Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters, Remco rinking
across the table from me and baby, oh Baby, what
a day. Night two was at the w SP main
event for the final table from seven down to two.
Somehow we got down to heads up play. Wild scenes
here we're gonna talk all about it. We talked to
plenty of players along the way. We got a little
bit of some live audio between Remco and I from
the floor in the midst.
Speaker 2: Of it all.
Speaker 1: But it is Lucas Jumalan, the twenty two year old
out of Spokane, Washington, Washington, excuse me, maintaining his chip
lead from start of this final table until heads up play.
He's going with Lori Saskat out of Finland. The I
think he's like a sales marketing manager or something, not
a professional poker player by trade. Calls himself a hobbyist,
a semi pro whatever it is. Of course, maybe that
changes now, but he is the player that could be
the kryptonite to Lucas Jumalan, who has seemed like he
could really do no wrong. But Soscolotti is not going
to back down. I mean, what do you got to
say about today?
Speaker 3: Today was the counter opposite from what we saw on
the first day of the Final Table. The first day
was was drawn out one hundred and eight hands, much
to the liking of Sam Greenwood. I don't think Sam
Greenwood approves of today's play. Well, he doesn't like excitement.
Doesn't like excitement. All everything needs to be mechanical. And
of course Sam, if you listen, I joke.
Speaker 4: I joke. But Sam's catching a lot of shade on
the spot it was.
Speaker 3: It was funny to see the contrast on social media yesterday,
where you know, some were saying how boring it wasn't
some were saying how interesting it was, and the word
exciting wasn't really used, even though the broadcast of product,
everything surrounding it, Nick and Ali was just you know,
top notch, A plus. All that stuff was great. But
when the entertainment value arrives due to some high profile
all ins, some crazy runouts, some Greg Mueller high fiving
Scotty tickets with the shirt off on the rail, that's
when you have a real main event Final Table on
your hands. What I saw today was exactly what I
want to see when I watch poker. On TV. This
is the kind of stuff where I can tell my
father in law, who has a loose sort of loosely
is loosely interested in poker. I can tell him, turn
on the TV, you're gonna want to watch this. And
that's exactly what I did. So with that in mind, Donnie,
I think that you said it right when it happened.
I think it was only a few hands into play
today when when Mueller doubled up and the whole atmosphere
seemed to change, and the whole sort of vibe in
the room seemed to sort of loosen up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doubled up with King Jack versus Ace king.
He had the King jack. He drilled the jack on
the flob. It did come jack ten eight, So he
did have to fade an ace or a queen. This
was against Laurie Sascolotti. Greg did come into the day
as the short stack ends up doubling up here. You
could see it in his face at multiple points throughout
this runout. First when the jack comes, he's like, oh
my gosh, it happened, like it the miracle just happened, right,
So you got that? Then, like he's got us obviously
sweat the last two cards, and you could just tell
it was like, oh my god, I haven't felt like
Greg has felt that this is the biggest moment of
his poker career until this moment going to the turn
where he hit the jack, he took the lead, and
then it was like, oh shit, I got a hold
on for two more cards and if I do it
could mean multiple mill more millions of dollars, and heck,
maybe I go on to win this thing after. I mean,
you talked with him yesterday and we heard from him
how he was. He was, in a way kind of
beating himself up a little bit over that that King jackhand.
Coincidentally enough, King Jack resurrecting its head once again in
this spot. But he was He's like, you know, I
played that hand really bad. Comes into today, he's only
got what nine big blinds are ten big blinds, and
he's maybe he's just kind of reserved to his fate
where he's like, Okay, you know what, it was a
good run, laddered a couple spots, didn't play my best
in that one spot, and maybe it costs me. But
now it's like, oh crap, I'm way back in this
damn thing and this this is the hand that this
final table needed. If you are rooting for electricity, if
you're rooting for entertainment, all that sort of stuff, the fireworks,
et cetera. Yesterday was I would describe it as interesting.
Interesting is not exciting to most people. It's exciting to
me maybe, sure, but it's also can be portrayed as boring,
a grind, you know, a slog at times. But today
was the stone opposite. As you said, this hand kicked
things off early and then from there it was almost
like banker after banger.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And important to note there too that Muller doubled through Saskalathi,
so that hand really flipped things around. Muller up to
fifty nine million, Suscalathi down to fifty three million. And
the reason I want to point it out is because
there was a distinct difference in the approaches the players had,
especially those two, because Suscolathi came into play trying to
win the tournament. It felt like, oh, he was looking
for spots, he was being aggressive, he was being involved
in lots of hands, and Mueller was being patient.
Speaker 4: He was sort of soaking in the moment.
Speaker 3: He was enjoying this experience with this rail, But never
did I get the feeling that Mueller was giving himself
a chance to win. Suscalothie could a busted in eighth place,
seventh place, sixth place, but Mueller was sort of like,
I don't know, it's kind of weird to say he
wasn't trying to money ladder, because I know that he wasn't,
but he was also just trying to be patient and
trying to sort of let the game come to him
and Susclotik was coming to the game. Next big moment
that we saw at the final table then was Jumalan
just doing Jumalan things versus Jamie Shavell in hand number
one twenty one, where kind of in a weird way, Donnie,
And I think I saw a few tweets about this,
people saying like, this is maybe the only mistake that
Jamie Shavell made at the final table makes it ten
million pre with four and a half behind, Jumalan made
the call and that's when Shavel moved on for only
four and a half million. Into a little bit over
twenty Shavel had king six of hearts on seven four
to three. Jumbelan called the King ten High obviously priced in,
and the King ten High simply held up. So that was,
you know, unfortunate for shavel to go out that way, definitely,
you know, brought a tough game to the table cash
one point five million, and yeah, then we were down
down a six.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tough spot for Chevelle here. I mean, it's hard
to say when you're when you're that short. You know,
you look down, you see the King six of hearts,
You're probably like, okay, this is it.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: If he just moves all in fully and doesn't leave
some chips behind, how does this one play out? I'm
gonna guess the same. You know, I think King ten
with that chip lead for Jumalan in the big line.
