Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Poker Goat
Podcast. My name is Donna Peters. His name is Tim Duckworth. The
final table of the twenty twenty four World Series of Poker Main Event has been
reached ten thousand, one hundred and twelve hopefuls, dreamers, players, amateurs,
pros rex whatever you want to call them, however you want to classify
them. That's how many started a record breaking field and we have nine players
remaining. What a day it was. Jordan griff is up on top of
them. All boy, did he have a day. We'll tell you about
that. We're going to get into kind of everything that happened on day eight,
eating into the final nine. Everyone left guaranteed one million big old buckeroos
ten million dollars up top? What are you doing? I had to sniff
so so you instead of sniffing away from the microphone, Tim's Tim was away
from the microphone, moved to the microphone like he was about to speak,
and then did nothing but sniff. Incredible stuff. Rich Ryan is somewhere throwing
things. I mean he's not He's sick right now, God bless him.
You might not even edit this podcast he's gonna edit this podcast. Rich.
Yeah, you know, I want to know why, because Rich has more
heart for them than you do. And Rich is out of poker and he
has more heart for it than you. No. I recorded our little intro
and I'm gonna send it into the group chat to tell to show people what
I have to deal with every single day. Listen, just match half my
energy, please half you don't jesus, Yeah, the best part of the
day, The part of the day. Where is this energy? The best
part of the day. My energy bounces between really pissed off at everything and
super pumped up that this is happening. Also right now, also right now,
somewhat depressed that it's all kind of ending because we only got a few
days left and the military is the poker is the best. So anyway down
to the WSP main Event final table, that's what we're going to be hitting
on during this episode. We got a few different interviews that we're gonna play
with your combination of some of the stuff that I got at the end of
the day because Tim didn't get anything, of course, and nothing. I'm
just standing there watching you get interviews. I guess. Listen, there are
nine thousand other people that can count chips here, okay and write them on
a piece of paper. There is one other person besides me who can go
up there and interview someone, and that is you. Okay, So prioritize
correctly. Okay, that's what you gotta do. I'm just saying. I'm
just saying I had to do commentary, yet I was still out there doing
interviews. You sometimes you got a double dip. Okay, that's just the
job, all right. Today is when you guys are listening to This is
Monday, July fifteenth. It's gonna be the day off of the WSP Made
event. There will be other tournaments going on, So Tim and I will
be here working. We'll have a pot at the end of the night,
all that good stuff. Look, he's giving me a face. Now I'll
do it myself. Then I don't do it. Last year, I was
mad. You remember what happened last year. I was like, are you
gonna go in? You like probably not, will say, well, let
me know, come in, we'll do some interviews and then we'll record.
And then you just went and did it yourself and didn't tell me. I
went to the movies that day. That would mean actually one of the movies
that came in light. I mean, listen playing for a bracelet for some
For people like me, okay, it's it's just it's in my blood.
It just ago, it's in there. It's in there before, before,
before everyone, before everyone. It's just it's in my blood. Okay,
it's absolutely in my blood. When you guys are listening to this, Monday,
July fifteenth is likely when you're listening to it, we're gonna be doing
the drawing for the annual subscriber giveaway to give away three seats to next year's
WSP Made event. Two of the drawings, two of the winners are gonna
be drawn to. So get in there. You know. We're gonna draw
them at let's say four pm Vegas time. Tim and I will do the
drawing. Really, I'll do the drawing because it's my thing in touch.
I'm not help. But then I'm gonna ask him how to do it.
I'm gonna ask him what I need to do, all this sort of stuff.
So yeah, so we're gonna do that drawing. So if you listen
to this soon enough, you know we've been telling you about this giveaway for
a couple of days, but you've probably got a couple hours to get in
there. So get in there because if you are an annual subscriber on the
drawing dates, which is today, then you are eligible to win as long
as you're in an area where it applies. Head on over to PokerGO dot
com pick up an annual subscription. If you're a monthly or a quarterly,
upgrade to an annual subscription, use the promo code WSP twenty four win because
that'll get you in and it'll save you twenty dollars on your first year.
We have high stakes poker coming up Monday, July twenty ninth. We got
no Gamble in the Future coming up. Of course, the WSB Main Event
Final Table is happening over the next two days, so listen, you got
to get in there. It's a great opportunity. As always, no purchase
necessary void we're prohibited. Visit poker gro dot com slash rules for official terms.
We need winners. Pull it up, Pull up the sheet, buddy,
what are we giving away? You know we're gonna give away two more
night shift t shirts. Anyone to know why is because rip night shift for
the rest of the summer. So in honor of the night shift. We're
going out on top two night shift T shirts. You don't make it three?
Fuck it, make it three, giving away the bomb to the pavement.
I mean, yeah, I am. The nightshift is like the best
thing that we got going, and we're just not going to operate it for
the rest of the summer. And it's depressing. It's also depressing when a
yesterday said we tried to stick a churro in him or something. I was
I was dying, dying, dying, dying, and excited about the mess
Mexican player, which made it? Let's do six to sixty guy picking number
fifty nine. Fifty nine is a horrible name, Justin But yep, true
name Justin. But first T shirt. Fifty nine is a horrible number.
Why it just it just sounds like a horrible number. Fifty nine. It's
a dumb number. Okay, Let's go sixty one to ninety four eighty eight.
Is that a lucky number? Wow, you're talking to an Asian man,
That's what I mean. Is it lucky? Danny? Of course it
is good. Danny Malaya, you are a winner the night shift shirt.
Now we're gonna it's gonna go deep. Yeah, we're gonna go ninety five
to one thirty three one one one very unlucky number there too. Why is
that unluck It's an unlucky British number and like British sports. The hell with
the Brits? Who cares? What? Yeah? Yeah, good with you
got lucky? Now that must be the half that I don't like. You
don't like both us Shashank dol Mia winner. Okay, T shirt there you
go, handle that. Get it out to them. We still have a
few more days left of the World Series of Poker, which means a few
more podcasts episodes left. So like and subscribe to the podcast. Lead a
review, get it on in, take a screen shot out and take a
photo of it. Send it on into podcasts at poker gro dot com because
we have a few more drawings to go. All right, all right,
let's get into the episode. How do you want to do this? How
are we gonna get Should we start with the I don't know you watched them?
Okay, let's start with from the top, working way through to get
down to nine. Yeah, I'm just kind of giving me a feeling.
I be pretty busy today. Do I feel like whatever? I decide to
do right now, I'm gonna get a message from Rich and he's gonna tell
me that the wrong way. Should we start with the seven seven seven lucky
seven dis Rica, No, no, Helm, We're definitely not doing that,
bro. We started the day with eighteen players remaining. They were all
guaranteed three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Oh wow, I made the Poker
News blog my tweet. I tweet this every single year, every single year.
Around every single year, like at some point either right before like the
day before. Yeah, it's the final video and the guy's in the cab.
He's like we're you're headed and he's like Las Vegas and he's like,
good luck, you know, and then they then the monologue. Yeah yeah,
it's like they still think it's luck. That should be pretty cool,
you known. Have there's like a TV like they kind of set up the
stage out here with all the chairs and the projection. Tomorrow would be a
cool round this day. Put rounda is on the big screen. Everyone sits
here and watches it. No Lucky year instead, Sure, do whatever you
want. I'll set it up two pm. So eighteen players remain. They're
all guaranteed three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There's one hundred thousand dollars pay
jump for the first elimination. Seventeenth players got four hundred and fifty four hundred
dollars. So Jordan Griff, if you remember what I said, I said
Jordan Griff was leading the way. Okay, pretty big, Chipley too.
We'll go over that when we get to it, but we're gonna kind of
take us through the day. On the first hand of the day, he
doubles up in a wild fashion, so he raised to six point three million.
With the big blind at eight hundred k they were playing four eight hundred
thousand, so he makes it six point three million. From early position.
He has two million behind first hand of the day. Okay, Jesse Bryant,
the man in the gilly suit, the sniper outfit, who you know
half the time, let's go a gilly suit. I'm pretty sure yes,
half the time. I couldn't see him. Half the time I could,
depending on whether he was wearing it or not. He called from the next
seat. Everyone else folds. The flop comes ace ten to three. The
final chips get into the middle. Griff is the player at risk Brian has
him covered. Griff has two queens again, Ace ten three, Bryant has
pocket threes flopped bottom set, Turn eight River Queen out of absolutely nowhere,
a queen from the heavens above spikes down and gives Griff the double up.
