Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Go Podcast.
Speaker 2: My name is Donnie Peters.
Speaker 1: It is Thursday July ninth, twelve fifty am. Day three
from the World Series of Poker Main Event is in
the books and we are moving on today four and
it is Bubble Day. Thursday July ninth is the time
when the bubble will burst. It'll probably burst earlier in
the day and it's just a matter of how long
that bubble takes, which when it comes to this tournament,
it has been known to take quite a bit of time.
So we'll hit on every kind of everything that happened today.
We'll touch on the field and the players that are
our remaining. I spoke with both Sean deeb And and
Michael the Grinder Miss Rocky after play was done, so
I got those interviews for you coming later on. And yeah,
it's I mean, it's time like the first couple of days,
the first two days, and I'm talking about playing days,
so the day ones and the day two. Yes, there
is a lot of excitement when it comes to this tournament,
of course, but this tournament is so long that for
when I was there today, for let's say the first
half up until the dinner break, you play three levels,
you go to dinner, you come back, you play two
more levels. So the first three levels of play, they
kind of don't feel like anything. And I know Day
three is moving day in the dibasop made event, because
what you're trying to do on day three, you've you've
somewhat weathered the storm and done whatever you did.
Speaker 2: Through the first two days.
Speaker 1: You know, if you played both of the earlier days,
you know, yeah, you had to battle a little bit longer.
If you only played on the day two, okay, fine,
But once you get to day three, whatever your stack is,
it doesn't matter whether it's twenty K or it's two
hundred K, or it's eight hundred K, whatever it is.
Coming into day three. Day three is all about trying
to position yourself to hit the next checkpoint in the tournament.
Speaker 2: At least this is how I view it all. I
kind of set up.
Speaker 1: Tournaments, and you know, especially longer ones in terms of
certain checkpoints, and the checkpoint that you're trying to set
yourself up for is to best position yourself to get
into the money right to to be able to fight
through that bubble. Now Obviously, some things might go your way.
Some things might not go your way. You might end
up short going into the bubble, you might end up
with a big stack some of you you know, might
have in the middle. But overall, you know, you want
to be able to push put yourself in a position
on day three to not have to like fold, fold, fold,
you know, tank fold, not look at your cards, like
just just like basically just just blind out until you
get into the money in that that bubble burst because
you know, everyone, you know, yes, we want to cash
in this tournament, but we want to make a run
at it. And how do you set yourself up to
make a run at it. Well, you have to have
decent chips, hopefully good chips on the bubble, because you
can make a lot more chips by pressuring other stacks
at your table, you know, those middling stacks, those shorter
stacks to you. So you know, you want to set
yourself up so you can get through the bubble comfortably
while also being aggressive and chipping up. And then once
that bubble burst, then you know, then it's like okay, onward,
Like it's not just about the mind cash at that point,
it's about trying to reach the next checkpoint. And I
would say the next checkpoint to come is, you know,
because the pay jumps aren't that large early on. Once
you get into the money on day four, the next
checkpoint is all about hitting the bag and advancing to
day five, right, because then then it's like, oh shit,
like we're we're in it, We're going to day five.
It is on game on, let's freaking go. If you're
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and that's where you can start playing, testing your skills,
and improving your game. Coming into day three, there were
three thousand, two hundred and ninety four players remaining. At
the end of day three, they played all five levels
through to the end there were thirteen, thirteen hundred and
eighty nine players remaining and with thirteen hundred and eighty
two places making the money, that means the field is
seven eliminations off of reaching the money. Now, of course,
we do this dance every single year in this tournament,
and it's are we going to hit the money today?
Are we going to hit the money today? You know,
players are, They're asking each other, they're asking the dealer,
they're asking the floor, they're asking me, And I mean
I know the answer a little bit more so than
them because I know what production is thinking, and production
wants to break it on day four. It's just better
for everything.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: Part of that is like, let's say you were to
get really close at the end of the night like
they did, and there's you know, there's seven eliminations away.
Those seven seven eliminations can take two three four hours.
Trust me, I've been there. They can take that long.
So it can go on and on and on and on.
So you would rather just wrap it up, send everyone home,
and then come back and break the bubble the next day.
It does tend to just work out better for everyone.
It allows you know, production, you know, to be able
to film the whole thing, stream the whole thing, get
it out there, because this is a pretty monumental day
every single year on the poker calendar when the bubble
bursts in the World Series of Poker at main events.
So I'm very much looking forward to that. When they
when they paused the clock at the end of the night,
they paused it with ten minutes left. They played three hands.
There was like a right around fourteen hundred.
Speaker 2: Players are maining.
