Actor Jorge Garcia was Bitten by the Poker Bug!
Jorge Garcia is an actor who is one of the main cast of the television series "Lost," portraying the role of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes. He is also known for his appearances in other television shows as well as in films. He is one actor who, despite having a schedule that eats up most of his time, manages to find time to relax by playing poker.
Jorge Garcia was born on April 28, 1973 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was raised in Southern California by a Chilean father and a Cuban mother. He may be known as a comedian but he actually excelled academically when he was enrolled at San Clemente High School. The high school faculty presented him the Triton of the Year award, which was the highest honor given to a graduating student.
Before Jorge Garcia became famous as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the series "Lost," he was already famous for portraying the role of Hector Lopez in the television show "Becker." But aside from "Lost" and "Becker," he has made a number of shows and films since 1999, namely, "Tomorrow by Midnight," "King of the Open Mic's," "Spin City," "The Slow and the Cautious," "Tales from the Crapper," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
From 2004 to 2006, he also appeared in "Happily Ever After," "Our Time is Up," "The Good Humor Man," "Little Athens," and "Deck the Halls."
The producers of "Lost" decided to include him in the cast after they watched his performance on the television show "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He was fortunate enough to find out that "Lost" creators even decided to come up with a character that fit him specifically.
When poker was featured in one of the episodes of "Lost," Jorge Garcia had the chance to play the game of Texas Hold'em with co-actors Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, and Evangeline Lilly. In such episode, the cast members used fruits in lieu of money. Such episode seemed to have a big impact on Jorge Garcia because he eventually got inspired to play poker more often.
After such episode, this celebrity poker player began to practice playing poker until he felt like he could play such casino game well. He started to join poker events and it was not long before this celebrity poker player decided to participate in the game show "Celebrity Poker Showdown," aired by the Bravo cable channel. The decision of this celebrity poker player to join "Celebrity Poker Showdown" was because he wanted to have fun and he wanted to help the Direct Relief International charitable organization. He may not have won the event but it was definitely a great opportunity for this celebrity poker player to have played with his fellow celebrity poker players. The celebrity who won in the said poker event was actor Michael Ian Black, who is also one of the best poker players from the entertainment industry.