Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donny Peters. I got
Tim Duckworth along side me today. We are fresh off
the Texas Poker Open and my man, my cowboy has
written back from the Lone Star State, a long trek
through the desert, I'm sure, but he made it. We
got Ravi Sonny Sondhara Sunny is his nickname, winning the
Texas Poker Open main event. We're also going to hit
on a different state other than Texas. We're going to
talk about the Keystone State, Pennsylvania, because they joined the
Multi State Internet Gaming Agreement also known as the MSIGA
for short. Whereas Tim would probably we say, what would
you say, MESSIGASIGA?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Whoesop Yeah yeah. Speaking of Woesop, the dovisitpy online bracelet
schedule has been announced. We'll quickly touch on that, and
then we got some other news about the good old
Woesop with the Woesop Plus app coming to Vegas this summer.
So let's hop right on into it. But before we do,
do you want to remind you to check out play
poker Go, where you can play free online poker. You
can get the thrill of authentic poker. You can do
at anytime, anywhere. All you need is your computer or
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and Android. You can deal yourself in now at play
PokerGO dot com. All right, the Texas Poker Open Main Event,
Ravi Sndara aka Sonny Sondara wins it all on two
hundred and eighty three thousand, one hundred and forty three dollars.
That was after a deal was made three handed. Original
first place prize was three hundred and seventy five K,
six hundred and ninety nine entries in this one. Couldn't
get that extra entry to get us a seven hundred, Hugh,
You couldn't just fire thirty three hundred, Okay, you basically
cash for thirty three hundred in some event I did.
But yeah, let's just put it in there.
Speaker 2: Come on, let's let's go to the guy at the top.
Brent Hanks, sitting on the sideline for the entire main event,
off to finishing fifth loss.
Speaker 1: YEA six, I thought six?
Speaker 2: What about either way, brenton one entry?
Speaker 1: If you if I have final tabled an event which
is probably never gonna happen in my lifetime because I
suck at poker. But anyway, if I did, it would
take so much for me to not play the Turnam
the next year exactly. I'm not even talking about winning.
I'm just talking about making the final table. Come on,
you gotta be in there. You absolutely have to be
in there, all right. Sonny Sindar won it all two
hundred and eighty three and forty three dollars. Caleb Harwell
finished in second place two hundred and sixty four, five
hundred and twenty nine dollars for him, and then the
other player as part of the three way deal, Aaron
gow two hundred and forty seven thousand, three hundred and
twenty eight dollars. Now, it was. It was a very
interesting finish to the event, something that was unique. I'm
not sure I've ever seen it before, but you had
this three way deal. Then they continue playing for they
did an ICM chopping, and then they were playing for
sixty K and then Aaron Gau goes out in third place.
Then Sonny and Caleb decide to do a best of
three series of plo flips. What the heck is happening
down there?
Speaker 2: Man? It's just what's a mockery, a mockery of the PGT,
but hey, it's it's very it's very Houston plo flips.
You know, the gambling, the drinking, the fun, jovial final
table and atmosphere with some of these players. So look,
if anywhere's gonna happen, and I'm gonna be slightly okay
with it, it's down there at Champions Club in Houston, Texas.
Speaker 1: Listen, I watched, I haven't. I haven't watched the full
final table yet because I was doing commentary for Venetian
while that final table was going on. But I'm I'm
dying to get back to it. That said, I am
aware of some of the big hands that played out
not only on that final day three, but also on
day two. I mean, holy hell, I'm coming to Texas
next year. I mean, I don't know what the hell
people are doing with some of these can this.
Speaker 2: Is Texas playfare?
Speaker 1: Outrageous? It's I mean it's crazy, Like on one half
you have these people that are like Max gambling right,
like you had this one what was his was his name, Kim?
I think it was on day two. I mean he
played every hand, every hand. I think his name was Kim.
I could be wrong Ton Kim in every single freaking
hand imaginable. Even the guy who won, Sonny was all
over the place, all over the Wow. Yeah. Sonny was
also drinking from like nine am, like he just showed
up to champions with a beer in hand and was
just ready to go the whole time. In his winter photo,
he's drinking the Blue Moon like the whole time. I'm
pretty sure by the way that I played a hand
against Sonny in the twenty twenty three WPT World Championship.
Interesting in like level five when he tried to he
tried to run a crazy bluff against me where I
raised the button with King Jack. I remember this same
I raised the button with King Jack. We were both
pretty deep. The big one was sixteen hundred I think
I had I don't know, one hundred and twenty five
k or something like that. He three bets me from
the small blind. I call it comes King high. He bets.
I call turns a jacks. I make two pair. He
bets really big. I call rivers a ten. He rips
it all in. I took about fifteen segs and was like, well,
I mean, if you got the ace, queen, you got
ace queen whatever man. He had ace three off.
Speaker 2: On my way to finishing third out of one hundred
and twenty players in the three hundred dollars. Nother man
Hodem Turbo actually busted Robbie he put.
Speaker 1: It also also a chop tournament.
Speaker 2: A great chop. He ran a crazy bluff with aces,
and I had jacks and I hit a jack.
Speaker 1: Amazing, amazing stuff. When he when he was bluffing with
the best hand, it's just absolutely wild and these guys.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, he was awful, all right.
Speaker 1: So he wins the He won two flips right away, right,
He won the first two flips and that was it.
It was over with. So Sonny wins it all, two
hundred eighty three thousand dollars his he's a he's a
Houston local. This is his local Room Downer Champions Club.
So we got a local winning it all. Just rounding
out the rest of the final table, you ad Jason
Bulloch in fourth place, Fu Voe in fifth place, Andrew
Moreno in sixth place, Will Benson seventh, and vietvo in
eighth And then was it nine hand? Found?
Speaker 2: Was it was nine handed? We just wanted to finish
that level before the.
Speaker 1: Got it one ninth place was justin Liberto. And then
i'll just round out the top ten. Michael leang in
tenth place for forty thousand. Elsewhere on the in the
money finishes, you had Joey Wiseman, who won the Poker
gro Cup earlier in the twenty twenty five PGT season.
He finished in twelfth place. Matthew Wantman finished in thirteenth place.
Both of them took home thirty three thousand dollars. You
had Daniel Cpo in fifteenth for twenty seven thousand dollars.
Then a little bit further down you had Philip Hellmuth
the third, not the regular Philip Healmuth, his son Philip
Helmuth the third, sixty first place for seven K. Jeff
Platt shout out to our guy, sixty fourth for six K,
Jeremy Becker sixty sixth for six K, David Chen seventy
first for six K, Ray Kartomi seventy second for fifty
five hundred. I'll hit on those two a little bit more.
On a second to Jonathan while the reigning be made
have been champion eighty fifth for and fifty yards.
Speaker 2: What's this?
Speaker 1: What's this little note? You put in here, stack guy.
Speaker 2: Eighteen people have cashed in both Texas pokerpins. I thought
that was a pretty much bigger number than I thought.
Speaker 1: But has anyone cast in both of them and the
poo around it.