Speaker 1: Obviously in those last couple of hands, a bunch of
other players bounced out of the tournament. When I started
running around to try and get a couple of interviews,
there were thirteen hundred and ninety two players on the board.
I come home, I verify all the numbers in the app,
and there's thirteen eighty nine. So just you know, they
at some point while I was probably running around, probably
some hands paying out. You know, dealers didn't put it
into the iPad or whatever it may be, or put
it in right away, but we are seven spots off.
If they would have Gottenny closer, I'm guessing they just
put a halted play. They would have told everyone to
stop so that they can bring it back on Thursday
for the bubble. And as a reminder, there is more
than eighty five million dollars in the prize bowl up
for grabs. The mid cash is worth fifteen thousand dollars,
so one and a half times you're buying, and then
of course the prize everyone is gunning for ten million
dollars up top I mentioned that three two hundred and
ninety four players returned for Day three, and because we
have thirteen hundred and eighty nine remaining, that means the
field lost nineteen hundred and five players, or nearly sixty
percent of the group that returned for Day three was
bounced before getting to day four. The chip leader entering
at Day four is one Sasha Lou. She bagged a
giant actually a massive shout out massive two million, three
hundred and sixty four thousand, which is good for two
hundred ninety five big blinds. Because they will be heading
to four thousand and eight thousand for the blind level
to kick off day four. She registered day two, so
she skipped day one. She came in with a fresh
sixty thousand chip starting stack, and before the second level
of play was over on day two she ran it
up to almost ten times, which she started with almost
six hundred k. I think she got up to like
five hundred and ninety thousand, five ninety five or something
like that. She was a chip leader at one point
on day two, and she just steamrolled right out of
the gate. I read an article on poker dot Org.
I believe the author was Mike Patrick. He talked to
Sasha lou just saying that she know she basically ran
hot early on. I think she said she had king,
she had aces and flopped a set. She was able
to win big pots when that stuff happened. And then also,
you know, when you have to get a stack, or
when you do get a stack like this, there are
a lot of things that have to go your way,
and she said they all did you know, her value
bets paid off, her bluffs got through. You know, just
everything lined up for her. And I'm guessing it was
much more of the same on day three because she
shot all the way up to I mean she shot
up to a million at one point. Then you know,
there was I think Martin Zemani was a chip leader,
you know, a little bit ahead of her. She was
a couple tables away. She then took the chip lead,
got up to about one point four one point five million.
Martin Zemani is playing every single hand, so his chipstack
is going all over the place. When I left, I
thought Sasha would be the chip leader, and I thought
she would be on around one point seven million. I
get home, I check the chip count. She's on two million,
three hundred and sixty four thousand. I mean, that is
a giant, freaking chip ley, absolutely giant. She has three
hundred and ninety four thousand dollars in a live tournament
winnings entering this event. I'm I'm assuming she's that's gonna
go up because I'm assuming she's gonna get into the
money with a chip stack like this and only seven
spots off the bubble.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think anything's gonna.
Speaker 1: Happen to you in terms of not not making them money.
Her best live score was back in two thousand and nineteen,
and it was in this very event, she came three
hundred and twenty fourth for a little bit over thirty
eight thousand dollars. Last year, entering Day four, it was
Japan's Shataro Kobayashi who had one million, nine hundred and
seventy one thousand in chips. Sosasha is well ahead of
that pace. Kobyashi finished in six hundred and thirty first
place for twenty seven thousand, five hundred dollars. So just again,
you know another piece of evidence here that just because
you're a chip leader with a giant stack on one of
these earlier days, it really doesn't, you know, set you
up for anything or doesn't guarantee you anything. Yeah you
may cash, yeah you may make Day four, Day five,
but it's not like, oh my gosh, I'm the Day
two chip leader, I'm gonna make Day seven like that.
That's not just how this thing thing works. There is
so much poker to be played. I mentioned the how
some of those Day two from the two different Day
two those chip leaders had fared over the years.
Speaker 2: If I look back at.
Speaker 1: The Day two ABC and the Day two D the
top three stacks from each of those fields, So we
had gasper Fernandez, Mason Viz, Our Tourists, Ostroskis all coming
out of the Day two ABC, they were the top
three stacks. I don't see Gaspar Fernandez in the counts.
I checked on the app he was not in there,
So I'm guessing the Day two ABC chip leader is
out of the tournament now. Mason Viz bagged seven point
thirty then he bagged seven a eighty six. Now Ostrauskis
bagged six hundred and forty six thousand. He's now up
to one point one six nine million. For Day two D,
it was Michael Rosido who was the chip leader there.