So there was that. So that that took Jesse Bryant from I think about
twenty seven million down to nineteen. Then so there's that big hand with Griff.
You know obviously that that like obviously keeps him in the tournament. Throughout
the day he continues to just like run it up. But then there was
a big hand with Boris Anglov and Jesse Bryant. Now this is I don't
I don't exactly know exactly what Bryant was doing on these two hands. So
that is what it is. Like the threes, I think I probably just
put that in the bin. I mean, I know it's I know,
he's got just over ten big blinds. It's like ten and a half big
lines. But if the positions are correct, and Griff is an early position
and then Brian was the seat next to him, I mean, there's still
a lot of action behind you. You only have threes, I mean,
I'm probably just putting threes in the muck. So shortly thereafter, Mallow Latinois
raised to one point six million, still playing the same level four thousand and
eight hundred thousand. So Latinoah makes it one point six from early position.
Gabrielle Mora three bets to four point five action full. What is this?
No, this is the wrong hand. Why do they do this to me?
Whoever? I'm not going to get into it. I'm just calm down,
Donnie, calm down. So Latin Woah, I just want to go
off on these updates all the time. Latin Wah makes it one point six
from under the gun. Jesse Bryant three bets to five millions. All right,
I'm trying to read this and it's just it's it's a disaster, Jesse
Jesse Bryant makes it five million on the button. Boris Angelov Bulgarian four bets
all in from the small blind for eight point seven million. Latin wall Fold
is the original raiser. Bryant calls, Brian has deuces. What is happening?
Three betting the deuces explosions, Angelov has kings. The board runs out
clean for Angelov's kings, and then he gets a double up, which now
this leaves Brian with ten big lionds. I mean he's just like crushed.
Then it ends up being Gerardo Hernandez. They finally stuck the churro in him
shout out. I mean that's what all John said on the on the night
Shift. You heard it like it was the most wild. It was the
wildest shit I've ever heard me on a T shirt, Theckatura, theicatural.
It should just be like night Shift and then like have like sane like no
like different sayings that happen. Okay, yes, I agree, I mean
it's just wild. Hernandez open jammed for eleven point four million, and he
gets called by Andros Gonzales, so it's Spain versus Mexico here or sorry,
well Gondalas rejammed. Hernandez has sixes, Gonzalez has ace king. The board
runs out jack jack seven to five seven, so extra painful because it's a
counterfeit, right, yes, I mean you wouldn't you just rather just have
them hit the ace or the king. So like it comes jack jack seven
and then Queen ten. Yes, like the counterfeit is just lame. But
anyway, Hernandez goes out in eighteenth place three hundred and fifty k. Everyone
else gets a pay jump of one one hundred thousand dollars. After that,
Jason Segel was able to move into the chip lead. Then not too long
after we signed, we finally say goodbye to our sniper, Jesse Bryant.
He goes out in seventeenth foots. He opened to another interesting hand played by
him. He opens to two point three million at four eight hundred thousand,
from middle positions to almost three acts. It folds over to Guillermo O'taro in
the big blind. He moves all in. Brian calls all in for eight
point six million total, so ten point what what is his ten point seventy
five big blinds? Briant has Queen Jack off, Otaro has Ace King.
It comes ace high, and Brian is dead on the turn and out the
door in seventeenth place. Then not long after that, Joe Sarraq up on
the main feature table. I believe he was playing. He won a pot
to take the chip lead. After that, Jonathan Tomayo found a couple of
aces, he doubled up off Otero. Then it was Sarak extending his lead.
Are you surprised that they didn't do hand for hand coverage. Yes,
am I oh sorry, am I surprised. No, they didn't do it.
So it was basically the day was like I felt like the main feature
table like had all the chips, and then the outer table had a lot
of chips, but there was also people with like shorter chips. Yeah,
Like at the main feature table was like everyone had like forty five except for
like one or two people and they had like thirty. So it wasn't even
that big of a deal. But up on the main feature table, like
you had Nicholas Ostet, like he took the chip lead, then Kristen Fox
and had the chip lead up there, so so you know that was like
that was like the table where like the big action was happening, and then
we lose Otero in sixteenth place, he busted out in I mean kind of
wild fashion where he pushed all in for under the Gun for seven point six
million. The blinds had gone up to five hundred thousand and a million.
Jason Segel calls out of the Big bline with nine to seven trunk and rivers
of seven against Ace Queen. So that's so that's one way to go,
so that you know, some pretty brutal suckouts there. You saw the counterfeit
one, then you see that one with Otero. He gets that seven on
the River, missed the hand with Coela Vessels Fox. What was that just
before the bust out where Fox and took the chip lead. I said,
well, I said Fox and took the I didn't rate the hand out.
You know, I'm just I'm kind of skimming through what happened on the day.
You know, we're not going to go through everything specifically. If you
want everything specifically, you can go to popagot dot com and watch the on
demand replay right how it did. Then we lost Jaegor Moreau's in fifteenth place,
and boy, this was a banger of a pot. So him and
Brian Kim were up on the feature table sitting right next to each other.
I saw some people commenting on social media how they were basically having a stairfest
NonStop, sitting literally right next to each other, foot away, just staring
at each other NonStop. On this hand, blinds are now six hundred thousand
and one point two million moros makes it two point five from early position.
Next to act is Brian Kim. He three bets to six point five action
folds back to Moro's He moves all in for thirty three point eight million.
He gets snapped off by Kim, who's got kings. Moros has Jackson.
Here we go seventy million chip pot and the dubsb made event with fifteen players
remain. No jack comes for Moro's nothing else out there to help him,
and he's out the door in fifteenth place, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars
for him and Brian Kim shot up to the chip lead. Eighty eight million
is what he was on. I mean, not only do we lose Moros,
we lost Israel, which is a bummer. That was a good thing.
Was one of the best rails we've had in the lost few years.
I think it was a very strong Yeah, I think so. I just
I'm trying to kind of remember, so yeah, I agree. Look,
yeah, maybe it's recentcy bias. Well it's not. I don't think it's
recency bias. I think it's that there were no other rails really, so
they just stood out. You know what. That's a good point. Yeah,
I do agree with you. Obviously, once we got to the ten,
you know, we had a few more people rolling. But yeah,
his rail was deep uneven. I'm trying to remember if we had some day
six from him. I think we did, bro we might have had day
five. Yeah, I mean him and Jesse caps hands out number one rail
from the twenty twenty four and they're also friends, so it kind of makes
sense, right, Yeah, But they were different rails too, because you
went out here, you were tucked away having a nap in the commentary booth.
Yea in the Yego's rail was on you know, not today, this
was yesterday and the day before on that side of the area of with the
gold section. Jesse's rail was on that side. But definitely you split up
rails, so they were very you know, unique and individualized. Yeah,
so we lose Moros and then so that that gives Brian Kim the chip lead.
Then he extends the chip lead with a pot off Kristin Foxen. Then
there's a bit of a cooler that takes place, you know, to be
honest with Diogo Coello, the Portuguese player against Kristin Foxen. And you know,
this is one of those hands where the invention of whole cards like really
puts some twists and turns into it because so you see the cards and you
see Coelo has aces, and then you know, the next people pick up
their cards, and then you see Kristen Foxen picks up Kings, and you're
just like, oh shit, Like if you're at home, and we know,
I think ninety eight percent of the people watching, we're rooting for Kristen
Foxen. Yeah, you know, just just in this tournament in general.