Speaker 2: There there's potential for Isaac Kempton and Matthew Wantman. I
think I'm gonna check it right now. But even still
eighteen players, I think is is quite a lot. Even
with the you know, the whole multi fly aspect of
the tournament, it's still pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: I think this year it was the Texas Poke Open
main event, ran it back with the same two million
dollar guarantee that was in the first edition last year.
Speaker 2: Isa and Matthew Wantman have cashed in three champions Club
tournaments that we have run.
Speaker 1: Oh and bab bo geez okay fuvo. He played outrageous.
I'm sorry, I don't know what that guy was doing
the best?
Speaker 2: How could I not take a chuck against him?
Speaker 1: He's he was the one who did He was the
one who slow rolled Sundara on late on day two.
He was yeah, he he had a full house and
Sonny this was it, by the way, This was like
late on day two. Sonny had like seven and a
half million chips and like a half an hour later
when they finished up and bagged, he had like two
and a half minute just out of control. But at
one point he made a flush against Vos. I think
he flopped or turned a full house. And on the
end Sonny called that from Voe and like, turn over
an ace. I think there was two aces on board
and I think a ten and he had ace ten.
He just turned over an ace and Sonny said, I
beat that and turned over his flush and then he
slipped over the ten for the full house, and Sunny
like was pissed and got into it. So that was
the whole thing at the table tuber slowl do chob slow,
it was the whole thing. It was all on stream.
It was pretty pretty incredible, all right, two million dollars
guarantee in this one beat it not by much, though,
I can't say this is a fake guarantee. Two million,
ninety seven thousand dollars in the prize pool. You were there,
you're the PGT commissioner. You're obviously in touch with everyone
that we worked with at Champions Club Texas. What was
the sweat of the guarantee? Like and were you actually sweating, sir.
Speaker 2: Yes, we were sweating quite a lot. It was Look,
we knew it was going to be. I think we've
discussed this before. When you have a new series, you
come back for the second year, it always tends to
be a little bit.
Speaker 1: Of a second year is always the hardest year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we knew that. So that was we're going
against that. And then as we spoke to how play is,
you know, we talked about in the last part, not
a lot of these guys were coming and that was
a little scary. But to Champions credit, they did. They
got us over the line. And what I mean by
that is we had a huge increase in unique players,
mainly locals. We had three x more satellite winners than
last year, so that on its own made up for
the the PGT REGs that would have been there blasting
like last year, Sean Dee Brand, Lynn Josh Aria, Jesse,
Lonas Chinaim, all these guys that put in lots of
bullets that weren't there. Champions made up for it with
a huge satellite program, lots of locals. I think locals
just wanting to be a part of this. This year,
we went from two hundred and thirty six unique entrance
to two hundred and seventy five, which is a massive
increase with the field also being thirty six players short
this year. So look, we were sweating it the entire way,
and you know, we were trending pretty good at the start.
Once we hit those bigger flights on the Saturday and
then the Saturday night turbo, we were a bit behind pace.
But yeah, we broke through probably midway through registration on
the final turbo flight, and it was a good, good
sigh of relief for you know, the entire team down there,
just getting through the guarantee and then obviously pushing through
for another you know, ninety seven. K.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I don't know why a lot of
the PGT regulars didn't go. I mean I would have
assumed that many of them that traveled down to Texas
for the first time likely last year for this and
saw the state of play. I mean, I mean, listen,
I can't I have to just talk about it. I mean,
it's it's the play is outrageous. I mean it's absolutely outrageous.
Speaker 2: I spent a lot of time talking with.
Speaker 1: I mean, we need to just cut like a highlight
clip of these hands that were played out on stream
and just like send them to people. Yeah, just be like,
this is why you need to go to Texas.
Speaker 2: In the third high Roller, Jeremy Becker says to me,
this is the softest event I've ever played. Five K
hi roller with thirty nine entrants.
Speaker 1: Was that the one where he called with seven four
off yes.
Speaker 2: Which was a very weird hand? I wrote, I got
that hand, and I had to make sure I wrote
those cards down right.
Speaker 1: Well, we were wondering if the like, We're like, are
his chips wrong?
Speaker 2: Like did he like I know?
Speaker 1: I was like, no, like these guys are good, like
I don't like, I don't I trusts.
Speaker 2: The blinds were going up next hand, he would have
been in the small blind, so that has something to
do with it. I just feel like seven to four,
you know, it's not the one to get in with.
But hey, look, Jeremy is a field player. He's not
a gto guy. You know, let him do what he
wants to do. But speaking with him, we talked about
this and he know, he says, the poker is great here.
But the biggest problem we have and why some of
these guys in the com was if you bust like,
there's not much else to do. You know, Champions is
a hotel with the pokeroom. Now says if you don't
want to play poker, sorry, there's not much you can do.
And Jeremy's like, just give me a ping punk table,
give me something.
Speaker 1: I was you know what I was thinking when when,
because you and I were talking a little bit obviously
about this stuff. I was like, they need to put
a bowling alley there. All these guys in their bowling. Now,
put like a three or four lane bowling alley right there.
You put like you said, you put a ping pong
table room.
Speaker 2: Come up with the table room.
Speaker 3: Boom.
Speaker 2: I've got the idea. It's the winner. Are you ready
for this. We're gonna we're gonna convert one of the
one of the sweets right Presidential Suite to feel Home
with Sweet as they like to call it, into the
PGT Lounge. Okay, I'm gonna moove the tables around. We're
gonna put a ping pong table there, gonna get some
arcade games, snacks, deck of cards that can play Chinese poker.
Because Jeremy's like, we just want to DJ and we
want to gamble. We want to bet on ping pong,
we want to bet on arcade games. I told him
this idea. He goes because he was like, I don't
think you're getting me back here, you know, and he
was having an okay series. He cashed the high Roller,
he cashed the main event. Now twice. He's like, I
don't think he getting me back here. There's not enough
for me to do. And then I told him this idea.
He's like, all right, you got me back. So giving
these guys, the PGT players, an outlet when they I
don't want to play poker, you know, they can go upstairs.
We'll set up this lounge. We'll stock it with drinks
and snacks and all kinds of things that they can
degen and gamble and keep them on property, keep them,
you know, firing the high roller is firing the main event.
I think that's one way to really get them there.
The other part is, you know, it's going to be
their fault because we had players messaging us the day
before the main event saying, hey, could you help us
get a rum I heard they're sold out. I mean,
when you're going to leave it to the last day,
that's a bit of an issue for as a poker player.
You know, we know they're not that organized, but when
you know this is a boutique property, you have to
try and get your your accommodations settled earlier and kind
of get in there, get the booking, come down play.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think another thing that we can probably
do on our side a little bit better ahead of time.
I mean, you mentioned going from twenty five to seventy
five satellite winners. We got to push that ahead of
time more. Yeah, however we do it. You know, you know,
ideally you can kind of put like a photo of
all the satellite winners out there, stuff like that, you know,
because that will attract a lot of the the bigger
players or whatnot. So but I listen, I think that
the state of play sells it. And if you're chasing value,
I think it's great to head down to Texas and
to Champions Club and to this event. It's you know,
there's not that many big events like this iron wise
in that region. I also think, listen it. The time
slot is really good because right after it's done, a
lot of the guys can just you know, check up
a little bit to Choktaw in Oklahoma and play that
World Poker Tour event, so like it times up nicely.
