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Speaker 1: Two braces in a week. What is going on here?

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And that being said, the high right now is higher

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than it was then.

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Speaker 2: Hey, this is Remco. Thanks for clicking on the video.

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This is my brand new podcast called Face the Ace,

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in which I talked to the most interesting people in

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poker and go a little deeper into the topics you

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most care about. Enjoy all right, this is Remco. This

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is faced as I'm joined by Greg Mueller, arguably one

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of the biggest aces of poker right now, making the

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final table of the WSP main event. I feel as though, Greg,

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you and I go so far back that to me,

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it's almost like an old friend making the final table.

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It's so glad. This is so good to see you

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make the final table. And the first thing I want

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to just start off with, what was the experience like

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in the days after making the final table? What sort

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of came at you? What was the experience like? And

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were you able to perhaps unwind at all at any point?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Great question. It's been a world And then the

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best thing I ever did was to get my ass

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on a flight and come home. As much as there's

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still been a lot of you know, media and incoming

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support and love and all that I've been able to

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sleep in my own bed. I have such a healthy

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team of supporters, Like, like I said the first thing,

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I said, my trainer, she's been cooking me the healthy meals,

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training me at least once a day, sometimes twice a day,

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having support of friends that are training with me kind

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of to encourage me, and and just being in my

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bed and eating healthy and sleeping and just kind of

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regrouping before the final table has been it's been amazing.

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And yeah, because you don't realize how sleep deprived you

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are for eight days and how poorly you're eating, and

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how a lack of vitamin D and a lack of exercise,

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and you know, it's not not just so much on

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the looks at all. Actually, it's just how you feel inside.

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Like I haven't had one toms since I've been home,

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and I was crushing them before, you know, and so

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so yeah, it's it's been amazing, But I also know

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there's I have a lot of work to do.

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Speaker 2: So it's so crazy to see the contrast between sort

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of the the Greg Mueller before the main event, I

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read your story with Lance Bradley. You and I spoke

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multiple times during the main event, so so the Greg

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Muller before the main, during the main and now sort

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of in this in between phase. And I'm sure there

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will be another version of yourself uncovered once this whole

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main event story completes in a little over a week.

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But allow me to go back to before the WSOP,

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because right now you're living in this state of preparation,

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you're living in the state of focus, You're paying this

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to your diet, you're exercising a lot. I'll just ask

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you straight up, why weren't you doing those things before

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the WSLP.

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Speaker 1: Well, I actually am very active in exercise a lot.

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I tend to be an all or nothing guy at times,

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and even though I'm training hard, I'm eating good, I'm

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doing the right things, and I feel a gazillion times better.

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The bottom line is I still have a deeper target

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to hit as far as how I like my physical

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fitness to be. I have very high standards, and sometimes

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when I realize, oh, it's already April, I'm never going

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to get to my ultimate goal by May twenty fifth,

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when I have to leave, Eh, I'll deal with it

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when I get home kind of and versus thinking, well,

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a month of going hard and dropping seven LB's and

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feeling better will be better than not, right, I tend

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to say, well, if I can't get to my ex

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weight anyways, no matter what. When I'm at home, I'm

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very active. I'm always on the ice, I'm walking the

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golf course, I'm training a few times a week. It's

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my diet. Let's say I never diet, but I'm saying

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it's what my food intake makes all the difference, you know,

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if I'm crushing bags of chips while I'm watching sports

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or if I'm not. And you know that's I'm always

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very very active at home, not so much in Vegas.

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And so when you ask me, I guess the question

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is why not? Before I was very active, but I

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knew that the tunnel was too far to get to

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an ultimate goal. That I was like, Okay, I'll worry

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about that when I get home for the summer. And

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in the beginning of the World Series, first two weeks,

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I was at the gym every day. The next two weeks,

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I went for one and a half to two hour

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walks every morning. It just started. As the time moved on,

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and you know, you kind of have that I'll start Monday,

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I'll start at the end of the month. I'll start

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when I get home kind of attitude. And well, this

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time it was a little more urgency with being home

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for two and a half weeks before the final table.

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Speaker 2: So with that athlete blood that's running through your veins

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and your history playing hockey at a high level, is

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there also some some sort of switch that gets flipped

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once that moment's moment arrives because I knew that's the

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first thing you said, like you got I'm gonna go home,

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I'm going to lose some weight, I'm gonna get locked in.

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Is that sort of a sort of a sort of

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mode that you possess, that you can sort of reach

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back to from the past.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. It's like muscle memory a little bit,

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I would say, And I'm very fortunate that I did

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play professional hockey and have that ability to kind of say, okay,

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that's it. Three weeks still training camp. I have to go,

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I have to go balls to the wall, whereas a

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lot of people they don't really know how to do that,

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and so for me, it's just easy. I just kept

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the junk food cabinet, which is quite the legendary cabinet

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clear of chips and chocolates and sours, and just made

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it a point to get eight hours a night and exercise,

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eat clean, and just you know, it's not just the appearance,

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it's how I feel. And right now I feel relaxed,

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I feel energized, and you just feel so much better.

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And yes, I guess the answer to your question is,

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I'm very fortunate that I have that ability to kind

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of on a die make that adjustment.

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Speaker 2: The narrative of your main event run is sort of

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interesting because there was a few things that could have

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gone differently and you wouldn't even have played the main event.

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You and Sean my Cannon, your close friend you know

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we're talking about or you. I guess you were saying,

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I don't even want to be here, and you didn't

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have the drive and the motivation. Take us through how

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that moment was, how you experience that, and then how

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things started the change as you went deeper into the main.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's not that I was not going to

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play the main because I play it every year. It's

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just that it's something I've been battling with for a while.

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You know, when you get to the I don't want

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to say, the top of the food chain. But when

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you've had some successes, you kind of I did, I

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could speak for myself. Lost the drive to compete and

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and and be involved in the in the poker as

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much like I just lost the zest. I don't know

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if it's I'm getting older and realizing that times of

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the essence and I don't want to sit at the

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poker table my whole life anymore, or what it is.

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But I just kind of found myself going through the motions.

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And you know, like I said, it was probably about

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a week before the main Bucky and I had gotten

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into it, and and you know, it got a little

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bit testing, not in a way like him and I

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always have love for each other, but in a way

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where he was giving me some tough love and I

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was actually telling him, I'm okay, i'll tell you what.

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I'll side bet me versus this guy against you. And

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he goes, oh, I can find you endless action for that.

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I said, no, I don't want endless action. I want

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you to crossbook me versus him. You think I can't

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play anymore, whatever I win, you pay me out of

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your pocket, and whatever he wins, I'll pay you out

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of my pocket. And he said, I don't not have

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faith and you'll side bet me and you versus anybody,

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but it just seems like you're in the moment drawn dead.

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And I said, okay, so then me versus this particular

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guy relevant who it is. I just randomly pulled up

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a good no limit player and said me versus him,

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but me against you and and he said that's nonsense.

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And I said, well, no, we'll go up to two

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hundred thousand max pains so we don't, you know, really

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hurt each other. And and and after the test, astrone

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or the ego kind of calmed down a bit, you know.

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I went went and played night golf at Shadow Creek

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and had a few cocktails, and then the next night

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had some more cocktails. And it was, you know, two

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three days before the main. Then I slept all day,

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did a lot of thinking and said, okay, you know what,

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he's right, I am going completely through the motions. It's

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tough to see for a guy that loves and cares

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for you. And okay, I told him I'm going to

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give it my own I told him before it started,

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and I mean more to myself, but also verbalized it. Okay,

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I'm going to give it my own in this main event,

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and if I lose or bluff it off or whatever,

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that's just part of poker. But I'm not going to

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do it because I don't want to be here or

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because I'd rather do something else. And he said, right on,

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that's the fight that I want to see. And my

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other good buddy said to me after day one, I had,

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you know, one hundred thousand. After day one, you start

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with sixty. And he said, tomorrow is going to be

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the toughest day for you. If you get by tomorrow,

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I think you're going to make a deep run. My buddy, Triple,

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I said, And I was like, why do you say that?

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And he says, because day two is still so early.

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It's still a big grind day. It's grinding hasn't been

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in your nature for a while. But if you can

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get to through that day without it being serious yet,

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you're going to make it run. And so I grinded

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through that day and had one hundred and seventy five,

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which again slightly above averager, you know, right around there.

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And then and then he said to me again the

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same bat, Triple I said, if you can get through

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day four because it's still in the money, but sort

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of early I think you're going to make it run.

