Everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the Poker Girl Podcast. My
name is Donny Peters. I am joined by Tim Duckworth auctioneer. Tim Duckwar
Yes, that is right, So are you ready to go? No,
not at all. This is hell, but we'll figure it out. What
we're referring to is Tim will be the auctioneer for the second year in a
row four Daniel mcgroni's twenty five K Fantasy Poker League. The draft is on
Monday May twenty nine. We will be live streaming it on poker Grow.
Today show is going to be all about that. The twenty five K Fantasy
Poker League. For those who have listened to us over the years, both
on this podcast on some other ones wherever it is, you've probably seen it
on social media as well. We talk about it all the time every single
summer. The twenty five K Fantasy Poker League is something that we love,
We love to follow it, we love to try and participate in it in
the years that we've been fortunate enough to do so. So on this episode
of the Poker Grow Podcast, we're gonna be talking all about it. We
have a conversation with Daniel mcgranew he's the guy who runs the whole thing.
We're gonna play that kind of right away to kick things off. He's a
huge fantasy guy in general. He's involved in fantasy hockey. You know,
he's been involved in fantasy leagues probably throughout his whole life. He loves running
this fantasy poker league every single year. So we're gonna talk to him about
that. Then after that, we're gonna bring in my drafting teammate, Matt
Clark. If you're in the industry, you know who Matt Clark is.
If you're not in the industry, it's our pleasure to introduce you to Matt
Clark. He's gonna be alongside me in the draft room on Monday. With
the draft room is the Poker Grow Studio. It's going to be a lot
of fun. If you want to watch the live stream, we are streaming
it live. You can watch Tim go going on. It's going twice sold,
all that good stuff, trying to wrangle the zoo animals that are out
there yelling and screaming and doing all sorts of stuff. But you are really
good at it last year, Okay, really really good at it. We're
gonna be doing that on the Poker Go YouTube channels. Head on over to
YouTube type and Poker Go find the channel, and don't forget to subscribe to
the channel because we got a whole crap ton of content, including a lot
of live streams coming your way this summer from the World Series of Poker,
So you're gonna want to be a subscriber and get in there for that.
So before we go to Daniel, do you have anything, sir, mister
auctioneer, are you ready to go? Look if you're in this twenty five
k auction and you thanks, thanks for listening to the podcast. But if
you're in it, please speak up, That's all I ask. I feel
like I'm going deaf in my old age. But the tables are spread out,
everyone's got their head down on their phone. Quiet like Daniel the growing
one dollar Huh, what's happening? It's hot to hear everyone. And then
the us pott is when you have two competing bids on either side of the
room. My head it's gone left to right, back and forth. So
yes, just help this old man out. Be nice and clear, be
nice and loud. Pronounce your words, pronounce these players names. Do me
a favor. Let's go, all right, so Tim will be the auctioneer
on Monday again. You can tune on into the Pokerio YouTube channel, but
without further ado, we're gonna throw it to the conversation with Daniel and then
we will come on back. All right, Daniel, thank you for joining
us here. Talk a bit about twenty five K Fantasy I know that's it's
been hot on the top of your mind, at least judging by your social
media in the past couple of days, tweeting every single day about this thing.
For those out there who may not know, can you just tell him
a bit about this twenty five K fantasy league and how it came about.
When did it start? All right? So, the first year it took
place, it was actually at Howard Letterer's house and he ran it and since
that point he no longer runs for various reasons. And I took it over
and have been running it ever since. And it was just kind of like
you know exactly what it is, which is like a fun idea, fun
sweat, kind of a cool idea to just get everyone to get some buzz
going. And it's grown into something much bigger than I would have ever expected.
Now, a twenty five thousand dollars buying for a fantasy poker league seems
quite insane if you think about it. Just has that kind of headlining aspect
in a vacuum. But it hasn't stopped this thing. Every single year it
runs, it gets a good amount of interests. You've been talking this year
about how it could potentially have twenty teams. I mean, why do you
think people are willing to just spend twenty five k on this sort of thing?
Well, I think people don't want to miss out because I think a
lot of people after the fact, they're like, oh, man, I
want to do that next year, and they forget. And this is the
first year, honestly, where I haven't been reaching out two people to see
if they want a team. They've been coming to me in droves. Right.
Normally I get an interest list of about twelve to fourteen something like that.
I've got twenty two people on the interest list right now. Obviously I
expect a couple of those to maybe drop, and you know, not at
ten, but everyone wants a piece. And again, twenty five k sounds
like a lot, but over the entire summer, you know, and then
you factor in a lot of teams. What they'll do is they'll you know,
sell pieces like you do, or you know, go half half on
a team and you know draft together, which is probably a smart idea because
you know, there is some homework that that's required to do this well,
Like you don't want to like pick people that are just not playing a big
schedule, so you kind of have to make some phone calls, and having
two people there doing that is probably beneficial. Yeah, So what's your number
this year? Are you gonna We're gonna get twenty in this thing? I
think we're gonna get If I had to say a number that I would bet
on right now, I would say, and I picked only one, I
would say, nineteen is the number team. You know, the previous high
I believe was last year fourteen or I don't think we've ever had sixteen.
I think fourteen is our previous high. But it will one hundred percent be
more than that this year, There's no question about it. I mean,
that's that's wild and then the correct me if I'm wrong. But I think
last year was your best finish in this thing. I think you took second
to Maria host Team. Yeah, the very first year when Howard ran and
I think I min cash and I came like second or third, and then
since then, you know, I didn't cash at all, and everyone,
oh, you you're it's not fair. I mean in cash once I finally
cash last year. Actually, my team was in pole position for most of
the summer and everyone kind of agreed that it was like the chalk and then
Maria host team thinks to Corey Aldemir came out of nowhere, he wins the
main event, and boom, all of a sudden, you know, we're
in second. But the good news is I make a lot of side bets
as well, and the only side bet I lost was a very small one
to Maria's team. But I want obviously every other big side bets. So
I won more than first place in side bets. Yeah, I mean,
how big do those side bets? Kid? I want to ask you about
that more than the first day. You get some teams that'll do like five
or ten k, and then you have others two to twenty five, and
then you have some that you know, we'll do fifty thousand dollars on their
you know, their team versus yours. And what I do for some people
too, they can't attend the draft or they want to sweat is I let
them choose teams against me, so you know, for example, last year
there was a Russian guy. He couldn't come, so he picked like four
teams for twenty five k apiece against me, you know, and I take
the action and we gamble. How much preparation do you do every single year?
