour.com)