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And I and once we got to day five, people said, oh,

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this is the day, you know, and I said, no,

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we're going We're going deeper. And I remember seeing you

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on day four, I think right before the money bubble.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I was on the bubble, on the bubble.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it was on the bubble, and yeah, I knew

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I was. I don't know, it was really weird. I

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knew I would win the coin flip. I knew my

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eighty twenty would hold up with the jacks against the nines.

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And I just, I don't know, It's one of those things, right,

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I just I felt kind of so weird.

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Speaker 2: It was cool to see because the energy I saw

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from you on the bubble when we spoke, that energy

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was sort of the classic FBT energy. You know, you're

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always high spirits, you're always full of positivity. So when

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you said that to me in the moment, I was like, oh,

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I'm kind of surprised to hear that. You know, you

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had to go through a few things to find sort

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of the zest again and the fire to go make

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that run and obviously you know you did, and now

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we're here, which is awesome, But I want to sort

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of hear, like, what is it truly like for someone

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who's been in this game for so long. You've had

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so much success, You've won multiple bracelets, you've got millions

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of dollars on the old hend and mob, what is

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it really like to finally experience a Day seven and

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a Day eight in the main Because every single year

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that you come to Vegas, you see a group of characters,

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some you might know, most you might not have that experience,

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and you hear them say how amazing it is. You

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hear them talk about how crazy it is to make

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your main event final table, but then you were in

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it this year. Described that to me, Well.

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Speaker 1: It's it's something that's like every poker player buys in

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wanting to win the meme, but it's almost so unrealistic

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that whenever you bust, it hurts. Whenever you bust the

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main event, it's like the toughest day of the year

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for a poker player, let's say, right, because you find

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yourself just like, ah, I'm out, you know, but you

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you almost expect when is it going to happen? Because

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nobody makes the final table, right, Like it's it's just

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it's so even if you're good or you're bad or

238
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,720
you're lucky, at some point they get you. And so

239
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:47,159
it's almost it's it's it's almost unrealistic, right and until

240
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,360
it is realistic, and all of a sudden, oh my god.

241
00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:53,960
Like I have average stack with you know, five hundred left,

242
00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,720
slight years away, but all of a sudden, there's one

243
00:12:58,799 --> 00:13:01,039
hundred left, and then there's sick left, and then there's

244
00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:05,679
twenty one left. And you know, I will say Day eight,

245
00:13:05,759 --> 00:13:07,519
heading into DA eight, I was having my doubts a

246
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,679
little bit. I was nineteenth out of twenty one in chips,

247
00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:16,879
and I remember Bucky going, dude, oh, what a spot

248
00:13:16,919 --> 00:13:18,879
you're in. I'm going, what a spot? What do you mean?

249
00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,000
He goes, you're you're twenty one people left in the main?

250
00:13:22,039 --> 00:13:24,200
I go, yeah, a look at my stack. He goes, dude,

251
00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:26,159
you got a heaps of chips? What do you mean?

252
00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:29,000
And I'm like, do you really believe that? He goes,

253
00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:32,679
Oh my god, you know, And that was that was

254
00:13:32,759 --> 00:13:35,559
kind of the first day where I thought I was

255
00:13:35,639 --> 00:13:40,519
short with my you know, twenty blinds or whatever. I

256
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:42,440
did was that I had and and you know, his

257
00:13:42,639 --> 00:13:45,279
constant pounding it into my head that this is not

258
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,200
level five of a tournament with twenty blinds, This is

259
00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,159
not a small buy in, this is the main twenty

260
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:55,960
blinds is heaps of chips, and he just kept drilling

261
00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:57,799
it into my head until all of a sudden, Oh

262
00:13:57,799 --> 00:13:59,639
my god, we're down to like twelve here, what is

263
00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:01,960
going on? And you know, and all of a sudden, wow,

264
00:14:02,159 --> 00:14:05,960
you know, there it is, and it's yeah, it's uh.

265
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,240
I can't say to start the tournament, that was my goal.

266
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:13,159
My goal was just to play well. And because it's

267
00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:18,600
who makes the final table, you know, so yeah, it

268
00:14:18,759 --> 00:14:22,720
was no expectation other than for myself to give it

269
00:14:22,799 --> 00:14:23,879
my all kind of thing.

270
00:14:26,559 --> 00:14:30,480
Speaker 2: And then you've played quite a few just insane equity

271
00:14:30,519 --> 00:14:33,120
spots in that final lead up to get to the

272
00:14:33,159 --> 00:14:36,320
final nine. You know that you got to win the flips,

273
00:14:36,639 --> 00:14:39,080
you got to you got to have your aces hold

274
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,600
up versus kings, and then all of a sudden, you

275
00:14:41,639 --> 00:14:43,960
know you're there. And and for the people watching, you know,

276
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:45,440
not to go through the whole final table, but you

277
00:14:45,519 --> 00:14:48,159
got thirty two bigs coming into the final table. Uh,

278
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,039
Lucas Jumalan has a monster ship lead, which also means

279
00:14:52,039 --> 00:14:55,360
that you know, in a way, the fight for who

280
00:14:55,399 --> 00:14:58,120
gets the play heads up against him is wide open,

281
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,720
just to you know, throw out a scenario and you

282
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:03,679
know you're right in the fight, which is which is

283
00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:05,799
of course great to see, much better than coming into

284
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,000
the final table with like eleven bigs. So how do

285
00:15:09,039 --> 00:15:11,000
you look at the situation at hand, how do you

286
00:15:11,039 --> 00:15:13,279
look at the challenge of this final table.

287
00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:17,039
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, it's to go back on Day eight.

288
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:19,759
I mean I was in very fortunate. I was in

289
00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,120
some very good spots and day you know, on the

290
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:26,200
right side of a couple of coolers and won that

291
00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:30,200
key flip. I do have to say heading into day eight,

292
00:15:31,039 --> 00:15:33,240
I was only all in for my tournament life before

293
00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,039
day eight. One time I had two kings and my

294
00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:38,840
opponent had Ace Queen. I got lucky on some hands

295
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:40,960
along the way, but I was never all in. So

296
00:15:41,159 --> 00:15:43,399
heading into day the only time I was ever all

297
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,840
in was I had two kings against Ace Queen and Health.

298
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:47,679
And then on day eight, like you said, I found

299
00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:50,519
myself into all these kinds of spots because the game

300
00:15:50,639 --> 00:15:54,480
changes a little bit, you know, along the way, you're

301
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:57,039
one hundred big blind's deep, two hundred big blinds deep.

302
00:15:57,399 --> 00:16:00,720
You know, every hand isn't as crucial. You can play

303
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,440
post flop, you can check raise on the turns. There's

304
00:16:04,799 --> 00:16:08,159
there's a lot more river bluffing. There's a lot more

305
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,799
that you can kind of do. Whereas now it's such

306
00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:14,240
a range has become so tight and and the stacks

307
00:16:14,399 --> 00:16:18,279
have become so much smaller that there's a lot more

308
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:24,200
pre flop action which dictates things right and so so yeah,

309
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,799
and then on day eight, I mean, I blessed to be,

310
00:16:29,039 --> 00:16:32,000
like I said, on the right side of two coolers

311
00:16:32,039 --> 00:16:36,080
if you may, and to win a race, and you

312
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:38,600
know those are that has to happen in this event.

313
00:16:40,799 --> 00:16:44,159
I've always said, you have to play really good, you

314
00:16:44,279 --> 00:16:48,519
have to be lucky, and you can't be unlucky, which

315
00:16:48,519 --> 00:16:50,519
is even the most of it, you know what I mean.

316
00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:52,720
Like it's it's one thing to put it in with

317
00:16:52,759 --> 00:16:55,720
aces versus Kingsby. You can't afford for him to hit

318
00:16:55,759 --> 00:16:58,559
the king right. And so now coming into the main

319
00:16:58,759 --> 00:17:02,960
the final table again, yeah, the early perception and odds

320
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:07,599
are Jumelin versus who and he's a great player, a

321
00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,400
really nice kid. I really like him. His rail's fun.