I know you're a big fantasy guy. You have that fantasy hockey league
that drafts you know, forever and ever and ever in advance, So you're
a big fantasy guy yourself for this poker league. How much research did you
put into this thing? I do a decent amount because I love fantasy,
as you said, you know, So one of the ways that I'll give
people like sort of the gist of how I do it typically is I'll usually
make five tiers, and I will place players into each tier, and I
make sure not to put a player into a tier unless I have actually spoken
to them in some fashion where I know what their schedule is going to look
like. So within those five tiers, you know, I will also put
some red marks of guys specifically that I'm targeting or girls. You know in
each tier, and I'll also create a throwout list. The throwout list is
a list of players that people will bid on that I don't want. So
basically, in the early stages, if I'd like other people to start spending
their money, you know, I'm going to throw out those names and get
that money out there. So hopefully, you know, for the later stages,
I've got you know, more more chips to play and you know,
pick the guys that I want. What do you think the average research is
done by other teams? Well, I think the research aspect is becoming more
prevalent. I think, like, you know, five years ago, people
didn't do much research at all, and they would pick people that are not
playing and whatnot. But now I think more and more people are starting to
realize, like, oh yeah, you know, you want at least message
people and figure out, like, you know, some sort of a strategy
of who you want, because you can't just show up without a list of
some sort and just guess and name. Like, if you do that,
you're you're not going to do very well. You have a stance on draft
in yourself. I mean, obviously I'd love to draft myself, but then
when you draft me. Obviously, I'm a guy who's going to go for
a lot this year. I think more than I think, I think we're
going to break records this year in terms of what. So you know what
I go for and shande. So yeah. The thing is when when you
pick yourself, it's sort of, you know, forces your strategy to be
like stars and scrubs because you're gonna spend on me. You're gonna spend over
one hundred and ten for sure, and that doesn't leave a lot of room
to get a lot of big horses. So I typically don't take I've taken
myself maybe once or twice. I think I'm a good horse obviously, but
you know it doesn't come cheap. And obviously you're investing in yourself anyway,
I mean playing the tournaments severed in the fantasy. So yeah, it's not
like I need the motivation to play more because I bear acted myself. No,
of course I get it. David Baker aka od B in the poker
world, so he started kind of this offspring fantasy league that was based on
the twenty five K fantasy prices. We now all refer to that as the
ODB Fantasy. There's also a twenty five hundred dollar fantasy league that runs.
Do you think fantasy poker could ever become a thing that's kind of adopted more
mainstream. I mean, it could be if it's done right. But you're
right, like I really think that's what sort of grew the fantasy beyond what
I expected, because what David did really took it to another level where everyone
can buy in for just like five hundred bucks and and create teams. And
then Mark reg Rich's league that he does the twenty five hundred that's grown in
numbers as well. So I like the idea of like sort of you know
leagues with you using our format, you know, and then they can sort
of create their own. But years ago, what I used to do,
which was kind of fun, as I used to group players and I would
do this like ten k free role for people, and maybe I should have
done it this year, where you know, you pick players and things like
that. Fantasy's been sort of tried in you know, in small doses or
whatnot. I don't know that we whoever, like gotten it exactly right,
but I think it's fun. I mean I think about it, right,
like when you watch sports and you have money on the line. In some
regard, it makes it more interesting, right, Like it makes the sweats,
it makes you know, you could watch the broadcasts on Poker Go and
you see, oh my god, there's my guy. You know, I
want to root for him. I need more points. I think it adds
a little. I think it adds a lot of buzz honestly to the World
Series of Poker. Yeah. I mean I obviously I try and get in
the twenty five K Fantasy I do some ODB teams myself. I mean,
I love Fantasy Poker. I'm with you, Like, I just don't think
it has really been flushed out yet to be done totally right, that it
could take off. But I think a lot of people would tune in and
watch this sort of stuff and have some skin in the game if that was
available to them. Um, we're gonna be streaming it this year on Poker
Grow on the YouTube channel. It's going to be taking place inside the Poker
Grow studio. That what I'm referring to here is the twenty five K Fantasy
Draft. For many years, this thing took place um various spots. I
think most recently before the studio was at a conference room over at area and
then it switched over to the studio. You're obviously a huge fan of the
Poker Grow Studio of course. Um, you know, being an ambassador,
being in the in the PGT events, all of that sort of stuff.
Um, what do you think about that venue just hosting this having last year
been the first year and now this year the second year. I think it's
the most It's the perfect venue. It's central. You know, everyone unders.
You know, most of the guys who are in the pool have been
in the studio before. They're very accommodating for us. And you know,
having the live stream I think is kind of essential part of it because you
wouldn't believe, like how many people really want to be drafted, Like it's
almost there. There is something about being in the club, of being chosen,
like, yeah, I have people reaching out to me, you know,
saying, please draft me for a dollar, look at my schedule,
all this sort of thing. There's there's sense of pride. In addition to
that, what you find is you find people that don't even have a piece
of the team feeling somewhat obligated when they're drafted to show up and play more.
I see it all the time right where you know they don't want to
let the team down the draft of them, and then you end up seeing
them play double the events. That's why I say, you know, from
a World Series of Poker Buzz perspective, I think a lot of people play
more events because they're you know, involved in the fantasy. Yeah, I
mean, I love that aspect of it. We've definitely drafted people over the
years who are like, I'm in it for you guys. I'm gonna do
it for you guys. You know. On the other side, I've seen
the I've seen the letdown on a lot of people's faces. You know,
even if they do get drafted, maybe they didn't get drafted for the price
that they thought they would have gone for, and that's just always funny to
see. But I love that side of things. You're doing something a little
bit different this year. You have kind of a list of like people that
aren't going to be eligible to drafted. Some are on the list for obvious
reasons, others are just people that have said, hey, I'm not playing
this year. You know what was kind of the impetus behind doing that.