It's not just kind of like you're going there for
like one thing. Yeah, you go down to Houston, you
play this event at Champions Boom, you're up to Choctaw,
you're playing that WPT there. Then you come back a
few weeks off. It's World Series of Poker time. That's
how you do it.
Speaker 2: I think on allen to, we should try and give
a little more breathing room between the USPR and Champion Club.
Give these guys a you know, a week or two
just to reset, relaxed, spend time family, then come over
to Houston. The fact that we were going from USPO
literally less than a week later the main event was starting,
I think that was too tired of a window. So
if we can just move USPO back a week or
two weeks even, I think that will come go a
long way in you know, like we always talk about
player burnout and bankroll rebuilding or resetting mental resetting, that
will go a long way and helping that.
Speaker 1: The guarantee was a sweat. We talked about it, but
it was met at the end of the day. It
seemed like overall there was a lot of really really
good energy out of Champions Club. Once again, how proud
are you, guys? How proud are you? You know how
the main event turned out? Overall? Are you happy with everything?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think I think both us and Champions are
pretty happy. Like I said, I kind of mentioned the
huge increasing in uniques, the huge increase in locals, the
satellite winners. That's all says a lot about how much
effort Champions is putting into this. Also how much the
local poker pool really supports Champions, really supports what we're
doing there. So from that aspect, it couldn't be more
happier than you know, how it turned out once we
hit that guarantee.
Speaker 1: Now, in addition to the thirty three hundred dollars by
main event that was won by again Sonny Sundhara two
hundred and eighty three thousand dollars, there were four fifty
one hundred dollars high roller events, all of them qualifying
for the PGT. You had Ray Kartomi winning two of
the four, you had David Chen winning one of the four,
and then the other one was won by Elliott Smith.
I told you that I would mention Chen and Kartomi
later on. Here is that time. Both Kartomi and Chen
cashed four times during the series. They both cashed in
the main event as I already mentioned, then both of
them cashed in three of the four high rollers, with
Ray Kartomi winning two of the four. Kartoli won the
first one for five hundred all, David Chen won the
second one for fifty four thousand dollars, Elliott Smith won
the third one fifty eight, six hundred and eighty dollars,
and then Kartomi again winning the last one forty one thousand,
seven hundred dollars for him. Kartomi cashed total from the
series just under one hundred and seven thousand dollars. Chen
cash total for the series eighty five thousand, seven hundred
and fifty dollars. Now little bit of a different look
to the schedule with these high rollers. This year's Texas
Poke gre Open schedule had fewer high rollers. They were
also all at the five K buy and level, whereas
last year you had eight of them, so cut them
in half. Also last year there was a couple ten k's.
There was also a couple that were pot limit Omaha
as opposed to just the Nolan HoldEm So last year
they did a little bit of Nolan hould them a
little bit of PLO. How do you feel the adjustments
worked out with with you know, the high roller stuff.
Speaker 2: The main difference with last year in this year was
that last year the high roll was extended on the
main event, and we saw kind of a bit of
a decrease in numbers once the main event was done,
So we wanted to basically overlap them during the main
so that our players that were coming could come and
book you know, four or five days and get full
value and not have to stick around for no other reason.
So that's kind of why we shifted from seven well
it was seven that we added an extra one last year,
but from eight down to these four, just to fit
the schedule a little better, be a bit cleaner. Also,
with the ten k's they didn't perform as well, so
we kind of kept with the five K prize point,
which just hits the locals a bit more like it's
a bit more reachable for those guys, So that was
kind of the change. I think it worked okay. Some
of the guys really like the twenty minute level blinds,
the entire way like super Turbos basically. So yeah, at
this stage, I think we wouldn't really make any changes
to that. You could maybe at a plow, but you know,
we're doing that PLO series hopefully in November, so they
have enough PLO at that point.
Speaker 1: So is it coming back next year? And if it is,
what's the schedule going to look like? Is this is
this like the best schedule or do you still have
like fine tune adjustments that you want to make. What
are you thinking?
Speaker 2: I like this schedule a lot. I hope it comes back.
I think it's a good event. I like the event.
I think the local players like the event, So I
don't see there's a reason why we would just stop schedule.
I think it is fine. I think the side events
schedule could you know, use a bit of a twigging.
For example, they had the Ladies' event on day two
of the main you know, it makes a little tough
if you know, for some of the ladies, they make
day two obviously to play that event, so we could
obviously flex off that. But yeah, the side events is
mainly Champions Club's decision, and I kind of work with
them about figuring out what may work, what may not work.
But yeah, I like the schedule. I thought there was
a good variety of events. Huge you know, keep the
satellites going, keep everyone on property firing away. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I My one suggestion would be, I think you need
like a one K like opener, like the weekend before
the main event.
Speaker 2: I just don't know if you're getting anyone out of
town coming in for that. That's the only thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe I don't know. I have to think
about it more, but that's I think that would be
a good position. But overall, you know, I thought it
was a good event. I had fun watching the large
majority of it, and I still have to kind of
finish out the final table stuff because I had other obligations.
But other than that, you know, I'm happy it reached
the guarantee happy the I like when guarantees are a
sweat because I believe that they're then a little bit
more real, you know, as I always joke about fake guarantees,
but this one definitely made you guys sweat quite a bit.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: But I do think also if you were to run
it back the same for next year, probably a little
bit more in the prize pool would be my guess
as things sit right now, coupled with the fact that,
you know, a lot of people in the US probably
don't have a lot of disposable income. So just with
the way everything is, you know, you got to pay
for them eggs. But a year's time away, you know,
maybe that's all changed and become a little bit better
and things are. You know, there's a little bit more
people that want to you know, travel down the travel
part as well, Like it's I mean, it's just hard,
like you know, it takes a lot to go down there,
just anywhere really not it's not only just traveling to Texas.
You know, there's you know, you really do have to
rely on the local regional crowd, of course, and I
think this event did so. I think that's a really
good sign. And then yeah, hopefully we get the regulars
to head back down to a good old Texas. Let's
swing up. But I think it's like what sixteen hundred
miles northeast to Pennsylvania in the Keystone State got the
We got Pennsylvania joining the Multi State Internet Gaming Agreement.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro recently signed the MMSIGA to bring
Pennsylvania into the shared online poker market, which is great, great,
great news. That agreement. The MSIGA or MESSIGA includes obviously Pennsylvania,
now New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, West Virginia, and Michigan. Now
put a little asterisk next to West Virginia because although
online poker is legalized in the state, no one has
launched yet. That's the same for other states Connecticut, Delaware,
and Rhode Island, although those three aren't signed into the
MSIGA as of this time. Pennsylvania originally now are announced
originally legalized online poker in twenty seventeen. It became the
fourth state to do so, and then they launched. The
first operator to launch was Poker Stars in twenty nineteen.