322
00:17:11,519 --> 00:17:13,039
I always saw it. How would be epic if it

323
00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:16,880
was my hockey rail versus his rail, loud and fun

324
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:20,200
and in good spirits, the young versus the old. You know,

325
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:25,079
it would be an amazing heads up du like if

326
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:27,640
I could, you know, draw it up, that would be

327
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:32,119
that would be what I would envision, you know. But

328
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:39,799
the thing that I've learned is that nobody's out, nobody's

329
00:17:39,799 --> 00:17:48,759
a guarantee, and chips move and it might be two

330
00:17:48,759 --> 00:17:50,960
people that are predicted and it might not be And

331
00:17:52,039 --> 00:17:55,359
I can't really have a I can have a game

332
00:17:55,400 --> 00:18:01,920
plan for now my stack nine handed, but when things change,

333
00:18:02,039 --> 00:18:08,680
when chips move, when people bust, when position changes, so

334
00:18:08,839 --> 00:18:14,799
does the strategy. And so you know, I've heard people saying,

335
00:18:14,839 --> 00:18:16,400
I think Kneeler's going to do this or he's going

336
00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,480
to do that. You can really it's cliche, but you

337
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,440
can really only go hand by hand like you really can.

338
00:18:24,599 --> 00:18:27,319
Speaker 2: So what we have heard in the past, and with

339
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,759
November nine this was a bit more relevant because there

340
00:18:30,799 --> 00:18:32,799
was so much time to prepare, so you could really,

341
00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:36,480
you know, put hundreds of hours into studying the specific scenarios.

342
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,640
But there's always something to be said for you know,

343
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,079
playing a few simulation final tables. You know, you play

344
00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:44,440
your stacks. You got aid buddies that might play the

345
00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,799
other stacks. Have you done anything like that to prepare?

346
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:49,680
And then you know, I know you're good friends with

347
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,079
with Sean Buchanan, and this guy also knows what's up

348
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,839
when it comes to tournament play. What has the poker

349
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:55,480
prep been.

350
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:59,279
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, no, I'll tell you we haven't done that.

351
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:03,079
I haven't. A couple buddies suggest that, hey, if you

352
00:19:03,079 --> 00:19:07,920
need eight gummies so to say, that are or stand

353
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,039
ins you know, to I'll be gags and I'll be

354
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,559
Jumalan and like that, and and and I don't think

355
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,000
that's a realistic scenario at all. So I didn't do that.

356
00:19:20,519 --> 00:19:22,559
I don't really want to deep dive too much into

357
00:19:22,599 --> 00:19:27,079
the prep that I'm doing for the tournament, but I

358
00:19:27,079 --> 00:19:29,319
think it's most the most prep I can say that

359
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,519
I'm doing. You know, obviously I'm I'm I'm doing something,

360
00:19:32,519 --> 00:19:34,319
But for the most part, I think it's just to

361
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,799
keep the body and the mind and the mental and

362
00:19:37,799 --> 00:19:42,319
physical aspect sharp. I think that's the most important thing

363
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:43,119
for me.

364
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,559
Speaker 2: The game has changed so much throughout your career in poker,

365
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,359
and when you were first coming onto the scene, there

366
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,359
was still a lot to the fact that if you

367
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,640
were just talking to the right people, you could gain

368
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:01,839
a lot from that and get ahead the field. Well, nowadays,

369
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:03,920
you know, the kids, as we like to call them,

370
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,279
they are just studying with solvers. They're they're basically figuring

371
00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:11,240
out and and almost like turning some of these things

372
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:13,759
into like a math test, you know, memorizing how to

373
00:20:13,799 --> 00:20:16,880
do certain things, how to play certain ways. I know

374
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,920
that you're also someone who is a really good at

375
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,759
reading body language, understanding you know, the sort of the

376
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:25,640
what the air in the room smells like. But how

377
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,039
do you marry it to how do you find a

378
00:20:28,079 --> 00:20:30,200
common middle ground? And this is not even specifically a

379
00:20:30,279 --> 00:20:33,039
question about the final table prep, but just you as

380
00:20:33,079 --> 00:20:35,640
a player in the current dair landscape.

381
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the game it's it's like you said,

382
00:20:39,079 --> 00:20:43,279
it's not necessarily in this spot, but I often find

383
00:20:43,279 --> 00:20:49,960
myself at a table with eight robots and and it's Jesus,

384
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,599
game has changed a lot, you know. And and I

385
00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,319
know this because I know people through people that they

386
00:20:56,359 --> 00:21:01,119
study eight hours a day. I don't this last two

387
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:04,200
weeks a bit different. But ten and a half months

388
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,200
and I'm not in Vegas. I don't look or study

389
00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,200
at a single poker hand. You know, I am or

390
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,640
was as far gto removed as it gets, and just

391
00:21:14,759 --> 00:21:19,519
always got by with my instincts and my ability to

392
00:21:21,039 --> 00:21:23,559
you know, with deception in a hand and tell the

393
00:21:23,559 --> 00:21:27,680
story of my hand, and you know, versus the solvers

394
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,200
that that you know, I'll go into the tank. I'm

395
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,400
in the cuta off, Jesus, is this a good spot

396
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,759
to go? All in? Does he fold a lot? Whereas

397
00:21:36,079 --> 00:21:40,000
they just okay, I have twelve bigs, it says Queen

398
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,880
Ate suited and above as a jam. They it's it's really,

399
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:50,319
it's really just easy flow. Whereas for me, I do

400
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:52,640
more of the human element. And now, obviously I'd be

401
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,559
foolish to say if I didn't learn a little bit

402
00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:01,319
along the way and realize that all these sayings of

403
00:22:01,759 --> 00:22:08,440
ICM and solvers and stuff. You know, I've realized along

404
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,359
the way how important they are and what they mean.

405
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:16,400
You have to because yeah, the game has it's it's

406
00:22:16,519 --> 00:22:20,279
quite insane, how like you said, from ten to fifteen

407
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:24,039
years ago, how it's changed and That's the beautiful thing

408
00:22:24,039 --> 00:22:26,799
about the main event is that not everyone's a solver

409
00:22:27,079 --> 00:22:31,680
or a robot. Yet you know, everybody's better. Like the

410
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,720
real weak players from years ago are now let's say

411
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,119
they were D or eer F players, they're now C

412
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:44,920
plus c B plus players. The days of just somebody doesn't,

413
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,319
you know, jamming all in with middle pair top kicker

414
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,680
unless he's trying to bluff, It just doesn't happen anymore.

415
00:22:53,759 --> 00:23:00,920
You know, everybody's everybody's read and studied to a degree.

416
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:07,079
But how drastically the game has changed is I mean,

417
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,920
it's insane, it really is.

418
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:16,079
Speaker 2: The longevity of your career to me, tells me one

419
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,839
very specific thing is that you have a really strong

420
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,480
talent for the game and a strong talent for reading

421
00:23:22,519 --> 00:23:26,039
people because especially when you got into the game, the

422
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,559
tools weren't available and you were having success as well.

423
00:23:30,599 --> 00:23:32,920
Allow yourself to go back in time to when you

424
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:37,000
first played WSOP or when you first, maybe back in Canada,

425
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,559
started playing in games where you figured out that hey,

426
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,000
I am the best player or I am one of

427
00:23:43,039 --> 00:23:45,599
the guys who can make money at this. When was

428
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,319
that and what was that realization like that you were

429
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,279
trying to figure you were figuring things out other people weren't.

430
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was a human solver without realizing what I've

431
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:02,319
solved kind of, you know. And and when Nolan was

432
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:07,240
first made its comeback from limit, it was amazing, you know,

433
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,400
the amount of pressure I could put on. I'd tell

434
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,960
a buddy that was sitting behind me, I'm not even

435
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,720
going to look at this hand. You can look, but

436
00:24:14,839 --> 00:24:18,960
I already know how with my sizing and how much

437
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,119
pressure to put on where they're just going to fold.

438
00:24:21,519 --> 00:24:23,279
I don't need to look at my hand for an hour.

439
00:24:23,799 --> 00:24:28,400
And I can just win pots in cash games by

440
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,319
putting pressure on, you know. And obviously have to polish

441
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:33,319
the way you do it. You can't just you know.

442
00:24:34,799 --> 00:24:41,039
But yeah, I always I thought that through my experience,

443
00:24:41,599 --> 00:24:48,000
my ability to read people, my ability to make people

444
00:24:48,039 --> 00:24:52,279
think I'm on tilt when I'm not, make them think

445
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,839
I'm playing tight when I'm not. You know, the kind

446
00:24:55,839 --> 00:24:57,880
of what does he think of my game? I'm going

447
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,160
to counteract whatever it is. So if he thinks I'm

448
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:01,839
really tight, while I'm gonna rob him. And if he

449
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:03,720
thinks I'm really loose, I'm gonna wait for the hand

450
00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:05,559
and over bet it and get him to make a

451
00:25:05,599 --> 00:25:08,960
frustration call, you know. I mean there were so many

452
00:25:09,039 --> 00:25:11,160
times when you know, I play the two five games

453
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,480
and I'd be in every hand so it looked like

454
00:25:13,759 --> 00:25:16,559
but when I put the money in, you know, he'd

455
00:25:16,599 --> 00:25:19,000
be like, I'm calling nobody else but you I'm calling.

