Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of The
Speaker 1: Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donny Peters. Special guest
Speaker 1: David O. dB Baker. I was gonna say, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of rehearsed and open, and I was gonna
Speaker 1: say the one and only, and then I said, well,
Speaker 1: actually he's not actually the one and only. We had
Speaker 1: to put odb in there because there is another David
Speaker 1: Baker who I never see, So it doesn't even matter
Speaker 1: as far as you're concerned.
Speaker 2: You're the one and only.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I can drop the O now. I
Speaker 3: haven't seen him the sole World series.
Speaker 2: Yeah he didn't get drafted, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't get drafted, And yeah, I haven't seen him.
Speaker 3: But hopefully he's okay.
Speaker 1: I think he's probably okay. He's probably he's probably on
Speaker 1: a beach somewhere for all we know. Really no agenda
Speaker 1: here today. David and I will talk about whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: we're good friends. You're I will say that I'm not
Speaker 1: sure anyone loves it more than you that the World series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I heard you say today that you thought there
Speaker 3: might be a new contender for who loves it more?
Speaker 3: And I was a little offended, but I think you're
Speaker 3: talking about your new boy, NICKI Palmo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then I you know what, you know what
Speaker 1: happened today. I was walking through the ten k studfield,
Speaker 1: which you just finished up, and I saw you with
Speaker 1: your little lunch bag, and I said, you know what
Speaker 1: I like a guy who brings the lunch pale to work.
Speaker 1: That's what I like, because I often bring mine to work.
Speaker 1: I was like, so, yeah, you're back at the top.
Speaker 3: All shout out to Nicole Baker, my wife, who prepares wonderful,
Speaker 3: healthy meals every day for me. It's so hard here,
Speaker 3: like I mean, even if you, even if I don't
Speaker 3: want to get help, it's just so hard to get
Speaker 3: food on breaks. We don't have dinner breaks on all
Speaker 3: of them, and on the tournaments that do have dinner breaks,
Speaker 3: it's always like a rush because like it's big field
Speaker 3: and hard to get in places, and it's just a
Speaker 3: pain in the bud.
Speaker 2: So are you a dinner break or no dinner break?
Speaker 1: Guy?
Speaker 3: I mean, I prefer no dinner break, especially here at
Speaker 3: the World Series, because you know, my wife prepares nice
Speaker 3: for me, So I'm with you. I prefer dinner yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, I just I just want to play poker. Man,
Speaker 3: I just want to play poker and then I want
Speaker 3: to go home.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well we are a week and half into
Speaker 1: the series. Now what's your overall impression of the summer.
Speaker 1: That's a very open question, so answered however you want.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I'll say it kind of like crept
Speaker 3: up on us. I think we say that every year,
Speaker 3: But I mean, like I usually have like all this
Speaker 3: like excitement leading up to it, and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden it was here. And like you you stated
Speaker 3: on the first couple of podcasts, it did kind of
Speaker 3: feel a little slow at first. But now that the
Speaker 3: fantasy points are rolling in and we're giving away some
Speaker 3: bracelets and you know, I've made a couple, you know,
Speaker 3: decent runs, and I've watched some friends go deep and stuff,
Speaker 3: so it kind of feels like we're here now. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I love it. The new stage is obviously fantastic.
Speaker 3: I got an opportunity to play there, and we can
Speaker 3: talk about that that hell youth match that I got
Speaker 3: to play on on on stage that was kind of cool, but.
Speaker 2: With a fold that you said was going to haunt you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean we can you want to talk about.
Speaker 2: That Yeah, sure you got you got bluffed. Yeah, well
Speaker 2: that's the thing.
Speaker 3: It's kind of it's kind of uh, it's it's kind
Speaker 3: of even weird that even played that tournament, because I mean,
Speaker 3: most people know me for being mixed games and then
Speaker 3: like big Field, No Limit I've started, I've dabbled in
Speaker 3: in Poco Go studios the last six months and you know,
Speaker 3: kind of butted ahead with some of the crushers there,
Speaker 3: so I kind of feel like my No Limit games
Speaker 3: kind of progressed. And then you know, I got the
Speaker 3: great invite to play in the Poco Go twenty five
Speaker 3: K heads up. So you know, I did a little
Speaker 3: work and practiced and played No Limit and no spoilers,
Speaker 3: but I kind of wanted to play more. So I
Speaker 3: was like, you know what, I did all the work,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go and give it a shot and
Speaker 3: play here. So I did, and I mean I felt good.
Speaker 3: I mean I loved it. It was actually somebody asked
Speaker 3: me today what my favorite event here that I look
Speaker 3: forward to, and I was, you know, trying to go
Speaker 3: through them all, and then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 3: was like I was like, I know, I felt like
Speaker 3: super excited. One day this week, and I couldn't remember
Speaker 3: what it was, and then I remembered it was the
Speaker 3: heads Up, and probably that's going to be like my
Speaker 3: most favorite event coming going forward. I was lucky enough,
Speaker 3: not lucky enough. I actually beat him. I beat Sergio Io,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, obviously like a super crusher, and
Speaker 3: I didn't really yet lucky to do it. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously I probably had the better cards, you know, as
Speaker 3: it worked out, because he's probably beats me more times
Speaker 3: out of ten than I beat him. But it wasn't like,
Speaker 3: you know, I got it in better or anything. And
Speaker 3: then I played helm Youth and I got to play
Speaker 3: on the stage and that was fun, and you know,
Speaker 3: they they posted on Twitter. I ran a nice little
Speaker 3: four bet bluff with seven deuce and that was kind
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 2: Was fun, but you didn't show it.
Speaker 3: You know, I was going to show it, but then
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm just gonna steal from them all day,
Speaker 3: so I really don't want to. I really don't want
Speaker 3: to show it. Uh yeah, I thought about it, but
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I think I can get
Speaker 3: more equity by just but yeah, and then you know,
Speaker 3: the big fold, I folded top pair and an okay
Speaker 3: kicker in a spot that it's never supposed.
Speaker 2: To be good.
Speaker 3: I mean I had ten people come up to me
Speaker 3: who are better than me, and they all said, you
Speaker 3: played that hand fine, like that's a that's a fold
Speaker 3: versus him every time. You know, if it would have
Speaker 3: been Alex Foxen or Cal Anderson or somebody like that,
Speaker 3: I would have called because I would have thought they
Speaker 3: had more just bluffs in the range. I just thought
Speaker 3: I just thought Phil would never bluff it off, and
Speaker 3: he didn't. He had top pair as well, but it
Speaker 3: was a worst kicker, and I think he just kind
Speaker 3: of was like, I don't want to make any more
Speaker 3: decisions this hand and just kind of put it in.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's hard when a player you you
Speaker 1: probably know pretty well in terms of how they play.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we all know Phil's style very well,
Speaker 1: and then he kind of just goes off the reservation.
Speaker 2: You know, it was weird.
Speaker 3: I sat there for two and a half minute. I
Speaker 3: never used time banks. I mean, you've you've watched me
Speaker 3: in the studio. I mean, I give my time banks
Speaker 3: back at the end. Uh, you know, I never I
Speaker 3: never used one, and I didn't use one in two
Speaker 3: matches here, and then I used four in that one
Speaker 3: hand in that one spot. So I don't know. I
Speaker 3: mean I should have probably given more credence to the
Speaker 3: fact that he had just doubled me up and he
Speaker 3: was tilted. I forget that. Like Phil just goes on
Speaker 3: random tilt and and does things.
Speaker 2: And yah zooms just yeah, just zoom zooms.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't know, it is what it is.
Speaker 3: But the experience was awesome. So you know, back on
Speaker 3: like the summer thing, you know, being up there on
Speaker 3: the stage, it kind of like felt real, and you know,
Speaker 3: seeing some of these prize pools, now million dollars prize
Speaker 3: pool for the ten the ten kgg and and Nolan
Speaker 3: Meduce was up and it's like there were everything's kind
Speaker 3: of been up except for some of the big field
Speaker 3: no limits. I know you've had a big discussion, you know,
Speaker 3: over the days about the field numbers, and I think
Speaker 3: I think some of the perspective is a little lost
Speaker 3: on the field numbers, because what's happening is a there's
Speaker 3: three events a day where there used to only be two,
Speaker 3: and then every like other day or every two days
Speaker 3: there would be a third event, so I think that.
