Chris Tessaro
Chris Tessaro (born March 3) is a radio personality, journalist, and actor in Canada. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he now makes his home in Toronto. He hosts 'The Poker Show with Chris Tessaro' on Sportsnet Radio Fan590, the biggest sports radio station in the country. He also writes the only syndicated poker newspaper column in Canada, running every Wednesday in the Toronto Sun. His fantasy hockey team, The Steelheads, is the reigning champion of the Alternative Hockey League.
Poker
He has been covering poker in print and on the airwaves since 2003. He wrote a column for American Poker Player magazine called The Canadian Corner, until the magazine became defunct in 2007. In the fall of 2008, he created and launched The Hardcore Poker Show on Sirius Satellite Radio. With co-host Rob Pizzo, the show featured interviews with the biggest names in poker. Well known pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle Brunson appeared regularly on the show. In 2011, The Score Radio shut down. Tessaro then created and launched a new show, 'The Poker Show with Chris Tessaro' on Sportsnet Radio Fan590. The show debut was February 12, 2012. It runs Sunday nights at 11 P.M. (ET) and is also available on podcast. In 2008, he began writing a column for the Toronto Sun called ‘That Poker Dude’, a weekly op-ed feature on his take on the poker world. That column ran until 2010. In September 2012, he again began contributing a weekly column to the Sun newspapers across the country every Wednesday. The column is translated into French for the French language papers as well.
In 2010, he began writing feature stories for 'All-In' Magazine, a North American distributed glossy poker magazine.
Tessaro is responsible for the prop bet that forced Kara Scott to make a television appearance wearing a fuzzy bunny suit, with the resulting clip getting worldwide recognition in the poker world.
He is also a certified poker tournament director (TDA) and hosts many celebrity/charity poker events throughout North America.
Tessaro also plays poker, and has played in the European Poker Tour in Bahamas and Monte Carlo,the World Series of Poker Europe in London, England, The Latin American Poker Tour. His play in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event was documented in a daily diary in the Toronto Sun.
Other Writing (Golf, Hockey, Lifestyle)
Tessaro has also written for The Hockey News and Hockey Business News; and is a former editor of Urban Male/Bobbi magazines. He is also a frequent writer on golf topics for magazines such as Beyond the City and The Muskokan, as well as a feature writer for ClubLink Life Magazine. He writes his own op-ed golf column called 'Chip Shots'.
Television and Acting
Chris Tessaro appeared for two years in the Canadian television series Power Play. He played the role of Marshak, a player on the fictional NHL team upon which the series was centred. He also appeared alongside Mariah Carey in the 2001 movie Glitter, as the producer of the American Music Awards. He is also a regular guest on sports talk shows such as TSN’s Off The Record and SunTV’s The Grill Room.
Canada's Smartest Person
In Fall of 2014, Chris Tessaro appeared as a contestant on a CBC reality show called Canada's Smartest Person. He was one of 32 selected from thousands of applicants, and competed using the Theory Of Multiple Intelligence in various challenges. The winner of each episode moved on to a finale. The first episode Tessaro appeared in had an air date of October 5, 2014, on CBC in primetime Sunday night. He won that episode, including a perfect score on a human lie detector challenge, moving on to the finals. In the season finale, he finished in a tie for second, but lost the title by virtue of a tiebreaker system.
Personal
Chris Tessaro also worked for several years as a guitar and drum technician in the music industry, including working on large tours with bands such as Robert Plant, Kim Mitchell, Alannah Myles, Honeymoon Suite, and others. Tessaro is married to his wife Robyn, with two children, Dean and Callum. He resides in Port Credit, Ontario.