456
00:25:19,039 --> 00:25:22,440
And he'd put in like twenty five hundred big lines

457
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:27,000
with Jack's pre flop and I had the ass, and

458
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,240
he'd be like, man, this one time, you have it

459
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,079
because I gave the image of a maniac even though

460
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:36,319
I wasn't right. And these were the things that you

461
00:25:36,319 --> 00:25:39,519
you could hone your skills in the live games, and

462
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:46,200
people couldn't get that experience without putting in the hours. Now,

463
00:25:46,279 --> 00:25:50,839
unfortunately or over the past you know years, somebody can

464
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:54,519
never have played one minute of live poker. But he's,

465
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,680
you know, paying for coaching from all these coaching wizards

466
00:25:59,759 --> 00:26:02,759
and takes the tools and sits at home and plays

467
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:08,079
twenty seven tables at once, and all of a sudden

468
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:12,599
he makes his first cash or a tournament entry. And

469
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:17,160
this guy's more polished than me because of all the

470
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,440
help that he's had along the way, right, And that's

471
00:26:20,519 --> 00:26:24,640
kind of where it's like anything right now that's going

472
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:29,079
on with the modern technology and the AI. It's racing.

473
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:33,440
It's racing, right, and if you don't kind of keep up,

474
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,960
you're going to be lost along the way. Right.

475
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 2: So, when your hockey career was sort of ending, and

476
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:44,680
then when I look at your hand and when you

477
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:49,319
started cashing tournaments, there's quite a gap between those years.

478
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:51,759
Was there a moment in time of like figuring out

479
00:26:51,799 --> 00:26:53,400
what do I want to do next? Were you already

480
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,039
playing cards back in the hockey days, thinking of, like

481
00:26:56,079 --> 00:26:58,759
this could be something I can do in the future.

482
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:01,440
How did you How did you go through life in

483
00:27:01,519 --> 00:27:02,440
that sort of in between.

484
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:06,880
Speaker 1: Well, I quit hockey prematurely. My mom passed of cancer

485
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,319
in nineteen ninety nine, and I kind of lost the

486
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:11,720
passion and the drive to train every day and go away,

487
00:27:11,799 --> 00:27:16,640
and so I kind of just suddenly retired. I could

488
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,680
have played easily, like I was nowhere near the end

489
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,680
of my career from a skill or physical standpoint, I

490
00:27:21,799 --> 00:27:24,400
just you know, lost the was like okay, and I

491
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:26,400
loved poker, and yes, we played on the back of

492
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,599
the buses and you had long bus trips or even

493
00:27:28,599 --> 00:27:30,920
if we're flying, we play on the like we loved

494
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,400
to play. You know, wasn't always Texas hold them, might

495
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,400
have been in Chicago or what you name it, right,

496
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,799
it's the high speed in the hole. We just we

497
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:40,839
love to play. And then so in the summertimes, I'd

498
00:27:40,839 --> 00:27:44,680
always drive down with my buddy and play one to

499
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:48,440
five stud and and and then literally when I retired,

500
00:27:48,599 --> 00:27:50,799
I was like, well, what am I going to do here?

501
00:27:50,799 --> 00:27:54,160
And I started on ground zero, I mean literally playing

502
00:27:54,279 --> 00:27:58,319
five to five limit hold them, five, ten limit, hold them, ten,

503
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,720
twenty limit, hold them. Gavin Smith used to see me

504
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,359
in Vegas. I'd play twenty forty, real comfortable, and he'd

505
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:05,960
be like, hey, hockey pot, when do you step up

506
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:07,960
to the to the big leagues here and play little

507
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,319
thirty sixty forty eighty. I'm MG, no, no, no, I'm good,

508
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,799
and I can't always have the discipline and the money management.

509
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:15,000
He'd be like, what are you scared to play with us?

510
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,880
And sure enough he'd get me up there and I'd

511
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:21,359
get whacked, and you know, back to the twenty forty

512
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:25,240
and then okay, could beat to thirty sixty. Now take

513
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:26,920
a shot in the one hundred two hundred limit and

514
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,680
get whacked, and you know, go home, regroup and you know,

515
00:28:31,079 --> 00:28:33,920
run up and then switch over to no limit go

516
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,359
into the tournaments. And so yeah, by the time I

517
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,200
got into tournament poker, I mean it was I had

518
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:43,000
been playing a long time cash games, but it took

519
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,240
a minute from from my first hand in mob let's say,

520
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,599
between you know, the days of hockey and the end

521
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,519
in model. And also I loved it. It didn't matter what

522
00:28:52,599 --> 00:28:54,119
I was playing, you know, whe there was no limit

523
00:28:54,839 --> 00:28:58,880
limit tournaments, I just sometimes would check in at the

524
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,039
Commerce hotel on a Friday and I wouldn't have my

525
00:29:02,079 --> 00:29:05,279
bags unpacked until a Monday, because you know, I'd need

526
00:29:05,279 --> 00:29:07,200
a new underwear every day and a new shirt every day.

527
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,119
And I didn't care what was in my suitcase or

528
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,640
hung up. I just couldn't wait to play. And it's

529
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,960
quite the opposite now where you know, I guess I

530
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:16,319
got to go sign up for this. I get a

531
00:29:16,319 --> 00:29:20,839
phone call, Hey, you want to go golf. Yeah.

532
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:22,839
Speaker 2: It is cool to see that you've made sort of

533
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:27,680
that grind work from the ground up, and especially doing

534
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,039
it in live games playing much lower volume, having to

535
00:29:31,079 --> 00:29:33,920
basically be there, you know, be present the whole time.

536
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,920
Playing one table is definitely something that not many people

537
00:29:38,039 --> 00:29:40,599
can say that they've made it work, starting from there

538
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:43,799
and then making it making it even to play tournaments

539
00:29:43,799 --> 00:29:46,480
on the regular, which of course those buyings are massive.

540
00:29:46,519 --> 00:29:50,000
When you add up the tally of one summer, it's

541
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,079
so much money that's at stake. But then you start

542
00:29:53,119 --> 00:29:56,039
having some success in tournaments, and then specifically you have

543
00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:58,920
a run at the WSOP in O seven where you

544
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,519
finished second and the five a mixed limit no limit,

545
00:30:01,559 --> 00:30:03,920
and I find it really funny because you are like

546
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,240
the mixed limit no limit guy, you know, like limit

547
00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:09,240
hold them is ultimately what became those bracelets in the

548
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:11,160
in the in the years after, and then your first

549
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,880
heads up is limit no limit Mix. How much do

550
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,599
you remember from that run and how perhaps uh disappointed

551
00:30:19,759 --> 00:30:22,319
or proud were you of that run?

552
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: Yeah? I was, I remember, mister smokey, I believe won

553
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,319
that one. Steve bill a Rack is very tough player.

554
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:33,000
And I remember because on breaks I was running to

555
00:30:33,039 --> 00:30:35,319
the Mandalay Bay because Sean Buchanan was heads up in

556
00:30:35,359 --> 00:30:39,200
the WPT when we had a dinner break and I

557
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:40,920
was going back and forth and he ended up we

558
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,799
were rooming together and he ended up winning the ten

559
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:47,279
k mandle a ba WPT and I came second. And

560
00:30:47,359 --> 00:30:51,400
I remember, like you'd think two roomies just came first

561
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,799
and second. I mean it was going to be a party.

562
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,279
You'd think that, you know, certain establishments, the money would

563
00:30:57,279 --> 00:31:00,880
be flying around at and I I remember talking to

564
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,519
my dad and I was in quite a melancholy mood,

565
00:31:03,559 --> 00:31:05,920
if you can believe it. He didn't understand it. I

566
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,519
think I won three hundred and fifty thousand for second place,

567
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,680
and you know he can't. My dad worked so hard,

568
00:31:12,759 --> 00:31:16,079
my parents, you know, in the restaurant and they to

569
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,960
hit a score like that and to not be ecstatic,

570
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,359
like he didn't really understand. And what the truth was.

571
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,079
I came in second. I wanted that bracelet so bad.

572
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,160
And instead of Bucky and I going all was celebrating.