So you're like, uh, oh, here comes disaster. She's about to
double this guy up. He raises to two point four so a min raise
in the cutoff with aces. She defends her big blind with Kings. You
know they could have just got the money in comes Ace ten to five check
bet. The minimum she calls turn is an eight, so ace ten five
eight, she checks, He bets three million, She calls three on the
river, she checks again. Koela moves all in for six point seven million,
and she folded pretty quickly. But you know, she could have lost
that remaining six point seven million, so she saved a little bit there on
the end. So it just seemed immediately like, oh, she's gonna lose
it all, But then you know she's ultimately saved almost seven million by just
flatting and then you know the way that the board ran out. Of course,
then we lose Jason James in fourteenth place. Jason James the winner of
the tag team events close to Espen George Dad type of run. Yeah,
it was because he won the tag team event before he went on to win
the WSP Maine event. And Jason James went out with a couple of tens
up against Joe sih Rock's Ace Queen board ran out East Queen six eight six,
and we lost James fourteenth place, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
And then it happened we lose Kristen Foxin in thirteenth place. She did earn
two pay jumps up to six hundred thousand dollars, but man for me,
so I got done with We had to do commentary today on the online to
live final tables. There were two of them today. Remco and I were
in the booth doing commentary on those events. When the first one ended,
I walked out, and it was right when Kristin got eliminated, and it
was very reminiscent, not as much, but I'm gonna I'm gonna rank the
things about what I'm talking about of some of the most deflating moments that I've
been around and seen at the World Series of Pover in the main event the
number one deflating moment for me, Nigraniu eleventh place. Yes, were you
in the building for that? I mean, that was that was unreal deflating
in the Amazon room at the Rio. He literally collapses to the ground when
that river hit against Joe McKeon. Like the place. There was probably six
hundred people packed into that stage. It was very likely a fire hazard had
to be and he goes down and the entire like the wind was just sucked
out of that room so goddamn fast. It was unreal. The second most
deflating moment, And honestly, this one and Negraniu were pretty close, but
I think mcgroney's might have been bigger. When Ivy made the main event final
table in two thousand and nine and he busted out. I mean, I
was in the pent and Teller Theater and I was actually we had a couple
setups for Poker News. We had some people up on stage, we had
some people down like halfway up into the audience in like a little media row
or whatever. And then I was like way up top, like way up
top, and like this perch that was like overlooking the entire arena. You
could see down half the fucking arena cleared out, maybe more maybe seventy percent
of the whole arena when Ivy busted out, I mean half the stage,
like everything. I remember. I think they even had to like put the
tournament on break to like put people back on stage, like get people on
stage, you know, I mean everyone cleared out of there. You obviously
each player at the table had their own little group of people, yes,
but the common people that came just to watch the main and men final table
were there to watch Ivy go on to win, and he didn't win,
And man, that was unreal, the way it sucked everything out of that
theater. So I felt a bit of that here when Kristen Foxing goes out
in thirteenth place. Maybe not as much in the building deflation, but you
certainly also felt it, coupled with the social media response, you know,
just everyone just being like really, like, really this really happened? What
was your You were here? I was not, but you weren't. Oh
Jesus Christ, of course you weren't even fucking here. It's this is people,
This is what I deal with. This is what I do. Do
you know what I had to do today? Obviously go to dinner. I
mean it's only day eight of the ws be Made event. I had to
set up these online events. No one knew without playing, No one knew
that chip counts one those seat. I had to do that. I do
both. It was a non stop all morning. I play is coming to
me to complain, that was asking me the questions left fronds and how do
I get paid? Blah blah blah blah blah. It was a mess for
like five hours. I didn't have no idea was going on in the main
event. And then dinner break was coming. I was like, I'm gonna
go, and I went. I had a stick anyway, so it was
not ham. When I came back, I was like, oh she's out.
Yeah, brutal her hand the big topic of conversation. So handing WSP
main event history definitely not I'm for sure up there in that one. So
yeah, I mean, but to be honest, like an interesting hand,
yeah, I mean, let me let me just tell the hand and then
I'm gonna give my thought on it. You can give your thought on it
if you want. So they're playing six hundred thousand and one point two million.
Joe Sarraq under the gun makes it two point four, so that's a
min raise. Kristin Foxen calls in the big blind. Kristin Foxen has King
Queen off. That's a great hand, just kidding. Joe Sarrac has Ace
King off the flop comes Ace King, Jack Ace King of Hearts, Jack
of Spades, Fox and checks out of the big BLINDQ comes with four million,
Fox and makes the call. Turn is the five of spades, So
now there's two spades on board in addition to the two hearts that were on
the flop. Fox and checks. Sarraq sizes up a little bit to eleven
point six million, Fox and tanks for a bit. You know, she
she clearly is like sizing up her stack, seeing where she's at. She's
looking at Sarah stack, all this sort of stuff, and then she goes
all in for thirty six point nine million. Saraq picks up his cards,
takes off his glasses and he says like oh, and he turns over top
two pair Ace King, and she's got King Queen. And she immediately knows
she stands up. She looks over to her rail, where her husband Alex
is, and she says, I need a ten, and she starts walking
over there. As Kristen has been during her big Allians in the past couple
of days deep in this event, she stands on the rail, She looks
at Alex and she can't even watch what's happening behind her. She just lets
Alex tell her how it goes. She knows that she needs ten. It
does not come. Six of hearts falls on the river and we lose Kristin
Foxin. I mean, listen, if I'm being honest, a bit of
a punt, yeah, But as I said about my insanely stupid bust out
hand, as I think you have to do in poker, I think you
have to trust yourself. I think you have to go with what you believe
is the right play. And if Kristin believed this is the right play,
we all know how good of a player Kristen is. Then I like that
she went with it. Now, is it right or wrong? That's what
we can debate, right, But I still like the fact that she trusted
it and went for it, you know, Like that's what I kind of
get behind and that's what I take away. And she did it on day
eight, a few spots away from the final table, on the biggest stage,
when she could have I mean, she could have just checked full to
turn facing two barrels from Sarrock. She could have just checked called and then
you know, seeing what would happened on the river. It's a bit of
a punt, Yes, I think you have to have punts in you to
get to the highest levels of tournaments, to run deep, you just have
you have to be able to have that gear. Like that's why I don't
get there exactly because you got a fucking punt. You have to just be
able to go for it. Like in a lot of ways, you kind
of have to throw caution to the wind at times, not always, but
at times. Now was this mistimed? You know, yes it was,
and shit happened. I mean, shit happens, it blows up in your
face. I mean that that's how it is. You know. She also
pulled some bluffs earlier on earlier days. You know, she had the kings.
She had the kings when she got both Montoya and Ostett off ace jack
when there was an ace on the board. She had the nines against the
jacks, you know, another time, like she has pulled some bluffs and
they worked. If those bluffs go wrong in those moments and she doesn't like
go as far as she did, maybe we're looking at those and saying like,
well, why did she do that? Why did she do that?
You know, like that sort of thing, right, So, you know,
it can be a kind of a thin line that you walk with this
sort of thing. Like a lot of times you're gonna look like a genius
like Kenny Tran. Other times you might look like a stone idiot like Donnie
Peters. That's just how it is, okay, And Kristen did what she
thought was right. She was wrong on this occasion and it obviously totally backfired.
But you know, shout out for her for going for it. You
know, she said afterwards when she spoke with Jeff that she was happy with
it, and she was happy with she thinks all the hands she plays.
Yeah, I mean it sucks, you know, in the overall grand scheme
of things. You know, again, pretty deflating moment for everyone, everyone's
rooting interest, because it was clear that everyone was behind kristin Fox and everyone
was on the Fox and train, but she ultimately goes out in thirteenth place,
and then, speaking of her interview Jeff Platt, we're going to play
that for you guys right now Vox. And this has been along and I'm
sure grueling run. Do you allow yourself at this point to take pride and
how you played throughout the main? Yeah, for sure. I mean it
was I don't even know how many hours of poker, and I feel pretty
happy even my best out hands, like you know, I feel fine with
it, honestly, like kind of a close spot, but I think that
whatever, just yeah, I feel okay with like every hand I feel pretty
good about. And yeah, you've dreamed of being the woman that wins the
Main. What was it like to live out such a huge part of that
dream? Yeah, more than anything, like just so so thankful for all
the support that I had and like overwhelmed with messages and love from everybody.
I'm gonna take these off, and uh, yeah, it was like overwhelming,
really really sweet, and it just feels like it was a really cool
tournament where it felt like, you know, I felt very prepared for the
spot in the run, and I'm yeah, just really happy with how I
played and I feel like, comparing it to how I played, you know,
ten years ago or something, I'm just yeah, I'm proud of myself.