He finished with seven hundred and seventy thousand. He's going
to be entering Day four six hundred and fifty nine thousand.
Second place out of Day two D. Jeff Fenster bag
seven hundred and forty seven thousand. I did not see
him in the chip counts in the app, so Gaspre
Fernandez and Jeff Fenster two of the biggest stacks to
come out of Day two looks like they have busted
on Day three and then Janick Schumacher was the third
biggest stack coming out of Day two D. He had
seven hundred and thirty eight thousand, he's taken six hundred
and thirty six hundred and eighty six thousand. Excuse me,
forward to day four. But out of those six players,
two of them, one third of the six biggest stacks
coming out of day two did not make it to
day four. So they are not going to be cashing
in this tournament. I mean, it's just it's crazy how
this tournament works. You can just you can double up
one person for one hundred K another person for one
hundred and fifty K. Next thing you know, you're losing
a couple of fifty K pots, and then you know
your seven hundred K stack looks like two hundred and
you're just like, well, what the heck's going on here?
But you know, and then maybe the spiral just continues,
maybe you get a little bit less confidence in your game.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I've been there, We've all been there if we play poker,
you know, and going forward, we'll see what, you know,
how things look for Sasha Lou But right now, I
don't know. I feel like I got a good feeling
about her. Now I don't know what that ultimately means,
but I'll say I'll say day six for Sasha Lou
and I feel like I got a pretty good finger
on the pulse when when it comes to poker in general,
in this specific tournament, you can just get the sense,
like when she's coming in day two, she's as hot
as she is in terms of running up her sixty
thousand chipstack to six and almost six hundred thousand, and
then that rush, that momentum all continues on.
Speaker 2: For day three.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've seen this story a few times in
the past, and I'm expecting some big things out of her,
So I'll go. I'll go day six at least for Sasha.
One of the other big stacks to bag up chips
on day three, Martin Zemania. I had already talked about him.
Martin Zemani is one of the most entertaining players at
the table. He's got a colorful personality. He's not afraid
to talk. He's also not afraid to talk shit and
gives give it to you. He plays pretty much every
single hand. He's one of those guys where when he
has a chip lead, like he does first of all
him getting to the chip lead, he plays like a
maniac from the start, and then once he has a
chip lead like this, if nobody else around him at
the table is fighting back and fighting back successfully. Martin's
one of those guys that's pretty much any two cards
I'm raising and until you push back, I'm just gonna
keep going. And that's what he does. I mean, he
shot up over a million, then his chip stack fluctuated
somewhere between like one million and one point four million,
which is a big fluctuation, and then he ends up
bagging one million, nine hundred and sixty three thousand. He'll
be second entering Day four. Neck Zizka, a twenty five
K Fantasy drafted player, bagged one million, five hundred and
seventy six thousand. Will Gibbons bagged one million, five hundred
and forty thousand. Now Will Gibbons I talked about him
several episodes ago on this very podcast. I played with
him in I believe it was the fifteen hundred dollars
freeze out, might have been the might have been the
twenty five hundred dollar freezer or two K freeze out,
one of the freezeouts I play. I played, he got
moved to my table. He was talking about how it's
his first time back at the World Series of poker
in three or four years because he was banned from
Caesar's Properties for something that happened in a pick game.
He ultimately got a lawyer, he got it overturned and
he's back and that was that was his one of
his first tournaments back, the Freeze Out that I played
with him. And here he is having a run here
in the WSP main event with one million, five hundred
and forty thousand entering Day four Andrew Yet and one million,
two hundred and eighty four thousand for him Andrew Jay,
showing that he's got some chops when it comes to
Nolan Holden tournaments. A a mixed game specialist, believe he
won the ten K horse but very very good mix
game player, but here doing very well of course on
the no Limitfeld the twenty nineteen champion of this event,
hosting ENSN one million, two hundred and eighty thousand.
Speaker 2: Going forward to Day four.
Speaker 1: En Son's one of those guys that just looks so
damn cool at the table, Like the way he handles
the chips, the cards, the little smile on his face.
He looks cool, he looks charming, He just looks awesome.