Given how short Chevelle is, then you know, I think
he's still ultimately out of the tournament. Now, maybe you
want to say, okay, he could fold it and maybe
waited for a better spot, or maybe somebody else collides
and you go from there. But when you're that short,
I can't necessarily blame him for how this one played
out and ultimately didn't hit. But his eighth cash in
the WSIP main event one point five million dollars so
a very very good run for him. And then from there,
I mean it was just again more Jumalan.
Speaker 4: Yeah's what it was. He It was.
Speaker 1: Just you kind of look, we have the chip count
screen in front of us from where we're sitting in
the media row, and like every time you looked up,
every five minutes or ten minutes, he had like ten
or fifteen more, just kept just kept going, climbing, climbing, climbing.
Next thing, you know, it's like, crap, he's got two
hundred and seventy five million. Oh look he's got two
hundred and eighty five million, two ninety Like he's almost
got three hundred million. Like it's just wild stuff. But
then then we got Mueller doubling again. Yeah, you know,
this was another crazy moment. This time it was through
Rami Hamoud, Canada and Canada War crimes. Here nine's for Mueller,
Ace King for Rami Hamoud. Mueller fades the runout another
spot where it was like he's he's just sweating the
whole way and like his rail was the biggest by
far here and you could feel it that they felt it,
just like he felt everyone was so invested NonStop channing.
He ultimately ends up winning this hand. He's doing fist
pumps out there, going into his rail high five's hugs,
the whole thing. It was just crazy stuff. Now Hamod
wasn't out but left pretty short after this one.
Speaker 3: E Mueller also up to eighty two million after this hand,
which in hindsight is kind of wild to think that
he got up that high that sort of early into
today's play. At that point, Sascalothi was only on forty
nine million. Gagliano, who basically was not involved in the
play at all today, was more like a spectator and
we'll we'll hear from him in a minute. But that
was definitely interesting to see. And Mueller going up to
eighty five eighty two million might make you think like, oh,
now he has a chance to perhaps get some control,
but nothing like that ever really evolved. And it's even
funnier when you think that shortly after he got up
to eighty two million, there was the big all in
with Suscalathi doubled with Kings versus Ace Jack versus Han Feng,
and all of a sudden, Mueller is second in chips
because the person ahead of him lost a chunk, being
Han Feng. And all of a sudden, you think, are
we going towards a Mueller Jumlan heads up.
Speaker 1: I mean, it looked like that at some point, you know,
And it was it was more like in a way
process of elimination that he ended up making it up
to second place. Not that people were eliminated, but people
just kept getting kind of knocked down, and all of
a sudden you look at the board and it's like, oh,
Mueller's in second. But that's also like this today was
just kind of wacky in that you had Jumalan once again,
so far and away a chip leader right, and then
everyone else like one big pot or one double up
and like they're in second or third right behind him
because everyone was so bunched together even though people were
super super short, like Greg when he doubled the first time,
he doubled like all the way up the leaderboard to
like third place, it was like out of nowhere, but
he only had like twenty bigs if he was still
in third place. It was just it was an absolutely
wild dynamic at the table, and I mean, I don't
think you could have scripted it better coming off of
what we saw on the first day. You know, if
you were like, like if you got everyone in the
room and you're like, hey, guys, we got to write
a more electric day, like this is what you would
come out with.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 1: It was awesome, absolutely awesome, and through it all you
got to give credit to Jumalan because he never lost
that top spot the whole time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he continued by taking Ramihamu's final chips, who was
all in with He was all in with so many outs,
probably too many queen check with the jack of spades
on eight six deuce with three spades, so he had
overcards flush straw against Jumalan's ace five high no flush straws,
so ACE five held up in true Jumalan fashion because
when it's your tournament, it's your tournament, and you know
it continued to be his tournament. But yeah, Jumalan at
that point, and this is kind of wild to look at.
Right after he busted Hamud, he had a massive, massive
pot against Han Feng where he flopped the full house
seventh full of aces and the hand resulted in him
taking fifty million ish off of Han Feng, and he
had three hundred and seventy six million chips with Mueller
being next closest at sixty sixty six million, And I
think you said it that at that point he goes
he has more than half to chips in play.
Speaker 1: And well over, hell over, there's like five hundred fifty
million in play. Yeah, three hundred and seventy six million.
Speaker 3: So at that point of the tournament, it was basically
like who's going to finish second, who's going to even
have a little bit of resistance versus Jumalon, And that
question was answered almost immediately in the most dramatic of fashion,
when Han Feng ended up all in forced term in
life with pocket ass versus Sascolatti with nad wild and
this hand was the most electric hand of the day.
Flopp comes out ten eight three, all diamonds. Han Feng
has the acid diamonds for even more protection than a
jack of hearts on the turn, giving Susclothi and opening
a straight draw, but still cannot hit a diamond, and
the river is a black queen, and Antonio Abrego got
like the shot of the day where you see Han
Feng crumple up in a in a ball of misery
as Susclati jumps into the screen and celebrates like we've
never seen before and prior to that, Donnie, I don't
recall seeing any emotion from Sascalath, and it was almost
like he unlocked something new inside of him.
Speaker 4: That he was not yet aware of.
Speaker 1: And also Greg Mueller in this hand folding Jacks, Oh right, yeah,
you're right, like this hand was. This hand was wild
because you had Fang who had just lost the big
pot to Lucas Jumalan and he's he's now sitting on
like I think it's eight and a half big blinds.
Maybe a little bit less maybe seven and a half
after after that hand, but either way, super short sub
ten for sure. He min raises under the gun, which
should in a lot of ways set off a lot
of alarm bells because you don't have many min raised.