So I guess that timeline there is something that like
I look at because it took, you know, two years
to go from when you legalize it to when you
got the first operator launching, and then here you got
the governor, Governor Shapiro signing this agreement and then it
was like three days boom on Monday, which was yesterday,
April twenty eighth, that a couple of the operators are
ready to go. They're in multiple states were often running,
so the fact that it turned around so quick, I
think is like probably the biggest thing to me at least,
which hopefully is a sign of more things to come. Now,
we also had a great opportunity here at Poker Go,
you know, the Governor's team, Governor Josh Shapiro, his team
reached out to us. We were able to link up
on a special interview and it was really cool. Again,
big big news for online poker in the US with
this happening. You know, I know it's like a lot
of places might be like, yeah, well you have fifty states,
you know, there's not that many on board. But I mean,
trust me, this is this is a big move in
the right direction. So you know, Pennsylvania getting involved, it
creates much bigger prize pools. You know, the games are
going to be better. Those players are all now part
of a much bigger player pool. You already have some
of the operators you know, doing stuff in terms of
bigger prize pools, the stuff in the summer as it
relates to the World Series of Poker. Because they are involved,
they are in the different states, you know, there's gonna
be a ton more action. I know we're gonna hit
on the online bracelet schedule. But you know, the online
bracelet schedule, of course, does give credence to the fact
that Pennsylvania is now roped in with the other states.
So and myself as a player in Nevada, I mean,
it's it's hugely beneficial to me being able to have
more games, to play, bigger and better tournaments, all that
sort of stuff. So I thought that that was really cool.
But President Governor Josh Shapiro, he actually got to chat
with our president poker Go President Maury Eskandnnie and that
was an exclusive interview that these guys linked up on.
So it was a video interview that the two hopped
on a zoom call and chatted. You can find that
on the poker Go YouTube channel. But we'll play the
audio for you guys here right now, so if you
haven't heard it here that is, let's get to it.
Speaker 4: Governor, what an honor? How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm so good? How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing just fine, doing a lot better now that
I know an official like you is advocating for poker.
This is this is truly amazing.
Speaker 3: It's a dream come through, sir. Absolutely, no, I it's
a big deal. I'm excited about it, happy to talk
to you today.
Speaker 4: Well, pleasure is all mine, and I mean the fact
that you are the highest ranking official that I know
all my years in poker that supporting us. It's so grateful.
And what made this the right time for Pennsylvania to
join the multi state and the gaming.
Speaker 3: Well, well, first off, more it's really cool for me
to be with you. I love your background. By the way,
it looks great. I'll just say what made me want
to do it is. I think it's common sense. There's
a bunch of folks like you out there, including one
hundred and fifty thousand people right here in my state,
in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who love to play poker online,
and I think they should be able to play poker online,
not just with people from Pennsylvania, but they should be
able to reach out and deal with people from other states,
not have to wait as long for a game, and
have games that are more vibrant, more competitive, and where
they you know, they get to compete against more people
kind of at their level. So I just think it's
common sense, it's smart, and I know you probably don't
care about this, but it's good for the Commonwealth taxpayers
as well, So I think it's a win win all around.
Speaker 4: Well, I care more than you can possitively imagine. I've
often wonder a game that's been around for some thousand
a year and came to United States in the eighteen hundred,
just like everything else that comes here was raised to
new heights, so many different variety of games that were
added here, all the creativity, everything being played in seventy countries.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not legal in birthplace of Texas, legal in
eight states or so, but it's not just you know, like,
what is it going to take wherever we want to
take your lead?
Speaker 3: Look, I'm a big believer in giving people the freedom
to do the kinds of things they want to do,
obviously within the bounds of the law and obviously within
the bounds of responsibility. But the way I look at
this is, you know, folks are playing poker all the time,
and whether you're doing it at a table or whether
you're doing it at a casino, you're doing it with
some buddies, or you're doing it online. I just think
you should have the freedom to do that. And by
the way, if you don't want to play poker, if
you don't want to gamble, You don't have to do
that either. It's totally fine. No one's forcing you. So
I am hopeful that as Pennsylvania, we're now the biggest
state as part of this compact, Pennsylvania does it, maybe
more states will join in, more Americans will get the
opportunity to participate with one another in this great game that,
as you said, has been around thousands of years. I
think it's a great opportunity.
Speaker 4: Do you really feel like you're getting closer to having
this be connected nationally, like having a market that's like
in like sports betting in forty.
Speaker 3: I hope so, I hope so. And again not because
I'm trying to encourage people to go out and gamble
or play poker or do something else.
Speaker 2: It's up to you.
Speaker 3: But if you want to do that, I think it's
important to make it easy, right, have it on your
phone or have it in your home, you know, however
you want to do it, or show up at a casinover,
show up and in some other way to do it.
I think it's common sense.
Speaker 4: You know what.
Speaker 3: What I've learned over my years in this business is
a lot of times folks are just knee jerk reacting
against something, right, there's against it. And if you actually
get a minute to have a conversation and say, hey,
you know, Pennsylvania's doing it, Michigan's doing it, Jersey, other
states are doing it. Maybe explain to me why you
think it's a bad idea. Why aren't you doing it?
And so when you get rid of that sort of
immediate political no and you're able to bolster your argument
by saying a lot of other states are doing it,
and ask people what they're real deep objection to to
it is. You know what most time they say is well,
I don't know. I guess it's kind of always been
that way. And for me, I hate when people say, well,
that's the way it's always been and that's the way
it's going to be. That frustrates me to no end.
Speaker 4: I've had people come to me know poka gambling as
a matter of fact, just you know, I've been in
the industry forever. Poker players don't like to be called gamblers.
They like to be called poker players because he gambled,
He gambled anything gamble at golf. It's not a game,
you know, like God knows. I mean, when you live
in Las Vegas. You gamble with everything but his choice.
You know you're having fun, you know you're doing something
that he can afford. And poker, there's just so much
to the game. So, h let me ask you a
fun question. It sounds to me that you've been into
this a little bit. Which state do you think from
the eight states that have now online gaming, which one
do you think has the best poker players?
Speaker 3: Oh, come on, man, you know what the answer is. Pennsylvania.
Of course. Look, I am competitive as hell, right, So
I want to beat everybody at everything and whatever sport,
whatever game, whatever you're doing. And I think Pennsylvanians have
that attitude. We want to be the best. With the
birthplace in democracy, we're where it all started, and so
of course we want to win it everything from our
Super Bowl winning Eagles to you know, every other team.
We just want to be the best. And I know
Pennsylvania poker players want to be the best, and I
think we are.
Speaker 4: Well. One of these days, I'm hoping maybe perhaps some
sort of a tournament in our studio in poker got
studio in Las Vegas and have different players from the
states come in, maybe the governors, maybe maybe a game
at all.
Speaker 3: These That would be cool.
Speaker 4: We should do that, all right, I got I will
send an invitation to everybody. I would love to do
that and see which governor is the best player.
Speaker 3: That would be a lot of fun. We'll probably all
talk a lot of shit on one another, even though
we all really like each other, but we'll have a
lot of fun. Exactly exactly. That'd be great.
Speaker 4: Well, this is truly an honor, and I meant it.
It is dream come true. We are in this industry. Nothing,
nothing will will be lifting this industry more than in
national poker across the team.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm excited to help one hundred and fifty thousand
Pennsylvanians and hopefully I'm world grow, compete with others from
across the country and see this industry grow. Mare. I
want you to know you're here in the Governor's reception
room here in our state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Through
that door over there is my office, and I just
signed the Multi State Compact before walking out here to
talk to you. It goes into effect Monday, so poker
players will have the opportunity to compete online across state lines.