And finally, I know it's the obvious question on the board, but
it's an important one. Do you feel like this run will serve as as
motivation as inspiration to women watching out there? I hope so, I mean,
I hope it just shows, like, you know, don't be afraid
to sit down and play with guys. You know, what does that do
for her in terms of PGT points? Because she wasn't she up there already?
She was. I haven't input it, of course, because you're too
busy. I just don't do it all at once. But you're too busy
at dinner. I get it. I understand. She catched for how much?
Six hundred thousand? She actually moved to thirteen thirty six, which is
good for six penning some other obviously model title results. I guess, just
back up six places or something. Then going out in twelfth place, we
lose our villain, your buddy, my boy, your buddy barefoot boy.
Yeah, the fucking pair feet man. Gabrielle Mora busted in twelfth place six
hundred thousand for him. He goes out to Jason Sagal Jason Sagle, so
it folded to Sago in the small blind. He's moved all in to put
Mora all into the big blind. Sorry, he raised to ten point eight
million, so I'm assuming he just slid out a stack of chips. Moro
goes all in for twelve point four. Sago calls for the extra a little
bit more, has got Queen nine off, Sagle's got six y five off.
It comes, I mean, what is his hand? It comes Jack
nine to eight seven five. So Segal ends up making a straight and he
delivers the I mean, yeah, the bad beat, the blow to Mora,
the ending blow kind of similar fashion to how he busted ot Row earlier.
So we lose more of And he was the one, you know,
we talked about like if he makes the final table, he's like clearly the
villain. So now I guess I should bring it up. Here is what
I was going to ask you. But now I'm a little bit concerned because
you're telling me you weren't even here. I saw some stuff on social media
that the outer table was playing much slower than the main table. I have
confirmation of that yet, Yeah, so were they were? They were they?
At one point there were like sixteen hands behind us something sixteen Jesus Christ,
What the why did they slow it down? Why did they say,
like, hey, pause, we're gonna let these people catch up. They've
done in the past, remember then any tea Machinko year when when Charlie came
to us and was because remember we were hand for handing with twenty seven players
left. We were hand for handing all three tables. Yeah, shout out
to our coverage. Hand for handing. That was the badass coverage. And
Charlie was like, you know, asked us to like tally it up.
So I quickly tallied it up what it was and gave it to him and
he's like, oh, yeah, you know, they're like twelve behind.
So then he like basically was he like, but first he talked to the
one table and said you need to speed it out, and then it didn't
speed up, and then he started like being like, okay, like you
guys gotta pause. We're gonna let these players play a couple hands, catch
up and then go from there. So yeah, I don't think there's a
I haven't witnessed this world series much of a you know, soft hand for
hand at all, like we do, you know at Puger Studio in PGT
events. But do you have a message here from someone that was very close
to the action. He said, the two tables are now sixteen hands apart.
Quite ridiculous. I think he was watching the stat screen and it says,
you know, this is hand fifty five, this table beat this is
a hand sixty eight or whatever. So obviously that number could be wrong.
He could be over exaggerating. That's the message I received. I obviously am
not kind of do anything about it. It's not my place to say anything.
But yeah, I guess that's more up to the players or WSP themselves
implementing some kind of you know, soft hand for hand rule it, you
know, especially this deep in the main event with such big prize pool and
ICM implications. Yeah, I'm curios is if the players were aware. So
when when I was watching the coverage today and they were bouncing back and forth
between the two tables, especially early on when there was eighteen left and they
had that one hundred thousand dollars pay jump right away, I don't know.
I kind of got the sense that the players on like each table weren't really
aware of what was happening on the other table, which in years past,
I feel like players, you know, they would kind of play their hand
and then they would like like walk over to the other table, look see
what's happening. Maybe walk back, you know, Like I felt like there
was more of that in recent years than there was this year, you know,
because I think, yeah, I think given the pay jumps, you
got to kind of know. But I felt like they were just like these
two tables were just playing right and they were just you know, doing their
own thing. So I was I was a little bit, I guess surprised
by that that they weren't kind of paying attention, because then if you're not
paying attention to that sort of stuff, it's understandable that one table, if
it ended up going much lower than the other table, that you're just unaware.
Yeah, because I'm like, I mean, this is going way back,
but you remember Daniel's year because that's when they had that wacky pay jump
from like eleventh to tenth or whatever it was, or maybe eleventh to ninth
or whatever. But anyway, but yeah, but Daniel was like, we
like, it's so like this table's going way faster than that table is,
like you know he was, he was aware of it, right, and
there's been other years when the players have been aware of it. So surprise
no one said anything. But maybe they could have just not been paying attention
at all. Busting in eleventh place, Malcolm. Oh but anyway, but
some people were saying that, you know, the one table that was playing
a bit slower was because of Mora, And we know that he was playing
extremely slow the day before we watched it. He was extremely deliberate with all
his actions, So that could have been the case, is that he was
playing so because even on the feature table earlier in the day, you know,
before Moreau's busted, if him and Kim were in a pot, it
was a fucking eight minute here. So all right, busting in eleventh place,
Malcolm Frankie out of France. He got all in with Ace Queen up
against the Ace King for Jordan Griff. Griff opened to three point two million
on the button. Malcolm Frankie three bet jammed for thirty four point seven million
or the big blind. Griff called it off. Here we go another seventy
million chip pot. The Ace King holds for Griff and all of a sudden
he's got eighty two million. Remember he was all in for like eight million,
three hundred thousand on the first hand, needed a two hour on the
river, hit it, and next thing you know, he's like, you
know, second in chips, third and chips or whatever it was. So
yeah, so there was that, and kind of along the way here Joseh
Rock was basically dominating the feature table, you know, not like not like
a big, huge all in hand like you saw. I mean, yes,
the hand with Kristen Foxen. But other than that, you know,
just just crushing basically. So Frankie goes out in eleventh place. We get
down to ten handed play, which I'm again, but they go to one
table. I know your your pro ten handed play because you are you are
captain knit over here. You would have you would want them to go to
ten handed play if sorry, you would want to go to twelve hand to
play if they could, that's what you would have enough cards? Yeah,
for sure, we have enough cards. For sure. I think you can
go fourteen handed and hold them, can't you. We should do that.
Yeah, yeah, that's right up your alley. So we get down to
the ten handed table. Joe Siroki is the chip leader. He's the only
player with over one hundred million. He's actually got one hundred and forty one
point nine million massive chip. Brian Kim is second ninety eight point six,
and then it's Jordan Griff in third, seventy eight point seven. The short
stack. Of course, that's important now because that's the person everyone's looking at
to go out next and set the official final table. That was Portugal's Diego
Coelo. He had eleven point seven million, so they get played back underway.
Blinds are eight hundred thousand, one point six million. A couple of
shoves get through from some players. Gonzalez got to shove through Latin wall.
Gotta shove through. Then Griff wins a massive pot. He makes quads.
This hand was freaking wild. Jordan Griff min raised under the gun. Ostet
makes the call and Sarraq makes the call nine to six' five. Griff
has pocket fives by the way. He flops the bottom set. Si Rak
has seven to eight flops a straight and I forget what Ostet had, but
he had he had a big hand too. Ousted ops to lead out for
three point five million. Sarak calls and Griff also calls turn as a queen.
Ostet slows down, he checks. Sarraq bets eleven million, Griff calls
Osted, gets out of the way river five, pairing the board. Sarraq
bets thirty five million, and Griff moves all in and si Raki is like,
what in the f in hell is happening? Looks like he was just
possessed, like the way he kind of like reacted. The all in was
for sixty one million. Remember Sarak bett thirty five million. I mean,
this is an insane hand. And I told you what that what the players
had. But Sirak had seven eight flopped a straight. Griff had pocket fives
for quads. Eventually, Sarrak folds and he gets shown the quads. I
mean, you gotta show the quads, right, Sarah says, he has
seven eights obviously folding a straight there and just an absolutely wild hand. And
that's the hand that propelled Jordan Griff, the supply chain manager, out of
I believe California, maybe Arizona. I forget exactly up into the chip lead.