I don't think you have really any min rais folds there,
so your min raises come from predominantly aces and then
maybe some kings, but kings I think does have a
little bit of blending between shoving and min raising. You
you might even see some limps in this spot with
the stack size like Fang had. But first of all,
the min rays under the gun from Fang should should
raise some alarm bells for the players. Then you have
Sascelotti going fifty just this fifty million, he says, he said,
let's gam fifty million. Let's gam, and Mueller listen credit
to him kind of immediately. You could tell by watching
his mannerisms that he felt that something was up with
two jacks, which is, I don't know, I feel like
I would go broke here for sure. Yes, it does
suck in a way that you have Fang who looks
like he's got a really nutted range here from under
the gun. But if you beat Sascolotti for the side,
it kind of doesn't matter, right, So it's a super
tricky spot. Mueller tanked and tanked and tanked. At one
point he tried to talk to Sasclotti. Couldn't because that's
not allowed, especially with three players in the hands.
Speaker 3: But I said something when this hand was in progress.
I said, like, it looks as though Muller is almost
more worried about Han Feng than he is about Sasclati.
And Han Feng was sitting there like a statue, while
Sasclati seemed really relaxed and you know, resigned in his
fate because he was already all in. So it didn't
really matter to him anymore what was going to happen.
His chips were in the middle, Go figure it out, guys.
That was sort of the attitude that I was seeing
from him. And then ultimately Mueller folds and erupts in
celebration as Han Feng literally triple fist, pump calls and
slams the aces on the table, only to then that
leading to his elimination.
Speaker 1: I would have cried, honestly, having the acid diamonds in
my hand on a three diamond flop like that, I
would have just burst out into tears. I mean, I mean,
what the hell are you gonna do? I mean, that's
just it's a sick way to go. I will say that,
you know, getting that far fifth place for two point
twenty five million, when you came in eight out of nine,
not too far ahead of nine, you had to battle
as a short stack for much of the day. It
probably definitely seemed feels like a win. But given that
he did finish the first night of the final table
second in chips with more than one hundred million, thinking like, okay,
I'm the guy in line to get heads up with
Lucas Jumalan, and then you go out in a sick
one like this, I mean, and then there's also the
sliding doors moment where on the hand where he had
tens and Jumalan had the sevens, Mueller opens the button
for a min raise. If Fang just moves all in, yeah,
probably just wins the hand right there, right, it's crazy.
Now there's the other kind of sliding doors where because
he flattered from the small blind, there's a real argument
that Jumelan could have just said I'm all in, and
then if he's all in, obviously Greg gets out of
the way, but Fang calls and he's out of the tournament.
Like so it's just like so crazy how it all.
You know, one move here, one move there can just
change how it all kind of shapes out. So it's
just it really is just just wild stuff here on
this this second night of the final table. I mean,
I can't understate that specific element.
Speaker 3: Of it all. I think it really highlights how this
game is so beautiful because there are thousands of scenarios
possible and we only get to watch one of those
scenarios play, which is the scenario that ends up happening.
But there were so many hands today where small differences
or you know, perhaps a slightly different approach could have
changed everything. And this is just how the thing unfolded.
And Han Feang's on the rail and Sascolothi is all
of a sudden up to two hundred million ish and
then he said.
Speaker 1: Well, hold on one second, because he got he was
up to about ninety.
Speaker 2: Million hand right, and then and then he doubles through and.
Speaker 1: Michael Gagliano after that hand had eight and a half
nine big lines, so now he's the super short guy.
But then Sascolotti just decides to get all in against
Lucas Jumelot, just like insane, like that's where it's just wild.
So he gets all in with Lucas Jumlan. This is
just the nature of Sascolotti. You saw it a lot
on the first day of the final table. He was
kno going to back down to anyone. I mean, at
one point I thought he was going to call all
in with that king Queen suited against Lucas Jumalan. Now
they had the same hand and they probably would have
chopped unless somebody made a four foot or a flush,
but you know whatever. But here on the nine to
four duce flop, he gets it all in with Jumalan.
Jumalan's got four to three or sorry, they got it
all on the turn nine four duce five. So Jumalan's
got a pair of fours, so he can hit a four.
He can hit a three four to make trips three
to hit two pair. He can also hit an ace
to make a straight. He can hit six to make
a straight. And Sascolotti's got two tens for just the overcard.
Gotta fade plenty outs he does. That was the pot
that got him up to almost one hundred and ninety million,
and because it was through Jumalan pulls him back down
to earth a little bit. And then it's like, oh
my gosh, we have a game, and we also we
have the have notts. We have the haves with Jumalan
and Sasclatt and then we have the have knots over
here with Muller and Gagliano and Gaglana is just like
in a way he's playing John Raisner, like you guys
just all kind of go crazy. I'm I'm over here
just collecting my millions every time we get a ladder.
Speaker 3: But also just imagine, because you know, Jumala had real outs,
He had real outs to send Susclotta home if that,
If that happens, he basically has four hundred and sixty
million or four and fifty million, which is just like
the end of the tournament.
Speaker 4: It's just absolutely insane.
Speaker 3: But yes, sessild It doubles up and all of a sudden,
we got ourselves a match because then we finally have
someone who can challenge Jumalan, which you know, for the
sake of the broadcast and for the sake of the excitement,
is definitely great to see. Juelan isn't easy to get
to root for, but we also don't want to just
hand him the trophy. This is definitely something that's.
Speaker 4: Gonna have some resistance. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And then you know, Gagliano and and we'll listen to
him in the second here. Really didn't get any hands,
didn't get any spots, and he was the consummate professional
when I spoke to him after his elimination.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was great. He lost me in a pretty
brutal fashion as well. He had King Queen up against
King Jack for Jumalan. Jumalan turns a jack after the
flop came King high and we say goodbye to Gagliano.