And we're really excited about it.
Speaker 4: Absolutely wonderful news, wonderful, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Great, thank you, Mary. Look forward to seeing you and
we got to have that game with the other GUVs.
Speaker 4: It'll happen, thank you.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So that was really cool. Listen. I don't know, I
didn't know anything about Joshapiro, Okay, the fact that he
was talking so casually, the fact that he swore in
the interview, I'm a gready to vote for this guy
for anything. I mean, I'm ready to go. I'm like, okay,
let's go. Can we play some poker? Like, you know,
like it's definitely he seems a guy that I would
get behind. And again, you know, just very cool overall that,
you know, he pushed this through. I remember hearing I
can't remember when it exactly was, whether it was several
months ago or you know, a year or two ago,
when he urged the Gaming Commission there in Pennsylvania to
start approaching getting involved with the multi state agreement and
then boom, he signs it. A couple of days later,
Monday happens. You know, these these operators are in. I mean,
that's just incredible. So the I mentioned all the states, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, West Virginia, and Michigan. So of
the ones that are like linked right now with operators,
Pennsylvania is the largest. Thirteen point one million is the
estimated population, fifth largest state in the US. So that's
a big one. Yeah, that's a very big one. Michigan
tenth ten point two million, New Jersey, you know, not
too far off, nine point six million, that's the tenth
and eleventh largest states. And then Nevada. You know, again,
this is why it lately benefits people like Tim and
I who play on dissip dot com because Nevada is
only three point three million and we're the thirty first
largest state by population. So US getting a state like
Pennsylvania that is what more than four x hour population
into this, like boom, let's go, Like I'm ready, Like
I'm ready for the games. I'm ready for the tournaments,
like I can't wait a little bit of a rundown
on the timeline here on yesterday. We're recording this on Tuesday,
April twenty ninth. But on Monday, April twenty eighth, you
had bet MGMPA and Borgata PA. They connected their player
pools in Pennsylvania with New Jersey and Michigan. Now those
operators are not currently in Nevada, but we've heard that,
you know, BETMGM could be coming to Nevada pretty soon,
you know, hopefully soon, but we'll see, you know, I
if I were to guess, I would guess by the
end of the year. Obviously MGM has a footprint here
in the state of Nevada, you know, but that's still
you know, TBD and those operators celebrated with they have
this one hundred and nine dollars buying c note tournament.
They made that a free roll and they're calling it
the Free Note. They also announced what they're calling the
May Millions May eighth through eleventh, with eighteen events. I
think that spans a weekend, eighteen events, million dollar guaranteed
across the entire series, one thousand dollars buying championship event
that has a four hundred thousand dollars guaranteed. So already,
like you have these operators coming out with some big stuff.
You have WSP in Pennsylvania. They connected with Nevada, New
Jersey and Michigan and they were the first operator with
a four state network. Again, Bet MGM, Burgada they're in
three states, but WSP is in four states, which is
very cool, very very cool. Now poker Stars, everyone knows
Poker Stars. They have not yet can their Pennsylvania platform
with New Jersey and Michigan, so that's still TBD, and we'll,
I guess, we'll see what happens. I did see something
from I want to say it was a new g
aurora from Pokerfeus on social media earlier today that said,
I think you put a screenshot of the lobby of
Poker Stars and it didn't have any tournaments scheduled like
past April thirtieth, So like, I don't know if that's
like like what's coming type of thing, or like maybe
they just haven't scheduled that, who knows, you know, but
I would expect at some point they probably get involved,
right will be like BETAMGM where they won't be in Nevada,
but I think they'll they'll, you know, they'll they'll get
into the other ones and that'll obviously create that and
then just quickly on the other operators or on the
operators as a whole. Just as a little bit of
a summary here, wsp PA is combined with Nevada New
Jersey and Michigan, so they're in four states. BETAMGM Pennsylvania
is combined with New Jersey and Michigan. Poker Stars Pennsylvania
is still separate. New Jersey and Michigan are combined, but
we'll see how that goes. And then the other one
is Bette Rivers, which is you know, speaking of the
Texas Poke Ropean and Phil Hellmuth and you know, he's
he was on stream saying I'm a co owner of
the Champions Club and this and that and the other thing.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: Anyway, his new sponsor, Bette Rivers. They are in only Pennsylvania,
but they did send it out a release that said
they are preparing for a multi state launch, so that's
likely coming at some point. I don't think there was
a timeline given for that, but but yeah, but that's
kind of the rundown there. Thoughts, sir, thoughts, you.
Speaker 2: Got me, not really because I don't really understand your
legal world here in America. But it is a good thing.
It is a good thing for poker that we are
getting more and more states involved, and it's great for
obviously the players that are on WSP. You know, whenever
Poker Stars joins in, you bet MGM as well. It's
a good thing for the industry hopefully. You know, as
you kind of touched on some of these states that
kind of in limbo, if they can join in too,
you know, it's gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger,
and you know, maybe we're going to get back those
good old days of pre Black Friday.
Speaker 1: Well I don't know if that's gonna happen, but let's
just hope the good days.
Speaker 2: I was okay at poker back then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you never know. I mean, listen, I think
it's it's obviously big news. It benefits us pretty greatly
here in Nevada with WSIP linking up right away with
those other states, you know, so that'll be good. You
know WSIP was previously linked with New Jersey and Michigan.
It was New Jersey, Michigan and Nevada. So you know,
once that happened, you definitely saw a boost at least
I think so playing online and now with Pennsylvania and Wales,
I think that'll be really really really good. All right,
let's take a quick pause here because as we have
been doing, we have of our giveaway running for the
Poker Girl Podcast Dream Seats, and we gotta do some
code words. You're the code word, guy, what do.
Speaker 2: You what do you card word? I'm not gonna say
what last week's card word.
Speaker 1: Was, because you know you have they gotta go find it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're gonna go find out on this one. We're
gonna keep it Texas themed. It's gonna be very simple.
It's Texas. I don't even knowed to spell it for
you guys, because you can spell that show like a
Texas poker play. Because I like Texas.
Speaker 1: He's not changing it now, but I'm just telling I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna say I like easy, simple ones like we don't
make it too complicated. So Texas is the code word.
You guys know where to go. Link is in the
description of the pod. Thanks for producer Rich and we
want one of you guys representing us in the PGT
Million Dollar Championship and winning it. Obviously, let's go.
Speaker 1: All right. So, speaking of w SP's involvement with the
Pennsylvan stuff, they then ws pdawsp dot com announced their
online bracelet schedule thirty online gold bracelet events this year,
which is actually, if you can believe it, sir, fewer
online bracelets than last year. Can you believe they actually
had less in a bracelet schedule?
Speaker 2: They could add more, let's not, let's not get out
home add more.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it's less is because last year
they had thirty as well, but they also had seven
for Pennsylvania loss.
