Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. This is twelve ten am on Monday, July sixth. All four starting flights for the twenty twenty six World Series of Poker Main Event are done and dusted. That's going to be I think all we'll talk about today. I got to play tomorrow, guys. I want to be able to get a decent amount of sleep. But we're going to hit on what was, as expected, the largest starting flight for the WSP Main Event. The numbers are in through the first four starting flights. Of course, we still have Day two registration on both Day to ABC and Day two D to come, so don't know the final number just yet. A lot of big names were in the mix. We're going to be talking about it. There was a crazy hand within the first thirty minutes that we'll touch on as well. If you're playing PLO this summer, allow me to remind you, guys to check out PLO Mastermind because that is where you can learn to stop guessing with your game and start winning. Now through July fourteenth, you can save twenty percent on six month memberships and all courses just head to plomastermind dot com slash poker, go pick the option that's right for you, guys, and then start learning from some of the best PLO players in the world. That's just about a week left, or exactly a week left when you guys are going to be listening to this one most likely for this twenty percent offer from PLO Mastermind. So check that out now through July fourteenth. Don't miss it, because then things go back to the regular crisis. The final starting flight for the twenty twenty six WSP Main Event attracted four thousand, six hundred and ninety four entries. Yes, that is down. It's a decrease of six point one percent from last year's Day one d but a bit better than I think probably a lot of people expected for this final flight, even myself, you know, I thought this would come in around between forty three and forty four hundred. I'm just kind of looking at where some of the trends were so far. But things performed pretty pretty well overall. We're sitting at eight thousand and seventy seven entries before we tally any of the Day two late entries, and that is down seven point one percent from last year. Last year, at this point we were at eight thousand, six hundred and ninety four. I have been talking about what I think is going to be happening for the day two late entries. I still think we're gonna get around one thousand. Let's say nine hundred to one thousand is my final guess. And if we do that, the number goes back up over nine thousand, and it's it's you know, it's fine. It's certainly plenty fine. A lot of stuff is been down. Some stuff has been up, of course, but a lot of stuff has been down throughout the summer. It's just kind of a crazy wild world out there where things are expensive, people have less money. Bitcoin is down, like you know, they got the ninety percent tax law, like you got all this sort of stuff that's just going against poker right now. But still being able to maintain what I think is going to be right around nine thousand, probably a little bit more than nine thousand entries for the WSP made event in this current climate, I think is a very very big win for the World Series of Poker, and I am looking forward to next year because when you make this big push to build a new stage like they did, bring the streaming to ESPN. You know what sort of effect is that going to have? And it's not just ESPN because yes, it's ESPN in the the US, or the ESPN platform, I should say in the US, because it's split between the app slash plus and then also it'll be on ESPN and ESPN two for the final table. But there's there's some international deals as well. So you know, the US stuff, I know, a lot of US, a lot of the listeners out there see because we are you know, in the US, we're American, et cetera. But there's a lot of stuff going on around the rest of the world too. To beef up the distribution. That's not gonna be something that really pays any sort of dividends this year. It's if enough people see it, there's enough eyeballs on it, people get excited about it. They say, that's awesome. Maybe I forgot about poker. Maybe this reignites some sort of fire inside me to get back out there and fire this. And then next year is when you see the bump plus maybe you know, maybe Bitcoin goes back up and other crypto maybe you know, the economy is just doing a little bit better. All that sort of stuff. You know, we'd have we'd have a year, right, so that's a lot of time for things to to turn the right direction. Of course, I mean they could go the other way, yes, but I generally like to be positive about things in the world. So you know, we gotta we gotta got a new highst hit next year. Of course, within the first thirty minutes of day one, as reported by Poker News, Patrick Lander was eliminated from the tournament in a pretty crazy fashion, bluffing it off with six high So listen to this hand. This is this is again, this is this is as reported by Poker News, but it does come from with the table reported two Poker News Under the gun you had Nicholas by Sirius. Believe I said that name correctly. He raised a