I mean, good lord one hundred and forty four million for him or
one hundred and forty million whatever it is. Then we lose Portugal's Diego Diego
Coelo. In tenth place, he gets it all in with ace jack up
against the ace king for Nicholas, austedt. No help for Coelo, and
he's out the door. In tenth place, he gets eight hundred thousand dollars
in prize money and the day is over. So chip counts are I'll go,
you want to do table or you want to do chip count order.
I like table. Tell me, well, how do we get? But
I did it on purpose because I saw you weren't looking at the table.
I was looking at that. I know, I know I got you.
Boris Angelov say one thirty three big blinds. I'm gonna do big blinds because
you know it makes more sense. Yeah, that's malo malo sixteen big blinds.
Brian cam in the state say three fifty nine big binds. By the
way, Brian cam West c in the on the table, one hundred percent
has to be the worst sealing table. This is one hundred percent of the
worst, and that's before Griff runted up. But Nicholas asked that he has
fifty nine big lines as well. See four. Joseh Rock down to fifty
two bigs. Jordan Griff Chip Leader, ninety big lines, Jonathan Tomayo folding
pocket queens to a raise. Oh, we're gonna talk about that. Well,
let me finish this. Seventy big Linds in cea seven Andres Gonzalez eleven
bigs. He is the final table Shots Sag, Jason Segal in the nine
seat, forty two big lines. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. So
they make the ten handed final tables. The first hand right, it was
one of the first hands, but Joseph Rock raises under the gun a six
and yeah he has a six off and under the gun plus two is Tomayo
takes about four seconds and just two queens in the muck. Yeah. Raised
the three point two million early position to Mayo folded queens. Jason Saga called
in the hijack was ten douce three struck check, Segal bet and strapholder the
ice six. I'm not really nice seven I six, I seven, but
that could have been potential. You know, it's good spot there for tomay
How to double up? Yeah, you think, oh, but I'm surprised
you're saying this and you're like, not good full tapping the table. Let's
okay, let's wind it back. The guys have wind it back. What
he's got seventeen bigs, get the money in. Other guy has eight bigs,
and then the other one has eleven bigs. It's such a nice cm
phault, isn't it. I mean, yeah, but it seems nitty.
Yeah, it's kinda nit, buddy. That's how we do it. That's
how we roll. The main event is such. It has to be such
a mind f because you honestly think you're shoving in that spot. Listen,
listen to what I'm gonna say. I mean, I I think I do.
Just get the money in. I mean, but the mind f is
you you have these enormous pay jumps. Him is on Instagram. I don't
know if any I don't know. Yeah, he's mutiay because he doesn't want
me to know he's on Instagram. But I heard the sound. He's for
sure on Instagram. Yeah it was. You have these massive pay jumps when
you're the steep right, so on one side you you, yes, you
want to ladder up to like secure these payge jumps because they are so large.
I mean, every paye jump is like what first place in many tournaments
are, right, you know, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand,
four hundred thousands, like just massive pay jumps. The other side is that
this tournament is so damn top heavy still, it's like weirdly flat but also
crazy top heavy, just because the top three are so insane four million,
six million, ten million. I mean what like play heads up for four
million dollars. I mean that's out of control. Yeah, I mean that's
what, you know, a point of just getting it in. That's my
point of like, if you want to ultimately set yourself up to win in
the tournament that, out of all tournaments in the world, is the most
top heavy, then isn't this the one? Yes, like, and I
so part of the reason why. And listen, I could be I could
be wrong here, but I could also be like kind of going down the
road of ICM is for poor people. Although I'm a poor person, but
I'm still kind of going down this road. And what I mean is that,
like, listen, if Tomayo were to go with that hand and bust
out, you still collect eight hundred thousand dollars. It's not like first place
is ten million, and if you bust you're collecting one hunter k. Yes,
so the eight hundred k is a massive amount of money that you've already
secured, so that it's like a safety blanket in a weird way to me,
you know, like, yeah, want to like you want to try
and position yourself to get top three in any tournament when when you get this
deep because that's you know, I've said it before, like the money's always
in the top three, especially in the Wspumine event. The top three here
there's twenty million dollars, I know, but it's also crazy, so like
you want to, like, if you're into mile shoes and you take the
queen's right, you look down and you see the queens like you have a
chance at retirement money. And if you don't get it, you still got
a massive bankrell boost waiting for you if you ultimately bust out. So it's
not the end of the world. So I don't know, that's why I
lean to to go for it versus just you know, leaning on the side
of ultimate knittery and folded like that. I mean, right, I mean
that that's how I think about the situation. And I know, like maybe
icm yes, based on the stacks and where the other guys were behind you
and shorter than you. Yes, maybe you should fold icm wise, but
I don't know. I feel like you can deviate good fun. Jonathan,
Yeah, I mean listen, why don't we just we'll play the interview right
now. I saw I talked with Jonathan Tomahow afterwards, and I asked him,
flat up, you did you fold queens? Because when it happens,
the first thing we think, being on the production side, Oh, was
that a graphics air exactly? Because maybe it happened, you don't know,
there has been some graphics airs before. He did tweet he's chip bag and
said, yes, I did folk queens. I mean he told me,
you know, he said I fold the queens, and then he said,
you know, we'll play in a second, but yeah, he said I
folded queens. Chance Corneth was on Twitter, which I thought was interesting,
Like he said, clearly it was a graphics air and Jonathan Tomiow is wearing
a chip Leader coaching patch, which is Chances company, So that was kind
of interesting to me, you know, like Chance to like if he's like
in that circle or whatever. He didn't just like text him and say,
hey, was that really queens? And Tomorow's like, yeah, whatever,
So anyway, here's a troll who knows. Here's the interview right now with
Jonathan Tomiow where he talks about the fact that he did full queens. All
right, Jonathan Tomiow ws be main event final sable. Did you ever think
you would be here? Never? Never? It's a pipe dream. It's
impossible to make this final table. I mean every poker player dreams of making
this final table. Right, You have obviously now experienced the run to the
final table. Is that experience in line with what you've dreamt or is it
better? It's better, especially since I should have been gone on day four.
I jammed ten bigs day four with Ace Queen. Somebody rejammed Jacks.
There's a cutoff who had thirty five bigs folded Ace King because he was afraid
of running five cards for his tournament life. But one guy at the table
fold Day's King. The big mind folds Jacks and I bang an Ace on
the turn. That sequence events doesn't happen. I'm not here, so you
feel like you're on a bit of a free roll. Of course, after
that, I said, it's all free now, and Mario Jo had a
front row seat to it coming in. I think with twenty six million,
I think you put in the bag so kind of towards like the bottom portion
of the chip counts. What your approach going to be? Is it more
like ICM specific? Are you just going to go in and be like I'm
going to take it one hand to the time, you're going to play for
the win? Just play the spots because I'm less likely to win than anybody
has one hundred million. So like, if it happens, it happens.
If not, well, it's been great, it's been great. It's been
great seeing everybody. I do have to ask you about one hand and you
can tell me if it was correct or not? Did you fold queens?
I did? And what was the reasoning there? Uh, there's math behind
it. After talking with a couple good high roller gregs and they can hand
poke, you know, and and they like it. So whether it's actually
corrected, I don't know. But at the time like that was the executable
plan. So I did it right or wrong at this point hopefully I wasn't
If it was wrong, hopefully I wasn't too wrong. What's the next day
and a half or so, look like for you obviously some rest of course
after these long days of playing. But is it studying talking with friends some
of those high rollers that you mentioned, There will be some studying with those
high roller friends. Get a plan going, you know. I may may
not be around long at the final table, maybe around a long time,
so that would be something formulated for sure, But that's tomorrow, you know.
Actually I think one of them is already working on it for me.
Well, great, And then last question here, I have something that I
ask everyone during this run. You having fun? It's fun now because I'm
not playing. It's stressful when plan you can't think about it, but when
you on Brakes's like, all right, this is kind of fun. I
do want to run through the bios quickly and kind of talk about who these
players are, So we'll go through that pretty quickly. Right now. I'll
just hit on some of the kind of the kind of the big things to
pull from each things or the important stuff or whatever. First up, seat
one, you got Tis Angelov out of Bulgaria, forty two years old,
professional poker player, which, by the way, we're gonna you're gonna hear
that a lot professional poker player. This is I feel like this is the
most professional poker player field we've had a the wspman I'll table, although I
could be wrong. He enjoyed spending time with friends and family. He enjoys
his social life. His biggest score came earlier this year, second place in
EPT Monte Carlo in the main event five thousand euro by In there he got
six hundred and sixty four thousand dollars. This is his thirteenth WSP cash.