573
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,480
We went home at dinner and like we crashed kind of,

574
00:31:30,519 --> 00:31:33,279
you know, there was no I mean, he was excited

575
00:31:33,319 --> 00:31:35,160
to play another tournament the next day at the series,

576
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,400
and that's kind of what we did. But it second

577
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:42,279
place wasn't Yes, three days a week, whatever days go

578
00:31:42,359 --> 00:31:44,759
by and you realize, hey, that's quite the financial score

579
00:31:44,759 --> 00:31:47,880
that I just made. But in the moment being a competitor.

580
00:31:49,039 --> 00:31:52,440
I wasn't excited about a second place finish. I was

581
00:31:53,319 --> 00:31:57,519
quite upset to not went in. And I was up

582
00:31:57,559 --> 00:31:59,319
against the killer at the time too. I think it

583
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:00,920
was he was the young to ever win a race

584
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,240
at at the time, but he was a very tough player.

585
00:32:03,279 --> 00:32:08,440
And you know, obviously I realized how like like that

586
00:32:08,519 --> 00:32:11,279
it was a great accomplishment afterwards, but in that moment,

587
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,559
the bitterness of not winning was too much.

588
00:32:15,599 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 2: I mean, you're also competitor at heart, so it would

589
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,839
almost be weird for you to be satisfied by being

590
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,400
the first loser, which is kind of what that second

591
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:25,519
place could mean, right.

592
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I tell everybody, I say, the crazy thing is,

593
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,279
no matter how deep your run is in this main,

594
00:32:31,279 --> 00:32:33,119
there's only one guy that's going to be happy. Like,

595
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:35,720
give it two weeks, and you know, second place will

596
00:32:35,759 --> 00:32:37,599
be like I just made six million, Third place will

597
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:39,880
be I just made four million. Ye, you'll be happy,

598
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:41,880
You'll be okay, You're gonna have no sympathy and no

599
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,359
pity parties. But in the moment, there's only gonna be

600
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,839
one one happy guy in the moment out of ninety

601
00:32:48,839 --> 00:32:52,000
two and eight. And I stand by that even now

602
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,880
that we're down to nine and it's been an amazing

603
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,200
accomplishment and to get there and the fun I've had

604
00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:59,359
along the way, the support, I mean, that's the part

605
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:02,039
that is the biggest win of all, just to realize,

606
00:33:02,079 --> 00:33:04,880
oh my goodness, geez, I'm really lucky. I have so

607
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:09,079
much friends and family genuinely wholehearted rooting for me, whether

608
00:33:09,119 --> 00:33:11,000
they're in the poker world, not in the poker world,

609
00:33:11,119 --> 00:33:13,960
you know, hockey world, high school buddies, like it's been

610
00:33:14,519 --> 00:33:17,519
like that in itself is the biggest win of all,

611
00:33:17,759 --> 00:33:19,440
you know, if you really step and think about it,

612
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,680
you know, and which has been so humbling and so

613
00:33:24,279 --> 00:33:31,480
like emotionally gratifying and stuff, but not being said. Once

614
00:33:31,519 --> 00:33:37,599
I'm in combat anything except winning, it is going to

615
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,960
be at some point a letdown, you know, and just

616
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,799
the way it goes when you're in a competition, unfortunately.

617
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,799
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's also the reason why you've

618
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,559
had a long career is because you strive to win,

619
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,240
which in poker is one of the key components because

620
00:33:54,319 --> 00:33:56,839
once you don't care about winning anymore, as you mentioned earlier,

621
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,400
once once that sort of zest leaves the room, then

622
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:03,240
it's hard to gear up for, you know, as you mentioned,

623
00:34:03,279 --> 00:34:05,759
you know, laid regging with ten bigs and just tossing

624
00:34:05,799 --> 00:34:08,639
it in there because you didn't care anymore.

625
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:11,119
Speaker 1: And I don't. And I think it's and I think

626
00:34:11,119 --> 00:34:14,519
that's true for all professions, or all hobbies or all

627
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:19,519
anything that you do. If you don't enjoy it, your

628
00:34:19,679 --> 00:34:23,000
your your work is going to be subpar and of story.

629
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you get one more second place before

630
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,199
you win your first place. At in eight you finished

631
00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:32,639
second in a shootout, and then in nine, which by

632
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:35,480
the way, was my first World Series. I was twenty

633
00:34:35,519 --> 00:34:39,000
one in nine, and I'll never forget this because I

634
00:34:39,039 --> 00:34:40,760
was there when you won. I was there when you

635
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:42,039
won your first, and I was there when you won

636
00:34:42,119 --> 00:34:45,679
your second. I think, if I recall correctly, at the time,

637
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:47,599
there was a lot of buzz like, oh, Greg Mueller,

638
00:34:47,639 --> 00:34:49,360
he's one of those guys, one of the top players

639
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:51,280
who doesn't have a bracelet. And you had two second

640
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,599
places and that was sort of going around and you

641
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,119
like you had to close it out, and then you

642
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:59,800
win the first one, and then you almost immediately win

643
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,840
the second one right after beating the Dutch player Mark

644
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,360
Nolden heads up, who was also known as a limit player.

645
00:35:06,159 --> 00:35:08,199
Dead must must have been the rush of a lifetime

646
00:35:08,199 --> 00:35:08,679
that week.

647
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:11,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean the ten K that I won.

648
00:35:11,679 --> 00:35:14,000
I mean, when I look back on it, the amount

649
00:35:14,079 --> 00:35:17,559
of killers that were at that table. You know, Mark

650
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,239
Haas tv F was his online name. I don't even

651
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:21,880
remember his.

652
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,159
Speaker 2: Name, Carolina Carolina, and.

653
00:35:25,159 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 1: Matt Glantz I believe was at the final table, Pat Pesan,

654
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:37,360
Chad Brown, Chad Brown the Love Chad Brown, and uh

655
00:35:37,639 --> 00:35:39,719
maybe Mark Kleekan might have been at that one or

656
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:40,559
was he a different one?

657
00:35:40,599 --> 00:35:42,440
Speaker 2: And it was it was It was a mad glance

658
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,159
glance Brumblehouse, the Dutch.

659
00:35:46,039 --> 00:35:48,519
Speaker 1: Guy, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, And and I mean it

660
00:35:48,639 --> 00:35:50,800
was a it was it was. It was a who's

661
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,760
who of the limit killers, right, so yeah, it was

662
00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:55,559
very special, and like you said, to win the to

663
00:35:55,599 --> 00:36:00,119
win the next one right after confidence, it's a funny thing.

664
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:05,519
You know, you're feeling the high and you're just zigging

665
00:36:05,519 --> 00:36:07,320
when you're supposed to be and you're zagging when you're

666
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:11,840
supposed to be and like, you know, two races in

667
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:14,800
a week, it was just like what is going on here?

668
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:18,440
You know? And that being said, the high right now

669
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,679
is higher than it was then. I mean, it was

670
00:36:22,679 --> 00:36:25,039
so long ago, it's hard to it's hard to say

671
00:36:25,079 --> 00:36:28,920
for sure, but I still think that the accomplishment or

672
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,679
the rush or the you know, to make the final

673
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:35,679
nine of this is I just I think it's tougher.

674
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,039
I mean, it's pretty close, but it's it's certainly more recent.

675
00:36:39,079 --> 00:36:39,920
So I'm going to go with.

676
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,119
Speaker 2: That that that's really that's really awesome to hear that

677
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,840
you have this experience now that's already trumping what happens

678
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,840
fifteen years ago, and in a way it is only

679
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,880
just begun because making the final table the main to me,

680
00:36:56,039 --> 00:36:59,400
almost feels like you've won, you've won the satellite and

681
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,880
now you get invited back to play the tournament.

682
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, true, that's very true. No, And I tell

683
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:12,679
people like like final table ESPN people flying out, it's great,

684
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,239
million bucks. I mean it's great, it's amazing, it's it's

685
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:22,760
more than amazing. But ten million and being the champ

686
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,599
quite a difference. You know, it's financially, it's not like

687
00:37:27,639 --> 00:37:31,039
it's one versus one point five or it's nine versus ten.

688
00:37:31,519 --> 00:37:35,639
One in ten million, that's in the real world and

689
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:46,360
absolute incredible, insane difference. So as as well as I

690
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,079
have done in this event this year, I do still

691
00:37:50,119 --> 00:37:53,440
have so much work to do, which is sounds insane,

692
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,760
but it's you know, it's true.