Sean deeb I mentioned that we're gonna be talking to
Sean Deeb, and we are. I have a short interview
to play from mister Deep. He bagged at nine hundred
and thirty eight thousand. I watched a bit of his
his table at the end of the day, probably in
the last forty minutes or so. And he's another guy
who was pretty much any two cards, which he mentioned
when I talked with him. You know, he's kind of
just any two cards at this point on the bubble,
and you know, you're just gonna make people play back
in him. The very final hand of the night, Sean
Deeb made made a wheel. Guy opened, he flatted, Laura
Eisenberger flatted behind it came eight five deuce. The opener
bet Deep called turn was a four opener checked deep
bet Guy took a little bit and then folded. That
was the very last hand of night. Deep ended up
showing showed as three for turning a wheel. Alex Foxen
is also still in you'll hear Sean Deeb mentioned Alex
Foxen eight hundred and thirty nine thousand for him. Kristen Foxen,
I believe, is also in case. She's got eighty six
thousand according to the w SP app which is on
the other on the other end of things. Then her
husband Alex. But you know, we know Christian can obviously
run up a stack in this event. She had a
very very very deep run a couple of years ago,
and we'll see she can make that happen again. But
for right now, it looks like Alex is the one
that is cooking. Michael the Grinder is Rocky, the defending champ.
Of course, we have to talk about the Grinder six
hundred and fifteen K in the bag. He was on
the feature tables for much of the day for Day three,
and it was some of the wildest shit that I've
ever seen. I mean, not only his table, all the tables.
There was just a lot of There was some crazy hands,
some set up hands, some big hands, some unorthodox, out
of this world hands. Grinder like he played this hand
early on and I hope that the action is right
as it was called on stream, because they came to
his table that were covering on another table. They swung
over to her, to his table, and Aline Najade is
saying recapping the action, and he's saying, grinder open, and
Grinder's got a seven hearts small blind three bet Grinder
ripped it for. At the time it was the blinds
were two K four K, and Grinder ripped in for
effectively hundred forty five thousand, covering his opponent. That's how
much as opponent had left. His opponent called off with
King Queen Off. Grinder had a seven herds and just one.
I mean, I don't know how that happens. That's just
out of control. He won a whole bunch of other pots,
did Grinder. He was doing the whole Michael to Grinder
and is a rocky thing. He's on an absolute heater
right now, coming off that ten KPLO championship win. Last year,
when Grinder bagged for day three or bagged after day three,
entering day four, he bagged one hundred and eighty six thousand,
so he's well ahead of pace. Putting six hundred and
fifteen thousand in the bag this year. Nick Helmuth, he's
the only Hellmuth remaining. He bagged fifty three thousand, so
very much on the short side for Nick Helmuth. But
chips in the bag survive and advance, so that's just
a handful of notables. I do want to go through
the chip count list and just kind of scroll it
and call out some names as I go. But I'm
not going to do that right this second. First I
want to talk to Sean Deeb. I want to bring
him in, bring his interview in. We talked about how
I asked him how I thought he thought his day went.
I asked him what the w SP main event means
to the Player of the Year race, because when I
talked with him, I can't remember if it was the
winner interview that we did or the previous interview that
we did for the podcast. He mentioned how important the
main event was going to be this year for the
Player of the Year, so I wanted to ask him
about that, and then of course got to ask him
about using that big stack to attack the bubble. So
here is Sean Deeb following bagging up chips on day three.
All right, Sean Deep, nine hundred and thirty eight thousand
in the bag. How did the day go for you?
Speaker 3: I think I lost more hands I put chips in
a pot today than any other day in my career.
Speaker 4: By two X.
Speaker 3: I was obviously raising like one hundred.
Speaker 2: Percent of hands.
Speaker 3: Last like four hours, I lost sixty percent of them.
So it was a very stupid day. You know, gotten
a huge clip by dinner had one point a million,
fifty thousand, and somehow I just swung between the two
hundred k of the rest of the day, So kind
of unfortunate. Table got really lucky with equity to play
back in every spot and I never had anything. So yeah,
kind of a sad day that ragged so well. But
you know where I was four hours ago and I
back one point five million, like half the time.
Speaker 1: When we spoke a few days ago, you mentioned how
important this event might be for the player of the
ear race.
Speaker 2: Is that is something that is on your mind. I mean,
I need cashes, so this one will pay well.
Speaker 3: But it just you know, I was very close to
going hopping the Klo Mystery Bounty, but our table took
too long on hands and also I know, you know,
one hundred big blinds for tomorrow and the bubble and
and for hand like gonna blind out if I do
bag the mystery boundy a lot. But I was still
close to just flicking a stack in. Yeah, kind of
unfortunately I want poy and you know Fox is stilling this,
so this could be a lot of points. Once we
get the money, I'll start seeing this is where the pay.
You know, how big of a jump it is for
some of these spots, you know, because I know obviously
the big jump is ninth, but I don't know if
it's being a fifty eight pointment cash or what. So
curious to see where it is. And yeah, just got
to get my fifteen scores.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Foxer, and so you're obviously aware that he's
still in the event. I mean, how much are you
paying attention or how closely are you paying attention.