five hundred again the first level in his minimum is one hundred, two hundred with the sixty k starting stack. Action folded all the way around to Brian Bonacor in the small blind. He made the call, and then Lander Patrick Lander was in the big blind. He three bet to fifteen hundred. Both players call it comes nine to eighty four. Small blind checks Lander out of the big blind bets two thousand, which is right around forty percent pot. Both players call turn is an ace, small Blind checks again. Lander comes with the same bet two k, so now this time he's betting around twenty percent pot, one fifth of the pot. The original razor from under the gun VI Sierras He folds, but then the small blind bon Acorp he checked raises to seven k. Lander decides to make the call, having position on his opponent, River is a King. Bonacor bets twelve thousand, which is fifty percent pot, and Lander goes all in for what the table said was around forty five thousand. After a little bit of a tank, Bonacort called with pocket eights for a set of eights. He flopped a set of eights on the nine to eighty four flop. Lander had six five six five six high and was sent out the door. Now, listen, this isn't an easy call with the eights, So I think you got to tip your cap to Bonacor here, because listen, I don't recognize these players in the hand. And you know, forgive me if I'm just you know, not recognizing them. But let's just what I'm getting at is, I don't think that these players probably knew who each other were like, you know, it's not like you're sitting down You're like, Okay, this is Alex Fox and he can have X y Z hands. You know, he can kind of be out there doing something. I mean, when you have what you might think is an unknown player, you don't know that player and they're just going all in within the first half hour of the WSP Maine event, I mean, you have to have some sort of giant sirens just booming in your head, being like what the heck is going on? So you're sitting there with a set of eight. It's when listen, this guy could certainly have aces here, right, three bet pre flop, bets the flop, BET's the turn and betting the turn really small. If he were to have aces here. When he makes a set of aces and then he gets check raised, he just flats to keep all your opponents' hands in, gets a clean river card, and then just goes bombs away. You know, like that makes sense to me, right, I mean, kings maybe a little less, so you know probably, I mean, maybe you bet the turn like this and then you call a check raise. I don't know, maybe you want to splash around a little bit nine. I could possibly being there if he wants to get aggressive pre flop, probably more of it just a call, but you know, I think it's certainly likely that this player could have aces. Now, I don't know what Patrick Lander was up to for the you know, the twenty twenty five minutes or however long he was there first. Maybe he's just blasting off and everyone's like, you know, this guy's just he's going off. We got to call him down. But still it did say that Bonacor did tank call with the eights, you know, so you know, you got to tap the table, tip your cap to Bonicor there for making the call there and Lander, I mean, I mean, the guy just freaking went for it. He was six high. But he's out of the tournament. So that's that. You always just see these wild hands in the Level one of the WSP main event. It's just it's crazy out there, right, it really is. I mean, at the end of the day, I know it's the biggest and the best and the most prestigious tournament in the world, and one that it's on every poker player's bucket list. Everyone wants to try extra hard. Everyone's you know, a little bit more kind of buttoned up in a lot of spots. Not everyone, but you know a lot of people and some other people are just out there. They just take it to the opposite extreme right. They either just kind of treat it like they would any other tournament and just go for it in spots when they want to, or they're just there to just gamble up, try and run up a huge stack and just steamroll this whole thing from start to finish. And that's what leads to some pretty crazy hands early on. And of course with all eyes, all media, you know, focused on the WSP main events, all of this sort of stuff that happens in the early levels, it really does come to light with that increased spotlight on it. So we said goodbye to Patrick Lander early on with the six High Bluff and just you know, wild stuff there. Plenty of big names were in the field for Day one d You had Daniel mcgrano made it down to Paris. He played on the feature table all day long, well I shouldn't say all day from level I think three all the way till the end. Nick Schulman was in the mix. You had both the Fox and Kristin Fox and Alex Foxen were out there, Martin Cabrell was in there, Victor Blom, Darren Elias, Eric Lnglan, Ryan Race, Benny Glausser, Anthony Zen, Oshan deeb, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Locke was out there, Greg Mueller, Joe Hasham, Jonathan Tamayo, Jeremy Becker, Dylan Wiseman, Joey Weissman, Christian Harder and then rampage Ethan Rampagey how they