693
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the finances of the life as a poker

694
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:03,599
pro always fascinated me because we see the cases, and

695
00:38:03,639 --> 00:38:05,920
we see the winnings and we see the winner photos,

696
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,320
but we don't see the lows. We don't see the

697
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,039
long walk to the parking lot. We don't see this like,

698
00:38:11,079 --> 00:38:13,239
you know, the slumped shoulders in the in the elevator

699
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,400
after a losing cash session. What has that been like

700
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,400
for you over the years, What have the ups and

701
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,719
downs been like? And how does how much does this

702
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:25,840
contrast against you know, your career or perhaps recent years.

703
00:38:27,119 --> 00:38:34,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's very very good question. I mean, the

704
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:38,360
glamorous successes of reaching a final table or winning a

705
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,599
bracelet or I mean, there is no high or high

706
00:38:41,679 --> 00:38:46,079
in the in the pocal world, but the lows of

707
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:51,440
running bad, thinking you're running bad, and playing bad, actually

708
00:38:51,519 --> 00:38:55,440
running bad, actually playing bad, regardless of how you're playing.

709
00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:00,880
Just constantly find yourself talking to yourself. You find yourself.

710
00:39:01,199 --> 00:39:04,199
You know, you've quit Kings against Queens with one card

711
00:39:04,199 --> 00:39:06,440
to come, and you just know the Queen's coming. It's

712
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,280
just like and there it is, and it's just another jolt,

713
00:39:09,519 --> 00:39:12,679
and you just you know the equity you just got

714
00:39:13,199 --> 00:39:17,480
robbed of. As you're walking yourself and talking to yourself

715
00:39:17,519 --> 00:39:20,199
and it's like anybody that will listen, you just have

716
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,239
the need to tell them. Nobody cares. They all got

717
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,440
their own things going on, and and yeah, it's h

718
00:39:27,559 --> 00:39:31,119
you know, I've heard a lot of good players. I

719
00:39:31,119 --> 00:39:35,000
mean I heard Scott Seaver had no cashes through forty

720
00:39:35,039 --> 00:39:37,119
events or one cash or something. I mean, look at

721
00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:40,159
the guys. The hell of a player. You know, he's

722
00:39:40,559 --> 00:39:43,280
one of the game's greatest. And it just shows you

723
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:47,599
how brutal variance can be. And when you're on the

724
00:39:47,639 --> 00:39:50,079
wrong side. That's why the thing is, you can never

725
00:39:50,119 --> 00:39:56,599
be too arrogant or cocky when you're riding the wave

726
00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:59,840
because you can snap so fast. And being on the

727
00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:04,639
other side just sucks so much in this industry and

728
00:40:05,559 --> 00:40:13,599
the financial disasters, the the confidence being gone, the pain

729
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,119
that you're in as you continue to lose, whether you're

730
00:40:17,119 --> 00:40:21,920
on a ten percent favorite, a ninety percent favorite, a

731
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,960
coin flip. When you're on the wrong side, of variants

732
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,639
and there there's just no stopping. It's just not like

733
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:29,960
you know, you see a Roulett wheel. I have buddies

734
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,599
that aren't gamblers and they they see a relet, they

735
00:40:32,639 --> 00:40:34,159
go to Vegas. They tell me, oh, I saw like

736
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:38,639
fourteen reds in a row, so I met black. The

737
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:41,760
rolette doesn't have a brain, and it's not supposed to

738
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:46,480
become black because it went fourteen reds and it's it

739
00:40:46,519 --> 00:40:49,159
could be fifty reds. It's just, you know, variance is

740
00:40:49,159 --> 00:40:51,760
a is a funny thing. And when you're on the

741
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,239
you never want to kick someone that's struggling, and you

742
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,679
never want to act too good when you're rolling, because

743
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:02,639
being on the right side of aarons there's no better feeling,

744
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:05,719
and being on the wrong side of it is the worst.

745
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,639
When you're talking about being involved in poker, you know.

746
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,519
Speaker 2: So when you when you were telling me these stories,

747
00:41:12,639 --> 00:41:15,360
there must be things flashing through your mind of moments

748
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:19,039
where things weren't going your way, or perhaps years or

749
00:41:19,079 --> 00:41:22,039
stretches or summers where you know you were sort of

750
00:41:22,039 --> 00:41:24,440
banging your head against the wall. Are there specific moments

751
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,480
that come to mind where you maybe weren't sure that

752
00:41:27,639 --> 00:41:30,360
you know you could keep doing this or even wanting

753
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:30,760
to do this.

754
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:36,719
Speaker 1: Oh. I was first time I had got an airbnb

755
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:41,400
with another poker buddy and it was three summers ago.

756
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:44,519
It didn't matter what I played. It didn't matter what

757
00:41:44,599 --> 00:41:48,760
I played. I couldn't win. And I truly thought, I

758
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,960
like to look myself in the mirror first instead of

759
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,679
just blaming the bad luck. And I was. I was like,

760
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:55,880
I think the game's passed me by, Like I just

761
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,400
I can't. I mean, you know, i'd ask other players

762
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:01,760
played it greats just he just ran bad. I'm like,

763
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,400
but can I can I always play great and run

764
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,880
bad and or play it right and run bad. It

765
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:11,079
just didn't matter. I lost that summer. I lost, you know,

766
00:42:11,639 --> 00:42:14,880
at every variation of poker that you could be like,

767
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:18,360
we're doing flips. I'm losing. Let's play OFC Chinese poker.

768
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,159
I'm losing tournaments. Screw it, I'm going to play a tournament.

769
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:24,119
I'd lose. Play a cash game, I'd lose. And it

770
00:42:24,159 --> 00:42:27,119
didn't matter whether it was a bad beat or it wasn't.

771
00:42:27,119 --> 00:42:31,360
It just I found myself taking days off sitting at

772
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,840
the pool like it was. It's very challenging on the

773
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,920
brain to where I was like, what, like that was

774
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:42,119
the time I actually really was wanting to leave early

775
00:42:42,199 --> 00:42:44,599
because it was like, there's just no point. And a

776
00:42:44,639 --> 00:42:47,199
part of me was, you know, did the game just

777
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:49,440
pass me? You know, I try to be realistic and

778
00:42:50,159 --> 00:42:52,960
I know that I ran really poorly, but a part

779
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,559
of me was like that the game passing by, and

780
00:42:55,599 --> 00:42:59,159
you know, and and a poker buddy, Adam Freedman, you know,

781
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:02,960
he told me like, I don't mean to be disrespectful,

782
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,280
but you've ran bad. And you know he witnessed it.

783
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:10,559
You've ran really bad all summer. That's two months of

784
00:43:10,679 --> 00:43:14,039
condensed poker condensed, right, So two months at the series

785
00:43:14,119 --> 00:43:17,760
is more like almost like a year because you're playing

786
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:22,119
so many hours and so intense. Right, he goes, your

787
00:43:22,119 --> 00:43:27,440
streak is not that long, and it could go for

788
00:43:27,519 --> 00:43:31,039
two more summers, you know, And that's the brutal reality

789
00:43:31,639 --> 00:43:37,199
is that it can. But on the flip side, you

790
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:40,079
win two bracelets in a week, well, you're obviously running

791
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:42,920
quite well to do that. You're not just you don't

792
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,119
go from genius to you know, more on like it's

793
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,639
and that's the thing that if you can play within

794
00:43:50,679 --> 00:43:53,199
your means, if you can play within a bank roll.

795
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,320
If you can grasp the highs and lows and not

796
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,559
be married to poker where that's the only thing that's

797
00:43:58,559 --> 00:44:03,719
going to give you validation in life, then you'll get

798
00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:09,800
through it, you know, whether it's nieces and nephews, friends, families, hobbies,

799
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:14,000
other successes, other things. The more you got going out,

800
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,079
the more you have going on outside the table, off

801
00:44:17,119 --> 00:44:22,119
the felt, the more you can handle the downswings. I believe.

802
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:28,079
Speaker 2: It's a testament to I guess, persistence and discipline and

803
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:31,199
perhaps being you know, hardheaded enough to keep on pushing

804
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:33,840
forward for you to now be in this spot. So

805
00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:38,760
year round when you're none of the wsop, do you

806
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,320
still go out there and play? Do you make trips

807
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:43,440
to go play cash like? How do you? How do

808
00:44:43,519 --> 00:44:45,719
you perhaps you know, stay on the stay is stay

809
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:48,960
like keep the rust off, or perhaps you know, just

810
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:51,360
just a flexial poker muscle a little bit.