Speaker 3: And then also people are just getting trapped in some
Speaker 3: of these events that like they have multi flights. So
Speaker 3: you know when you played the Mystery Millions and you bagged,
Speaker 3: you couldn't play things for days, and then you know,
Speaker 3: same thing with this Monster Stack. They're just basically trapping
Speaker 3: people in events, which is giving them kind of days
Speaker 3: off in between. So it's kind of even made it
Speaker 3: a little bit harder for me to play some of
Speaker 3: those things, Like I'd love to play the Monster but
Speaker 3: I just I just don't want to play like day
Speaker 3: one A and then you know, I get trapped and
Speaker 3: I bag, you know, fourteen lines and it's a fast structure.
Speaker 3: You know, you just kind of got to come back
Speaker 3: like four days later, and you know, there's all these
Speaker 3: events that I want to play. So that's kind of
Speaker 3: been my conundrum with some of these.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you're also somebody who you know, you're
Speaker 1: not going to leave the divacop like you're basically locked
Speaker 1: inside these walls, and that's by your choice. When did
Speaker 1: that start for you? Like what when or was that
Speaker 1: always in your career?
Speaker 3: So you know, I fell in love with the World series,
Speaker 3: and you know It's weird because I know I shouldn't
Speaker 3: have this, and my wife tells me all the time
Speaker 3: I don't have it, and other people do. But I
Speaker 3: have this complex that like I want to be considered
Speaker 3: one of the lead players, and she's just like, well,
Speaker 3: you are, you are. I'm like, no, I don't. People
Speaker 3: don't think about me the way that they think about
Speaker 3: those some of the other guys, and rightfully so they're better,
Speaker 3: they're more accomplished, but it's like I want to fit
Speaker 3: into that. I want to be in. I want to
Speaker 3: be in the discussion when you know, Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: comes up and legacy and those kind of things. Even
Speaker 3: though I'm not now, I know that, Like, you know,
Speaker 3: I have four bracelets, and I have a WPT title,
Speaker 3: a real WPT title, not one of these you know,
Speaker 3: little ones that are one hundred and fifty K. I
Speaker 3: want to you know, I want LABC when it was
Speaker 3: a real one. I have four real bracelets, you know,
Speaker 3: not the online in Delaware. No offense to the Delaware winners,
Speaker 3: but you know, but I don't think that I ever
Speaker 3: really get discussed in that elite category. And it's a
Speaker 3: chip on my shoulder that I want to be considered
Speaker 3: that So if I go and and I love playing
Speaker 3: at the win, but if I go, when I win
Speaker 3: the fifteen hundred at the win, that doesn't do anything.
Speaker 3: It does not do anything for my legacy. And even
Speaker 3: though it's stupid, like it should just all be about
Speaker 3: the money. I guess that's why I'm number one in
Speaker 3: the heart rankings because I love it, you know, and
Speaker 3: I want to be considered, you know, in that top echelon.
Speaker 3: So I know I need I know I need to
Speaker 3: get the five, six, seven, eight bracelets. So the only
Speaker 3: way for me to do it is to be here.
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not like so focused on that that
Speaker 3: I'm going to forego some of these bigger field, no
Speaker 3: limit things, you know. Like I started today playing in
Speaker 3: the Big O, which is a much harder bracelet to
Speaker 3: win than the ten case Stud. But I started in
Speaker 3: it because, you know, I knew that the field was
Speaker 3: going to be weaker. I knew that there was going
Speaker 3: to be a lot of money up top and whatnot.
Speaker 3: You know, I busted pretty quick and I wasn't really
Speaker 3: feeling it, so I didn't re enter and I came
Speaker 3: and played the stud. But I'm not foregoing some of
Speaker 3: those things, you know, only searching for you know, nothing
Speaker 3: but the bracelet being the most important. But it still is, like,
Speaker 3: I mean, the bracelet is is what matters. I mean,
Speaker 3: I would much rather win one hundred and fifty k
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred RAS than when two hundred K for finishing
Speaker 3: eighteen eighth and something else, Like I know that's stupid,
Speaker 3: but you know, I don't know. That's just for me.
Speaker 3: It's just all about accomplishing goals and winning bracelets and
Speaker 3: getting my name, you know, talked about when you know,
Speaker 3: when things come up that's important to me. And you know,
Speaker 3: my kids are grown, you know, my wife and I
Speaker 3: live you know, happily and comfortably. That's kind of like
Speaker 3: that's what drives me.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, I I would agree that you're not
Speaker 1: in that conversation. I don't agree that you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: in that conversation. I think you should be, you know,
Speaker 1: I like I always think, like you're always on my
Speaker 1: list for fantasy and that sort of stuff, just because
Speaker 1: I think so much should be said. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of weight that should be on people who just show
Speaker 1: up and compete to the best of their ability every
Speaker 1: single day. You know, like I feel like you're somebody
Speaker 1: who's you're probably always playing your a game or at
Speaker 1: least as close to it as you can on a
Speaker 1: consistent basis. Where I see a lot of other people,
Speaker 1: they go up and down by the day, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's very hard to do. Now that said, I
Speaker 1: also understand the other side of it, where you're at
Speaker 1: where you have that drive to like want to be
Speaker 1: the best, which I think is ultimately I mean, I
Speaker 1: know what your wife is saying, yes, but also like
Speaker 1: I think it's the best players need that drive, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you have to push yourself.
Speaker 3: Look, I mean when when faced with the decision this year,
Speaker 3: you know, I own a twenty five K fantasy team
Speaker 3: and I'm the you know, wive partners, but I'm the
Speaker 3: lead voice. And Scott sever was one of my main
Speaker 3: targets this year because he has that that as well,
Speaker 3: like that he wants to be, you know, always considered,
Speaker 3: you know, the best, and I knew that coming off
Speaker 3: of a down year he would take it personally that
Speaker 3: people forgot about him and they didn't consider him as
Speaker 3: you know, a slam dunk with Sean deeb like in
Speaker 3: the hundreds in the Grano and so I like targeted
Speaker 3: that and I have that same drive. You know, Scott's
Speaker 3: a better player than I am. He's more accomplished than
Speaker 3: I am, but we we vibe on the fact that
Speaker 3: we have that same drive to prove people wrong consistently
Speaker 3: or prove them right. Like I'm sure he had it
Speaker 3: last year as well, like he wanted to prove that
Speaker 3: he wasn't a one hit wonder with the not that
Speaker 3: he's a one hit wonder, but a one hit wonder
Speaker 3: as Player of the Year, like that he wanted to
Speaker 3: go out and do it again. But I think he's
Speaker 3: kind of one of like me, Like we strive on
Speaker 3: the negative more than the positive. I don't know that
Speaker 3: to be fact. I might be putting words in his mouth,
Speaker 3: but when people tell me like how good I am,
Speaker 3: or like elite, or like when I had like my
Speaker 3: best years, I followed him up sometimes with some of
Speaker 3: my worst years. But when I've done poorly, I've always
Speaker 3: followed those up with successful years because just the drive
Speaker 3: to prove people wrong that didn't believe in me through
Speaker 3: the whole thing, which is stupid. And I know that
Speaker 3: it's fabricated.
Speaker 1: And but I don't think it's stupid at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I feel the same way. Like I played
Speaker 1: sports my whole life. I always felt that way. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel that way like in my own poker now,
Speaker 1: Like and it's not on the level that you're up
Speaker 1: there trying to achieve, but like I basically want to
Speaker 1: win a poker tournament just to fucking prove people that
Speaker 1: I can actually do the fucking thing, like, you know,
Speaker 1: especially when like I'm trying, I'm supposed to be sitting
Speaker 1: in a commentary booth like talking about hands and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and people.
Speaker 2: Might be like, well, who the hell is this guy?
Speaker 3: What is he?
Speaker 2: I'm like, can I just win a damn tournament?