were all in the mix. Don't really know how. Too many of them bagged up chips. I do know that Jennifer Tilly bagged around thirty thousand. I know that Daniel legrand New bagged chips. I didn't see what his number was. It wasn't in the app just yet, but I know they finished up their hand up on the main feature table. He did the phil ivey, he walked off and did a walk off interview they like. Jeff Platt met him, I don't know, twenty feet from the table in the middle of the main stage area and they walked off and filmed an exit interview or a day end interview. I shouldn't say EXE because he didn't bust the tournament. Daniel but a day's end interview, you know all they will they walked out of the room and then somebody else, you know, floor staff or whoever bags Daniel's chips up on the feature table. Another player that was in the mix, Paul, Missrocky. I know you guys know a lot about the Miss Rocky brothers. Well, this is a Miss Rocky son. Paul Msrocky is Michael the Grinder, Miss Rocky's son. He played I think his first like big major tournament in December when he had turned twenty one at WSP Paradise And here he is playing his first WSP main event. And guess how many chips this guy backed? One hundred and ninety seven, two under, more than three times the starting stack in true Miss Rocky fashion. You know, I was reading through. There's an article about it on on pokernews dot com and shout out to Poker News. By the way, I've been referencing them a lot throughout the summer. They've been doing a lot of hard work out there, a lot of articles, a lot of good stuff. With the live reporting. It's always good to have, Yes, it's great to have the streams and the coverage that way, but then also, you know to have written in other media going out as well. It's just if you want to consume it all and be a total nerd about it, you got to consume it all, right. But ms Rocky was kind of joking like did I get lucky today or you know, how did I play or whatever to his table, and his table said, no, you grinded. So you know, it sounds like he grinded it out. But we got at new miss Rocky here, Paul ms Rocky, Michael Mrocky's son bagging more than three times the starting stack. I mentioned Jennifer Tilly and how she bagged around thirty thousand. I think it was just shy of thirty thousand, so just shy of half of a starting stack. She hasn't been playing that Visit to be Man event for a while. And now you guys are gonna have to bear with us on the audio here because we shot it for a video. But we're gonna use the audio here because I do want to hear from Gentilly. You know why she's been not able to play the w C MANI for a few years. She talks about her love for poker, mentions you know, her boyfriend Phil Locke and you know him playing and you know all different kinds of stuff from Jennifer Tilly. Ka did this interview, So here's from Jennifer Tilly. This was before she bagged on the day. So on one of the breaks leading towards the end of. The day, Jennifer, where have you been all these years in the main? Well, I am so happy. It's been six years since I've played the main for Suicid Pandemic, remember the Pandemic, then three seasons of Chucking, which we filmed in the summer, two seasons. Of the Real House. It's the Beverly Hills. So this is my first main event tournament in a very long time. So it's fun. I'm a little rusty and tournament play like I played high sakes poker. Those guys play like crazy pants. They're like billionaires. They lose one hundred thousand dollars and then they laugh and they show you that they have three seven off suit. So these people you so when they raise you, they have something. So I'm learning how to adjust to how real people play. But my big goal is the lasted at the end of the day, because it'd be a gloomy time in the old Tilly Philly household tomorrow. If Phil is still in the tournament and I'm not, so I think I can hold on to my chips, just not do anything crazy and rash. You've been at the World Chairs of bog before many years. Yes, the lore of the main event is huge. You have a bracelet, but you don't have a deep run in the main events. So talk to me about what this tournament means to you and what that would mean. I have never gotten past the second day. I think once I made it to the second day, and all the other days I just didn't even get past the first day. It would be so amazing to do a deep run. I mean, and a lot of people dream about making the final table. I dream of them saying the bubble has burst and I'm there cheering along with everybody else. So you know, hopefully that'll happen. But anything can happen. This is the great thing about tournaments. I mean, a lot of times you say the cream rises to the top. Sometimes you'll see some really top players at the final table, but more often you see, like Joe from Ohio, a guy with the dream like I'm sitting next to lady that has like a farm. She's like, Oh, I left the cows for a couple of days to come play poker. That's the greatest thing about this. Everybody comes from all over, everyone has the same dream, and it's legendary. I know there's other tournaments to have a lot bigger buy