And as Remco said, he did catch up with Gags
on his way out. And here's that conversation right now.
Speaker 4: Michael, fourth place in the main.
Speaker 3: As a long time book a professional, this experience lived
up to what.
Speaker 4: You might have thought it would be like after all
those years of playing this tournament.
Speaker 6: Honestly, it was more fun.
Speaker 5: Like I was anticipating a lot more stress, and I
mean I'd be lying if there was, you know, no stress,
but just a lot of fun. It was a really
good group of guys. There was not a lot of
like negative emotion. There was a lot of emotion, a
lot of you know, players really sweating the spots in
the hands, but there were no there was no negative
but there was no fighting, There was no arguing, There
was not even remotely.
Speaker 6: Anything like that.
Speaker 5: Everyone was super supportive anytime there was a hand or
a clash or anything like that. A great group of guys,
and you couldn't have been happier to make this finel table.
Speaker 2: With them on this final data that you got to play.
Speaker 4: Is there any frustration or any.
Speaker 3: Doubt about the way that things went, just because you've
seen so handcoched. No.
Speaker 6: I mean I told that people like I, I.
Speaker 5: Really just did not have really a lot of spots
to exercise any skills or strategy that I had hoped
to do coming to the final table. But that happened
to times. You know, I did my best to grind
it out with the.
Speaker 6: Short stack, and I think I did pretty well, especially.
Speaker 5: Because I am not very confident in my supershours that game,
but I think I did it right. Yeah, I mean,
you know, a couple of hands go differently, and you
know we could be having a different conversation, but uh, overall, fourth,
what could use?
Speaker 4: How's it too bad for result?
Speaker 6: Coming in?
Speaker 3: You know where I was massive massive score past wise,
what is the meaning of that? Because we love to
talk about the experience and the fun Reultimately there's a
lot of money you've ey won here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've said before, like I almost felt more stressed
near the money bubble of this tournament, even though I
was not really in jeopardy of bubbling.
Speaker 6: I just like felt like unsure of how.
Speaker 5: To navigate some spots for some other big stacks and
things like that. Once I got past, you know, I
bagged almost a very short stack on day four, and
once I got past that and just kind of was like,
all right, I'm just gonna like do what I can
to play.
Speaker 6: I really had very little stress this the rest of
this tournament and I just got to enjoy the ride.
Speaker 5: And they were never in stressful spots with you know,
two three tables left.
Speaker 6: But again, it was a great group.
Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: We had a lot of fun at the feature on
day eight with Deep and and I've had a Todd
Brunson on on day seven. It's which we just were
having fun, man, in the entire time and continue through.
Speaker 4: This model table.
Speaker 5: It was a little louder in here, a little less
chat at the table, which you know was part of
the fun.
Speaker 4: But uh, that's the model tables.
Speaker 6: You know, it's a lot of stress.
Speaker 3: So what do you think the long term impacts of
this result will be on.
Speaker 4: Your life, on your put career?
Speaker 5: Oh geez, I don't know. I don't take too many
live trips these days, but I don't know.
Speaker 6: Maybe we'll get me for an extra one or two
a year.
Speaker 4: What We'll have to say?
Speaker 6: It was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll see how I feel what.
Speaker 2: I feel like final question was the supporters here.
Speaker 3: The gas wenty twenty sixth merch was was out in
full force.
Speaker 4: You had a few notables on your rail as well.
What'sn't been likely to share this with them?
Speaker 6: It's been unbelievable.
Speaker 5: I got to shout out BETAMGM for the merch and
they did a great job with the hats and the
T shirts and everything else.
Speaker 6: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: I have so many friends come in that you know,
don't even necessarily.
Speaker 6: Understand all the rules of poker.
Speaker 5: And I think they're fans now this was maybe not
necessarily they're expecting. But shout out to Greg Muller as
you can hear them saying, yeah, it was just unbelievable.
I just got my phone back for the first time
today and just seeing the pouring of messages from people
I haven't spoken.
Speaker 6: To in years and years and years is unbelievable.
Speaker 4: There's no other word for it.
Speaker 2: Thanks ChIL, thank you so much. Just trying to do enjoy.
Speaker 4: Johnny was still rolling.
Speaker 3: Just spoke to Gags and while I'm watching Gags talk
to his friends of the media.
Speaker 4: We lost Mueller in third place.
Speaker 3: I think Muller could have gone out in any one
of the places at the final table ninethe eight seven six, fifth,
he ends up getting third. He brings the atmosphere. We
got the chance in the background. How do you look
back on Mueller's run.
Speaker 1: A roller coaster, wild, chaotic ride, and honestly, I would
expect nothing less from full blown till. I mean, that's
what it was from start to finish. It was up,
it was down, it was all over the place. We
talked about the dark check, that snap calling, he folded
jacks to aces on that crazy hand that ultimately eliminated
Han Fang Like. I mean, it was the full blown
tilt like theme park ride. That's what it was from
start to finish. And you know, it's kind of epic
that he that he went out, I guess going with
a livery like calling it off there with how he did.
But I mean, you got to handswer the guy. He's
got what almost four million in the bank. Well done, sir,
epic run from Mueller.
Speaker 3: And as we are standing here, we're wrapping up for
the night, we're down to two players.
Speaker 4: It's maybe Junelan versus Sasklati.
Speaker 3: Looking at what unfold of today, Donnie, we are somehow set.
Speaker 4: Up for what could be an iconic heads up.
Speaker 1: Match tomorrow or I should say Wednesday. This could go
eight hours, it could go eight minutes with how the
I mean these guys when they were one and two
and chips with with four players up, with five players up,
they were not backing down from one another. You and
I kept looking over at the mud there multiple times
saying like, oh, there's sixty million in the pot. Oh
there's seventy million in the pot. Oh he's putting them
all in. Oh, here we go. So yeah, like, if
these guys just pick up, I'm not even gonna say
like two good hands, just kind of like marginal average hands.
