Chris Tessaro is a radio personality, journalist, and actor in Canada. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he now makes his home in Toronto. He hosts the North American wide The Hardcore Poker Show along with his co-host, Rob Pizzo, on Hardcore Sports Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 98, and also writes a national newspaper column for the Toronto Sun called That Poker Dude.
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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 features interviews with the biggest names in poker. Well known pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle Brunson appear regularly on the show, which is broadcast Monday night at 8 P.M. ET. 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.
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 in the Southern Ontario region.
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, and also participated in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, lasting until late on Day Three of the event. He documented his journey through that event in a daily diary in the Toronto Sun.
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'.
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.