in, like two hundred and fifty thousand buy in, and obviously the Poker Players Championship is very presty just but I just love this. I love what it represents. I love that we have Norman, Chad and Lon mcghernan back. I've got the ESPN broadcasting it because I cut my teeth. I'm watching the World Series of Poker live, not live, but on TV before I actually came out here and played it myself. So this is where legends are made. One hundred percent agreed. The cash games, though, have gotten so much traction. Yeah, whenever you play, it goes crazy. Yeah. And what I found super interesting is that your fans, they know you from your. Acting career, and then every now and then. You throw on a poker clip or something about poker, and it's so fascinating to see their response. Right, what is it like to you to show them this part of your life. Well, you know, it's so interesting because well, I say, before Housewives, usually before Housewives, seven out of ten people knew me from Bride of Chucky and three out of ten people knew me from poker. So now most people know me from Housewives. It's I don't know, it's a huge show all around the world. But I'm so happy when people say that they like watching me in poker, and I always get a little like cringe, Like they're like, I was watching on TV last night. I was like, were you watching when I one hundred thousand dollars? You're watching me handra I lost one hundred thousand dollars Because on any given day, you're a terrible poker player or you're a brilliant poker player, and the swings on those games are insane. But the girls, like for example, in Real Housewives and Beverly Hills, they get super excited. You're like, I want ten thousand dollars last night, and you're like and they're like, ten thousand dollars, what are you gonna buy? And to me, it's like that's such a baby pot. So it is fun, you know, to have a lot of things that I'm interested in and have a lot of things that I love to do. But I was saying to Phill the end day philed my boyfriend Phil Lock in the UNI Bomber, we're really getting back into wanting to We used to follow the tournament circuit and it's really fun. And then one day we decided like, oh, we're old stirs. We can't be tramping around but we're all chasing these elusive stats. But now we've got like renewed vigor and we were even thinking that maybe next year we're just gonna go around to some of these exotic places and you know, compete, compete with Ill. Why not? Why not? Final question? Poker has been a consulant in your life? Yes? What does the game mean to you? You know what I love about poker is it's it's really a microcosm of life. Like this morning, I woke up with dread, like, what terrible thing is gonna happen at the end of the day. I mean, they're gonna be happier. I'm gonna be not happy. But it's it is like life. You have these extreme emotions and it's so much like I used to be haunted by, Oh, you know the thing a lady went through the intersection, got broadsided by the carl. You know, you think I would think what if she left house a little lad, what if she left the house a little earlier. I always feel like when poker, we're always like, what if I check raised on the turn? Or what if I hadn't played that hand, or what if I played it a little bit differently? Would I still be in the tournament? And you have a lot of self incriminations and ruminations, you know, you're always exploring your soul, like did I just tilt off those chips? Was a like a really good bluff that just didn't work. I'm very kind to myself because I feel like I make the best decisions given the information that I have. And you know, it's like, how was I to know the guy I had quads? You know, you don't know these things. And the thing with people who are professional poker players or even amateur poker players, they tend to beat themselves up a lot. But the reason why this is such a great game, it's a game of incomplete information, and the luck factor really throws her mention to think, isn't it, Philahelm, You said, if for luck, I'd win every time. But that's why we have all the amateur players from all over the world coming and chasing their dream because they've had themmen, this amount of luck in their poker league, get home, and they really want to come and try their luck with the best. I think, you know, obviously, when Chris Moneymaker won against Sammy Fara, a seasoned gambler with an insane bluff, I think that that really inspired everybody. Everyone could be a poker champion. Yeah, everybody can. Why not me? Good stuff there from Jennifer Tilly. Interesting to hear how she's kind of feeling like she has to figure out how tournament players play, and specifically in the dobas v min event play in a contrast to how players play in the cash games, you know, high stakes poker, no gamble, no future, all the big stuff, Poker Stars, big game, whatever it is that Jennifer Tilly plays on. You know, it's more just like a rich home game. People are splashing around, they're in there with you know, kind of really wide ranges, they're doing kind of wild stuff. They're willing to gamble a bit more in a tournament, and