Well, we've had it happened last year for example, Chris Fitch tweeted out
that he won't be playing. He had some personal issues, he wasn't going
to play. Everyone knew that Ryan Reese didn't know that he threw him out
for a dollar, and it just felt bad, Like it's happened several times
years ago. The Russian guy named Gipsy picked a couple of players that everyone
knew weren't going to come. And I just feel like it leaves a bad
taste in people's mouth. And the argument people have is like, listen,
if you're putting up twenty five K, do your research. And I get
that, but this is supposed to be about fun. You know, we're
not trying to kill each other with this thing. It's supposed to be a
fun thing and at least and I just think it's like in everyone's best interest
if we just have a list of people who you know, you know,
we know are not playing this year, and then in addition, a couple
of people specifically who maybe people feel morally uncomfortable about choosing, you know that
they don't want to, and then it can give an advantage to a team
that doesn't care. Right, So just like, don't let them take part,
you know, and there's two names specifically that I'm talking about, and
that Jacob. Outside of that, everyone else that's on that list, And
I reworked it because some people complained that, like, you know, hey
man, people are gonna think, you know, these people are shady.
So I made sure I just tweeted out today the list of people that are
avoided by the Commissioner, which is me, are two people, Jake and
Ali. All the rest that are not that are on the list are people
that have expressed to me that they're not playing this year, so they're not
going to be eligible. Because what I don't want to have happen is say,
for example, you know, a good player says, yeah, guys,
I'm not playing this year, right, But he tells his buddy,
he tells you, Donnie to Rod, Donnie, you should draft me for
a buck because I'm gonna play everything. And all of a sudden, you
take him for a block, and it's like, wait a minute. You
know you lied to us, you told everyone you're gonna we weren't gonna play,
and now you did so just to just to make things a little,
you know, even more fair than than they maybe could could have been in
the past. Yeah, that makes sense. I remember being in the room
last year in the studio and Ryan restrafted Krissovitch. We all, I mean,
I think we all felt bad at the end of the day that he
didn't he wasn't aware of what was going on. So so yeah, on
a general dubs a p note, are you ready? We're a couple of
days away now. But I mean, I'm just for contwittling my thumbs obviously
like doing some you know, last minute research for the fantasy stuff, but
really just trying to be healthy. I sort of I came down with something
at one of the games, and I was kind of sick for about a
week, so I couldn't work out regularly and whatnot. But I'm glad to
get that flushed out of my system before the series because once it starts,
it's go time, baby, Like I just cannot wait. The vlogs will
be rolling, We'll be in there right off the bat. The first two
weeks is a lot of big stuff. I think in the first six days
you've got three twenty five k buy in, so you know it's there.
There's an opportunity to make a dent right off the bat. Do you ever
do you set any specificsp goals every year or is it just win brais,
let's win money. I used to write a blog, I'm sorry, a
blog which is so outdated, and I would post it in January every year
was sort of like eight to ten specific goals that I wanted to do throughout
the year, and I didn't. I haven't been doing that lately because my
goal is simple. My goal is to win the Player of the Year.
Because with that, people say, well, don't you care about bracelets?
And I'm like, if I win Player of the Year, those things will
come along with it. Right. It's very unlikely that you win Player of
the Year without winning at least one bracelet. It's difficult to do so,
you know. So that's my focus is to, you know, do my
best to win Player of the Year. But I don't. I don't go
as hard as Sean, deeb and Dan Zach because I don't play the big
field events, you know. I just focus on the bigger high rollers and
you know, the mixed game type events. And then you're obviously a Gig
Poker ambassador. Gig Poker works very closely as a sponsor of thesp One of
the things that's really been pushed this year. I've even seen you out there
pushing it a bit as largest WSP main event ever, trying to break that
two thousand and six record that was the year that Jamie Gold won. It
won twelve million dollars for that one. I think the field was eight thousand
and seven hundred and seventy three. How confident are you that the record will
break this year? And what's your number? So what was the record?
It was eight seven to seven three. Yes, I think it's gonna be
eight nine seven three exactly two hundred people more. And I think part of
the reason is I think the World Series is making a push to make it
happen Internally GG as you mentioned, it is going to be sending I think
six hundred people. You know, there are other venues that are, you
know, doing seats for people. So I really think there's gonna be a
big push. There's been so much interest in poker since COVID. Really it's
sort of been the second boom, the second money maker boom to a certain
degree, and I think it's hot. I think I think if people put
like one event on their bucket list, it's the main event of the World
Series Poker has to be right. Are you gonna do better than last year?
I think I did pretty bad last year, So yes, I think
the odds are in my favor. You know that I'll do better than last
year. You've obviously been in poker for who knows how long, you've had
so much success, But when you bust the main event, does it still
hurt? You know, it hurts more when you're in it. Last year
didn't sting as much because, like I think I busted with Kings against Aces
really early on, so I never really even got into the tournament. But
like when you're deep on day three or day four and you're grinding fifteen twenty
bigs for days, you know, just hanging around, hanging around, and
then you know when you finally go, it's that that stings a lot,
a lot more, a lot more. So, gotcha all right, Daniel,
thank you for joining us. We heard your number eighty nine hundred and
seventy three, two hundred more than the record in two thousand and six.
We'll see if that comes to fruition. My number is ninety four hundred,
just putting that out there. Talked about it yesterday on the podcast. So
we'll see if that one comes in. Either way, it would be a
massive win to break that record, and hopefully we'll see it happen. Yeah,
I bet on it. All right, Thank you very much Daniel for
coming on. You got it. But all right, man, that was
Daniel. If we get eighteen to twenty teams, it would be awesome.