Speaker 4: Ye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so now everything's combined and they only have the thirty. Okay,
Now it's pretty robust. There's more guaranteed prize money in
the series. I believe this year it's five point five
million versus last year. I think it was three or
three and a half million. I'm guaranteed. Not every event
is guaranteed, but there are a lot of a lot
of guarantees. The online Bracelet events they span May thirty
first through July fifteenth. The full World Series of Poker
is May twenty seventh, I believe through July sixteenth, So
you know, a couple of days cut off on each side,
but that's fine. They are running it back with five
live final tables. Those five live final tables, so you'll
start playing online, you'll reach the live you'll reach the
final table, they'll pause the tournament. Those people will come
out to Las Vegas and they will play at the
horseshoe for the bracelet. Those are the thirty two hundred
dollars Nolan Hold Them high Roller, the fifty three hundred
dollars Nolanman Hold Them high Roller six Max, A twenty
five hundred dollars Nolaman Hold Them Event, fifty three hundred
dollars Nolaman Hold Them high Roller Championship, the thirty two
hundred dollars high Roller six Max. Now I don't really
understand the fourth one that I mentioned, the fifty three
hundred dollars Nolan Hold Them high Roller Championship. Shouldn't the
championship event be bigger than everything else?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think last year was a ten game, right.
Maybe it's just a better structure.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm just saying, like, you have another fifty three
hundred high roller like I would think.
Speaker 2: You would have, Yeah, you would, Yeah, differentiate it.
Speaker 1: Best buy ins across the entire thirty online gold brased
events started two hundred and fifty dollars, which I think
last year was three thirty three. I think was the
lowest one, so a little bit smaller on that end,
but not you know, not that much different. And then
of course up to the fifty three hundred dollars and
then they are you know, this does include the shared
liquidity across Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. So I
would expect these to be quite big.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I think in recent years you and I have both
done you know, our article where we mentioned all the
different winners, and sometimes it's like, you know, this guy
won twenty k, and you know, so you're not going
to get any more of that. You know, these are
going to be some pretty pretty juicy prize pools, some
pretty big first place prizes, so you know it'll be
pretty good over.
Speaker 2: I think I very confident this is new. But it
looks like they have a couple of multi day.
Speaker 1: No they did that before, Yeah, but but they are.
They are bringing that that stuff back.
Speaker 2: I know they've done on GG, I just didn't know
they've done it on Yeah. I think one of them
is a Colossus, Yeah, ones a Mystery Yeah, they.
Speaker 1: Have a bunch of Mystery Boundary. I think all the
Mystery Bounty events, if I remember correct when I was
looking at the schedule earlier, I think all the Mystery
bound events are the ones with the guarantees on them.
Speaker 2: They have that million million million.
Speaker 1: Mystery boundies are you know, that's what everyone loves to play,
so of course they're gonna have plenty of those.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many I'll play this summer, you know,
just because obviously we have a lot of work and whatever.
But something I would like to play is they have
two twenty five scrambles, So those are on there. So
those are nice and juicy to try and win yourself
a w S a P main events.
Speaker 2: So those also have guarantees. Yeah yeah, well yeah, yeah,
of course you said the other things with guarantees of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I got you. So there's that. That's
the the I guess part A of the w c
P news that that recently dropped, and then part B
is that the Wasit plus app is coming to Vegas.
You know, I think we kind of thought it might,
but then we heard it might not, you know, just
some regulation stuff here in Vegas with with the casinos
here and whatever. But they got it done, so the
app is coming to Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I do want to mention that a lot of the
information that I gathered around the Wasity plus app stuff
I got from the good team over at Pokerfuse pokerfuse
dot com. They do a bunch of great work. Nick Jones,
you know, does incredible work.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Nick Jones also had a great thread on Twitter poker
pro Jones is his handle, just talking about all the
different Pennsylvania stuff that's happening a news Aurora. As I
already mentioned, there's a lot of good stuff over there
as well. So to shout out to those guys for
all the information that they constantly populated and there by
the way they're like often you know, I think I said,
you know, you and I kind of thought that it
was to be plus app could come, but we also
thought maybe it wouldn't come this year, maybe for twenty
twenty six. They called it. They were like, no, this
is coming for twenty twenty five. So they were on
the ball, as they are many times. They tend to
predict that things are coming and they likely happen. They're
also very well sourced, so of course those predictions do
carry a lot of weight. Anyway, about the details of
this now, it is said to be needed by all
players to enter tournaments. I think that that's now. Also,
I don't know, I I think you saw it, but
we both saw Kevin Matt tweet something right that is
not sleted, but he had all these responses but those
aren't deleted, so like, I don't know what happened. But
like one of the things that we saw in that
now deleted tweet was was it like registration is only
going to be open like nine am to ten pm
or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a very iffy. Yes, but but if you.
Speaker 1: Think about it, if they are requiring the WSP plus app,
and you can do all the registration through the WSP
plus app, well, then you can obviously cut the actual
live in person registration, right, Like that would make sense
because you're just trying to funnel everything to a much
more streamlined and efficient thing, you know, much more overhead
on the cost. You don't need all those people in
there working twenty four to seven, you know, you can
just have people can you know, verify their account, load
their account however they do that, and then you know,
registered tournaments right through the app. I believe. I also
saw no more Bravo Poker Live, which was I mean, listen,
Bravo Poker Live was it was a benefit to the
WSP yes, but it was also a bit archaic.
Speaker 2: It was like very old.
Speaker 1: This Waspy plus app looks awesome. So I know it's
been in use down at the WSP Paradise and Bahamas
for the past two years, but you know, we haven't
been there, we haven't used it, so it'll be our
first time using it. So I think it'll be a
big help.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: It also is going to allow you to track you know,
like you'll have your tournament clock right there, you'll have
players remaining price. Well, I just think of it like,
you know, when when I went to play the NAPT
event the Poker Stars an APT event at Resorts World,
and you had to use the Poker Stars Live app. Ye,
everything was in the app. So that's just what I
think this is. And that sort of stuff is great.
It's certainly going to streamline the process. I'm gonna definitely
try and you know, I'm gonna play five or six
events I think this summer, but like try and set
up my account in the early days just so I
can press a couple of buttons, not have to wait
in any lines, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: So so we I guess I'm just concerned about is
it allowed. I mean, I'm sure it's fine.
Speaker 1: How can they announce it if it's not allowed?
Speaker 2: Hey done stuff we had before. I don't know. I'm
just like I think also, I mean, I love the app.
I love everything that they're trying to do with it,
and obviously sweating Paradise through the app was always good.
Just you're coming to Nevada, which has the strictest, you know,
gaming regulations, and I'm just wondering, is everything signed off?
That's what I would say.
Speaker 1: Yes, I don't think they're coming out with the news
if it's not signed off. Secondary to that, I think
Nevada in general needs to like get with the times.
Speaker 2: Yes, that'll agree with that.
Speaker 1: It's not just in this situation. Like I would say
the same thing about like the way Nevada operates with
sports betting, like all this silly nonsense, like like let's
go Nevada, Like you're losing. I see all these numbers
from all the reporters out there, like you know Colorado
sports betting numbers, New Jersey, Like you know, they're doing
pretty well and they are, like they have a much
better user experience for a lot of their stuff versus
here in Nevada. So fix it, guys, Like let's go
now I'm also kind of a bit of a weird purist.