especially in the w P Man event, it's it's not like that out there. I mean, maybe once in a while you get that absolute unicorn of a table draw where there are people all splashing around. It is like, you know, just a cash game atmosphere. But for the for the most part, you know, people are you know, much more buttoned up with everything. They play a bit closer to the vest. And you also get a wider variety, a wider range of all types of players. You get people that are in on satellites and that could be smaller buyings to free roles to whatever. You get rich people that are in there. You get grinders that are in there, you get shot takers that are in there. You know, you get all this sort of stuff where it's a little bit more confined the player type. When you know gentility is going to play let's say a high six poker for example. And by the way, you can catch her on season sixteen available. Now on a Poker go. So, yeah, it was just interesting to hear from her how she you know, she's got to kind of change up her game and kind of refigure things out. You know, Jenn's played a lot of poker in her life to yeah, here she is backgrinding and both her and Phil Locke did advance to Day two. As long as the app is correct, I think Phil lock bagged around seventy seven thousand, and then I mentioned Tilly bagged around thirty thousand. Another player to bag chips and some of you listeners out there may know this name and also have heard his voice, Ben Ludlow. Ben Ludlow good friend of mine, friend of the pod, but also co host of the Poker News podcast. I wanted to talk to Ben because he was stuck up on the feature table, the main feature table for three levels today, because he had a starting table that belonged to the one Daniel mcgroney. Ben battled with Daniel in a few pots, some early on offstream, then a couple on stream. I just wanted to get the lay of the land, you know, see how his day went. What was it like playing on the feature on day one? You know, I think it's interesting especially for people who maybe you're nervous, maybe you're coming out and you're you're planning to play the main event, and you're like, oh, man, like what if they put me on a feature What if I get a table draw with one or two big names, or I draw like like bended here with with Daniel. You know, am I am I gonna be nervous going up there? You know, how's it gonna be? Yeah. I mean a lot of times you see people kind of go one of two ways when they get to a stream table. One is that they get really tight and conservative because they're overly cautious and they don't want to make mistakes. On the other side, you get people that their ego really comes out and they start going from confident to cocky. And once you do that, that's bad news. And you're trying to pull off big bluffs and you're trying to you know, make a show out of a hand or whatever it may be, and that can also you know, backfire against you. And you know that's why they say. You know, a lot of the a lot of the pros or experienced players who have have you know a lot of hours out there playing under the bright light. It's with the cameras on, you know, all that sort of stuff. They can take advantage of tables like that because they're just used to that, right. But Ben got the play up there for I think it was six hours today, three full levels. So let's hear from Ben Ludload, now co host of the Poker News podcast. You played on the feature table, the main feature table with Dane on the Grand Nude pretty much all day on day one. How was that experience. Did you feel like you had to do anything differently, you know, bright lights, cameras, et cetera. I definitely was a little nervous coming up here. I mean I don't think that I've really this is by far the biggest like streamed moment I've ever had. I think I was on a stream a couple of times before, much smaller stuff. So yeah, I was definitely nervous. It didn't change really anything how I played. Honestly, it was nice. I felt way more locked in. In the back of my head. I was like, well, you can't do anything stupid because everyone you know is going to see if you do. Playing with Daniels a lot of fun. It was an interesting day because no one went bust. This was the nine that we started with and the nine that we ended with, so I think I bagged the most ships of anyone with one oh three point eight, So there wasn't a ton of big hands. Everyone played really solid. I don't know if the Future table had anything to do with it. There were it was kind of the same before, so I would say, uh, it was fun. It was fun, but you know a little bit of nerves at the start. But you know, a few minutes in, it's just poker. I gotta put you on the spot a little bit. How uh, how would you rate Daniel's play on day one? Oh God, I hope he's not listening. No, no, I mean Daniel was Daniel. He played a lot of hands, he saw a lot of flops. You know, we were talking about PLO all day. He just won one hundred k PLO. He was like, you know, I love PLO because I get the limp and no matter what, I'm gonna call. So he definitely employed the limp in his pimp and strategy a little bit. He didn't. I don't think he made very