They could just go for it. And now they do
have enough experience, enough knowledge of one another, where I
think Jumalan probably correctly looks at Sascal audience says like, listen,
this guy's gonna go for it. So I got to
be willing to click the call button or make a
big stand or whatever it is, and that could ultimately
lead the things getting over quickly. Now that said, there
is a four million dollar pay jump here, and these
guys are very deep seventy seventy five big lines effective,
So we could be here for a long, drown out match. Now,
that doesn't mean that they're not going to be throwing
haymakers back and forth, but it could just go back
and forth for a while.
Speaker 3: It's really fascinating to see the evolution of Sascolati. I
feel like we really got to know Jumalan very well
in the base leading up to the final table and
I'm you know, the playdown days, Dumalan has had the
triplety for such a long time. He's almost sort of like,
you know, you can see the imprints on his chair.
Speaker 2: From just being the tripley for such a long time.
Speaker 3: But then all of a sudden, I noticed something, Because
when Saskalati went basically perfect, perfect to stay alive versus
Han Feng and busted or practice aces.
Speaker 2: I should say, all of a sudden something changed.
Speaker 4: The emotion that was on display. We had not seen
from him at all.
Speaker 3: He was the cool fin all throughout yesterday's play. He
was the cool thin all the way until that river
cart hit, and then all of a sudden something changed.
Speaker 4: And we've seen much more emotion from him since.
Speaker 3: And I feel as though he's playing and acting as
if he's on a free roll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, you know, we even saw him
be really cool when he was on with the Kings
versus Han Fing's Ace Jack right, like he wasn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people there, myself.
Speaker 1: Included probably would be would be like, oh crap, here
comes the ace, like this is the massive spot.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 1: But he was just cool, just sat there in his chair.
He was even asking the other players at the table
about a previous handle, the borders running out of just
crazy stuff like Sascolotti feels like he's like he smells
blood in the water, like he's like okay, like like
let's go fucking grab the bull by the horns and
just take this thing down like I can actually do it.
And I also don't think he's gonna shy away from
playing his game, which I think is awesome. And if
you're Jumalan, I think.
Speaker 4: Worst case scenario opponent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1: Like if there was gonna be kryptonite to your Superman
at this final tables, it's one at Sascolatti and it's two.
It's Sascolotti with ammunition, and that's what he has. Yes,
you have the chip lead, but he's got plenty to
work with and he has shown that he does not
give a crap and he will not back down from you.
Speaker 4: He's not gonna.
Speaker 1: Stand for your bullshit. So it could be one hell
of a match. I mean, we know Jumalan, he's twenty
two years old. He's got the bravado just just through
the roof. He loves it. He constantly says I'm built
for this, I'm ready for it. His playing style echoes that,
and now you've got him going up against the finished
guy who does not give a shit.
Speaker 3: It's awesome. I cannot wait. It's gonna be an epic
heads up battle. But Donnie, one thing that's the wrinkle
that we only have to deal with because of TV
is that there's one hundred and eighty something big blinds
in play and tomorrow there's a certain window in which
this game gets shown to the entire American audience on ESPN,
And by looking at this, at this chip count, and
thinking back of iconic cats up matches we've had in
the past, there's no telling whether we'll hit the window.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we've heard that after a certain amount
of time it might get preempted and kicked over to
ESPN two, which isn't the worst thing in the world.
But of course you wanted on the main ESPN channel. Now,
I will also say that everything is probably subject to change,
so well, I guess we'll see how it goes. But yeah,
like if this thing does go a long time, it's
gonna kind of start being a question like, okay, like
what's gonna happen. You know, we've been around plenty for
some of these long not just the heads up matches.
Speaker 2: But tables where you know, it's been all of a sudden,
it's six in the morning.
Speaker 4: It's seven in the morning.
Speaker 2: The hashtag is coming out.
Speaker 4: When will end before?
Speaker 2: The WSB will end before?
Speaker 4: Or whatever? You know, like all that sort of stuff.
You know, we got Juwan the.
Speaker 2: Crowdsurfing, crowdsurfing right now, this is out of control.
Speaker 1: They better not hurt their guy. He's got one more day,
you know what this is.
Speaker 2: As long as he has one arm functional, he can
still win this tournament.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the atmosphere here inside the horseshoe is electric.
Speaker 2: We are guessing some of the background noise here.
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk to Mueller, We're gonna try to talk.
Speaker 4: To Jumalan and Susqualati. It's been an amazing day. The
contrast could not be any bigger with the first day
at the final table.
Speaker 1: So you guys heard it there first Gagliano. Then I
happen to be standing right next to him, go so
he just threw the microphone in my face and we.
Speaker 4: Talked about it.
Speaker 3: Well, the reason I did that was because there's so
much more life to the recording. Yeah, when you hear
all that noise and then like right now, we're sitting
in a quiet room where everybody's riding their little recaps,
and that moment was just so iconic.
Speaker 4: It was just insane.
Speaker 1: Well, the room had had become much more alive. It
was already alive throughout this entire day, but in that
moment with it was It was largely led by Greg
fbt Mueller and his rail knowing that they made it
to three handed play, and there might have even been
a little bit of thought too that okay, the day
is done right, because there is some thought that on
day two you try and get down to three handed,
then that's when you call it quits, and then you
move into the next day and then it's three handed play, right,
But that wasn't going to be the case. Here because
they were so there were there's so many blinds on
the table that they couldn't do that if they wanted
the final day on Wednesday to be somewhat manageable. So
maybe maybe Greg and his his rail said oh, we're
onto the next day. So like they got a bit
rowdy and they started chanting and all that sort of stuff,
and little did everyone know that it was like, no, no,
we got to go back in there. We got to
get back in that arena and keep on playing. But
it was it was some wild, wild times out there overall,
and it was it was fun. I mean, Greg in
that moment he had to feel super happy, and I
know we'll hear from him in a bit. But just
because you come into the day with sub ten bigs, right,
and you screwed up that one big hand that might
have been the hand that cost you the tournament or
a top three finish or whatever. But then some fortunate
situations happen on Tuesday and you are in the final three.