Speaker 4: To that all?
Speaker 3: I mean, it doesn't really matter, Like at this point,
you know, I need results, and when you're behind, and
I have more open spots of scores, so I know
that whatever I cash for, you know, I'm getting the
full point value for a while because I might not
max out the fifteen. So obviously, tough competition. Obviously he's
a lot better than me, and no woman to hold him.
But I think I'm a little better than him in
the main. But obviously he's one of the best in
the field. I you know, root for him. He's a
great guy.
Speaker 2: I've known him before.
Speaker 3: Most people in poker got to know.
Speaker 2: Him through chance.
Speaker 3: You know, we all grind it online before he ever
played a high roller, played anything bigger. So happy to
see him come where he's coming. You know his wife
I've known through eighteen so two people I root for
all the time. I actually trying to convince them to
move to up St New York. I think at some
point when they're done with poker traveling, uh, maybe I'll
get them to buy a farm near me and we'll
hang out a lot. There's great people, and you know,
once they start a family, when they put poker aside,
they're going to be great parents. And it's good to
see successful people who are great people.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be a handful of spots off the money
on day four?
Speaker 2: Are you going to attack? Is that the plan? Is
that always the plan?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you were raising quite a bit
there at the end of the night. I mean I
literally I was ending two for the last four hours.
Speaker 3: In almost every spot I folded bottom five percent in
a few There's a lot of you know, really tight
big blinds.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just got kind.
Speaker 3: Of fucked post flap, never foughted equity, and the people
have called I just knew had good hands, so I
just check folded a lot. It's kind of what you
have to do. You risk a little to win a little,
and you try to do that every hand.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to talk to Seawande, one of the
greatest poker players in the world. He's always done him
for that Player of the year. He's always goun in
for that Player of the year. And I know, you know,
he mentioned how he's just got to really put up cashes,
but he always seems aware of how everyone else is doing.
You know, no one tracks a Player of the Year
like Sean Deep does. And we'll see if he can
ultimately get another title. And while we're on Player of
the Year, I mean we got we've got to Phil
Halmy causing up a stir out there. He's putting it
on social media that the Player of the year it
should be required that the player has a winning summer
or a profitable summer or year, or however that you
want to do it if all you know, if Europe
counts paradise and the summer, then okay, fine, I mean
that makes no damn sense to me. I mean that
that's just silly, Okay. The Player of the Year award
is it's a volume based award, or at least it
lends itself more to favor people who are putting in
high volume. Now, there are some restrictions in places where
I think it's your best fifteen cashes count, so it's
not just unlimited. Here's the example that I would like
to use. Let's say you win four bracelets in fifteen
hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: A mixed game events.
Speaker 1: So you know, the first place prize is on the
smaller side of things, anywhere from like one hundred and
twenty five thousand up to two hundred thousand, right, So
let's say you win four of those tournaments, and especially
let's say you win Let's say let's say you win
four of those tournaments, but I don't know ones in
in Europe, so the prize, the prize might be even smaller.
That's arguably going to get you Player of the Year.
But then if you go dust off two bullets in
the two hundred and fifty k Super high Roller because
you're chasing Player of the Year and you want to
sell some additional action and get into those tournaments, and
you know before you say, well, why would a fifteen
hundred dollars player ever play those tournaments. You know, why
would a lesser player ever play those tournaments?
Speaker 2: Those tournaments are for the high rollers.
Speaker 1: We've seen that sort of thing in the past. I mean,
the one that sticks out to me the most is
when dan Zach was in the running. Dan Zac does
not play super high No one had hold him tournaments,
and he sold action and got into the two hundred
and fifty K and I believe he cashed in the
two hundred and fifty k super high rollers. So that
that does happen. When when you get entrenched and you
get rolling in this this Player of the Year race,
and you're up there near the top, you're doing anything
and everything to get max volume into fire all these tournaments. Right,
So let's say you win that money. Let's say you
win four hundred and ninety thousand dollars from those four
bracelets and those smaller buying events, you know, smaller buy
and smaller fields, and then you go fire two bullets
in the two hundred fifty K and you're down ten
K on the year. You don't win Player of the Year.
I mean that that's just ridiculous. I mean, I mean,
what are we doing here like that? That's just ridiculous. Listen,
the formula is the formula, and Sean deeb he makes
it known every single year that he's going for Player
of the Year. That's what he's going for. And the
formul It's not like the formula has been the same
since the WSP Player of the Year came into existence
in two thousand and four. It's changed many times. And
as long as Sean Deep has been pushing for that,
he's always altered his game, his approach the summer, the
schedule that he plays, He's always done that based on
Player of the Year. And I just find it a
little bit interesting that this just so happens to come
from Phil Hammith, who has all this other stuff when
it comes to the WSP, but he does not have
the one thing that he's now complaining needs to get changed,
and that is the WSP Player of the Year title.