I do really like actually going up to the cage,
actually putting my money down, actually getting a ticket, Like,
I like that feeling. I know I've talked with Jeff
Platt about this. I know I've talked with you about this.
Speaker 2: Like, I actually like it.
Speaker 1: Now save me the two hour line. I get it.
That's why I would usually register like eleven thirty at night,
the night before stuff like that, because we're always there.
But uh, but but yeah, this will be a really
good change of pace. I thought when you were gonna say,
I'm worried that you're gonna be like, are you sure,
like all the super seniors are gonna be able to
use this app lit? Yeah, I mean that's the one thing.
Speaker 2: It's also you know, it's the deal. It's too right.
The dealers have to input on bus players. It's gonna
add a bit happened too. I would assume that's how
I do it, and they do the chip counts and
stuff like. That's gonna slow it's gonna slow the hands
down because they're gonna fumble over the clock and check
people in bus people.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that was all part of it I
thought it was.
Speaker 2: I'm getting seen that like, if they're going to go,
they're going to go all in. That's what I mean,
more than.
Speaker 1: You're soft for the first year, like you kind of
require all the it's you, it's your soft launch, you know,
to get all the players to download it to use it,
and then you bring in the next wave of it
for like twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, well they're not going to do everything then
I think it'll be fine. But yeah, just imagine having
to train the dealers and getting you know, all hundreds
of dealers and thousands of dealers to be able to
use something they've never used it for.
Speaker 1: Sound like Matt Savage over here just anti training people.
Speaker 2: That I'm not anti training at all, but like this
news just came out less than a month before the
World Series starts. That's more. My point is that you
know you've hired, you've already hired dealers, and you probably
start in the training process. You know that these guys
might be scrambling internally to to get everyone up to
up to scratch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's also why I say that it's probably
not going to be a dealer. I think it's not
going to be on the tables, like it's not going
to be that robust. I mean, listen, if it is
cool whatever, but I just don't think it is going
to be for the first year. I think it's going
to be one of those players saying focus on registration,
streamline that entire process, and then add that next wave
you know for dowasit P plus app two point zero
if you want to call it that, you know, coming
for twenty twenty six. So that's where my head is.
I do kind of wish or maybe I wonder And
I was looking around on the WASP dot com website
and I couldn't find a lot of information about it.
But you know, like I downloaded the app right like
you said, to sweat some of the stuff down at
the Bahamas. You know, why can I can I go
to Horseshoe right now and load it? Like can I
can I take care of it now? Like what do
I have or do I have to wait till like
you know, May twenty seventh, and like when everyone's there,
Like can I just get this out of.
Speaker 2: The way that I don't know, I'm like actually doing
my profile now because obviously, like I said, I already
had it. It was linked to my club gg account
as well, so Alady found it.
Speaker 1: And I think it's all. It's all I'm pretty sure
what what do they call it? I forget what they
call the log in, but like your club gg account
is linked, this is linked, poker Steak account is linked.
Like it's all linked, which is great, Like that's what
you want. You want that ease, you know, so so
that's all happening. So that's that's really good. I forget
what it's called, Like you have.
Speaker 2: Like a GG pass or like what, Yeah, I think
that's what I figure what it.
Speaker 1: Is when you have to like I see it. It
prompts when I go to sign into poker Steak. But
but yeah, I you know, I like that everything is
is linked together. And then you know, I would say
probably down the line, you get at least in my
idea of a perfect world, like if I have money
on ws P dot com, this should all be linked
in with WIP and then I should also be able
to buy into live tournaments with the money in my
online account, like what like you know, what's the what's
the difference if it comes out of like what did
I think they called the Paris Tournament account. I think
they called it, you know, like what's the difference if
it comes out of that bucket or if it comes
out of my online bucket, like I would, you know,
wherever I have the money, Like I should just be
able to be like, yeah, I'm gonna use this option,
you know. And I think they said that you can
you can do PayPal to load it that Paris Tournament account.
I think credit card as well, probably some sort of
wire transfer. Again, I kind of looked around WSB dot com.
I couldn't find it, you know, ahead of this episode,
but you know, in the coming weeks, coming episodes, I
think we'll get a little bit more clarity on on
how this is all gonna work out. And I'm assuming
with the deleted tweet from keV Math, you know, it's
also probably still a little bit of a work in
progress in terms of the messaging that that you know,
they're getting out there with you know, Kevi Math obviously
being the divisiity social medias are so yeah, so I guess,
you know, stay tuned to that. But I mean I
would say you can also probably download the app wherever
you are right now and kind of get ahead start,
get a little feel.
Speaker 2: For it, you know whatever, get a verify your profile
and identity, do all that stuff. Get that out of
the way now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, obviously once you get here,
when you come, you're gonna have to get all that
squared away. But at least you'll be you know, one
step ahead of everyone else as opposed to coming here
and you know, you walk into the registration line, they
tell you got to do this and then whatever.
Speaker 2: So Super Senior's Day is going to be a fun
day at the registration case. Well, that's what.
Speaker 1: That's kind of one thing that I'm a little bit
confused about is I believe I've seen that they're still
going to have the regular registration open, but then I've
also seen that you need to have the app. So
like again, that's what when I say like the super
Senior or the Seniors, I mean, sorry, I'm you know,
we're kind of you know, bashing you guys a little
bit here, but you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, then also, what if you don't have a smartphone,
there has to be some work around. But yeah, I
mean not everyone has a smartphone.
Speaker 2: Not everyone has a smartphone. Yeah, look, it's gonna take
some time. It's just like any kind of you know,
technology changes to people. It's gonna it's gonna take a
little bit of a bit of time before everyone's adjusted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'll say that, you know, all in all,
very positive move, good move. So you know, I think
it's gonna make things a lot more efficient, a lot
easier during the summer. You know, if you're somebody who
who obviously wants to like deposit money on there and
all that sort of thing, you get that squared away.
It should alleviate having the stand in long lines like
all that sort of stuff, which is great. I also
gonna help like if you have like simple things like
you have the tournament clock right there and it's synced
on your phone, so you don't have to like get
up and be like hey serious, set a timer for
twelve minutes, and then you know, you and I are
walking in the hallway, You're like, oh, how much time
do we have left? I have thirteen minutes? Why I
have eleven?
Speaker 2: Oh? Well what is it?
Speaker 4: You know, like all that.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's just right there on your phone,
which is really great. So again, I think this is
a positive thing and uh. You know that combined with
the fact that we now have the online bracelet schedule,
we got joint player pools, you know, with Pennsylvania now
in there. I mean, it's it's time, baby, let's go.
We're a month away from everything. Poker Go will be
coming out with its streaming plans pretty soon, and we've
been working hard at it, just kind of trying to
nail everything down. Excited for that, you know, obviously excited
for the summer, and yeah, I'm looking forward to what
else you got for.
Speaker 2: It to be a great summer, is it? Yeah? Of course?
Speaker 1: So okay, well you want me. How about this? We've
been really positive. Let's get negative for a second. Oh god, no,
why not? Like I can't, I can't just let a
whole bunch of you know, sunshine and rainbow has been
blowing out everyone's ass. We got to get a little negative.