I know it'll be a lot more work for you overall. I'm gonna be
a lot more people to control. Yeah, the draft will go for a
long time. But yeah, I've always felt my strategy going in for this
thing is the best suited the more teams that are in the draft, um,
because I feel like I can always go deeper into the player pool than
probably ninety five percent of the teams that are going to be out there drafting,
find some true diamonds in the rough, some bargain basement dollar picks that
have huge potential. I'm happy to do that. So so, yeah,
I'm rooting for twenty five teams that like, that's what I'm going like,
I'm just in the studio. If it's I don't know, we'll make the
space. We'll figure it out throughout the summer. You guys can follow along
on twenty five k Fantasy dot Com. They do a great job of tracking
everything and they got the rules listed there, the scoring system, they'll have
the prize pool up there. Again, that's twenty five k Fantasy dot Com.
And then if you're on Twitter, you can throw a follow to twenty
five k Fantasy for even more updates, tweeting stuff out throughout the summer,
interacting and engaging all that sort of stuff. I know we're all going to
be glued to the World Series of Poker and this is sort of the game
within the game that we love. It's played for high stakes we love to
get and of course Tim and I will be talking about twenty five K Fantasy
throughout the summer as well. So he's at tram Stop on Twitter, and
then there's a zero for the O and Stop and I'm Donnie Underscore Peters.
So you guys can give us a follow as well if you want to follow
along. Just quickly, want to run down the past winners before we get
into this interview with my draft mate Matt Clark. So this has been running,
as you guys heard from Daniel Howard Letter actor started this thing, which
is like kind of crazy. Daniels since taking it on. It's been going
every year since two eleven, except for twenty twenty that was a pandemic year
there wasn't a live World Series Poker, and also twenty twenty one it didn't
take place that year. That was the year that Dan Zach picked up the
torch and ran like his little Fantasy League. Last year, defending champion team
Maria Ho. Maria Ho was in the draft room along Karai Aldemere eleven hundred
and forty points, taking home with two hundred K first place prize. Twenty
nineteen. Last years I had fourteen entries, two thousand nineteen had twelve entries.
Ryan Reese's team won twelve hundred and four points. That is the most
points ever in twenty five K Fantasy one hundred and fifty thousand dollars first place
prize for Mister Rees. Two eighteen team Dan Fleischman fifteen entries that year fifteen
nine hundred and thirty seven points for Fleischman in twenty eighteen took home a two
hundred K first place prize. Two thousand and seventeen, only eight teams that
year. Mike Least team was on top eight hundred and eighty nine points.
He took home one hundred and thirty K. Don't think we're getting eight teams
this year. I think we're probably gonna double that at least. Twenty sixteen
eleven teams Team Daniel Allahi nine hundred and eighty five points, one hundred and
fifty K first place prize. Twenty fifteen also eleven squads out there in twenty
five K Fantasy Team Brian Hastings topping them all eight hundred and twenty three points,
one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in the bank. Twenty fourteen twelve team.
A team that I don't think I've seen in a while, Team Gypsy,
the Russian team, I don't think. I mean they were supposed to
be Yeah, they were supposed to be here around, but they couldn't make
it out in time. Whatever the case was. Um, maybe we'll see
them back this year. Would be great to have them back. Kind of
wouldn't want them back because I always feel like they're in tune with a lot
of stuff going on around in the industry. So, you know, selfishly
speaking, it's obviously good to have more teams than the prize, but but
this is I think one of the better teams this year that they won it
was two thousand and fourteen. I bebe that was a year away, like
some Russians crushed. Yeah, of course, UM seven hundred and seventy points
for seven hundred and seventy seven points for them, one hundred and thirty five
thousand dollars for first place. There was twelve teams that year. Twenty thirteen,
fourteen teams Team Matt Waxman won it eight hundred and twenty one points two
hundred and ten thousand dollars. I gave a little draft insight to Matt Waxman
that year, So that's I guess my feather in the cap for being along
for the ride to Matt Waxman's win. In twenty thirteen, twenty and twelve
eleven teams Team Jason Mercy Or top them all six hundred and five points,
the lowest winning point total ever in twenty five K Fantasy. I'm assuming there
was like something different with a scoring back then, one hundred and seventy eight
thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars for the win there. Twenty eleven,
the first year of twenty five K Fantasy under Daniel Lagrandew team Jason Somerville and
Jason Mercier. They were teamed up together the eight hundred and seventy one points
for the win two hundred and twenty five k in the bank. I'm ready
to go this year, Daniel tweeted out, like a basically a long list
of like what the payouts would be if depending on the entries that you would
get in the field. I guess I'll start with like, I think fourteen
is probably a good baseline to Star Wars. So if there's fourteen teams this
year, it's gonna be top three payout two hundred K first, one hundred
k, second, fifty K for third. It's three payouts all the way
up until there's nineteen teams. If there's nineteen or more teams, there's going
to be at least four payouts. If you get up to so I said,
fourteen teams is a two hundred K first place prize. If you get
fifteen teams, that additional twenty five K would go to first place of two
hundred and twenty five k to first, second, third stay the same at
one hundred and fifty k each. Sixteen teams is going to be two hundred
and fifty k to first, and then one hundred fifty one hundred to second
and fifty to third. But if you get up to nineteen teams, which
seems like possible this year, it's gonna pay four and first place it's going
to be a quarter of a million dollars two hundred and fifty k. So
it's gonna be pretty crazy. The largest first place prize that he listed was
twenty four teams who would pay the top four and would pay three hundred k
to first. We're not getting twenty four, not a chance. I mean,
who the hell knows, Like you never know, Like I feel like
we always have high hopes going into it that we're gonna get a lot of
teams. Some teams don't show up back out, who knows, you know.
It's like it's like anything people. You know, you're saying you're having
a barbecue on Saturday, everyone's going to come. Then you know, twelve
people don't show up. Well, whatever it is saying with weddings all that
sort of stuff, that's that's just how it is. So but it sounds
like speaking with Daniel you guys heard him earlier on the podcast that we're gonna
get a really big turnout. So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say seventeen.
That's my number. Seventeen teams in this thing, and I can't wait.
Now, let's bring in Matt Clark. He's my teammate, my draft
mate for this year's twenty five K Fantasy Poker League entry. So let's talk
to Matt right now, all right, now, we are joined by my
draft mate, Matt Clark, probably the guy who was the genesis of this
team, because I didn't know if I was going to get into the twenty
five K Fantasy this year, had a couple of people reach out, didn't
know if I was going to do it. Matt was asking if I was
going to get in, if he wanted a team up with him, And
here we are. We're in there, we sold our action, We're in
the dance. We'll see you guys on the Poker Girl livestream on Monday.