He's played poker professionally since two thoy and sixteen. Ahead of coming or sorry,
coming into this event, he was number thirty on Bulgaria's all time moneyless
I'm guessing he's going to have a good chance to climb that ranking system.
Malo Latinois is out of France. Well it doesn't say his age. Oh
yeah, there is twenty eight years old out of France entering the WSPE main
event this year ninety six dollars in live tournament earnings. Doesn't have any WSP
cashes outside of this one. This is a pretty good one to stop your
charity with. Right, he is a professional poker player now, but he
wasn't always. He was a former energy consultant. He came from the Grenoble
Institute of Technology for Engineering and Energy before embarking on his poker career. Built
a strong foundation for his future through academics. He earned an engineering degree specializing
in energy systems and markets. He has a master's degree and he also spent
time as an exchange student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. So
pretty smart guy, I feel. Says. He started playing poker about four
years ago watching his friends play some very small one euro tournaments online. He
became passionate about started loving it and then to start doing everything that he could
to get better. And here he is poker biggest stage. Brian Kim aged
thirty four, originally from California but now lives in Sydney with his wife Emma,
attended the University of Can we claim him? What can I claim him?
Kangaroo crew member? You can claim his wife for sure? What it's
listen, you can't be in the Kangaroo crew unless you have the accent.
It's just not and BK doesn't have the accent, so people say I don't
have an accent. He went to UNLV played hockey there. He also played
in some Australian Hockey league which I didn't even know Australia had hockey, but
he was like the number one draft pick because he's pretty good. Used to
be a cash game player, played a lot of pretty big cash games out
in LA high stakes cash. Has since transitioned into tournaments. Has been playing
tournaments seriously for I don't know two to three years now plays really high plays
a lot of the Triton stuff, plays in the studio, plays all the
big stuff here at the World Series of Poker. Has had a couple of
very big scores, but this is his first million dollar score. He had
a third place finish in a Triton event this year for nine hundred and fifty
four thousand dollars. Last year in a Triton event he got second place in
second place for nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars, So some big scores for
him. He does have a bracelet in online versusly Yeah, a five thousand
dollars Nolanan hold him high roller one hundred and twenty k there, and then
in twenty twenty two he finished twenty third in this very event, taking home
I think three hundred and thirty thousand dollars or something like that. He lists
here One of his coolest poker moments was playing heads up with a celebrity who
he prefers not to name and winning. Interesting, I know the celebrity.
You know the celebrity. Yep, so do I. He was in the
movie. No, you're not going to say it. I'll have Rich Ryan
edited out, I think, but I will say that I had a piece
of the action. I didn't remember that. So I also beat the celebrity
celebrity. I beat the celebrity heads up by proxy proxy. Okay, that's
how it happened. So yeah, Brian Kim, he's in there. I
mean, he's a good friend of mine. You know, I've spoken with
him. He feels a lot, a lot more ready this time around than
he was a couple of years. Speak to him tonight, Oh yeah,
I did. I did, actually, so we should throw that interview.
I did speak with Brian Kim afterwards. You could definitely tell he was at
the point of this run when like all the adrenaline was dumping. I'm sure
you're just freaking hyped up. I can't even imagine I'm hyped up on day
two, so I don't even know what the hell happens on day eight.
Like, I almost feel like you would have to like take some sort of
drugs to go the other way because you're like too hyped up. But if
you listen to him speaking of hyped up, I asked him about the scarf
thing, and he said it was basically like he's like kind of all out
of whack with sleeping stuff, that his fucking heart rate is just like going
crazy, like no matter what. So he's just like I just want to,
like, you know, cover that. But he talked about in the
interview, And here's that interview for you right now. All right, Brian
Kim, Are you more prepared this time than last time? Yeah? Absolutely
worked a lot on my game and I'm ready to try to make a good
showing describe what this ride's been like in comparison to the last one. Yeah,
I think with this run, if I was the player that I was
in twenty twenty two, there's a chance that I would definitely not be here.
I feel like my best poker played this tournament was when I was short,
and yeah, I think I was just more dialed in this time around,
more focused, and just more prepared in general. You gotta talk to
me about the scarf what's up with the scarf? You just said? You
hide in the tells. Surprisingly, nobody has texted me about the scarf yet.
I thought that I would get at least forty messages saying, what the
hell are you wearing? But where did you get it? The scarf thing?
I am kind of sleep deprived and my heart rates just been going insane,
regardless of if I have a value hand or a bluff or if I'm
all in. So I thought I needed to cover that up, and I
asked my friend Arden Show if she could hop into a couple of stores because
we're both staying at Bolaggio and check for me. But she said she didn't,
but she's there with a friend who's a famous creat actress who who let
me borrow this scarf. I'm definitely gonna try and buy it from her.
What's it been like with the competition? Obviously it tends to all kind of
converge, you know, the better players kind of rise to the top.
Is everyone playing pretty well? Do you still feel pretty good against the field
that's left? Yeah, it's hard to say what these fields are normally like.
Towards the end, I feel like they're always just all over the place,
and for me, some days I had a lot of recreational players at
the table, and sometimes randomly I had very tough tables. I think my
toughest table was on Day two, and I just played super tight on that
table because I knew we were breaking soon. But yeah, with this final
table, I think it's I think it's relatively tough for our main event final
table actually, and yeah, it should be a fun final table to watch.
Last question, I always ask everyone, are you having fun? Yeah,
I'm having a blast. It really is a dream come true. And
yeah, I never thought I would actually be here doing these interviews because I've
made the final table. I've always just, yeah, kind of worshiped the
main event as the super Bowl of poker, and I knew that I would
have another maybe sixteen tries at it or maybe more. I don't know what
I'm gonna quit poker about. To actually be here, I think in my
prime is is amazing. All Right, So that was Brian Kim. You
said he has the worst seat at the table, and that's probably because next
to him, it starts with Nicholas ostett Leana nine hundred is what he's better
known as probably the greatest online tournament poker player in history, even though Tim
doesn't think. So, that's not let's move on. That's not what we
can play. I was trying to make we can play the tape. You're
out here trying to say Tom Dwan not okay, where in this main event?
Huh? Where is he? He's gone? He cashed, right,
I think he cash? Yeah, he cashed. Yeah, you me.
I was trying to make a point about notoriety, not about the actual.
No one cares about notoriety. No one cares about that was the point I
was trying to make, though. So Ostets long time no. Number One
ranked online poker player over on pocketfives dot com. He's thirty three years old
out of Sweden. He dropped out of school to pursue poker full time,
and it's worked out for him, I would say. Although he only has
right around three million dollars in live tournament earnings online, more than forty eight
million dollars in earnings, a lot of money. He's been married for three
years. He's had a bunch of basippy caches, but none of course as
good as this one. He started playing poker in the early two thousands during
the Poker Broom, as so many of us did. He quit school two
years before graduating and just started playing poker. Got better at he started playing
free roll tournaments. He actually transitioned to cash games. He played cash games.
Then he kind of, you know, switched back over to tournament poker
when he was twenty four years old, and he has never looked back since.
Joe Sirock the bad seat draw that you referenced for Brian, him gets
harder because now he's got Joe sarrac uh, you know, two to his
left, thirty six Joe I Rock. I feel like he's been in the
industry forever, right, I mean he's he was in the industry. He
was one of those guys when I remember two thousand and eight, my first
World Series of Poker, my first time in the industry, walking through the
field, you know, my boss is like, Oh, that's Joe so
Rock. You know, you gotta look at that guy. He has a
bracelet. Also in online event something in Europe, No, he got second?
Who Jos Rock? He took second in like the Mix Max in Europe?