And he has come second on multiple occasions, but he
has not won it. He's got seventeen goal bracelets, he's
got a WSP Made Event title, he's got all that
sort of stuff. He is mister WSP, but he does
not have THESIP Player of the Year award. Well, what
I would say to Phil is you can stop sleep
sleep until five am, you can stop taking days off,
and you can show up and put in the volume
that all these other players do. Right, And if you
want to make player of the other thing, then you
can do it. The Player of the Year award system,
the scoring system, it has improved. I think this is
probably the best one that they have ever had. I
think the race is shaping up awesome. It's been great
to follow. There's a lot of big names gunning for it.
It keeps changing, you know, pretty much by by the day.
And yeah, I think it's the best it's ever been.
Does it need to improve from here? I mean maybe sure.
But the one improvement has nothing to do with being profitable.
I mean that's just absolutely ridiculous, Like you should should
you have to be a profitable poker player over your
career to make it into the Poker Hall of Fame?
Because I could probably find a whole bunch of people
that might not be profitable, right, so should they not
get you know, all that stuff just seems silly, like
let's just let's just stop with this. And then also
the other thing is like from an operator side, you
don't want that to happen because then you're gonna get
people who are locking up wins at some point and
not putting an additional volume like in my example that
I gave earlier. Let's say you win four bracelets in
fifteen hondre mixed game events that are smaller buying smaller fields.
Therefore you get a smaller first place prize. Then maybe
you don't fire the fifty k, the hunter k, the
two hundred fifty k, whatever it is, those high rulers,
because then you're risking actually be negative on the WSP.
So why would the operator ever put that sort of
rule in place? It just seems silly. So the help
me just stop with that nonsense. Place Michael the Grinder,
Miss Rocky, the bid to go back to back.
Speaker 2: I mean, my.
Speaker 1: Colleague Grimkrinkama the other day said, you know what, if
anyone can go back to back in the was main
event in this era of poker, it's Michael the Grinder
of his Rocky and I mean it's it's honestly, it's
hard to refute that statement. It just is Grinder is
absolutely feeling it, as evidenced by the way he is playing.
And yeah, I asked him about it. I wanted to
see how the grinder feels. And you guys can hear
from his Rockie right here is.
Speaker 2: The main event easy for you? What the heck is this?
Speaker 1: You always seem to just do well, run up a
stack the momentum.
Speaker 4: I'm coming off to a PLO, win the championship, win,
and I just always I play a little different when
I'm in the main event. I take it really serious.
Well every time I played serious, but I make different
plays in this tournament where I sometimes I'm careful, sometimes
I take advantage of situations, but I try not to
bust out, and it was never risked. I was never
all in yet to get out of this tournament. So
I take a lot of minimal risks in this event
and just know.
Speaker 2: How to get done.
Speaker 1: Now. Obviously, you have your own type of style, and
players have known that style for a while. But now
that you've won this tournament, you've won the main event,
are players playing a little bit differently against you? At all?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 4: I think players will make a lot of mistakes against me.
But I've done a lot of quite a few fuck
some cool cool stuff I did today like people probably
haven't seen yet. And you know, trickery a lot of
trickery today, a lot of creative. So I'm gonna take
a look later tonight and see what hands they're showing online.
Hopefully I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to see two I will show too much.
Speaker 4: But I want to see what they showed tonight from
the feature table. Little bit cool was on the main
feature because the would have.
Speaker 2: Saw a lot of cool shit.
Speaker 1: All right, how confident are you going back to back?
Speaker 4: I'm very confident right now. I won the tournament last
year PPC June twenty ninth. I won the PLO June
twenty ninth. I bought it to day one. B. Everything's
looking good. It's just it looks like it's everything's repeating
for now.
Speaker 2: You heard it there.
Speaker 1: He feels great, he's confident, he's going to go back
to back. The stars are aligning, you know. He won
that fifty k PPC on June twenty ninth. He said
he won the ten K Polo Championship on June twenty nine.
It's all just lining up for Grinder.
Speaker 2: It just really is.
Speaker 1: And when you're watching him play, and I watched a
fair bit of the stream today, I was just sucked
in by Grinder up there, and a couple of things
stuck out.
Speaker 2: One is.
Speaker 1: He's got a horseshoe up his ass right now, just
in terms of like I mean, it's it's just he's
just hot, he's running hot. He's obviously grinder knows how
to play.