Speaker 1: Like, not like I'm not talking about like, you know,
Speaker 1: the south Point Nightly shout out to the south Point Nightly,
Speaker 1: but I'm talking like a meaningful tournament.
Speaker 2: Can I actually do something? You know?
Speaker 1: So I understand what you're saying. I feel the same
Speaker 1: way sitting here, Like I want to put out the
Speaker 1: best podcast and the best content and have the best
Speaker 1: content team and like do the best stuff like I
Speaker 1: And it's always going to drive you, you know, and
Speaker 1: it eats at you. I get it. So I definitely
Speaker 1: feel what you go through. And the best people in
Speaker 1: any industry, it's not just poker. They have to have
Speaker 1: that drive.
Speaker 2: You just have to.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And and you know it's funny because, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm bringing up Seaver a lot just because he's on
Speaker 3: my mind because I drafted him and we've been talking
Speaker 3: a good bit the last couple of weeks. But he said,
Speaker 3: as soon as your draft room were like welcome team,
Speaker 3: He's like, people have the memory of a goldfish, and uh,
Speaker 3: and that's kind of that's kind of it. It's like,
Speaker 3: what have you done for me lately? And it's it's
Speaker 3: like it was weird because you know, I want to
Speaker 3: brace it last year and so it's like come into
Speaker 3: this year and it's like you would think like that's
Speaker 3: but then I you know, I went to Poco goa
Speaker 3: studio and I had a couple of seconds and I
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, I can I can do this. And
Speaker 3: then I did two series and I didn't didn't do much,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, I think, well, everybody
Speaker 3: must think I suck because I didn't do anything. And
Speaker 3: it's so stupid. It's like a ten or fifteen tournament
Speaker 3: sample size. But it's just like, if I'm not constantly
Speaker 3: proving that I can do it, I feel like people
Speaker 3: doubt me. And it's so dumb sometime. I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I mean, I keep saying it's dumb, but
Speaker 3: I mean, I know, the reality is that these things
Speaker 3: nobody just continues to win constantly. You know, it's a poke.
Speaker 3: Their poker tournaments, and they're high variants and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of really good players and there's a lot of
Speaker 3: luck involved as well. So even if you're the most skilled,
Speaker 3: which I'm not, you aren't going to win everything. So
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's it's what drives me, and so
Speaker 3: that's what I need, and so I'm just gonna harness that.
Speaker 3: It's you know, I just always harness that as my motivation.
Speaker 3: And look, whatever you need out there, you know, if
Speaker 3: your feet on the negg, if you feed on the positive,
Speaker 3: if you feed on like whatever it is, whatever your
Speaker 3: motivation is, you just got to find it.
Speaker 1: Are you someone who you know while you're playing, Like,
Speaker 1: is it to the point where like you think about
Speaker 1: it while you're playing, or is it more like I
Speaker 1: think about it off the table when I'm at the table,
Speaker 1: I just focus in on the task at hand.
Speaker 3: No, I mean I think I'm pretty focused at the
Speaker 3: table on kind of what I'm doing and what's going on.
Speaker 3: But I don't know, it's just what gets me to
Speaker 3: come in every day. Like I woke up today, I
Speaker 3: mean I was tired. I woke up at like six
Speaker 3: o'clock this morning, and I was, you know, it's hard
Speaker 3: to go back to sleep, and I found a way
Speaker 3: to like sleep another hour or so, and it was
Speaker 3: just kind of like I kind of was like, man,
Speaker 3: I would be nice to take a day off, and
Speaker 3: then I'm like, I'm not taking I'm not taking a
Speaker 3: day off. This is the world. Serious. I feel like, well,
Speaker 3: why don't you just Yeah, she was like, well, why
Speaker 3: don't you just hang around a little while. So I
Speaker 3: hung around nextra hour and I skipped the monster stack
Speaker 3: and just played Big O' andstud But uh, like that's
Speaker 3: taking a break from me. I came in. I came
Speaker 3: in at uh, you know, at one instead of at eleven.
Speaker 3: So that's that's like me giving myself a break.
Speaker 2: I like, I like that side of the world series.
Speaker 1: You know, I've always thought that endurance is part of
Speaker 1: this giant thing, like you have to be able to
Speaker 1: well play long days, but then also play those days
Speaker 1: over and over and over again hopefully you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: you're you're going deep over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and you have to have really thick skin and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get punched in the face a lot out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's tournament poker, that's just the nature of
Speaker 1: the beast. But just constantly getting up and being like, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta go back.
Speaker 3: I got to The people that I love and admire
Speaker 3: the most in this business are the people who, regardless
Speaker 3: of the results, I know they're going to be here
Speaker 3: for forty five days. Yeah, And you know, it's it's funny.
Speaker 3: You've did it. You've done it. You did the twenty
Speaker 3: five k draft for years, and you talk to all
Speaker 3: these people, and I get people who text me and
Speaker 3: they want to be part of the team, and they
Speaker 3: want to be drafted and they want all this stuff.
Speaker 3: And it's like everybody's got a schedule until they go, oh,
Speaker 3: for twelve and they're now in seventy thousand. You know,
Speaker 3: everybody plans to show up every day and put in
Speaker 3: the two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand or four
Speaker 3: hundred thousand, but prove it to me for five five
Speaker 3: years that you're actually going to do it, because it's scary.
Speaker 3: You know, you draft somebody and you know, we make
Speaker 3: all these side bets and we invest all this money,
Speaker 3: and then next thing, you know, like they're they're oh
Speaker 3: for eight and they're down you know, forty eight thousand,
Speaker 3: and they're like, uh, well, I'm going to play golf
Speaker 3: and it's like I'm out, Like I can't take it.
Speaker 3: So being emotionally strong is those are the people that
Speaker 3: I love that you can just count on. You just
Speaker 3: know they're going to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean speaking of fantasy ODB fantasy Now before
Speaker 1: we get into like the numbers and the growth that
Speaker 1: it had, I got to ask you because it's kind
Speaker 1: of along these same lines. You know, not only are
Speaker 1: you showing up at least for the first week or
Speaker 1: so doing the whole poker thing, going through that gauntlet,
Speaker 1: you're then trying to wrangle this league together. I mean
Speaker 1: I like that, so that on top of trying to
Speaker 1: play the best poker that you can play, hopefully winn
Speaker 1: another bracelet go deep final tables, whatever, you're like, I
Speaker 1: got to collect five hundred ars from everyone, like I
Speaker 1: gotta keep this list, I gotta do this, that and
Speaker 1: the other thing. So I mean, how are you doing
Speaker 1: all of that at once?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean when I started this thing, I obviously
Speaker 3: never envisioned this, but as it's become such a part
Speaker 3: of the World Series, you know, I feel on obligation
Speaker 3: to continue it. And yeah, it's way more work. I mean,
Speaker 3: Nicole and I joke all the time that, you know,
Speaker 3: the World Series doesn't really start for me till like
Speaker 3: mid June. I mean, I'm always over twelve. And this
Speaker 3: year somehow, I've you know, the very first event I
Speaker 3: cashed in and had an opportunity, and I've had you know,
Speaker 3: multiple cashes and deep ish runs and it's very rare
Speaker 3: for me because it's very hard for me to focus
Speaker 3: on both. But I don't know, I mean I love it,
Speaker 3: and everybody loves it. I mean, getting the thank yous
Speaker 3: for doing it, like repeatedly, like that keeps me going.
Speaker 3: It's kind of and I told you this last year
Speaker 3: and another interview we did, but it's kind of my
Speaker 3: give back a little bit to the community, like they
Speaker 3: love it and I love it, and look it's not easy,
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of like, you know, it's just
Speaker 3: it's annoying.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean I feel like every day I
Speaker 1: wake up, there's a new post on social media, like, hey,
Speaker 1: does anyone know these people?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, I mean the worst thing is just like
Speaker 3: people who can't read simple instructions. It's like I took
Speaker 3: the time to write out a one page thing to
Speaker 3: tell you exactly what to do, and they just ask
Speaker 3: me the thing that's like clearly right there. I mean
Speaker 3: I can't imagine. I mean, keV Math does this for
Speaker 3: you know, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 3: It's like he'll post the structure sheet and they'll be like, well,
Speaker 3: what times it start, and it's like, yeah, it's right there,
Speaker 3: I just posted it. But yeah, I mean I I
Speaker 3: love the fantasy aspect of it. And you know, those
Speaker 3: who haven't heard the story before, just a quick how
Speaker 3: I started this thing eleven years ago. Ray Henson and
Speaker 3: I used.