811
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,039
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I mean, you know, every second December I'll

812
00:44:55,079 --> 00:44:56,599
head out to the wind for a week. It's the

813
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,000
vibe in Vegas is always really good before Christmas. It's

814
00:44:59,079 --> 00:45:01,440
kind of like everyone one gets away from the family

815
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,480
to be a DJN for one more week before gambling

816
00:45:04,519 --> 00:45:06,400
gets shut off for four days and it's you know,

817
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,199
strictly family and presents and dinners and you know everyone.

818
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:12,920
The vibe has always been amazing. They used to have that.

819
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:14,960
I don't know if it was the Festa logo or

820
00:45:15,039 --> 00:45:16,679
if it was the There was a tournament at the

821
00:45:16,679 --> 00:45:18,360
Bolagio right before Christmas.

822
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:21,360
Speaker 2: I finally diamond part of me, five diamond.

823
00:45:21,119 --> 00:45:23,800
Speaker 1: Five dimies. Yeah, that's the one. And everyone was always

824
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,440
in a you know, Jack ran that ran some good tournament.

825
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:28,960
Sarah McClellan, rest in Peace, Jack and he had the

826
00:45:29,679 --> 00:45:33,159
twelve o'clock start till like eight forty five, no dinner breaks,

827
00:45:33,199 --> 00:45:35,880
just you know, five levels and you're not done too

828
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:38,039
late and go for dinner, and you're not starting too early.

829
00:45:38,079 --> 00:45:41,280
You go for some drinks. And the vibe in December

830
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:45,320
was always amazing. And so sometimes now I found myself

831
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,840
going to the Win every second year and playing little cash,

832
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:51,760
going to I went to YouTube the one year at

833
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,000
the Severere and go to a football game, a couple

834
00:45:54,039 --> 00:45:56,480
of hockey games, play a bit of poker, you know.

835
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,840
But other than trips like that, and again we're talking

836
00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:03,280
years years before I would go to the commerce, and

837
00:46:03,599 --> 00:46:06,119
you know, be in the commerce all of January and

838
00:46:06,199 --> 00:46:09,039
February and then in Vegas March and eight or like,

839
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:15,239
things are way different. You know. I'm literally not touching

840
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:17,239
a hand. I play like some I like to play

841
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:20,559
a little bit of OFC online, a Chinese poker while

842
00:46:20,559 --> 00:46:23,840
I'm having my breakfast or whatever. But other than that,

843
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:26,119
I find myself not playing a hand for ten and

844
00:46:26,159 --> 00:46:29,440
a half months. And I'm golfing, I'm playing hockey, I'm

845
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,519
working out, I'm in my hot tub, I'm seeing I'm

846
00:46:32,559 --> 00:46:34,880
going for walks, seeing my family, seeing my friends, and

847
00:46:35,159 --> 00:46:37,760
going to sporting events. I love doing that, you know,

848
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:40,920
And that's that's what I do. So when you said,

849
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,039
you know, how do I stay? I feel like if

850
00:46:44,039 --> 00:46:47,320
I have a good headspace, excuse me, that's enough to

851
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,000
for me to show up and not be behind the

852
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:52,800
eight ball, like or not rusty.

853
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:57,039
Speaker 2: It sounds like you're literally living living every man's dream.

854
00:46:57,599 --> 00:46:59,679
You go to Vegas, Vegas once a year to gamble

855
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,079
and play some cards, You go to sporting events, play

856
00:47:02,119 --> 00:47:05,039
some golf. This really sounds like you you have life

857
00:47:05,079 --> 00:47:06,840
figured out. I mean this, too many people is like

858
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:09,400
the recipe for for how how how to live to

859
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:10,079
be an old man.

860
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:19,320
Speaker 1: Yeah that's uh yeah, I mean I don't disagree. And

861
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:21,039
and I was even getting sick of the month and

862
00:47:21,079 --> 00:47:22,960
a half that I was in Vegas because of the

863
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:26,800
you know, the grind, the taxing on the body, the

864
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,079
lack of sleep. You know, It's funny. People will will

865
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:33,280
know how I'm doing in the cash games, not based

866
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:35,440
on my chips, not based on my demeanor, because my

867
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,519
demeanor is usually pretty good, but based on what I'm eating.

868
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,159
And and if they see me there the walk up

869
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,639
FP oh oh, I'll let you be FBT. I'm like, no, no,

870
00:47:43,639 --> 00:47:45,880
it's all good. I know you're struggling today. You got

871
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,639
a giant bowl of ice cream whipped cream cookies going on,

872
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:51,000
so they know, you know, I'm in one and that's

873
00:47:51,079 --> 00:47:54,199
my my coping mechanism. Or they'll see me they'll be

874
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:56,679
like crushing it today. I'll be like, what do you mean?

875
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,079
I don't even have many chips on the table. They're like, yeah,

876
00:47:59,079 --> 00:48:01,880
you're eating grilled chicken and breast with you know, broccoli

877
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,960
and and and they're not wrong. You know, when you're

878
00:48:05,079 --> 00:48:07,239
when you're winning and everything's good, the chips are nicely

879
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:09,320
in order and yes, I'll get the steam broccoli and

880
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,000
the chicken breast. And you know, four am, I can't

881
00:48:12,039 --> 00:48:14,559
win a single hand. Bring the ice cream, bring extra

882
00:48:14,559 --> 00:48:17,840
whipped cream, and you know, and anyway, so it's it's

883
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:22,760
taxing on the body mentally, physically and even you know,

884
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:25,800
even and that's the thing, like like you said, me

885
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,119
not having an alarm clock at home, me me getting

886
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:34,159
I'm very fortunate, I know, the like the I'm dialed

887
00:48:34,159 --> 00:48:36,800
into the golf course that I play at and I

888
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:38,920
get the prime tea times which are like eleven or

889
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,000
noon tea off, so I can wake up, have breakfast,

890
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,960
have a hot tub, stretch, head to the golf course.

891
00:48:46,239 --> 00:48:47,960
You know, we gamble it up a bit out there,

892
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:51,440
walk at the exercise, go up top for the nineteenth

893
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:53,480
tole have a glass of wine or two, come back

894
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:58,079
and you know, the next day it's hockey on the agenda.

895
00:48:58,119 --> 00:49:00,800
And you know, so so having that, like you said

896
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:03,639
that Cushy figured out lifestyle. Now to go and sit

897
00:49:03,679 --> 00:49:05,280
in the trenches for a month and a half of

898
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:09,320
no sleep and getting buried and losing you know, bet

899
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:11,960
in sports and doing all the rest of it, it's

900
00:49:12,039 --> 00:49:16,000
mentally taxing it's physically taxing. And so that's why I

901
00:49:16,119 --> 00:49:19,360
was starting to have the you know, the doubts of why,

902
00:49:19,639 --> 00:49:22,159
you know, especially if I'm losing. You know, it's one thing,

903
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:25,960
it's one thing, and people people think that poker happiness

904
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:27,960
is all based on winning and losing, and it is

905
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,760
for a lot of people. And of course, if I'm

906
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:32,920
winning every single day, it's going to be a lot

907
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:36,039
easier than if you're losing every day. I mean obviously,

908
00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:39,880
but it's not even so much that it's just it's

909
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:44,719
just not really into the grind of you know. Now

910
00:49:45,119 --> 00:49:47,719
now it's my current state of mind, it's probably a

911
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:52,199
little bit different, you know, you know right now. Yeah poker,

912
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:55,199
Oh yeah, poker like it's the best. You know. But

913
00:49:55,239 --> 00:50:02,719
that's that's the the uh oxymoron or the the ying

914
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:06,000
and the yang about it is that, you know, it

915
00:50:06,039 --> 00:50:08,400
can be the high of all highs and the low

916
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:11,159
of all lows. And that's what makes these tournaments so

917
00:50:11,199 --> 00:50:15,960
amazing as you can have any gender, any race, any

918
00:50:16,079 --> 00:50:21,800
age come in and believe they can win, and they can.

919
00:50:22,159 --> 00:50:24,440
You know, that's the you know, a running race. If

920
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,360
I'm going to go do a sprint with somebody that's faster.

921
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,400
We can go one hundred times. Unless he rolls his ankle,

922
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,320
he's gonna beat me a hundred times. But if we

923
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,719
play little heads up poker games, anybody can win, right,

924
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:37,960
So that's the that's the beauty of poker.

925
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 2: I'm really worried though, that whatever place you land on

926
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:46,440
at the final table, we will never see you again.

927
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:49,239
You are going to be like, I've done it now,

928
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:51,639
I've made the final table of the Main. However, many

929
00:50:51,639 --> 00:50:55,000
millions you go home with is enough to buy infinite

930
00:50:55,079 --> 00:50:57,159
rounds of golf and lots of ice cream, and we'll

931
00:50:57,239 --> 00:50:58,199
never see Greg again.