Speaker 2: No one.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anyone in poker who knows how
to ride a rush better than Michael the Grinder Miss Rocky. Okay,
Is Michael the Grinders Rocky the best poker player in
the world, the most technical poker player in the world,
all that sort of stuff, No, okay, And I think
he would be.
Speaker 2: The first to admit that.
Speaker 1: But when he's rolling, he's he's like a puppeteer with
the rest of the players at his table, and he
can do whatever he wants from his play the cards.
He gets involved with the way that he sizes his bets,
and it even extends to the table talk because he's
able to to work some voodoo at times. It's it's
like spooky out there to watch him, and and really
no one is able to catch a rush and ride
that wave like Michael the Grinder Miss Rocky does. And
I think I think he's in the midst of riding
a wave right now, and he's feeling it and he
knows he's feeling it, and he's cooking. And you know,
for some people, they can start feeling that way and
it can all just go south, it can all fall apart.
But for I don't know, for a grinder, I feel
like it only do just builds and builds and builds
and builds. So he's going to day for he's got
a boatloader chip six hundred and fifteen thousand. I mean,
this is gonna be an absolute freaking treat to watch
this guy play the rest of the way. And he's
also you know, the other thought that I was having
is he might be the one player I would never
want to see at my table because he's in every
freaking hand. You never know what he has, he's gonna do.
He's willing and capable of doing anything. So he would
just be an absolute nightmare to play against. An absolute nightmare. Now,
I'm sure there are many other players like him, but
I don't know. For whatever reason, I would just not
want Michael the Grinder and Miss Rocky I'm on my
table and that if you got stuck with a table
jaw with him in the WSV main event. Specifically, I
mean that just that stinks. I feel like that just stinks.
So anyway, he's feeling it, man, the Grinder is feeling it.
Some of the players who did bust out on day three.
We lost Joe McKean, we lost Phil hammonyth and we
lost his son, Phil Helmuth the third. I mentioned already
that Nick Helmmath was still in the tournament. Kerry Katz eliminated,
Mike Holts eliminated. We talked to Ben Ludlow earlier or
on an earlier episode.
Speaker 2: He's eliminated.
Speaker 1: So both of the two co hosts who joined Chad
Holloway on the Poker News podcast, Mike Colts and Ben Ludlow,
they are eliminated from the WOP main event. Don't worry, guys,
this podcast host is also eliminated because my ass is
out to Eric bald Out, Brian rast Out, Josh reichert out,
Andrew Lichtenberger gone, Mike Madis Houcia and Gerard p k
also eliminated. All Right, So I told you guys that
I did want to just look through the chip counts,
and I'm gonna do that because I just, you know,
just let's just see what I find. Basically, what I'm
doing here is I'm taking you through the process that
I do anyway. Yeah, I scroll through the chips cowns,
you say, Oh, that person's left, Oh, this person's left.
Freed Johnton one point three million for him. Freed is
a very very exciting player. I think he's known a
little bit more for some of the stuff he's done
on the World Pogratur. But we'll see if he can
continue to make some noise here in the WSP main event.
Free just one of those players where I mean he's
willing to seven bit you at any given moment. He's
willing to just blast over bets at any given moment.
I mean, he's he's electric out there. He's a freaking
stone cold killer, and he will not back down at all.
Brian Yun is in the mix. Greg Mueller is still
out there. I see Kyle cart right. I feel like
I haven't seen that name or face in a while.
Eric Lindren still in the mix. I believe Dutch boyd
bagged as well. I believe my guy Ryan Brown. I
talked about him many times on this podcast. Ryan Brown
baged some chips. David Pretti's bagged chips. Dan Stavilla, he
bagged chips. Malcolm Trainor bagchips. Malcolm Trainor won the Mystery
Millions tournament at the World Series of Poker. I can't
remember what year A couple of at least two years ago,
if not three years ago. He just won the Ausie Millions.
This in the return, so he's still in.
Speaker 2: Who else we got?
Speaker 1: Ian Mattacas Speaking of all that Player of the Year
chatter Ian Mattakas is still in brock Parker, still in
the mix. Tony Dunst bag chips, He's still in Ren
Lynn still in. Scott Davies, still in Bruno Lopez in
Brown BALLA, Ashawn Bala friends with Nick Ricotta and uh,
what was it? Pat high Sakes cashing players? What I
wanted to say, I was a blanket on that. Scott
Lazar still in Baby said hello to him again today
when I saw him. Dominic Sarley still in Vladis Thomas
howskis in, David Einhorn the Billionaire, still in David Peters.
