The Top Five Reasons Gabe Kaplan Announces Poker

If you watch NBC's National Heads Up Poker Championship, you might be wondering why Gabe Kaplan is the color analyst. If you've ever watched tapes of old World Series of Poker events on ESPN, you might ask yourself, "Doesn't that announcer look like that dude from that old John Travolta sitcom?"

Or you might wonder why Mr. Kotter is involved with events like the Intercontinential Poker Championship or Poker After Dark.

Actually, Gabe Kaplan is an accomplished poker player. He first caught the bug in 1978 on a trip to Las Vegas. By the early eighties, Gabe Kaplan was a fixture at professional poker events.

Besides being a poker aficionado, Gabe is an all-around sports fan. He hosted a sports radio talk show in L.A. back in the nineties. So when ESPN was looking for a new color analyst for its World Series of Poker broadcasts, the former comedian was a natural choice. He was co-host of the t.v. event for three seasons, before being replaced with Norman Chad.

Kaplan remains a favorite announcer of poker events. If you are of the school that former competitors are the best ones to announce their sport, here are Kaplan's top five qualifications for announcing poker events.

1. Amarillo Slim's 1980 $10,000 Superbowl of Poker Main Event - Gabe Kaplan won this event. Once again, the Superbowl of Poker was a major event in its day. All of the poker superstars were in attendance, so this victory sprang Kaplan into the world class level poker professional.
2. His World Series of Poker Career - Kaplan has finished in the money on nine occasions. In 2005, he finished second in a Limit Holdem event at the WSOP.

3. Amarillo Slim's 1982 $10,000 Superbowl of Poker Main Event - Kaplan's 3rd place finish in this tournament showed the victory two years earlier was no fluke. Kaplan also won Ace-To-Five lowball events at the 1983 and 1984 Superbowl of Poker extravaganza.

4. Million Dollar World Poker Tour Career - Gabe Kaplan has finished in the cash on three WPT tour events. In all, Kaplan has won over a million dollars playing professional poker.

5. 1980 $10,000 Championship Event - Gabe Kaplan won his way into the final table of this event, facing such poker greats as Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss and Stu Ungar. Ungar won the event. Kaplan placed sixth in the tournament.

Though the $10,000 Championship is defunct, at the time it was considered on of the premeire event in the poker world. One look at the contestants shows the quality of the competition.

The Top Five Reasons Gabe Kaplan Announces Poker