Speaker 2: To drive from years. I didn't know it was that long.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is this is eleventh year. Ray Henson and
Speaker 3: I used to drive from Houston to Vegas every year
Speaker 3: and we would runt a house together and so we
Speaker 3: would drive twenty four hours and we would always drive
Speaker 3: in the day that they were doing the draft, and
Speaker 3: we would listen to the live coverage and always hoping
Speaker 3: that we would be drafted and how much and all that.
Speaker 3: And we were driving one year and I was it
Speaker 3: was eleven years ago, and I said, I was like, man,
Speaker 3: these people are terrible at this. I mean, I was like,
Speaker 3: they're so bad.
Speaker 1: It's like we got started in there too, because we
Speaker 1: were like, everyone sucks at this thing?
Speaker 3: What are they doing? And so I just posted a
Speaker 3: Twitter thing. I was like, let's anybody want to make
Speaker 3: a team. And I was just expecting to do like
Speaker 3: a couple of side bets, and then like I just
Speaker 3: got multiple people that were like, yeah, let I'll do
Speaker 3: it versu you so, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you know, I get all these things. I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: let's just let's just all do it together instead of
Speaker 3: me doing one on one, you know, betts versus you
Speaker 3: because you and so I asked Nicole, I was like,
Speaker 3: can we do this? And she was like yeah, and
Speaker 3: she built an Excel spreadsheet and she she manually put
Speaker 3: in We got ninety four entries the first year. It
Speaker 3: was like literally an idea that I had in twenty
Speaker 3: four hours later, we had ninety four entries. I had
Speaker 3: built like a new email account to take the emails
Speaker 3: and the whole thing, and she manually scored it in
Speaker 3: an Excel spreadsheet for ninety four people. And then it's
Speaker 3: it's built up through the years. And last year we
Speaker 3: had eight hundred and seventy people and this year twelve
Speaker 3: hundred entries.
Speaker 1: So yeahah, so from ninety four to twelve oh one,
Speaker 1: over that eleven year span is like almost thirteen x.
Speaker 1: You just mentioned eight to seventy last year, twelve o
Speaker 1: one this year, that's about a fifty percent increase.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's it. The growth is wild.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the growth is the growth is crazy. I mean,
Speaker 3: and I think you know, we had what's at like
Speaker 3: three hundred and twenty five or whatever new entries this year,
Speaker 3: but we had like one hundred and sixty new people.
Speaker 3: So it's not like it's just some people are entering
Speaker 3: more or whatnot. It's like we're actually getting new people.
Speaker 3: And I'm you know Stan who does the website, if
Speaker 3: I mean, he's just absolutely amazing, and hit started with
Speaker 3: him with the labor of love too. He he is,
Speaker 3: he lives in Pennsylvania, he's got a real job, and
Speaker 3: he was just a fanboy of poker and he asked
Speaker 3: Daniel if he could do sit and he did, and
Speaker 3: then he contacted me for like year. I think we
Speaker 3: did year one and two and three I think on
Speaker 3: Excel spreadsheets and then he had contact. He's like, I
Speaker 3: think I can build you out something, and so we
Speaker 3: started building in every He's just constantly trying to improve
Speaker 3: it and it's amazing what he has built. So I
Speaker 3: love working with him. He's just a great guy and
Speaker 3: very talented. So yeah, I'm next year there'll just be
Speaker 3: more improvements. And you know, I've got some ideas next
Speaker 3: year to make it a little bit easier for myself.
Speaker 3: Hopefully they work out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, does it surprise you that that Fantasy Pokra
Speaker 1: has gotten so big?
Speaker 3: No, not really, because it's I mean, I don't know people. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, we're we're dealing with a bunch of gamblers,
Speaker 3: and we're dealing with people who have I think they're
Speaker 3: smarter than everybody else. And we were also, you know,
Speaker 3: we we kind of grew up the people who are
Speaker 3: playing this Now we grew up with when DraftKings was like, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, it's still big, but like in Nevada, obviously
Speaker 3: it's not legal. It's a little harder to play, gotta
Speaker 3: go across the border, YadA, YadA, YadA. But you know,
Speaker 3: we grew up in kind of a fantasy DFS.
Speaker 1: I mean Draft Kings now is I mean it's known
Speaker 1: for sports betting, like, well, there's probably a lot of
Speaker 1: people that there it is. Again, there's probably a lot
Speaker 1: of people on DraftKings right now who participate on the
Speaker 1: platform that might not even have any idea what DFS is,
Speaker 1: and like grinding out the DFS like that's what DraftKings was.
Speaker 1: I mean, now it's this huge sports betting platform. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean they're even getting into prediction markets and that
Speaker 1: whole thing too, But it was only DFS back in
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I remember when we had the DraftKings
Speaker 3: lounge and stuff, and you know, I still love DraftKings
Speaker 3: and you know, I do underdog drafts and DraftKings drafts
Speaker 3: and I do Draft Kings dfs you know, when it's
Speaker 3: football season and stuff. So it's all about just kind
Speaker 3: of trying to show that you can both use your
Speaker 3: opinions plus some game theory, and it's just fun. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's not surprising me because it's fun. Like you know,
Speaker 3: obviously I did it because I love it and enjoy it.
Speaker 3: And I think I'm around like minded people. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think this whole industry we're all kind of like
Speaker 3: minded and the things that we like to do.
Speaker 2: Do you play your own fans.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do. I don't. I only put in a
Speaker 3: few teams because I'm I'm so busy at the time.
Speaker 3: From the minute that the twenty five K draft is over,
Speaker 3: I'm like trying to go through the bonus players, see
Speaker 3: who didn't get drafted, who I can add. People are
Speaker 3: texting me trying to add people are paying, So I
Speaker 3: don't really have time to actually kind of put it down.
Speaker 3: But I always throw in a few teams. And I
Speaker 3: used to. I used to just use my name on
Speaker 3: the title, but I would always have people like, oh,
Speaker 3: you didn't pick me, huh. It's just like so now
Speaker 3: I just make up make up names.
Speaker 1: That's such a funny aspect of this fantasy league, the
Speaker 1: fantasy poker leagues, both the twenty five K and your league.
Speaker 1: It's like because people even tell me like, oh, you
Speaker 1: didn't draft me this year. I like, I DMed you
Speaker 1: my schedule. I'm like, okay, I can only pick eight people. Man, Like,
Speaker 1: what do you want me to do?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Maybe I tried to bid on you and somebody outbid me,
Speaker 1: which happened a couple of times, and then I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: I tried, Okay, I didn't have enough money.
Speaker 2: What do you want me to do?
Speaker 3: I mean a funny story. I mean, I don't know film.
Speaker 3: But so Jason Daly is he a good friend of
Speaker 3: Ray Henson's and for the last two years he's told
Speaker 3: it and we've been like, yeah, you know, you're on
Speaker 3: a let and he's always been like the bubble boy
Speaker 3: that like, if if one person got bid on that
Speaker 3: we had just above him, we would have had Jason.