Now you're far off of the other two players, yes,
but at least you're in the fight, right, at least
you're there and you're in it. So that must have
in and of itself really felt like a win formuler.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and you know, he busted the very next hand
after Gagliano busted in a hand that I thought he
might be more regretful about. But as you'll be able
to hear on the interview, no regrets totally, you know,
at peace with what happened. And he even referred to
the fact that he felt tense and he felt the
pressure of one hundred people flying in from Canada and
wanted to give them a bit of a show and
a reason for you know, for a fun visit by
him not busting in ninth. And then when he made
the second day of the final table, all of a
sudden things felt more more loose, and I guess in
a way more real because you've got a few page
jumps and all of a sudden, now you're in it.
You got some some airtime, and uh yeah. He looked
back on this experience with a lot of a lot
of really nice words.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: On his final hand is quickly before we talked to
or we bring in Greg here blind verse blind against
Sasclotti Sasclotti in the small blind limps Kings gets a
bit tricky there. Mueller checks the ten four comes ace
ace four, so a better two pair for Sasclotti, two
pair for me as well. It goes check check turn
jack bet from Sascolotti for the minimum a mount three million.
Mueller calls River is a three, and Sasclotti decides to
put Mueller all in. He actually did what he did earlier.
He said fifty million, so which was I believe about
a two point three x pot size bet. Given what
Mueller had left, the fifty million did represent more than
what Mueller had behind. Mueller tanked for a bit, ultimately
said call his two pair. Of course, no good against Sascolotti.
A lot of metagame going on here too. Obviously we
talked about the hand that Mueller screwed up on the
first day of the final table, which was against Sasclotti.
That was when Sasclotti pulled that big bluff against him.
So that's probably going through Greg's mind the whole thing.
It's like, well, I think he thinks, you think, and
it's all this leveling war and then ultimately Greg calls
it off bad. But in the end he still did
make his way to the final three, so I think
he's happy for it. And here is Greg Mueller with
Remco Right now.
Speaker 3: Greg, the fairy tale, the story, the rush to roller coaster,
how do you want to put it? Has ended in
third place? What's what's the emotion in this moment?
Speaker 7: You know, busting deep in the main event usually brings
me negative emotions. I just busted the main event and
I am on cloud nine. And it's I mean, there's
several things, you know, the money's nice, the deep runs nice.
Speaker 4: The TV you guys are amazing.
Speaker 7: But I truly think it's from the heart and the
soul of all these friends that flew in from Canada,
stop their life, put their whole life on hold, and
just stood here for hours, just bringing so much energy
that how can you be sad busting in anything? And
and And the thing is I played with that freedom
all day today. You know, I was a bit nervous yesterday.
First card I looked at was a jack. They had
just gotten here, and I'm like, please, don't give me
another jack. I don't want to run into it, you know,
because I wanted them to have a good time. They
they like, it's not easy just leaving family, coming here,
and you know, but today we had such a good day.
Speaker 6: Yesterday I was a short stack today.
Speaker 7: There were no expectations. I went in free as can
be and no restrictions, and it was probably the best
day yet if you could believe it.
Speaker 3: You guys played one hundred and eight hand yesterday and
as you mentioned, like it felt tense, it felt tight.
It was a very different atmosphere from the vase prior
that we saw. And then today, all of a sudden,
I feel like a switch was flipped. You guys were
a bit more loose.
Speaker 2: And then the hand that.
Speaker 3: Sort of kicked it all off was your first double up.
You gave a round to high fives. You were high
fiving Jumlan's rail. It seemed as though the party had started.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly. I think heading into the final table after
we had had a two and a half week break,
nobody really wanted to bust in ninth. You know. People
were like, well, I don't want to go there and
come in ninth and make no extra money and be
the first one out on TV. I want to get
lots of love on exc right.
Speaker 4: And so once we.
Speaker 7: Made it today to today, it was kind of like,
you know what, we're free rolling everything, Like we're free
rolling a few pay jumps. We're free rolling TV. We're
free rolling the fans that came out here, Like I
just think it was more of a okay, we want
to win, But I don't know That's what I felt.
And I feel like people were definitely, like you said,
a lot looser.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of massive decisions that you had
to make.
Speaker 3: You know, you were all in twice you spiked it
with the King jack, your ninees held up, and then
you made a monster fold. You seemed super dialed in.
Walk us through how you look back at the way
you played.
Speaker 7: Very happy with the way I played, you know, like
I said, Bucky was on my ass all the time
about take your time, don't rush your decisions. Just think
about the everything you're You have amazing instincts. If you
bust and you go with the read like kind of here.
You know, I thought I thought maybe my four was good.
I lose zero sleep over that. What would have sucked
as if I panicked and jammed twenty big blinds with
a bad hand just because out of panic, you know,
and and so very happy with my and like I said,
he was on me all the time about you know,
taking your time and using your instincts and there's no rush,
and so yeah, it was very happy with that.
Speaker 3: A couple more small things when you listen back to
this interview in twenty five years, just to you know,
put a number on it. What do you want the
Greg Mueller of the future to remember about what this
experience was?
Speaker 4: Like? Just how much love and outpour.
Speaker 7: I have in my life because you know, in the end,
and I'm a very competitive guy, and I wanted to
bracelets so bad, but in the end, everybody leaves and
you don't take anything with you. What you have is
your legacy and your love and respect that you have
from your.