932
00:50:59,519 --> 00:51:02,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I mean, it's not It's not the most

933
00:51:03,559 --> 00:51:07,320
unrealistic thought for sure, But I think, you know, especially

934
00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:11,199
if I won the Main, I would I would come in,

935
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:16,639
especially for some bigger events. You know, I might. I might.

936
00:51:16,679 --> 00:51:18,679
I might take a shot in the real big cash game,

937
00:51:19,639 --> 00:51:22,679
you know three three K, six K for fun, or

938
00:51:23,079 --> 00:51:24,840
you know, I'd come in and play the PPC. I

939
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:27,239
always enjoy playing that one. I did not play it

940
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:31,119
this year, just wasn't feeling it, but that I would

941
00:51:31,119 --> 00:51:32,880
always come in and play that one, and you know

942
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:35,960
I'd come back and play the main and probably the

943
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:38,239
ten k Nolan a single draw like I love that one.

944
00:51:38,559 --> 00:51:40,199
Didn't play it again this year, so I didn't play

945
00:51:40,199 --> 00:51:42,719
this one or the PBC this year. And you know

946
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:45,480
last year, I think I came in seventh or eight.

947
00:51:45,639 --> 00:51:48,119
Nick Shulman busted me and it ultimately ended up winning.

948
00:51:48,559 --> 00:51:52,559
That's a Those are fun events for me because when

949
00:51:52,559 --> 00:51:55,000
you're sitting at the table, you know everybody, you're doing

950
00:51:55,039 --> 00:51:58,360
almost prop bets on the side, you're chatting. It's not

951
00:51:58,519 --> 00:52:02,440
this stiff energy of course WIETNSS tanking for forty seconds,

952
00:52:03,639 --> 00:52:06,960
picking your hand out and dropping the chips. In these tournaments,

953
00:52:07,679 --> 00:52:09,800
everybody knows each other, so you're it's just like a

954
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:14,199
bunch of guys sitting together bullshitting. And so those events

955
00:52:14,199 --> 00:52:17,679
are fun for me, you know, versus walking into a

956
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:22,159
room with ten thousand people. Everybody's got their earbuds in,

957
00:52:24,199 --> 00:52:29,840
nobody's talking, everybody's tanking, polarizing their calls and folds, and

958
00:52:30,639 --> 00:52:34,480
you know, so I think win or lose, I think,

959
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:38,519
you know, those types of events, especially if I win more,

960
00:52:39,119 --> 00:52:42,039
you know, to fly in and enter the fifty k,

961
00:52:42,159 --> 00:52:44,159
you know the way Blesnik does, just comes in and

962
00:52:44,639 --> 00:52:47,199
has a jolly good old time. Whether he wins or loses.

963
00:52:48,079 --> 00:52:51,719
That would I can see myself doing that, But I

964
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:53,920
certainly wouldn't if I won the main event, I would

965
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:57,559
not be there for two months grinding the cash games

966
00:52:57,599 --> 00:52:59,920
and the fifteen hundreds. No, that would not happen.

967
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:02,519
Speaker 2: I got a few more small ones before I let

968
00:53:02,559 --> 00:53:04,880
you go. It's already been super fun and insightful to

969
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:09,440
hear hear your perspective on all these things. What kind

970
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:12,840
of experience do you want to take away from the

971
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:16,079
final table itself? What are you looking for as far

972
00:53:16,159 --> 00:53:20,239
as you know, soaking it all in or perhaps purely

973
00:53:21,199 --> 00:53:24,960
focused and driven on performance or one thing I've heard

974
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,119
you talk about is you know you've got tons of friends,

975
00:53:27,159 --> 00:53:31,000
hockey buddies, whoever else coming to town, and you know,

976
00:53:31,079 --> 00:53:33,760
experiencing this with friends and family. How do you how

977
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:34,400
do you look at that?

978
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:41,320
Speaker 1: Crazy enough? I see like, I know it's me playing,

979
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:44,880
but I almost see it like a team atmosphere, and

980
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:46,800
I don't want to let the team down kind of,

981
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:50,400
you know, like in hockey, like I've mentioned many times,

982
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:51,920
if a guy gives you a cheap shot, you want

983
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:53,960
to just punch him in the face or take a

984
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:55,639
stick to me, you can't do that because you take

985
00:53:55,639 --> 00:53:58,519
a penalty, right, and then you're you're hurting your team. Well,

986
00:53:59,719 --> 00:54:01,679
I get that this is not a team game and

987
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:06,239
it's an individual game, and I know this, but it's

988
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:08,800
kind of been like a ride with you know, the

989
00:54:08,880 --> 00:54:12,199
local poker league. Is there's a group chat that I'm

990
00:54:12,199 --> 00:54:13,840
in even though I'm not part of their league, and

991
00:54:14,079 --> 00:54:16,440
they're all behind me, and then there's the hockey buddies

992
00:54:16,519 --> 00:54:19,119
behind me, and then there's poker. But and I just

993
00:54:19,199 --> 00:54:23,079
kind of feel like, you know, like I I want

994
00:54:23,079 --> 00:54:25,280
to I want I want the team to win kind of,

995
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:30,039
you know, And so I don't I don't know if

996
00:54:30,039 --> 00:54:32,960
I have the expectations. I don't know if I know

997
00:54:33,079 --> 00:54:35,760
what I'm going to expect. I mean, I'm sure I'll

998
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:39,360
have all the nerves of excitement, of competitive juices flowing,

999
00:54:39,519 --> 00:54:48,079
probably some nerves, you know. It's it's it's an unbelievable opportunity.

1000
00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:53,559
The experience will be amazing. I hope I run really

1001
00:54:53,599 --> 00:54:57,800
good and and and play well and give myself a

1002
00:54:57,920 --> 00:54:58,559
chance to win.

1003
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:01,239
Speaker 2: And I mean, I that's all I can do, really,

1004
00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:05,360
I mean, I couldn't think of a better response to

1005
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:07,599
to close this one out with Greg. Thank you so

1006
00:55:07,679 --> 00:55:10,199
much for your time. It's been great hearing from you.

1007
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:13,360
I'll see, I'll see in a couple of days, I'm

1008
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,320
gonna bring out a scale to make sure you lost

1009
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:16,199
those twenty LB's.

1010
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:19,320
Speaker 1: It won't be twenty, but it'll be over ten and

1011
00:55:20,159 --> 00:55:22,679
feeling a lot better and I can leave the tombs

1012
00:55:22,679 --> 00:55:23,039
at home.

1013
00:55:23,519 --> 00:55:25,320
Speaker 2: Good see there we go. Yeah, we've got the We'll

1014
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:27,719
got the steam, broccoli and chicken waiting waiting for you

1015
00:55:28,119 --> 00:55:31,480
to stay locked in for a couple of days. Once again, Greg,

1016
00:55:31,519 --> 00:55:33,639
thank you so much for people watching at home. This

1017
00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:36,199
was face DA's leave a comment like the video and

1018
00:55:36,519 --> 00:55:39,599
the hat was not an homage to some Safari. This

1019
00:55:39,679 --> 00:55:41,840
one was really bright here in the office that I'm

1020
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:44,000
recording in. Thank you guys all so much. We have

1021
00:55:44,079 --> 00:55:46,840
more episodes coming every week of face Das. If you

1022
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:49,480
scrapped to the channel, you'll see all those hitting your feet.

1023
00:55:50,039 --> 00:55:52,840
For now, let's let's rulee Greg on at the final table.

1024
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:57,079
I believe action kicks off on Monday and then three days, Greg,

1025
00:55:57,119 --> 00:55:59,280
that's all it is, three days to win ten million bucks.

1026
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:03,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's going to be three hard days

1027
00:56:03,119 --> 00:56:05,639
and uh yeah, I'm really looking forward to it, and

1028
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:08,840
uh yeah, thanks thanks for Uncle always. Like you said,

1029
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:11,679
we go back a long time. And I've never seen

1030
00:56:11,719 --> 00:56:14,360
you and not smiled no matter what my state, my

1031
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:17,119
mental state is in in that moment, whenever I see you,

1032
00:56:17,159 --> 00:56:19,960
whether it's twice a summer, once a summer, twenty times

1033
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:25,000
a summer, I see you, it's always, uh, fantastic energy

1034
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:27,559
that you exude, and then it's easy to smile around you,

1035
00:56:27,599 --> 00:56:27,679
so