Speaker 3: But we never ended up with him. This year, I
Speaker 3: told him we're drafting you. I told Ray. I was like,
Speaker 3: tell him, we're going to draft him. And then, because
Speaker 3: then nobody knows him, I'm just going to keep him
Speaker 3: to the end. And then Jeremy Becker throws him out
Speaker 3: like halfway through the auction, and then I'm bidding two, three, four,
Speaker 3: and but my philosophy on the draft is just you know,
Speaker 3: I've got all these guys that are kind of that
Speaker 3: I like a lot that are I expect to get
Speaker 3: at the end, but I don't want to. I don't
Speaker 3: want to pay for them early because I want to
Speaker 3: leave the flexibility when there's somebody that is you know,
Speaker 3: good value or you know, I can use those dollars
Speaker 3: to bid up like some of the good teams that
Speaker 3: I know like are willing to pay more and things
Speaker 3: like that. So I just let him go even though
Speaker 3: I wanted him this year. And then he wins a
Speaker 3: bracelet and like his first amend. So it's kind of like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, but it's funny because he's like every year
Speaker 3: he's he's like, oh, you didn't draft me again, and
Speaker 3: I think he's just the second year he want a bracelet,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, it's it is funny how people do
Speaker 3: kind of take it personally when when they don't when
Speaker 3: they don't get bought by you. But look like we're
Speaker 3: only we like you said, we can only do eight
Speaker 3: and you know I have three hundred schedules in my DM,
Speaker 3: so it's like, I mean, I'm sorry, Like you know,
Speaker 3: I'd love to have you all.
Speaker 1: I thought the twenty five K fancy draft this year
Speaker 1: was like the softest it's ever been. I I I
Speaker 1: part of my lack of motivation to do it this
Speaker 1: year is that I thought last year was very tough.
Speaker 1: I thought a lot of people were prepared, a lot
Speaker 1: of people had the same guys that we had pegged,
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, okay, whatever, and then I
Speaker 1: just never felt the motivation that said this year, I
Speaker 1: was like, what the hell are people doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I thought there were some really poor drafters in
Speaker 3: the room. But I think a lot of it is
Speaker 3: the product of we've gotten new people in that they
Speaker 3: might not have all the contacts and so they're basically
Speaker 3: just using the raw data from past years to formulate
Speaker 3: the prices, or they're just taking their no limit you know,
Speaker 3: friends or whatever, and you've got to just kind of
Speaker 3: I mean, I do have a little advantage that I
Speaker 3: kind of know like all the mixed game community, and
Speaker 3: I know the no limit guys. Now that I'm playing
Speaker 3: in the studio, you know, I started to meet some
Speaker 3: of those guys, and like, this year, my target, my
Speaker 3: my plan was to make sure that I got a
Speaker 3: couple studio guys, and I got David Coleman, who you know,
Speaker 3: no offense to anybody else. No, he didn't Stone Bubble,
Speaker 3: No really yeah, oh shit. See that's the thing they
Speaker 3: don't even is that real breaking news?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You want to know.
Speaker 1: The hand too is a funny one. He opens the button.
Speaker 1: Jesse lonis who's a big Chip leader. Three bets from
Speaker 1: the Big Blind. David has King nine suited, David four
Speaker 1: bets like all but like five k left.
Speaker 2: Jesse just has aces.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I didn't know I because you know, once they started
Speaker 3: doing the feature tables, they don't put on the Uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's got a change, by the way. That's I
Speaker 1: sent the messages today to people too, because there's like
Speaker 1: forty fifty people in the app that just say featured player,
Speaker 1: feature player. I'm like, can we like at least with
Speaker 1: their names, Yeah, just so I know they're still in
Speaker 1: the tournament when if they bust out?
Speaker 2: Like fine? Like what right?
Speaker 3: I was Actually I was excited to go home and
Speaker 3: watch the coverage and see Coleman on there.
Speaker 2: Now are you are you someone?
Speaker 1: Who do you do you consume the coverage? Like well,
Speaker 1: I mean obviously it's probably hard for you while you're.
Speaker 3: Playing hard while I'm playing. I watched I watched the
Speaker 3: heads Up. I watched some of the heads Up because
Speaker 3: well because I was on it. But it's all also
Speaker 3: just you know, I kind of wanted to see some
Speaker 3: of it. I I really haven't had the time because
Speaker 3: I'm I'm playing every day. But if there's if there's
Speaker 3: people that I want to watch, I will, you know,
Speaker 3: and I like everything that they're doing here. It's just
Speaker 3: it's hard to watch while I'm at the table. But
Speaker 3: if there's something like super interesting, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: watch like the random tables just because I'm you know,
Speaker 3: I don't want it to take away too much from
Speaker 3: my playing. But you know, if I'm sitting in the
Speaker 3: monster stack tomorrow, like I'll put the coverage on, but
Speaker 3: you know, i'm playing ten K stud I'm not going
Speaker 3: to watch the coverage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, back to fantasy real quickly. Is there is there
Speaker 1: anything that you might have learned from running the ODB
Speaker 1: League that maybe you you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a little side benefit or something to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: like that's kind of cool that I get to do
Speaker 1: this or whatever, like maybe something that you didn't a
Speaker 1: preciate when you first started.
Speaker 2: Then now you do appreciate.
Speaker 3: I really do, just like appreciate the people more, but
Speaker 3: not from uh, I haven't learned anything that's helped me
Speaker 3: in the twenty five K thing or or any of that,
Speaker 3: which I probably should, Like you really should just look
Speaker 3: at the ownerships and the ODB League and kind of
Speaker 3: get a sense at who people think are good players.
Speaker 3: You know, like Pads is continuously one of the most
Speaker 3: owned players. So that just means that the other players
Speaker 3: who are playing obviously respect him. Obviously. It also comes
Speaker 3: to the fact that he always says I'm not playing
Speaker 3: and he shows up every fucking day. But and I
Speaker 3: love Pads. Pads is one of my one of the
Speaker 3: people that have become the closest to me over the
Speaker 3: last two years.
Speaker 2: I love Pads.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Patrick Leonard, and you know, he's someone
Speaker 1: who I think he obviously posts a lot on social media,
Speaker 1: right and if for you guys out there, and I've
Speaker 1: said this before, so this isn't anything new for many
Speaker 1: of you, but you can glean a lot of really
Speaker 1: good tips and insight, like he might not be always
Speaker 1: diving into the details of a hand history, which he
Speaker 1: does at times, yes, but there's other things, like, you know,
Speaker 1: I talked about you being one of those people who
Speaker 1: shows up every day and just consistently playing as close
Speaker 1: to the top of your game. Like that's a big
Speaker 1: Pads thing, Like just always showing up and playing the
Speaker 1: best you can play when everyone else is going up
Speaker 1: and down, everyone's gonna have a bad day there. You know,
Speaker 1: people are just gonna fire it in and just do whatever.
Speaker 1: Like they might be on tilt, they might be tired,
Speaker 1: they might be over because they're over eighteen, you know,
Speaker 1: like all that sort of stuff. But if you can
Speaker 1: just keep showing up even if your game isn't as
Speaker 1: good as everyone else is, But if you're consistently playing
Speaker 1: that the best you can, you're probably gonna have a
Speaker 1: decent amount of success because everyone else is gonna go
Speaker 1: all over the place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Also, like you'll hear
Speaker 3: a lot of the high limit players and you know
Speaker 3: a lot of times they get asked like, well, why
Speaker 3: are you guys playing this game? It's like who's the fish,
Speaker 3: and it's like, well, it depends on the day, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, And the thing that makes the great players
Speaker 3: the best is their ability to like, if I could
Speaker 3: just have my B game every single day, I take it.
Speaker 3: But the thing is, like, we're all human. We have
Speaker 3: our A games, we have our B games, we have
Speaker 3: our C games, we have our D games. So trying
Speaker 3: to play your D game as little as possible, or
Speaker 3: at least in spots where you can kind of get
Speaker 3: away with it because you're playing against lesser competition or whatever,
Speaker 3: that's kind of key. And and you know, I try
Speaker 3: to do that. I'm not I'm definitely not perfect in
Speaker 3: that I've played some horrific hands over the years and
Speaker 3: everyone has, yeah, and I mean, I'm sure I've played
Speaker 3: multiple This year, I feel like I feel like this series,
Speaker 3: I really have played pretty damn good. So I'm I'm
Speaker 3: I'm hopeful that the rest of the series kind of
Speaker 3: goes well because I have felt like I've played pretty
Speaker 3: pretty good so far. So you know, I'm excited. I
Speaker 3: can't say that every year I've started out feeling that way,
Speaker 3: especially like you said, you know, I'm so distracted the
Speaker 3: first week, week and a half. I definitely don't think
Speaker 3: that that that I have at times, but kind of
Speaker 3: making a little run in the first event, and then
Speaker 3: you know, I got an early final table just like
Speaker 3: a week ago and or I don't even know what
Speaker 3: is three four days ago and no limit douce. I
Speaker 3: think that kind of has kind of showed me, you know,
Speaker 3: just keep playing well and you're gonna, you know, you're
Speaker 3: gonna give yourself opportunities. So I mean that's at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, that's all we can do is
Speaker 3: try to put ourselves in position as much as possible.