So how you doing, Matt. I'm doing great. This strategy of finding
you as a teammate worked out a lot better than my normal strategy of just
walking into the studio, chatting with some friends and then asking them if I
can buy a percentage of their team on the spot and draft with them,
so this worked out much better. Yeah, well you better bring the research,
better be prepared. I'm bringing the research. I'm bringing the tea leaves,
checking the injury reports, checking Twitter. I think the investors can feel
in good hands with me and you at the helmet. I definitely want to
thank the investors. Holy cow, seventy five selling in five days is wild
to me. That's really cool. And yeah, hopefully we give you guys
a good sweat, and I want to let the investors know that they are
in even better hands with one of our investors. We have Mac Lance,
who was a kindness by a piece. Mac Lance is obviously the man,
but he's also very lucky. If you guys don't remember, Mac Lance pulled
the million dollar boundy last year. So just my osmosis having Mac Lance being
one of our investors being super lucky, all the players we draft, I
think will inherently be lucky as well, so it's an all around wind win
for Like, I don't know one hundred different people because of Mac Lance,
So yeah, I think I think we got a lot of luck on our
side in terms of investors. I know who a few of them are,
obviously there's a lot of people on poker stake dot Com who I don't know
who they are, but I'm assuming everyone's lucky. I'm just gonna I'm gonna
go with the fact that mac glance is lucky. Some of these other guys
are lucky as well, So yeah, we're bringing all the luck this year.
Personally, I've never felt more confident going into a draft for than this
year. I think a large part of that is because I'm teamed up with
you and like the conversations that we've been having throughout so far. Like,
I like the questions you're asking, I like where your head is at,
I like some of the guys that you want to target, maybe some of
the guys you want to fade, all that sort of stuff. So I
feel like this is the year that finally a team that involved when does something
which would would be epic because it sounds like this is going to be the
biggest year ever. I know Daniel's targeting eighteen to twenty teams, which would
just be absolutely bananas, So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, I
mean too, twenty teams would just be wild. I mean that's one hundred
and sixty players they get drafted, so you're gonna get pretty deep on who
might be available. And I think it'll be kind of cool too to see
what other teams who are there, not only like the new faces involved,
but who they target, because just by seeing who some players are that these
teams bring up, it helps give us more information too, which is always
good to have when you're drafting that many players. So, yeah, it'll
be a new dynamic, but it's gonna be a long draft too, So
I guess be better or some food or something while we're there. Do you
want to know who isn't lucky to be part of this team? That is
Rin came a Matt. You've kicked him out, You've thrown Remco to the
sidelines, You've taken any seat. Come on, how do you feel about
that? You must be a little bit sad, sit a little bit of
a tea. I didn't do anything to Remco. I just reached out to
Diet to ask if he wanted to get the draft together. And I'm not
sad either. I'm ready to go. I feel like I got the best
teammate. Maybe he was the bad luck, yeah getting rid of him,
Yeah maybe maybe. And before that it was or trying. It was Mickey
Doff, it was all these guys you know that were involved before. I
mean, that's just how it is. But I feel like this year,
and I also know that, you know, Matt, as he mentioned,
has been involved in the draft process before, He's been involved with teams before.
He's certainly in touch with poker and what's happening out there and all this
sort of stuff. So you know, I feel like I have a really
good partner who's very much in tune with what we're trying to do for this
draft. I like our strategy going, and I've always felt throughout all of
the years doing this thing that the strategy that I kind of want to go
with would be best suited if there was as many teams as possible on this
I just feel like I can always go deeper than a lot of other teams.
So I'm ready for that. And then you know, I also got
somebody like Matt here who has a really good finger on the pulse of the
industry. Checks a lot of boxes in terms of you know, player outreach,
knowing who's good, who's not good, all that sort of stuff.
So I'm I'm ready to go. I'm basically spending the money that I'm gonna
win already, which is a super bad sign anytime you head into any sort
of fantasy draft, whether it's poker, whether it's football, baseball, whatever
the heck you're doing out there. I'm honestly, I've never felt more confident,
which is kind of just petrifying to me. So yeah, I'm feeling
pretty confident too. And actually, oh Remco a thank you, because he
was the only way that I made money on last year's draft, because I
lost my overall just entry I was on. I drafted with Josh k and
Chat Eves Sledge last year. I think we finished like eighth or so,
we ran out of steam weight and then I lost to no Gamble, No
Few your team, Brenton Jeff because they got more points than us. And
then yeah, I just won the last longer money or not last longer but
more points money versus Remco. So yeah, it ended up being a nice,
a nice little break even slate last year. So hopefully we can just
finish in the positive um just quickly, I guess, I guess I want
to kind of rewind it. Why don't you just tell the people a little
bit about who you are your time in the industry, all that sort of
stuff, so people, you know, they know you more than just a
name, more than just Matt Clark. Well, thanks for teaming me up,
Donny. Yeah, I've been in the industry for it's almost crazy to
say, like close to ten years now, which is freaking wild to me.
I was in wsp A Live Reporting twenty fifteen and then have kind of
have been in the industry since since. Since then, basically I would like
a little bit of a stint in the in the PR world thrown in.
But yeah, I worked for WPT for a couple of years right after right
after you answered out of that role. I took over there you had a
great ship in place, and then from there I transferred over to Poker Stars
US a couple of years ago. So yeah, as it currently stands up
with Poker Stars US do marketing for them. If you're in Pennsylvania, Michigan
and New Jersey, it's a great place to play if you have online poker
available to you there. So yeah, that's kind of it right now.
Can you tell the Poker Stars people to get into Nevada already? We're dying
over here, Tim and I are dying over here. We're ready to go.