He's still in. Stephen Chidwick is still in the mixed.
Justin Arwine is in there. Gina Rehem bagging chips. Shoto
Nakanishi in there. Michael Rocco there he is Eric Laddin.
He haven't seen that name for a while. I believe
he's out in New Jersey like an old schooa online player.
Dylan Smith still in. Thomas Connooley, former do Hisipy main
event finalist, Thomas Connooley is still in. Sean Daniels, TJ.
Reid bagged chips as well. Proc Wilson is in there.
Brock Wilson, He's had a pretty lackluster summer, considering how
hot he was coming into the summer. He was the
Poker gro Cup winner, he was the US Poker Open winner,
had a ton of success on the PGT, but he
has just not been able to find it when it
comes to the World Series of Poker. Now that said,
that can all change in this tournament, and this is
the tournament to make it happen.
Speaker 2: Who else we got?
Speaker 1: Brian Campanello, He's in there, Ryan Lang. Marcel Lusk is
still in and kicking. Looks like he bagged more than
half a million in chips. Marcel Louse, you guys think
he's going to be singing later? Is he going to
be singing Bradley Rubin is in there. Salvatore de Carlo
I believe he was second in the monster stack. I
believe was the tournament.
Speaker 2: We got.
Speaker 1: Jess Richards is in there. We've got Justin Lapkov and
Essa k she's doing well. Ralph Perry is out there.
Sean Perry was out there. I believe he bagged chips
as well, going through John Mannette Farrah Galfon, she's in
the mix. Patrick Leonard, I know he bagged chips. Darren
Elias bagged chips. Can't remember Jeremy Osma's bag chips. I
should have looked that one up. Jeremy Osmas did bag
chips one hundred and ninety two thousand. Jesse Lonis bagged chips.
So you know, there's Romaine Lewis is in there. I mean,
it's just one of those tournaments where due to the
sheer size of it and how long it's drawn out,
you know, you just you walk around the field and
you're looking around and you're always like, what, Oh, this
guy's selling, that guy's stelling. Fabian Quoss still In was
on the feature table. At one point I saw the
future table and I was like, wait, is that Fabian Quass.
We don't see Fabian Quass at all into the ws
Being Made Event every single year, and it's and then
he's in the WASP Made Men. He's got a bazillion chips.
He played a pretty crazy hand with he had kings,
his opponent had Queen's. That was on the feature table.
That was a fun one. So Joe Hasham looks like
he's still in. So I mean, there's just there's stories
everywhere in this tournament. It's just so absolutely freaking cool.
All right, I won't bore you guys with that anymore,
but but you know, it's just it's fun to go
through and look at the stories and see how they
all shake out. It's hard to know every single player's
story in the wsp Man Event, of course, but we
try and learn as much as we can. Let me,
let me look up one more player, Adam Levy. Adam
Levey did bag chips. I know, we talked with him
on yesterday's episode. He bagged three hundred and forty seven thousand.
So good old Ruthless is moving forward today.
Speaker 2: Four.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna wrap it up here, but I
do want to remind you guys the next episode of
this podcast is the best episode of the year the summer,
hands down. It is the bubble episode, which means we
are going to be out there or I'm going to
be out there on the floor, phone in hand while
the bubble is happening, running around talking to people.
Speaker 2: There is so much downtime.
Speaker 1: In between these hands because there are so many tables
in action and all these hands are drawing out. Of course,
it's a very important part of the tournament being on.
Speaker 2: The money bubble.
Speaker 1: So you know, we'll pop around and we'll put the
whole bubble thing together. I know it's a chore for
producer rich Rydan to edit this one, so you know,
thank you, thank you, thank you for the hard work
on this episode. And we didn't do it last year,
of course because Tim and I were Will still in
the tournament, shout out to us, but I'm no longer
in the tournament, so I'll be able to do the
bubble episode. And that's my It's one of my favorites.
You know, we just walk around, we chat with people,
we hang out, see how they're they're playing. You can
you can directly ask them about maybe a big hand
that they played. You can just generally ask them about
their approach. You know, some people are some people are
just flat out folding their hands out looking at them.
You know, some people are just absolutely getting after it
like it's a it's a crazy freaking scene on the bubble.
And that's one of the best days of the year,
the w s P main event, Bubble Day. But all right,
that's gonna do it for the pause. Shout out to
producer Rich for getting this one up, and thank you.
Thank you to all the listeners out there. Don't forget
to like subscribe, rate, review, five stars, all that sort
of stuff. Let's freaking go. My name is Donny Peters,
and I will talk to you guys on the next one.
Brand