Or did he win the Mix? No? His bracelets online last year
five hundred dollars online PLO event he won ninety three thousand dollars. Started playing
poker in two thousand and four, after you know, kind of similar to
other people that we mentioned and ourselves watching televised poker on TV or televised poker
of the WSP, I should say, because televised poker on TV is quite
redundant. Now he is the televised poker Yes, I mean right, kind
of just comes full circle. Started playing poker with his friends, as so
many of us have. He says that he was quite depressed during his high
school years and discovering poker was a bit of a revelation for him. So
good on Joe Sarrock. I feel like he's in every tournament all over the
place. Another professional poker player. He did attend some college community college for
a couple of months, but dropped out to play poker. Now resides in
San Diego, Calalifornia. Now we have Jordan Griff the chip leader again.
Remember Jordan Griff came from ten big Linds all the way up to ninety big
lines, where he finished the day after hitting a two outer on the river
to stay alive on the very first hand of day eight. Griff is thirty
years old originally from New City, New York. I wonder if that's supposed
to be New York York City and they just left that out so they run
on Bio resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. He went to Arizona State University.
He is a He lists his profession as a supply chain manager. Curious if
that is going to change due to the fact that he's going to be winning
at least one million dollars, if not more. He's married. He's got
a baby on the way. A sun is due later this year, so
baby run good is a thing for mister griff. He enjoys sports betting,
daily Fantasy Sports. Prior to this, WSP made events just forty seven thousand
dollars in career live tournament earnings. Eleven thousand of that is from the WSFP.
He does have three WSP cashes. He began playing poker in twenty fifteen,
started playing one two Nolan Holdham cash games while in college. Lists his
strengths at the table as understanding his table image and also playing off table dynamics.
Jonathan Tomayo is next up. Tomayo another person who's been around forever.
I can remember him I feel like again going back to my first weeks or
whatever it was, covering poker. Thirty eight years old out of Texas.
Went to Cornell University for hotel management. But he's a pro poker player,
enjoys golf, fancy hockey, sports, betting. So back in two thousand
and nine, Tomayo finished twenty first in the wsp Man Event for three hundred
and fifty two thousand dollars. Good score there. He does have four WSB
circuit rings, no bracelets yet, but sixty three cashes. This is his
sixty fourth cash at the World Series of Poker two point three million dollars in
live tournament earnings. Ahead of this one used to play a lot of Turningstone
casino, I guess when he was attending Cornell University. Mostly now he plays
down around where he lives in Houston, but he does travel up to the
World Series of Poker of course, as so many people do to battle out
here. And yeah, now he's on poker's biggest stage. Andres Gonzales out
of Spain attended Madrid University. Guess what another professional poker player. Wow,
there's all pro poker players, all of them, all of them except for
the chip leader so far two hundred ninety four thousand dollars in career life tournament
earnings. Began playing poker in twenty fourteen. Began playing with friends. His
strength is patience. His weakness is something we all battle with tilt. Funny
little piece of advice here. They asked him, what piece of advice would
you give someone playing in the main event? What do you think? He
said, Ron, good, go all in with ace, Ace and hold.
Oh that's a good one. That's a good one, right. Any
thing about King Queen? No, Okay, Yeah, it's just it's very
tricky hand to play. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it
wrong. All right, Moving on. Jason Segal oldest player at this final
table. I believe forty eight years old out of Ontario, can now.
He did study law and justice in school, but didn't graduate. Moved on
and guess what. He's a professional vocal player. He's married, He's got
three kids, ages twenty four, twenty two, and nineteen. Outside of
poker, he enjoys sports and golf, so he also, like Kim,
like Tomaio, had a deep run in the w SPMNE events in twenty or
sorry in two thousand and four the year who won? Who won that year?
Four four? Yeah, that was mister Raymond. There you go,
twenty third for mister Segel, one hundred, twenty thousand dollars for him.
He grew up with a lifelong dream of becoming a police officer, but after
a few different career paths, found himself making a good living playing poker.
I believe he started playing with his grandmother growing up and said that he guesses
that poker is just in his blood. So been around for quite some time.
After the final table wrapped up, and you know they did all the
bagging of chips and all that sort of stuff, Yef Platte or guy caught
up with Jason Segel to talk with him. So we're gonna pull that interview
for you right now and play it. It's pretty incredible. Obviously the fields
is a little bit bigger, a lot taught, for a lot more educated.
I'm just happy I can still compete. How do you utilize your experience
to your advantage? Oh, I'm definitely. I guess I would say I'm
like pretty calm and collected. I don't think nothing's gonna phase me. It's
going to be a pretty normal day. I'm treating it like any other tournament.
Just try to play my best. It just happens to be worth more,
you know. And you don't think anything's gonna phase your wife, Jennifer,
do you She's gonna be a little more phased than I am. She's
probably happier than I am, too, Like she's just she just like she
says, I, you know, I'm always on the even feel. I
learned that with poker you get used to losing, you know, you just
so I try not to get too high, trying not to get too low,
but if I win, I'll probably get a little high. All right.
That was Jason Segel. I say this in as nice of a way
as I can. Seems boring, but but like in a good way,
Like he's just not you can tell he's you can tell he's a professional poke
play and he's been around for a long time and he's probably seen it all.
He's not gonna let himself get too high and get ahead of things.
He's also just going to be like, listen, I know this game.
I've been there before. I can lose. Shit can happen, right,
I mean you heard him kind of reference that there, Yeah, which to
some people is boring because you just you want color and you want animation.
But he listen, He's not the only quote unquote boring person at this final
table. All the professional poke players are probably boring. Now. Us nerds,
us diehards love it because these guys are all very, very good.
So this is going to make for a fun final table and good competition.
But if you're on the outside, if you're a fringe poker fan, you
might turn it on on Tuesday or Wednesday and say this is kind of boring,
right, you know, That's what I'm getting at. But that's professional
poker. We love it. Not everyone does. It's not everyone's cup of
tea. We didn't play the Jordan Griff interview, correct. I think I
was saving that one for the last. He also spoke with well he's about
with Jeff Platt actually multiple times throughout the day. I actually think three times
throughout the day, because they tried to do the first interview twice. They
started doing it. Then Griff kind of like was talking, but then he
got a hand, so Jeff was like, go play your hand. And
then Jeff came back a little while later and like they finished the interview.
I think he started kind of like telling the hand history and he like got
to the flop or something, and then Jeff caught him off. I was
like, you have a hand, and then Jeff came back and was like,
so we made it through the flop, and then they continued on whatever.
But at the end of the day, Jeff caught off with Griff and
you could definitely tell that, like, I think everything was hitting him and
understandably. So here's that interview for you right now. Earlier today, two
outs with one car to come, he spiked the Queen on the River.
You end the day with the chi leed going into the World Series of Poker
main event. I can see you shaking. How's it hitting you right now?
It's tons of emotions. It's it's insane, it's a dream, it's
it's it's it's more than I ever wished for. And like, I mean,
it's gonna be a crazy day Tuesday. I'm excited for it. But
like, wow, Wow, you're becoming a dad soon. Is there some
already some baby run good in the works? Oh my god, Yeah,
that's my wife, is Sammy. It's a real thing. Yeah, hopefully
that's the thing. And hopefully I can continue it on Tuesday and hopefully in
the Wednesday, and I'm going to get some sleep tomorrow. And wow,
I mean, I'm just I'm at a loss for words right now. You
mentioned tomorrow. How in the world are you going to get some sleep tonight?
That's I'm really hoping that I can get some I mean, it's been
a long grind, so I think I'm worn down a bit. Hopefully the
adrenaline wears off at some point, but I mean, oh my god,
this is just saying the emotions are at an all time high. It's it's
been a roller coaster all day today. I mean, third day, six,
day seven, and today it's just been incredible highs lows. And I
mean, I'm here now. We can't do a draft of our final table
because the final table's done. So who do you want in your final three?
Oh? That's good because the plan right now, and this is obviously
subject changes, it always is, is go from nine to three on the
first day. You know, sometimes we go nine to four. Sometimes you'll
go nine to five, and maybe it just it depends how long that takes.
Right, Who's in your who's your fantasy final three? Sir Brian Kim
Nicholas has to Joseph Sak. You've got to be a pretty intense three handed
battle right there. But like with aggression, Yeah, I mean I like
Brian Kim Nicholas Austet and I'm not sure on the other one yet. I
mean, Joe Soarrock would be great. I think Jason's could be cool.