Speaker 3: And you know, I've said this before, but it's it's
Speaker 3: like all every opportunity that I've had that I've missed,
Speaker 3: I've tried to like get something out of and you know,
Speaker 3: hopefully get in a better position the next time that
Speaker 3: I'm in that and I can kind of look back.
Speaker 3: I was having this discussion with somebody the other day
Speaker 3: and they were, you know, why do you play the
Speaker 3: studio events like they're not good? Like there's no eve either,
Speaker 3: And it's you know what, if I'm break even ev
Speaker 3: in the studio or even small loser, that is more
Speaker 3: learning than you can do, then you can pay for
Speaker 3: in any course. Because now I'm playing against David Coleman,
Speaker 3: I'm playing against Shannon Shure, I'm playing against you know,
Speaker 3: Jesse Lonis, I'm playing against these people, so when I
Speaker 3: get in these spots in these tournaments, I'm not foreign
Speaker 3: to it. Also, in the studio, you're playing against you know,
Speaker 3: there's less tables, so you get to the final three tables,
Speaker 3: you get to the final two tables, you get to
Speaker 3: the final table more often. So I've been in these
Speaker 3: positions where I've seen the ICM implications and I also change.
Speaker 1: You know, in the studio generally speaking, most of the
Speaker 1: tournaments start fairly shallow. So like you're in there and
Speaker 1: like hand one, it's meaningful poker. You're like, let's go.
Speaker 1: You know, this isn't like I got five hundred big blinds.
Speaker 1: Let's just sit around for three hours. Maybe somebody will
Speaker 1: punt to me.
Speaker 2: Whatever. No, You're in there and you're like, you gotta go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I can. I can think of other
Speaker 3: times in my career that maybe I haven't capitalized on
Speaker 3: spots that maybe if I had, you know, taken a
Speaker 3: slightly negative ev spot by by putting myself in some
Speaker 3: of these tournaments that are a little tougher, that maybe
Speaker 3: I would have been more prepared for and that pays
Speaker 3: for all the you know, if you're playing like a
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars tournament at the Poker Co Studio. You know,
Speaker 3: a player like myself that even if I'm even if
Speaker 3: I'm not a big winning player there, like what am
Speaker 3: what's it costing me like three hundred bucks to play
Speaker 3: when I got forty seven hundred TV instead of fifty
Speaker 3: one hundred or whatever. It's like, I'm not You're not
Speaker 3: losing every time. So even if I'm losing small, I'm
Speaker 3: gaining the experience and the knowledge that when I get
Speaker 3: in this situation and I get down to three tables
Speaker 3: here at the World Series, like last year, you know,
Speaker 3: I was in the seniors and and I obviously you know,
Speaker 3: I won that, And it's like the three tables in
Speaker 3: I was able to do things that I might not
Speaker 3: have done had I not been able to play with
Speaker 3: some of those players, you know, over the past year
Speaker 3: two years. So it's like now that I'm getting more
Speaker 3: experience playing against those type of players, when I when
Speaker 3: I get in these opportunities again, which I know I'm
Speaker 3: going to, I'll be able to harken back to. And also,
Speaker 3: you know, I watch what's Brock Wilson doing, Like like,
Speaker 3: how is he having so much? Like I'm watching the
Speaker 3: things that he's doing and I'm like, why did he
Speaker 3: do that? And I'm I'm really good at reverse engineering hands.
Speaker 3: A lot of people learn, you know, from front to back.
Speaker 3: I kind of learned back to front. You know. People
Speaker 3: want to be totally studied and they want to learn,
Speaker 3: and then they want to go in and they want
Speaker 3: to implement that. What I do. My approach to poker
Speaker 3: is more like I watch good players play and I
Speaker 3: see the things that they do, and I try to
Speaker 3: figure out why did they do that? And Okay, what
Speaker 3: would I how do I combat that? And also how
Speaker 3: do I bring that into my own game? And so
Speaker 3: when I get in these spots, I think back, oh, well,
Speaker 3: Shannon Shore did this, I liked the way that he
Speaker 3: did that, or I didn't understand the way that he
Speaker 3: did that. Let me think about why he did that,
Speaker 3: and I will revert. And it always ends up with
Speaker 3: me kind of studying because he studies so much, and
Speaker 3: he's playing you know, close to I'm not gonna say perfect,
Speaker 3: but like he's playing closer to optimal. So if he
Speaker 3: does it, let me figure out why. And so that's
Speaker 3: kind of been my approach to poker, and that's kind
Speaker 3: of why I really like playing with, you know, some
Speaker 3: of these best players, some of the best players.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's also a lot to be said just
Speaker 1: about putting yourselves in spots. And this isn't just poker,
Speaker 1: this is really any avenue of life, putting your spots,
Speaker 1: putting yourself in spots that are out of your comfort zone,
Speaker 1: that are more challenging, like, because that's going to bring growth, right,
Speaker 1: And you have to do a lot of that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, right.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, maybe you're not.
Speaker 1: A winning player if you're in there every single day,
Speaker 1: But to take a couple of shots here and there,
Speaker 1: I think is fine. And I think a lot of
Speaker 1: poker players out there should take shots.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Maybe don't take shots where your risk of ruin is
Speaker 1: through the roof, I get it, But you know, you
Speaker 1: can take a shot here and there. I've played in
Speaker 1: the studio too, you know, and I wanted to take
Speaker 1: a shot just to like get out there and like
Speaker 1: listen again, going back to what I said at the beginning,
Speaker 1: like I'm in the commentary with a lot of times
Speaker 1: talking about these players, I need to at least get
Speaker 1: out there and experience that you know, even if I lose,
Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Just getting your feet wet a little bit, like you
Speaker 2: just have to try.
Speaker 3: And it's not only in poker, it's like life. You know.
Speaker 3: I wanted to do more what are you called? Like
Speaker 3: you know, podcasts and and just more media stuff. So
Speaker 3: you know, I started doing some things on you know,
Speaker 3: I got invited to do a visting spot. I wasn't
Speaker 3: comfortable the first time, but I did it and then
Speaker 3: I got a little better, and then you know, I've
Speaker 3: I've I've taped some podcasts with you know, Jason McIntyre
Speaker 3: and I've you know who saw it with Fox Sports,
Speaker 3: and I've and I started my own podcast, Gamble Up.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we'll get some episodes back soon. But just kind
Speaker 3: of like putting myself out there in uncomfortable spots so
Speaker 3: that I can get better, and people ask like, well,
Speaker 3: what's your in game with that, and it's like, I
Speaker 3: don't know. All I know is that it's something that
Speaker 3: I enjoy doing. And look, I'm not going to get
Speaker 3: hired by Fox to do a podcast today, but you know,
Speaker 3: if I get my reps and I learn how to
Speaker 3: do it and I and I get better at it,
Speaker 3: and I put myself out there and I make you know,
Speaker 3: I make some bad podcasts. That's fine because I'm learning
Speaker 3: as I do it, and so hopefully then when I
Speaker 3: do get that opportunity to maybe you know, be on
Speaker 3: a bigger stage and have bigger opportunities, I'll be more
Speaker 3: verse than able to do it. And you know, I'm
Speaker 3: sure you probably feel that way too. That's why I mean,
Speaker 3: you guys started grid Iron Gamble, and I mean.
Speaker 1: I was, I was completely a fish out of water
Speaker 1: when I first started doing podcasts, when I first did commentary,
Speaker 1: when I first did any sort of video thing. And
Speaker 1: now it's just natural to me, right, But you have
Speaker 1: to build up those reps. I mean, maybe there are
Speaker 1: some unicorns out there that they just turn on the
Speaker 1: camera and they turn on the mic and they just
Speaker 1: go and whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, just exactly, Yeah, you just started.