We're ready to play something other than VISP dot com. Not that the
game's ONSP dot com aren't good, and we play there a lot, but
you know, competition drives the marketplace to new heights, and then that's what
we're rooting for here. So do what you can. My man, you
want to be in as many places as possible. Who doesn't, No,
of course, of course, I guess general thoughts on the draft, any
any kind of takes going in, anything you're expecting. I mean, I'll
say that, don't give away too many secrets, you know. I know
we're going to keep things rather close to the vest of overall through our conversation,
but you know, some general surface stuff that's probably not too surprising to
people we can we can share with people. So if you have anything you
want to you want to drop, let us know. Yeah, I guess
I would just say that it's going to be a good year. I think
to buy low on some players who maybe didn't do so well last year,
but if they're going to play the same schedule again ideally, then maybe those
are some of the guys you could look at. Tournament variants is obviously wild
year to year save for a couple of guys who somehow continue to crush.
But you know, for the majority of the group out there, uh yeah,
you could have a bad summer or even a bad fantasy summer, even
if it's good financially for you. So so yeah, I think that's one
of the things to keep an eye on, is you know, if you
suspect someone's gonna play a similar schedule and you know they've had good years in
the past, maybe this will be the year that they that they crack on
for the for the fantasy points. But yeah, I mean, who wouldn't
want to draft the player who ends up getting three bracelets this year? Is
I heard one of you guys predict, you know, hopefully that player ends
up on our team. That would be amazing. Why are you laughing?
Tim's laughing over here? I mean everyone wants him, like good luck,
we're talking about Daniel, right, I mean, it's but not everyone wants
him, because you'll get into the room. Everyone will want Daniel for forty
dollars, which is never happening in a bazillion years. But then once he
gets up to the price point of like what Daniel is gonna go for there's
like two teams going for it. Like that happens every single year. It's
always really interesting going into the draft, is that you have you have.
You always end up with like two, three, maybe four teams in an
extreme situation that are like willing to spend into the three figures. I'm always
in that group. I'm always blasted one hundred and twenty bucks, one hundred,
ten bucks, whatever it is on somebody trying to get somebody big and
going from there. I've I'll be honest, I've been I've been held back
in previous years by my co owners. Last year I was held back by
Remco in some spot when I wanted to basically spend one hundred and seventy dollars
on Daniel Nagrano and say, f everyone else, I'll find one dollar players
because I believe in myself. Another year, I was doing the draft with
Rich Ryan shout out, Rich, I know you're listening. I gotta call
you out for this one. So Rich wasn't there physically in the draft room
with me. I was in the draft room. Rich I had on headsets
with me and we were listening to the He was listening to the audio as
we were going, and I was bidding on Stephen Schidwick and rich kept telling
me in my ear too much, too much, and I would kept going
a dollar higher, and I think I was, I want to say,
I was going back and forth with Daniel. So like Daniel sitting in the
front of the room, just so to paint the picture. Everyone was in
a conference room for this one at Aria, and everyone other than Daniel is
sitting in like rows of tables facing forward, facing a giant screen that has
like the presentation of the Google doc to show like who's drafted the teams,
etc. And then Daniel sits in the front and faces the room. Okay,
so I'm just like ten feet from Daniel, like facing him, going
back and forth like one eleven, one, twelve, one thirteen, you
know backboard, Yeah, for Steven Schidwick and Riches screaming in my ear,
yelling about the whole thing. Um, I backed off, didn't get him.
Steven should ends up bombing out that year. So you know, good
thing that I didn't get him, I guess, um, But that was
my that year, My my one of my big guns, one of my
top three guys was Shitwick. Um he's playing everything like he normally does,
blasting away hadn't like he hadn't won yet, Like kind of going to what
you're saying, Matt, where it's like these guys that you know might be
on the radar, but people don't necessarily believe in them, for maybe they
haven't won at all, maybe they had a down year like all that sort
of stuff. And I was just like, Childwick has to break through at
some point. He's that good, like he has to. It just has
to happen. It happens to everyone at some point. Every dog has its
day, right, So that was my thinking there, But I was held
back by Rich, I guess rightfully. So so you know, I can't
get on Rich too much because we did not pull the trigger on Stephen Schitwick.
But I've always been a believer that, you know, you can draft
someone for how many guys do you draft eight? You know, you could
pay one hundred and ninety three dollars for one person and then find one dollar
players if if you had to, Like I believe that I can go deep
enough into the player pool to find one dollar players to make it for the
points. If it ever came to that. It's never going to come to
that, but just saying that that's a possibility at some point. Yeah,
without giving away too much. I think the way the way the event buyings
are set up now, if you're like really honed in and like, I
don't think anyone really like has this ability to like belly be an oracle of
knowing, like everyone schedule like down to a t on on all the streams
they'll cross, but just between like all the mixed game events and all the
no limit and all the PLO events, and you throw a little bit of
online in there with higher buy Instra worth one point five points then the fifteen
hundreds, etc. I think you realistically could do the one nine three plus
the seven the seven bench guys, but man, it's tough. It's gonna
be really interesting to see how how like the first couple of players go off
and it's at the tone. But yeah, I guess, like I'm curious,
like what would you say, like the ear guesses for the highest dollar
amount that someone goes for this year one thirty one thirty really and if he's
not, if it's not one thirty, then then everyone in the draft room
was an idiot As far as I'm concerned. I mean, I think I
want that. I think Daniels should go for one thirty or thereabouts. Now,
Sean deeb is it's always it's it's no like we're not giving away you
know, state secrets here, Dan Nani and Shaan Deeber like the one and
two, the one A, the one be like there, you wouldn't put
dan Zak in there. Um. So my thing with dan Zach is I
would question volume. And the reason why I say that is because he won
WSC Player of the Year. So does he pull back a little bit?
He was pushing for Dubs to be Player of the Year, and he did
things like selling for the two hundred and fifty k super high Rollers that he
would never do in another year, I don't think right, So that sort
of stuff, I think I might put him as like on that Tier two,
it's not that far behind. Don't get me wrong. This isn't like
a massive lead between Tier one and Tier two. But I think those two
guys are just up there kind of in a group amongst themselves, and then
it's everyone else. The question was Sean deep I think on everyone's mind,
this isn't just a question that I have. I think everyone is wondering how
is the weight loss of bet going to affect him? And I know Matt
and I have talked about it and we have our ideas on how it will
affect him. But I think people are either gonna be like, it's gonna
affect him, he's not gonna do as well, or they might land on
the side, Oh it's more of a motivation. So like whatever side of
that coin you fall on, I think that might ultimately hold back Sean Deep's
price a little bit. Basically, less teams will be willing to go toe
to toe for him. You only need two teams. But ultimately somebody I
think might get a little gun shy when it comes down to it. And
I think, I mean, Daniel's an open book, right. He puts
out his package every single year, he puts out the events that he's playing.
