Golden Knights Announcer Mark Shunock Joins World Poker Tour
It's impossible to walk through Las Vegas right now without feeling the Golden Knights hockey hype. The city's Cinderella NHL expansion team is set to host the Washington Capitals in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals on Monday, and the passion and support of the city and its fans is on full display. Even the replica Statue of Liberty outside of New York-New York dons the team's trademark jersey.
Anyone who has had the fortune to attend a Las Vegas Knights game knows the voice of Mark Shunock. The inner-rink announcer from Canada is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to bringing excitement to large crowds, and now that he has linked up with the World Poker Tour, he’s added yet another domain where he can entertain fans.
“I’m an entertainer, and if I can bring a slice of excitement to a live poker tournament, then that’s great," he said. "I’ve done my job.”
“WPT saw me at the hockey game and said, ‘We need your energy at our poker tournament.’”
The Broadway actor found his way to Vegas with the “Rock of All Ages” musical at the Venetian, where he played the lead for three years. The transition to hockey announcing was a natural one, what with his Canadian origin where hockey is in the blood. But his jump from hockey to poker had nothing to do with his limited experience playing the game — it was all about his energy.
“WPT saw me at the hockey game and said, ‘We need your energy at our poker tournament,’” Shunock said.
Shunock didn’t need much convincing, so when Matt Savage approached him at a Golden Knights game about the possibility of meeting with the WPT team about doing some poker announcing, he snap-called.
Spicing Up the Poker Fan Experience
The WPT is all about "sportifying" poker, or rather, accentuating the sport aspects inherent in the game — but this is nothing new. The first poker tour to get the game its modern televised look in late 2002, the WPT marketed and presented poker events in a manner that mirrored sports, and they did it out of the gate.
Now, that vision is manifesting itself in ways many could not have imagined, with the help of the co-evolution of poker and esports, two realms that WPT CEO Adam Pliska described as having a symbiotic relationship. Couple that with the birth of the massive Esports Arena at the Luxor and an opportunity arises for a major boost in the sportification of poker. The WPT plans to lead the charge in transforming the tournament final table experience.
The WPT family is just so so great and I’m blessed to be part of it.”
Enter Mark Shunock. What better way to boost the poker fan experience than to mirror it after what sports fans have come to expect when attending exciting matches featuring their favorite teams? The WPT has taken this idea and run with it, Shunock proving to be a perfect fit for the role.
As he’s done in each of the Golden Knights home games this season, Shunock got the crowd at the WPT Tournament of Champions final table ramped up with signature crowd-hype tactics that came complete with a live band. Uneventful 15-minute breaks have been transformed with the help of Shunock’s energetic emcee talents and break-time competitions where fans from the audience take the stage to compete in party games like solo cup stacking challenges and chip-throwing and catching competitions – the exact kind of break antics you pay for when you click buy on Stub Hub.
The transformation of the live poker viewing experience was in full force at the Esports Arena during the prestigious WPT TOC which Matt Waxman took down, and Shunock is just happy to be involved.
“Being here this week has been awesome because I’m meeting a lot of really, really great poker people, and that’s always cool,” Shunock said. “If somebody’s passionate about something, how can you not like them? I mean, they’re here and they’re diehard poker fans. The WPT family is just so, so great and I’m blessed to be part of it.”
Las Vegas Golden Knights
“They transformed the city, and I think we were really hungry for professional sports on that level,” said Shunock.
“It could have been a professional bocce team that came to town. The team really rallied and gave the city something to root for when they needed it the most. I think the hockey team would have been successful regardless, but it really brought the community together, gave them a chance to heal from the tragic events.”
The inaugural regular season of Sin City's first professional hockey team got going less than a week following the tragic Oct. 1 shooting that rocked Vegas to its core. The team put together an impressive record of 51 wins and 24 losses with 7 ties, exceeding all expectations while setting record after record enroute to the Stanley Cup finals.
"The team really rallied and gave the city something to root for when they needed it the most."
"This is something historical," Shunock said. "It won’t happen again. This is an inaugural season, and for them to be this successful, playing this well and four wins away from winning the championship of the league is unheard of."
As for the Golden Knights’ chances next week, Shunock hopes for the best, but acknowledges that their legacy is already firmly cemented.
“I’m optimistic that we can complete the task," he said. "I know that the team [thinks they can] and wants to, but even if they don’t, it’s been an unbelievable historical ride, and I’m just honored to be a part of it in the small way that I am.”
The Golden Knights will face the Washington Capitals at home on Monday, May 28 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, and Shunock will be on the ice, providing signature entertainment for the most dedicated of fans as they root their Knights on, in pursuit of yet more historical achievements.
Photo courtesy of WPT