Speaker 6: Friends and family.
Speaker 7: And I mean this is it's beyond comprehension, the euphoria
that I feel.
Speaker 4: Final one, what's the party going to be?
Speaker 3: Like? How are you going to get this entire crew
into one place? Are you going to rent something out?
What's going to happen where.
Speaker 4: We go on again? Again?
Speaker 7: Like everything, I never really plan much, you know. I
want to try and get a few things taken care of,
loose ends, and then whatever these guys want to do.
I have a few connections. I'll try and figure out
either take a whole restaurant out or or or you know,
take one of these night clubs and splash around a
few bottles and you know, pay my respect back.
Speaker 3: To these guys, and then that's it. Then we're done.
Heads up, heads up. Yeah, and all of a sudden,
we know, we know what the matchup is. We know
that we're going to be watching an exciting heads up battle.
These are not folders, these are not limpers. I believe
the School of Pads probably has some sort of prescription
on how Jumalan should approach this. You probably know better.
You know Pads quite well. But ultimately I think Susclothi,
as as I mentioned in our earlier conversation, Sus not
the is the only player in my mind who has
a chance against Jumalan, and now he gets to prove
it because it's one hundred and nine bigs versus seventy
five bigs, and that means that we could be here
for a while.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, well we talked to both players. You grabbed Jumalan,
I grab Sascoltti. We'll play Sascolotti first here. But you
could tell that he kind of has this no care attitude,
but you can also sense that it's dangerous. He's kind
of like a gangster out there like it's calm, but
you know, at any moment he could just kill you,
like you know, figuratively speaking. It's just it's absolutely wild
how this guy has the utmost confidence does not back down.
I know he did show that crazy amount of emotion
earlier in that big hand that we talked about against
Han Feng, but other than that, he has been an
absolute stone faced killer out there and that could ultimately
get the better of Jumalan. I mean, we'll see he's
not going to back down. I don't think there's gonna
be much pre flop folding in this mat which I
think they're gonna see plenty of flops, even if they
are raised or three bet or even four bet pots.
Sascallotti will probably be somebody who's looking to ramp up
the aggression a bit more. Just that's the nature of
his play, that's how he's wanted to play things so far.
Jumalan will probably be a little bit more conserved, pot
ConTroll ish, but he can also bring out the hammer
in his own right. It's going to be very interesting
to see what happens, and it doesn't have to happen
early on or if it happens a little later on
the match or whatever. But if Jumalan does ultimately fall behind,
he has not been out of the first spot the
entire final table. So what does that feel like? You know,
when you do look over at your opponent and you realize, oh,
now he's the one with three hundred million and I
got two fifty, you know, how does that possibly change things?
So but here is Laurie Sascolotti after play. He was
he was a bit kind of tired on the way out,
understandably so so only got a couple questions in. But
I think you guys can definitely get age the confidence
that he has going into heads up play. All right,
just tell me about how you think the day went.
Do you think it went as you expected or a
bit of a surprises along the way.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I was expecting that it would be
a quick day, so I was expecting pretty fast eliminations.
I didn't have the best start myself, but I was
still confident obviously.
Speaker 4: I mean this was.
Speaker 8: Pretty much the perfect day for me, so kind of
complain really about anything. And I got super lucky against
Han thing other than that, it was pretty I'll say
I didn't have any big decisions to make. So yeah,
I mean, obviously I'm super excited. I'm happy to see.
Speaker 4: How it went for me.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that moment against han Fan, because you
haven't been overly emotional at least on the outside so far,
but that moment everything changed, of course. Yeah.
Speaker 8: No, I mean seeing the flop of pretty much growing dead.
Then I saw the jack on the turn. I was
here with my rail. Sometimes you get a feeling my
rail that the Queen is coming when it's hit. Yeah,
everything kind of Yeah.
Speaker 4: Now, how do you go into tomorrow?
Speaker 1: Lucas does have the chip Ley, but you have plenty
of ammunition on your side, and you haven't been someone
you mentioned confidence, You haven't been someone who's backed down
at all out this event. So are you Are you
just ready to go and just throw blows with him?
Speaker 8: Yes, I'm fully ready. I mean I played with Lucas
I think on day five or or We had a
lot of battles already back then, so I think most
of us are prepared to have a nice battle on
the headshop. So I'm fully ready. Let's see what happens.
But I have yeah, I mean, I have full confidence
in myself.
Speaker 1: So that was Laurie soaske loott He's gonna have two
hundred and twenty five million in chips to start heads
up play. That represents seventy five big blinds. Yes, Lucas
Jumalan has more, but effectively they will be playing seventy
big blind deep poker, which is crazy deep for heads
up in a poker tournament. So you know, this thing,
to me could go eight minutes, it could go eight
hours or anything in between. And I think it's going
to be super fun.
Speaker 3: I think that the panic button will get smashed if
within the first twenty five minutes we see both players
limp the button every single time. We just have to
hope for some raises and some three bets. But ultimately,
you know this, this has all the ingredients to go
down as an epic battle. Let's hope for one. Let's
hope for it to be entertaining. And you know, if
you judge things by Jumalan's words, the excitement he carries,
how he recognizes how big this spot is, and how
he references to the act that and this is I
believe in the interview with Jeff how he and Subsqual
subsqually already played played some heads up pots on day
five and said to each other, you know, we're gonna
get heads up in this thing. That's crazy. Now they
are heads up, and they both actually called it out
in the interview with Jeff when they wrapped up for
the night. It's just ridiculous. And uh, yeah, all I'll
say is that this is on audio, so you obviously
can't see him, but the the amount of poise and
the amount of I guess maturity that you see when
you speak to Jumalan is something very rare. And I
almost want to say he's got that that that champion
sort of attitude around him.
Speaker 2: Lucas, you're on the rail of your friends.