I'm now. I will also say that I don't know,
necessarily think that what I'm about to say is negative.
It's it's like a negative prediction in a way. It's
it's I'm not fully ready to like, you know, ink
the prediction, like sign the dotted line and send it in.
But it's it's been working. It's like in the It's
in the It's in the take Oven. And I think
WSP actually comes out in the positive through all of this.
And what I'm gonna say is that there is a
crap ton of poker in Vegas this summer. Okay. I
also think that generally speaking, just with the way that
again people having kind of less money to spend. Also
as it pertains to the summer, are the Europeans going
to come over? Just with everything that's going on, like
with the politics and you know, all this sort of stuff.
Like I don't know, I feel like if people were
going to sit out, they might sit out. If you're
kind of on the fence, maybe you lean a little
bit more towards not coming versus coming, Like I don't,
I don't know exactly. So there's that. Now, do you
also lose people in Vegas in general because of something
like Pennsylvania joining where now Pennsylvania gets action within the
bigger player pool, they get action to thirty online bracelets,
Maybe you don't have to make a week or two
trip out here. And what I'm gonna say is that
everywhere outside of the w s AP, from what I
can tell, has guarantees on every single event on their schedule.
Sp of course doesn't need to do that. They only
they guarantee what the Gladiators event, they guarantee a million
dollar bounty and a million dollar first place prize. In
the Mystery Millions event, they guarantee, you know, a million
dollar first place prize and a millionaire maker. But like
those prize pools get a bazillion dollar, so it's not
even that big of a deal, right, So they don't
ever have to really worry about missing guarantees. But everyone
else does. Yeah, and some of these guarantees are freaking huge,
So I'm a little bit worried that a lot of
the other places are gonna missed a lot of guarantees,
you know. Now, why say that like this can be
quote unquote positive for dovaspvasitp like their numbers could be down,
let's say, like if everything's down, but they don't have guarantees,
so it doesn't really matter, right. And also they have
more events this year than they had last year, so
as a whole, they probably go up in terms of
entries for the whole summer. So that's fine as well,
But you're looking like a win of Venetian in Aria,
like even the smaller ones, the Golden Nuggets, the Orleans, like,
they all have guarantees. And so you see it across
the board. You just saw it in Texas, like there's
it's getting hard to kind of pull the same numbers, right.
It seems like it seemed like for let's say the
last year or two, things kind of plateaued, which is
largely because there's just so much on off. There is
so much going around now, I would say the plateau
has kind of started to be a little bit of
a decline slope. Not a lot, but just a little bit.
But if you got, like I was looking at the
wind schedule, they have forty million dollars in guarantees of summer.
I mean, like what, like, are these places all going
to hit them? Are they worried?
Speaker 4: Like you know?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I feel like it could
be bad now. I don't think it's gonna be like
a bloodbath like per event. Like if you have let's
say a five hundred K guarantee, I don't think you're
getting three hundred k. But let's say you get a
five hundred K guarantee and you get four seventy, so
now you're thirty k short, and then the next event
is five k shore, and the next event is you know,
and these are these like they're like fifty events on
these schedules, like it's a lot Nick can add up quickly.
So I don't know. I'm like kind of worried about
just everything that's going on in the state of the world,
et cetera. So that's my negative Nancy thought. Obviously, I
don't want it to happen. I hope it doesn't happen,
you know. I want poker everywhere to just be through
the roof. But that's kind of my thought.
Speaker 2: No, I think I agree with you. I think the
numbers will be down. I think people from overseas will
be skeptical to come in. Last month, we obviously we
had some webbly state of the market, which affects things
as well. We're not sure where that's going to be
in another month. So look, if I was an international operator,
like a Pocus Stars in Europe, I would be putting
on a big festival in Europe because I think it
would be heavily attended from the European crowd. But here
in America, I think the World Series will be fine.
I will bet that their numbers are down, you know,
on average in each event, but the addition of flights
in the bigger field events, I think their total entrant
numbers will eclipse last year. You know something. They'll be
worried they're the other rooms. I think they're just they
understand what the World Series is. Everyone's coming into town
to play events. All the casinos here in Vegas will
work together and kind of figure their schedules out so
there's not too much clashing, I think. And they've done
a pretty decent job. It's not you can't be perfect,
but they've done decent enough job to do that this year,
and you're really giving players a full range of events
they can play. And I think those five and JK
guarantees that I'll be fine, to be honest. So I
don't think any of the smaller rooms quote unquote, like
smaller in the World Series are really that worried about
about anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I hope, I'm just just worrying for
the sake of worrying, you know. I would maybe maybe
over the next couple of weeks, I'll kind of look
around a little bit more of the regional stuff that's happening,
and see if there's like a year over year type
of thing that I can kind of pinpoint. But yeah,
I mean we'll see, you know. Now, let me spin
it back positive and say that the Aria Poker Classic
specific this thirty five hundred dollars buying BETMGM event is
just a BETEMGM.
Speaker 2: Event championship championship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, three million dollar guarantee. This event I think can
blowdoors because Pennsylvania, now that I know that Nevada's not
involved in the BEDMGM stuff, but they've all like they
have this. They made that c note tournament, the free note,
it had a boosted guarantee, and I think they're even
giving a BETMGM championship package worth five K to the
winner of that, and like they're starting to put the
packages and stuff out there. Well, now, if you have
Michigan and New Jersey linked with Pennsylvania, you can run
bigger satellites for your marquee event. So I think this
event specifically could really benefit from the fact that Pennsylvania
is now involved in the multi state agreement, so they
can boost their prize schools, their satellite offerings, you know,
run more of them all that sort of stuff. So
I think this event, like let's say last year it
got I don't know, I'm just throwing a number out there.
I have no idea what the number is. Let's say
it got fifty satellite qualifiers, that could easily be one hundred.
It could easily be one hundred this year. Now, Like,
so this event specifically can do really really really well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're spot on right there.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think if I think this event
can be one of those ones where I know, obviously
a lot of people are like, first and foremost, I'm
gonna play WAIP stuff that's the most value obviously, the
bracelets all that, I get it. I would say this
time frame, you know, it takes place right before the
WSP main event, I would say, you know, probably pencil
this one into your schedule.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a it's a good one. And
if you get a lot of online satellite qualifiers, you know,
that could also provide again a lot of value. So
I think that that's probably gonna be beneficial, you know,
through through all of this. So, I mean, we'll see
overall how it all plays out. But uh, but yeah,
it's gonna be nuts. Man, It's definitely gonna be nuts.
Speaker 2: Can't wait, can't wait? All right?
Speaker 1: We got nothing else, I don't think, right, mm hmmm
mm hmm, All right, well, I mean, I guess next
week we'll bring some up, probably have a little bit
more clarity on the WS plus app stuff. We can
talk about that. We can start just kind of previewing
the summer stuff. It's obviously big, and it's enormous all
summer long. So I'm looking forward to getting into everything.
And I know we say it all the time, but
it's gonna be here before we know it. And now
we're less than a month away, it's certainly gonna be
here before we know it. So I can't wait, all right.
For Tim Duckworth, my name is Donny Peters. We will
talk to you guys next time, so you