Speaker 1: And like there's a lot of learning with it, and
Speaker 1: you just you have to go through those reps.
Speaker 2: You have to do it.
Speaker 1: It's just how it is, and you're not gonna learn
Speaker 1: without doing it. You're just you're just not so And
Speaker 1: it's the same thing, like I'm sure there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people out there who they had that same sort
Speaker 1: of feeling. I mean, I had that same sort of
Speaker 1: feeling when I first went to play.
Speaker 2: Poker into casino.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh shit, I gotta go like playing a casino, Like,
Speaker 1: am I gonna like do I know how to like
Speaker 1: handle my chips?
Speaker 2: And I gotta slip over my cards like you know,
Speaker 2: But eventually it's just it's just second nature, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So basically, I think what David and I
Speaker 1: are saying is like, always take the uncomfortable thing. And
Speaker 1: now in my professional life and also in my regular
Speaker 1: life too, you know, I try and kind of always
Speaker 1: say yes to stuff. My wife is really good at this.
Speaker 1: She's always like, we need to go here, we need
Speaker 1: to hang out with this people, and I'm just my
Speaker 1: initial reaction is like I don't want to do any
Speaker 1: of that. I don't want to talk to people. I
Speaker 1: just want to be you know, the family guy at
Speaker 1: home whatever. But she forces me to do that. She
Speaker 1: takes me out of my comfort zone, which is why
Speaker 1: I think we work so well together. And and that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff leads to a lot of growth in
Speaker 1: all areas of life.
Speaker 3: So I mean, and also in poker, I think it's
Speaker 3: important to get out of your comfort zone. So something
Speaker 3: that I've done recently is about six eight months ago,
Speaker 3: I decided that I wanted to start playing more Nola
Speaker 3: m cash. So I started playing in MJ's game at
Speaker 3: the area, and I just started putting myself in uncomfortable
Speaker 3: situations at the table and knowing that I'm some of
Speaker 3: these things are probably losing place, but I wanted to
Speaker 3: see how like I reacted and how people reacted to
Speaker 3: me doing putting myself in. It's easy to sit there
Speaker 3: and just fulfold. Oh I have ace king, I'm all in,
Speaker 3: you know. Like, but when you start playing like these
Speaker 3: weird hands, you think Keating was like great at playing
Speaker 3: trash before he started, No, but like he put himself
Speaker 3: in uncomfortable situations and watching like him and Wass and
Speaker 3: Hanks and these guys put themselves in uncomfortable situations in
Speaker 3: games and work their way out. Well, you can watch
Speaker 3: that all you want, but you're not gonna get good
Speaker 3: at it until you just start putting yourself in uncomfortable situations.
Speaker 3: And I don't play tournaments like I play cash, you know,
Speaker 3: but in tournaments sometimes like when you're deep, you know,
Speaker 3: and it's a smaller tournament, or it's something that like
Speaker 3: you just want to practice, Like, go put yourself in
Speaker 3: some uncomfortable situations, you know, three bets, some weird hands,
Speaker 3: play hands out of position, play you know, call raises
Speaker 3: in the blind, Like just experiment because it's gonna pay
Speaker 3: dividends later on, because you're not going to be able
Speaker 3: to play ABC as you move up the ladder in poker,
Speaker 3: So try to put yourself in uncomfortable situations in life,
Speaker 3: but also at the poker table, because that's gonna get
Speaker 3: you better in the long run. This isn't a you know,
Speaker 3: this is a game of constant evolution, and you're constantly
Speaker 3: you need to be evolving yourself in your game. So
Speaker 3: the more uncomfortable slots you get in, the more comfortable
Speaker 3: you'll be in those uncomfortable spots in the future.
Speaker 1: What's the overall mood at the series this summer from
Speaker 1: from somebody who's there every single day with all these
Speaker 1: different players, all these different characters, Like, is there anything
Speaker 1: that feels different or is it just the same as
Speaker 1: it's always been.
Speaker 3: I think it's kind of business as usual. I don't
Speaker 3: really since anybody being overly like this is way better
Speaker 3: than last year, this is way worse than last year.
Speaker 3: All the improvements we like. I don't think it's necessarily
Speaker 3: transpired into an over the top enthusiasm that amongst the
Speaker 3: players that you know changes, but we are happy with
Speaker 3: some of the changes. We are happy. Obviously, we love
Speaker 3: the app We love how like the lines have been down.
Speaker 3: The dealers, for the most part, have been better. Obviously,
Speaker 3: they're those of us who know that you can't just
Speaker 3: bring on two thousand people and have them be perfect dealers,
Speaker 3: Like that's just not going to be the case. But
Speaker 3: for the most part, I feel like they've been better.
Speaker 3: I think this rating system is good. You know, we
Speaker 3: love the stage like the fantasy aspect. Just it's crazy.
Speaker 3: I mean, Daniel and I have talked about this, but
Speaker 3: because of Daniel's league and my league, it helps the
Speaker 3: World Series numbers grow. Do you know how many people
Speaker 3: play events that they wouldn't normally play because they get drafted.
Speaker 3: I have I have a bunch of people who put
Speaker 3: themselves on there, who asked me to list them as
Speaker 3: bonus players so they could draft themselves and they can
Speaker 3: play more events. You know, people who get drafted. I
Speaker 3: mean everybody on my team. Like, if you want to
Speaker 3: play something that you you know you're on the fringe about,
Speaker 3: you know, let me know. I mean I might help you,
Speaker 3: Like I might buy a small piece just to get
Speaker 3: you over the top, to get you in like they're
Speaker 3: and so that helps drive numbers. People have the pride
Speaker 3: of being on teams. So I think all all that excitement.
Speaker 3: Noia just won Bracelet yesterday. He's on our twenty five
Speaker 3: K team. He drafted himself on four ODB teams. Like
Speaker 3: one of the things he posted after winning was look
Speaker 3: my ODB teams in second place. You know, when he
Speaker 3: came to me and he was he was like so
Speaker 3: excited that, like his team was doing well. And then
Speaker 3: it's like, hey, you just want to bracelet four hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand dollars or something. That's what you should
Speaker 3: be excited about, not be second in my league. But
Speaker 3: it's I love that. I love that people like think
Speaker 3: about that as one of the first things that they
Speaker 3: think about the serious and and you know, hopefully when
Speaker 3: I'm long gone from this, maybe somebody will just take
Speaker 3: it on and keep my name attached to it.
Speaker 1: I mean I think now it's going for eleven years,
Speaker 1: it's it's just locked in. Yeah, unfortunately, So I mean
Speaker 1: someone's gonna have to do it, you know, if you
Speaker 1: move on. But you know it's always going.
Speaker 3: To be when I move on, I'll be moving down
Speaker 3: down down Under because I'm not you know, my Poker's
Speaker 3: my life. And I've said this before. I'm a lifer.
Speaker 3: I love this stuff. And you hear some of these
Speaker 3: people say, O, if I won the main event, you'd
Speaker 3: never see me again. If I won the main event,
Speaker 3: you see me at Triton. I mean I'd be like everywhere.
Speaker 3: Like I mean, I'm not I'm playing poker. I'm playing
Speaker 3: poker and I'm betting football. Like those two things they're
Speaker 3: not changing. So those are my two Those are my
Speaker 3: two passions when it comes to gambling, and those are
Speaker 3: the two things I'm gonna do. So yeah, you'll see
Speaker 3: me at the World Series, you know, as long as
Speaker 3: I can you know, sit up straight and in a
Speaker 3: chair for eight hours.
Speaker 1: A question that I've been asking everyone that I try
Speaker 1: and talk to this summer, what does success look like
Speaker 1: for you when the summer is all said and done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I'd love to say it's winning a bracelet,
Speaker 3: but it's I'm not gonna call it a failure if
Speaker 3: if I don't win a bracelet and I do some
Speaker 3: other things. I don't think there's one thing that necessarily
Speaker 3: signals success for me. But you know, I could give
Speaker 3: you the generic, Well, if I play good, I'll be
Speaker 3: happy and let the cards falut. But that's I mean,
Speaker 3: that's not me. I mean I need to win. I
Speaker 3: need to put myself in position to win. I you know,
Speaker 3: if I don't have at least three or four final
Speaker 3: tables and legitimate shots at bracelets, you know, it'll be
Speaker 3: a failure to me. Now, you know, if I win
Speaker 3: the Monster Stack and then I brick out, you know
Speaker 3: ten of ents, you know the rest of the series,
Speaker 3: that will be a success. Obviously you win a million
Speaker 3: dollars and you know whatever. But you know, the success
Speaker 3: kind of just varies on which events you do well in.