He's playing a one point eight million dollars package. We know he's going
to be in everything, so we know he's a good player. We have
an idea that he's due. He hasn't want to bracelet in the US and
forever, so like at some point it's got to happen, right, you
know, So I think that I think that he'll be the most expensive player,
and he generally is, you know, so so yeah, yeah,
it's fair. I just looking at last year, there's a difference of one
dollars between Sean and Daniel. And I know Sean had a team last year.
It'd be cool to have him have a team this year. So you
know, if he like really goes for himself, that's like kind of a
good sign for him, right. So yeah, And honestly, I have
no I have no issue saying that I think Daniel will go for one hundred
and thirty. And I have no issue saying, you know, earlier,
just a few moments ago, when I said that we're one of the teams
that will likely be willing to pay up for players. But that's because I
believe in our strategy of being able to dig into the trench is and find
like two dollar players, three dollar players, people that we can talk to
that are going to put in the volume that we need, that have a
high ceiling, that sort of stuff, Whereas a lot of other people out
there, like even if somebody outbids up me for Daniel NAGRONI let's say,
let's say that's how it happens, I'm ultimately like, you know what,
I'm gonna pass on him, or somebody does something insane, like we're getting
up to an insane number and they just overbid by like fifteen dollars, like
something astronomically crazy. Well, okay, fine, But like I'm confident that
you're not going to be able to find other players to fill in your team
adequately, So I'm not too worried about it. I don't know. Maybe
I'm just being a little bit too cocky here, maybe I'm getting a little
crazy. Who knows. Yeah, I think I might have to get in
your ear on draft day about going for one hundred and fifty on Daniel.
But we'll get to that. We'll get to that point when it gets there.
I'm just curious, like, how are you guys playing to set up
the studio to fit twenty teams? Like are we gonna have like rafters in
there or like a like bleacher set up, or what are we gonna do
to fit everyone in there? So we've set it up fairly similar to loss
yea, I had a little bit of a bum as the auctioneer hearing everyone's
bids because everyone is like so spread out left and right, and my head's
going left right and trying to figure out who bid was We need paddles.
Come on, man, let's go remember the old remember the paddles, the
worst thing every but yes, I actually have one at home. I'm gonna
bring it. Um So, what we've done this year It basically we'd moved
Daniel from center, put him to the left a little bit so people can
see the screen a bit more, and then we kind of put everyone.
We kind of shifted everyone a little bit to the right. I think we
have ten tables set up, um so, two teams each table, and
then a couple of extra additional tables just in case we get this forty seven
teams. Daniel's supposedly touting, Man, I like it. I mean,
what do you think of the studio for the drafting venue? Having been in
there? I love it. I mean, there's no place better to play
poker than the studio. There's no place better to drafts. I mean,
what was it like? I think it was twenty nineteen they we drafted and
one I think it was in the Tuscany. It was like one of the
it was in the Yeah, it was in the Tuscany. One of the
restaurants, they're like their beer garden restaurant. I think we had, like
Daniel rented at a private room or something. We're all like these long beer
hall tables trying to draft with a screen, and then like you have to
deal with the bar noise outside. So yeah, the studio definitely is a
big upgrade over that. Yeah, I love drafting in there, and plus
like there is a there is a bar directly outside the studio that's quiet,
so like it's kind of a win win for everyone. Yeah, I love
it as well. Obviously I'm partial to the studio. I mean I still
get get some goosebumps every time I walk in there because I think it's such
an elite place for poker in general, both on the plane side and then
anything else that has to do with kind of some answer lary events, which
I would put this under. So I'm pretty pumped overall to be able to,
you know, have the opportunity, as you started by saying when we
started our conversation, you know, huge, huge thank you to the investors
of course, who you know, we're not going to get in this thing
putting up a full twenty five thousand dollars ourselves. We're just not going to
do that at this point in our lives. That said, you know,
if everything goes according to plan in my mind and we win, I mean
I might just blast it all next year. Who the heck knows, might
just try and parlay it into multiple year wins here. But I'm really looking
forward to it. The draft is super fun. It's it's super engaging.
You know, you got people yelling, people doing wacky shit all the time,
you know, people making fun of each other. So I think it's
gonna be ultimately a very very good time. Again, would encourage everyone to
of course tune into the Poker Gol live stream. So yeah, it's gonna
be fun. I can't wait. And again, I mean, I'm pumped
to have Mat as a teammate. I think it's just perfect. We're gonna
win. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun. And I think
it's just great to have a daily sweat throughout the entire WSOP because you're always
gonna have someone in a day too of something. And you know, if
you draft someone in a and who plays high roller events and then they're playing
the two fifty k, Wow, there's only twenty twenty people here today,
like we might have a shot to do something. So so yeah, there's
always some sweat equity, and plus you get the side bets. I'm looking
forward to who we can side bet with this year. I've definitely seen some
crazy side bets over the years in terms of in terms of the teams that
go after each other actual wise, and and yeah, it's just it's a
really fun way to kick off the summer with a lot of a lot of
people in the stay room who are competing at each other all year, but
you know, just for one night, they kind of like each other a
little bit because they because you could be mortal enemies, but hey, if
you got someone on your team who you need to need some points from it,
that turns the tide pretty quick. So yeah, I'm really looking forward
to it. I'm really excited to give the investors a fun sweat all summer.