Speaker 3: We just saw you crowd serving sum up this whole
experience up until this point.
Speaker 9: First of all, that was a little scary, but I
might not be doing that one again. But you know,
it's just I don't even really have words for it.
It's just so awesome, and uh to get the chance
to be an ambassador for the game and all the
all the all the young hits out there would uh
would be my honor. You know, like hopefully hopefully somebody
out there looks at this and goes, I can I can.
I can do that and puts the work in and
really goes after it.
Speaker 3: Today was such a riveting day of play for us
watching from the sidelines, compared to yesterday, where things were
moving pretty slow. What was it like for you to
be in it with the constant action, A lot more
all ins, a lot more pressure, a lot more aggression.
Speaker 9: You know, I saw them ragging on us on Twitter,
so you know I had to I had to pick
it up a little bit. But you know, it was
it was It was fun. I like I like playing
I like playing a lot of hands.
Speaker 2: So this just fits me. So, you know, great day.
Speaker 3: So one thing I noticed when Laurie went Runner Runner
to Stay Alive Versusasis, something seems to change in his
personality and in the way that he was playing, almost.
Speaker 4: As if he was on a free roll.
Speaker 3: His aggression picked up, he seemed more relaxed, and all
of a sudden, this new.
Speaker 4: Type of player emerged. Because you had not very much
competition up until that point.
Speaker 3: What's I like to go up against the one player
that might not be too scared to play against you?
Speaker 9: Oh, I mean, none of none of these guys would
have been scared to play heads up. It's it's poker,
and they're all fantastic poker players.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't.
Speaker 9: I don't take anybody lightly, and certainly not him. Me
and him have been literally battling since day five.
Speaker 1: Souh.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's just really cool to be heads
up with him.
Speaker 9: Couldn't couldn't be a better guy too.
Speaker 1: Just a kid with a dream man Lucas Jumalan, I
wouldn't be I know you mentioned possibly hitting the panic
button with some pre flop limping. I don't think I
would be so worried if we start seeing that, because
I think these guys are two guys who we could
see some pre flop limping, but then pots could easily
all of a sudden be like we're on the turn
and there's sixty million in there, and like what the
heck just happened? It was like bett Ray's re raised call.
Here we go, oh, like, yeah, this is it's gonna
be fun. And I hope, I really hope. And maybe
this is just a poker fan in me hoping that
we're not building up the anticipation too much and that
it's just a dud of a heads up match. But
I just can't imagine that it is. I almost feel
like obviously both players I think, really want to win, right. Yes,
I think Jumalan just wants to play really good poker
and he believes that that will ultimately win him the tournament.
I almost feel like Sascolotti wants to win with flair,
Like he wants to do it with style in one way,
shape or form, So whether that's along the way, running
some insane bluff, making a big call like whatever it is,
Like I mean, even when he's saying things like fifty,
let's gamble, like he he wants that, you know, Like
it comes down to like how he combs his hair,
the glasses he's wearing, what he's dressed in, like you
can tell that's his. And I think he wants to
not just win it, but win it in a way
that is remembered for a specific thing, being like yeah,
I'm the guy who did that, right, So that could
then lead itself to some craziness, some fireworks during this
heads up match. And if you're coaching Lucas Jumelan, I
think you just got to be like listen, man, be
ready for anything with this guy. He does not care
about you he's not going to back down from your tipstack.
You know you would, you would because he's not a
professional player, you know, more of a semi pro player.
Even if that, you know, to him, six million dollars
is probably enough of a win right now. So it's
it's almost like it's expected that Jumalan should win, and
with that comes a little bit more pressure at times.
So we'll see how it all plays out. But I'm
ready for this one. I think it's going to be
a crazy fun match.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny how we haven't even really talked about
payouts much, but you know, Mueller got three points seven
to five million exactly on two points seventy five million,
and then they're now guaranteed six million playing heads up
for four million, ten million up top for the winner.
We'll we'll we'll find out tomorrow who will get to
hang their banner inside the Paris poker room or inside
the horseshoe wherever they put those things these days. But
it's it's iconic, you know, they're they're playing for the banner,
they're playing for the for the for the honor and
the the you know, lifelong fame that comes with becoming
the main event champion, and I think I saw a
tweet from from Matt Salzburg who said if Susculatuti wins,
he'll probably buy a boat and we'll never see him again,
which I think very true. I think it's probably very true.
Speaker 1: So whereas Lucas Jumlan, I think I think maybe in
the interview with Jeff Platt afterwards, he said like I'm
ready to be Poker's ambassador. Yeah, he said that, like
he's that he.
Speaker 3: Wants that, And I think I think as as a
community we should sort of in a way root for
the guy who wants it.
Speaker 1: Sure, I mean we obviously don't. We don't necessarily know
if if Sasclotti wants her not, just because he hasn't
been vocal about it. You know, I could certainly see Sascelotti.
I think there's been some kind of jokes throwing around
with like is this guy gonna quit his.
Speaker 4: Job or not?
Speaker 1: I'm guessing yes.
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, I mean he's gonna get some
invites to come play at the studio with his finished friends.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that would be great to.
Speaker 1: See probas see him the hundred k PLO next year, Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 4: With as much money.
Speaker 1: He said he loves PLO.
Speaker 4: Let's go. That'd be amazing.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm just excited for tomorrow, and I'm also
excited that I get to go to bed before midnight
to night.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 1: It's eight thirty pm. So we're gonna wrap this one up.
You guys are listening to this likely on Wednesday, it
will be the final, final, final day for the twenty
twenty six WISP, for the twenty twenty six Doubicipy main event.
We are going to crown a world champion. Somebody is
going to walk away ten million dollars richer, and it's
either gonna be Lucas Jumalan or Lori Sasclotti. For Remkrink,
my name is Donnie Peters and we'll talk to you
guys next time.
Speaker 3: Jennie fo