Speaker 3: I mean, if I final table fifteen hundred no limit
Speaker 3: deuce and get eighth and fifteen hundred limit hold them
Speaker 3: and I get ninth and and you know, twenty five
Speaker 3: hundred such and such and I get seventh, that's probably
Speaker 3: a failure. But you know, if I get fifth in
Speaker 3: the PPC and that's my only one, then it's probably
Speaker 3: like a success. So, you know, I don't know my
Speaker 3: you know, I just want to have fun. I want
Speaker 3: to enjoy myself every day, and I want to, you know,
Speaker 3: monetarily come out in the positive and and you know,
Speaker 3: add to my resume of final tables and hopefully bracelets.
Speaker 3: I think it's very realistic that I went another one.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean that's obviously that is at the forefront.
Speaker 3: If I win a bracelet, like it can't be a failure,
Speaker 3: you know, even if I lose money, which is kind
Speaker 3: of kind of weird to say, but I mean I
Speaker 3: will I probably won't lose money if I want a bracelet.
Speaker 3: I don't know. The worst bracelet's like, what one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand, So I'm probably gonna play four hundred K.
Speaker 3: So it'd be hard for me to lose too much
Speaker 3: money if I if I want a bracelet.
Speaker 1: When the summer is done, do you does it take
Speaker 1: a little bit for you to kind of decompress. You
Speaker 1: have to just kind of chill out and get over
Speaker 1: the grind that just happened for seven weeks.
Speaker 3: I'm Bill different, man, I can I can go. I
Speaker 3: mean I grew up.
Speaker 2: I grew up back in my day. I grew up.
Speaker 3: I grew up on the streets of Commerce, California, where
Speaker 3: we just played NonStop. We're playing NonStop poker. MJ's game
Speaker 3: runs five days in a week, and I'm there like
Speaker 3: five days a week. You know, I'll be you know
Speaker 3: when when July eighteenth or nineteenth or whatever comes, I'll
Speaker 3: be like, shit, why doesn't the wind just have something
Speaker 3: here like post limb, Like, I'll be ready to go.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, yeah, i might take a few
Speaker 3: days or a week, but I'll be back at the table.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a drug. I mean I'm addicted. I'm
Speaker 3: addicted to poker. I'm addicted to gambling, and uh, you
Speaker 3: know it's lucky. Then I'm just kind of good at it.
Speaker 3: So you know, for people who are addicted to things
Speaker 3: that they're not good at is bad. But yeah, it
Speaker 3: doesn't take me too long. I'm built different, Like I said,
Speaker 3: I mean, I just it's nothing really phases me in
Speaker 3: a regard of wanting to not play, cause if I'm
Speaker 3: doing well, I want to press it, and if I'm
Speaker 3: doing bad, I want to I want to prove to
Speaker 3: myself that I can do it. And if you're breaking evening,
Speaker 3: it's like, well, I'm just kind of wasting time. So
Speaker 3: I better like get I get winning or get losing.
Speaker 3: So there's really no stopping point. Like some people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: if I win, I'll like take a break. Some people
Speaker 3: like take a break when they're losing. I just don't
Speaker 3: take breaks.
Speaker 2: I think that's all I have for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I just want to say thank you for
Speaker 3: having me, because I, like you say on many of them,
Speaker 3: I am a loyal fan and I'm a poker fan boy. First,
Speaker 3: you know. It's it's cool that I get to kind
Speaker 3: of be a fanboy and at the same time some
Speaker 3: people fanboy me. Uh, you know, it's kind of weird. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's kind of weird. Like you know because at the
Speaker 3: World Series, you get to play in the ten k
Speaker 3: study and you get to play with like your legends,
Speaker 3: and they hear I played in the ten k gig
Speaker 3: the other day with Phil Ivy and he gets to
Speaker 3: the table and he looks at me and he double takes.
Speaker 3: And you know, I've played with Phil a lot. I've
Speaker 3: played with Phil many times and you always think like
Speaker 3: they know who you are. But you know, with Phil,
Speaker 3: you just never really like, I know Phil Helme, you
Speaker 3: knows my name, I know Daniel mcgreano's. I don't know
Speaker 3: if Phil Ivy knows who I am. So like he
Speaker 3: comes he sits, he looks at me, and he double
Speaker 3: takes and he goes, you lost some weight, Huh. I
Speaker 3: was like he knows me. I was like, I was like, yes.
Speaker 3: It was like if I like the fanboy and he
Speaker 3: comes out, it's like, okay, he knows who I am,
Speaker 3: Like he remembers that, like we've played together and we've
Speaker 3: had some good experiences and so so I still get
Speaker 3: to be the fanboy. But then I also get to
Speaker 3: go and I get to play you know, the five
Speaker 3: hundred Mystery Million, and there's three four people there that
Speaker 3: are like talking to me about things like they're fanboying me,
Speaker 3: and you know, I like that. I like the fact
Speaker 3: that I get to be somebody's that they look up to.
Speaker 3: And so I don't know.
Speaker 1: That that's probably yeah, And in a way it probably,
Speaker 1: I guess keeps you in check because because you know
Speaker 1: that some people can look up to you, so you're
Speaker 1: not just going to be flying off the handle like
Speaker 1: some lunatic running around like you know, actually there's people
Speaker 1: that like might look up to me, so I can't
Speaker 1: look like a fool.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So, I mean the whole point I got
Speaker 3: on this tangent was I'm a fan of the pod.
Speaker 3: I'm a fan of you and and when Tim was
Speaker 3: part of it and Remco was part of it, and
Speaker 3: I've wanted to, you know, come on and just just
Speaker 3: shoot the ship with you, because you know, we obviously
Speaker 3: we talk a lot anyway during football season especially and
Speaker 3: leading up to poker season and stuff, because you know,
Speaker 3: I love what you and rich And and mow And
Speaker 3: and Brett do with Great Iron Gamble as well. And
Speaker 3: I listened to this pod all the time. So it's
Speaker 3: a pleasure, honestly to get to come on here and
Speaker 3: talk poker, something that I love with somebody who loves
Speaker 3: it as much as I do. So yeah, thank you
Speaker 3: for having me, and thank you for everything that you
Speaker 3: do for Poker the World series, the studio, the Poker
Speaker 3: Goro series and everything you know, from the people who
Speaker 3: don't get a chance to or they're too shy to
Speaker 3: tell you, or they don't get to just want to
Speaker 3: tell you that there's a lot of us out there
Speaker 3: that appreciate the way that you love poker and the
Speaker 3: things that you do, so as a bastion for them,
Speaker 3: I just want to tell you thank you and.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you. I'm just a guy who loves the game. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's me too. I just absolutely love it. I know
Speaker 2: you do. I know you do. We might be following you.
Speaker 1: At some point throughout the summer, you know, hopefully in
Speaker 1: the coming days do a little day in the life
Speaker 1: or something of ODB and then I don't know, hopefully
Speaker 1: you win a bracelet or two and we just talked
Speaker 1: to you again.
Speaker 2: You know that's a dream, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope I get to I hope I get
Speaker 3: to cry on camera again last year. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: here for anything that. You know, if there's anybody else
Speaker 3: out there that wants to, you know whatever, sponsor me
Speaker 3: or do anything like I'm here.
Speaker 2: I'm here.
Speaker 1: Nobody loves it more on top of the hard rankings people.
Speaker 1: All right, he's David O. D B.
Speaker 2: Baker.
Speaker 1: My name is Donnie Peters, who's a pleasure as always
Speaker 1: on the pover Girl podcast, and we will talk to
Speaker 1: you guys, next time.