And yet and yeah, Monday can't be here soon enough. I'm gonna
drive into Vegas that day. First stop will be the studio to kick off
the summer. Couldn't ask for anything better. Let's go. I can't wait,
all right, sir, We'll appreciate yet you coming on taking the time
to chat with us also, you know, taking the time to let the
people know who who our team is, what we're gonna be doing, who
you are, and all that sort of stuff. Believe it's Matt Clark Poker
on Twitter. Is that correct? Yes, sir, that's right. You
guys can give him a follow over on Twitter at Matt Clark Poker spelled just
like it sounds nice and easy, and yeah, we'll be sweating all summer
long and in it all the way to the end. This is one of
those things, of course, where you know, you can kind of not
do a damn thing and then all of a sudden hit just kind of a
two week hot streak and boom, you're you're in the mix. So I'm
looking forward to it from start to finish and appreciate you coming on, sir.
Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. And let's what,
do we just sign a team name? No, we haven't yet.
I mean, we hadn't listed on Poker Stake as Team Donny Pee because that's
what josh Are suggested, but we're not gonna go with that name. Well,
we'll do something. I just don't know exactly what we're gonna do,
but yeah, I want team media back. Make a team media e media
back, I mean not out of the realm of possibility. We'll see.
We got a few days to figure it out and we'll sort it out.
Sounds good. Well, we'll make sure that people know who to sweat.
And by the way, a quick shout out to the twenty five K fantasy
website that does an incredible job accumulating all the stats each year. I think
they do an awesome job. And I don't even know who runs the site,
but definitely worth checking out to sweat not only our team but all the
twenty five K fantasy teams throughout the summer. Twenty five k Fantasy dot Com
is where to find all that and give them a follow on Twitter at the
same the same name. Sweet, I love it. You saved me from
doing the plug, so thank you. All right, sir, We'll have
a good weekend. I'm sure you and I are going to be talking plenty
and uh safe drive in and I will see you on Monday. Chairs.
Thank you. All right. That was Matt Clark. I can't wait.
I'm pumped. I mean, the more I talk with him, the more
I talk about it, I'm like getting way too cocky and I need to
just slow my role seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you
do. You calm down. I feel, of course I accept the one
year that we got screwed when Martin Jacobson wanted events. So yeah, so
yeah, listen, I'm ready to go. I've been doing a lot of
research, um all this week. Every single night, I've spent probably two
hours researching, building out my spreadsheets, all that sort of stuff. So
I'm trying to put it in the time. I'm trying to put in the
effort, and I feel like one of these years it's all going to come
together. Last year, what's our excuse? COVID COVID struck the team.
That's what happened, and our biggest gun David ODB Baker shout out ODB Baker,
love you man, but had a bad summer. You know, what
are you gonna do the ebbs and flows of tournament poker. One year you're
you know, you can't miss, You're winning everything, You're making all these
found tables. The next year it's just a brick city. That's just how
it is. Speaking of od B, what are your thoughts on when I
always find it interesting when someone's name comes up in the room and they're also
in the room like ODB. Yeah, I always find that interesting. I
mean, and there's a lot there's a lot of those guys. I mean
you have obviously Daniel Sean deep drafted drafted last year. Um, Chad eve
Sledge has been in the room. Um sometimes Josh Ri is in there.
I don't know if he's always in there, Um, David Baker, as
you mentioned, who else Benny Glazier was Benny Glazier was there last year.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's always interesting, Um, you know
to see because then you, I don't know, you get a sense of
like what's going to happen, Like do they know that they're gonna play a
big schedule? So are they bidding on themselves? You know that sort of
thing. And I always think that it's if I was ever in that position,
like I come in you know, I'm I'm Daniel the grounding for example,
and you know I'm I got a team. But then I'm also I
know I'm playing a high buying schedule of everything or you know, a high
high volume schedule of everything. Um, I'm probably not going to a bid
on myself because then I have basically two irons in the fire. I have
my play and then I have my fantasy team, and I can win both
weights, you know, because he is maybe the exception because of how much
he plays. But like someone like you know, odb Or Todd Bronson,
Craig Chay, Jake Schwassel, chat Eva, that's a little different. Like
it's either a bed on yourself or just you know, trying to hedge in
a way. Yeah, I mean it's it's an interesting strategy. I'm not
in that position, so I can't really really speak to myself. Going to
drop yourself for a dollar? Wouldn't that be great? And I played like
one event and won it. I want the Claddy something insane, like some
some low buy in massive field crap show where I just one, like you
know, the max hundred point field bonus and like that's how well you know,
the more realistic I one is you play the main event and make the
field bonus. Well, yeah, that'd be that would be way more really
listening. Yeah, but I don't know if I'm gonna play the main event
this year, so that I hope to play, you know, but you
can't force me to play, and then you don't play, but we'll see.
Well, you have a more flexible work schedule. I won't say that
you have less work than I do, because yeah, you know, I'm
doing a lot of commentary, hopefully twenty streams, so you know, I
gotta work around that working man first above play. But the twenty five K
fantasy, that's kind of like my baby. I love this thing. I
love having the opportunity to get in there. Um again, to shout out
Matt Clark for for coming alongside of me. I feel confident with him there.
I can't wait. I think our strategies are aligned. Um, and
I'm pumped up. So I'm due. I'm I'm doing this stupid thing.
I'm so doing this dumb thing. I love it. I think it's great.
UM. So yeah, if you bought a piece on Poker Stakes,
as we just talked about with Matt, thank you so much. UM if
you're one of the people that might have bought action off Poker Stake, because
I know you personally, thank you, thank you very much. We're gonna
do it this year. We're gonna do our damnedest. We're putting in the
work once again. UM, I can't wait. So yeah, that's all
we got for you on this episode, Nice little twenty five K fantasy episode,
Big Episode, Big one tomorrow. Yes, uh, that's our Doubsop
mailbag episode. We're gonna be answering all these Dubsop related questions that we got
in from you guys out there the audience. UM, I think we have
around fifty questions. That's a lot of questions. We're gonna answer every single
one. We're gonna get through it. It's gonna be fun and hopefully you
know, are able to put our knowledge of being out here working at the
series to good use and let you guys know, um some stuff about everything
you want to know. So I can't wait. It's gonna be a lot
of fun. So um, that's gonna do it for us. My name
is Donny Peters, his name is Tim Duckworth, and we will talk to
you guys next time. Nice Change Express Ray to Night a chain Express