You know, like then you got the you got the same sort of storyline
of you know, he was this, he was deep like this before,
but he's coming back. He's also the older guy at the table battling with
the younger guys. So I think I'm gonna go Jason Segel there, so
I'm gonna go Ostett Kim Segel. So two of the three the similar ones.
I'm excited for this found table. Like the nerd in me, I've
been saying it all along. I want the good players, I want the
killers at the final table. I think I think we got a really good
final table. Yeah, I mean obviously, I think you know, we
would have all loved to have seen Kristen Fox and make it. It's kind
of a weird benchmark in a way, because you know, we go through
this every year with a woman or women making a run, and then we
start talking about this sort of thing, you know, are they going to
make the found table. We haven't had a woman at the fil table since
nineteen ninety five, but in nineteen ninety five, can you look it up
when Barbara Enwright made the final table? How many players were in the event?
Bro to Google? How many? Two hundred and ten that's my guess.
I'll say one seventy one to seventy three, two seventy three. So
what's better Barbara and right making the final table then, or Kristen Fox and
finishing in thirteenth place from ten thousand and one hundred and twelve players? Better
in what way? Though? And like, what's what's harder to do?
Well? Obviously Kristen? Yeah, I know, But that that's kind of
what I'm getting at, is that the celebration runs flat because she didn't make
this this checkpoint of the final table. That's the whole thing about the main
of whine is checkpoints. It's making day two, making day three, making
the money, you know, but it's that should still be incredibly celebrated that
she made it as far as she did. It is I think, But
he says like, I don't I mean, she's just an incredible poker player
all around. Yeah, you know, so it's I don't know, I
just get the sense that it's not a male female thing. It's just she's
just flat out incredible. And she even said in her interview, you know
that she hopes that this kind of just shows women that you can play with
men, the women can play with the men attendees. To see about the
way, huh decreasing women attendees. I remember, well we talked about those
numbers. It went down from Lassia. Yeah, I mean that's a I
guess the topic for a different day. You know, it went down.
But but it's also like it's one of those things where we only we're only
looking at this one event and and like this is the one we put into
the microscope and analyze and try, and then we try and then take that
and say like, oh, well it's down in the ws BE made events,
so maybe it's down everywhere. What if the numbers were up across the
world series, right then we could be like, yeah, female participation is
better, but but just specific to this one event. I mean that's very
hard to do. I think you have to look on a much much bigger
pick. Sure, my just quickly my sense on and I haven't like run
any numbers. I'm just basically speaking anecdotally what I see, what I hear.
It seems like women in poker, that that thing is healthy. Like
you have a lot more like women's events or series or Women's Week or whatever
it may be. Like you have the stuff that goes on in December with
the wind doing stuff, you know, in other places around town. You
got stuff that happened here at the summer. Like I feel like it's healthier
than it's ever been. I mean, maybe I'm wrong there, and I'm
just like I'm just seeing the wrong things, but I do feel like it's
it's healthier and it's out there more, which which is a good sign overall
for the direction that I think everyone wants it to go in. What do
you got thoughts on the final table? Give me like your three big picture
thoughts. They can be whatever you want. I think you've kind of just
touched on the Christy Fox and stuff, that thing. You know, people
are gonna think it's a little bit of a dis appointment in the final table
not having her there. She's the big storyline the whole way. That's that's
the first thing I think of. Second part. I look at that little
murderous row of players, you know, Brian Kim, Nicholas as that,
and Joseph Rock, And if you look at it a little deeper, you
got some absolute crushes at this table, you know, Brian and Nicholas right
next to each other. And if we get those guys among the final three,
it's gonna be an intense, intense three handed battle and hopefully you know,
heads up match. Third. Don't really have a third one off the
top of my head, so you should you go to you do someth I
mean I already talked about it with like quote unquote killers. I mean you
got Brian Caim, you got Nicholas Ostet, you know, throw throw jose
Rock in there. I think everyone's played pretty well overall. I know it's
easy to just default with Jason Sega and be like, oh, he's the
old guy whatever, But it's been a round forever, yeah, you know,
grinding, making a living at this game. So yeah, he might
not play quote unquote gto you know, but I think he's gonna have a
good feel for things out there, and maybe could throw these these younger guys,
these more theory based guys for a little bit of a loop, which
will be interesting to see. So so you know that that kind of thing,
you know, what I wanted, I think I got. So that's
kind of my first storyline. I think Joe so I rock. Well,
I'll pair Joe so Iroc with Jonathan Tomayo in terms of just the pro who's
been around forever in a lot of ways, paid their dues and almost like
deserve to break through and get this. You know, you see this a
lot in sports where people just play play, play, play play, and
like they never get a championship, and then they finally get one, you
know, and it's like, yeah, they deserve to get one in a
lot of ways, Like they've put in their time, they've gone through it,
like they've experienced the ups and downs and everything in between. And I
think, you know, Joe so Irac and Jonathan Tomiow have experienced that.
You know, they've played countless tournaments who the heck knows for many many years.
They've been all over battling these things, and yeah they're getting the breakout.
It's not a breakout in the most common sense where like you're emerging onto
the scene. But it's like this is a thing that like you play for
your entire career to make this tournament, this final table and hopefully gets your
retirement fun. Like that's what you try and do. So yeah, so
shout out to them. I mean, I guess the other thing is is
is Griff where he's like, he's so far ahead, do you think he
can ride it to the final three? Everyone else is a professional poker player,
correct, He's the only one that didn't list professional poker player. Even
I think it was Malo Latinois said professional poker player and then like formerly whatever,
he was software engineer or something, you know, so he wasn't always
a professional poker player, but did make the change more recently. All these
other guys are professional poker players. Griff listed on his thing, you know,
supply chain manager, and I think you can kind of tell by the
way he plays his mannerisms at the table even off the table, the stuff
you know in the interview with Jeff, like getting worked up like he's the
amateur. If there's an amateur, he's the amateur. Or he's more of
a recreational than the others. Let's say, not that I'm saying that in
a bad thing, but he's probably closer to the everyman in some sort of
ways than these other players, so maybe that can resonate with people. And
he comes in with a huge chip lead, right, So he's in pole
position to try and close this thing down. And it's hard because you know,
you you might want like random players, not killers, not really good
players, not known names, to win this thing, because then it keeps
that dream alive. And if that's your thing, then I think you're gonna
cling to Jordan Griff and be like he's the one that keeps that dream alive.
Value real quick, Yeah, we gotta died the chop value. Let's
go hold on, let me guess. Okay, three point nine little less
three point four seven to two, Oh so you know more than fourth place
money. I'm always curious what happens at this stage, Like do these guys
talk to each other? Do they all try and get age the number being
like, hey, let's let's do a save, let's do this, let's
do that. Like I don't know, I feel like they kind of don't
maybe three handed, Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. We do some digging. Huh, we'll do some
digging. I'll try and do some digging. You never know. Do we
have other stuff to talk about? I think we should save some of that
stuff with tomorrow. Yes, let's let's do all the other stuff tomorrow.
Thankfully, you are, you're coming around, coming around, You're coming around,
sir. All right, that's gonna do it. On wrapping up the
making of the twenty twenty four w SIP Main Event Final Table, it was
a super fun day, by the way. It also it went much faster
than I thought, way faster. It went exactly the amount of time I
thought, Wow, okay, I don't know. I just thought, you
know, it would take a little while, especially with all these I said
seven hours. I think it was about seven. Yeah, okay, I
mean you're better at that than I am, for sure. So the plan
is for the Final Table players day off on Monday. I'm sure many of
them will be sleeping long, long hours. Some of them will also be
doing some studying and whatnot. We'll see how that all goes. Two pm
start time, Vegas time on Tuesday, July sixteenth. Again, the Final
Table will be played in two parts. The first day on Tuesday. The
tentative plan right now is to play from nine down to three. Those three
will go home for the night, rest up, come back the next day,
and finish it off to a ten million dollar world champion. Again.
Everyone left guaranteed one million dollars. Live streaming of the final table will take
place on poker Go, so head on over to pokerg dot com and grab
yourself a subscription if you haven't already. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna
be a banger. This is the greatest final table in the world and I
can't wait to watch it play out. For me, for him. My
name is Donny Peters. His name is Tim Duckworth. And we'll talk to
you guys next time. So you expla