many hands. He ended up bagging more than starting. He had played one big one at the end where he made a good call with trips versus top two. But he didn't show down a ton of hands. He saw a lot of rivers unfolded. But I mean it's Daniel Gronde. He's the goat. Now, after you have this experience, you're up here playing on the stream. Is it something you're more wanting to get back to or are you like, you. Know what, I did it on day one. I'm happy to avoid it for a few days and then maybe on day five basics, when it's real, let's go. Then it's a good question. I think I want more. I think I want more. I think I felt like, you know, I definitely made a couple of mistakes today, and there's always things to improve on. But I definitely I struggle here and there with being present at the table. You know, I'm a little add I'm looking all over the place, going on my phone, I'm taking a break. So this was this was like you can't do that, you just you literally cannot. So I want more of this. I hope it's not till day five, but I hope I'm back here for sure. I want one. So it was a great start for Ben Ludlow. He bagged more than one hundred thousand, bagged one hundred and three thousand and eight hundred. He also told me off Mike that he flopped a straight flush at one hand. I think it was in the last level of the night. Want a small pot or so something there. So yeah, I mean things went pretty well for Ludlow, and you guys can check him out if you want to, over on the Poker News podcast that's he co hosts alongside Chad Holloway and Mike Holts. Mike Colts was also in the field today. Don't know how he fared, but he was looked like he was having a blast when Jeff Platt went out there and interviewed him about halfway through the day or so. And of course we know because we talked about it on this show already this summer. But Mike Colts won a bracelets the super Turbo bounty. He won for around two hundred and forty thousand dollars. I believe it was on the other side of things. Of course, plenty of players did, unfortunately have to bust out. That's just how poker tournaments work. Some of the notable players to hit the rail on Day one D include Scottie Winn, Doug Polk. Doug Polk, by the way, had a wild level up and down and all over the place to start this thing that ultimately could never recover and bust it. Nate Silver Sugar, Sean O'Malley, the UFC fighter, He was out there battling. He was on one of the feature tables for a while. He ultimately got moved off or his table got you know, replaced with another table up there, and then Sugar Sean busted out. So I think in the either the second to last level or the last level of the Night Team or Margrelin, a three time Bracele winner. He busted Michael Burke, John Juwanda, David Odb Baker friend of the Pod Odb. His main event run comes to an end, and the PLO god Lataro Guera also hit the rail on Day one d of the main event. I think that's going to do it for the w SP main Event, and honestly, that just might do it for the POD. I'm excited for my Day two. It's on Monday, starts at eleven am. I believe I'm in the Horseshoe room as opposed to the parish room this time, so at some point we might break if I survived that long. But yeah, I'm excited coming off what was a rough you know, what was it eighty percent of Day one that ultimately the last level turned out to be pretty good from where I was. I know I talked about in the last episode. So overall feeling good going into Day two. Think my table draw is okay, don't. I mean I recognize a couple names there, but doesn't seem like it'll be too bad. But again, it doesn't matter what your table draw is. Yes, some can be good, some can be bad. You know, that's just the luck of the draw. But at the end of the day, you have to sit down and you have to face those players in front of you. So I'm ready for whatever they throw at me and hopefully I perform my best. So short and sweet here, but this main event is building again. We are over eight thousand entries in the WSP main event this year. We'll see what the Day two ABC and Day two D late registration brings. I'm thinking nine hundred to one thousand, which gets this total field size up over nine thousand. My guess on the field size was nine and seventy seven, so that could still be achieved. Yes, and uh, we're off and running. It's the World Series of Poker Main event. It's the best freaking time of the year, so let's freaking go. My name is Donny Peters. As always, don't forget that. If you enjoy this podcast, please hit the follow or subscribe button wherever you guys listen, leave a five star rating and a review, and share the show with a fellow Hooker fan. And we want to hear from you guys. Actually, let me just say this. One of the things that I want to hear from you guys now that it is Main Event time. I know a lot of people have been out there on social media saying this, that and the other thing about the coverage this year. I want to hear from you guys, the listeners. But I don't want to hear just complaining and rants and whatever. Give some provide some actual suggestions or some thoughts as to things that you would like to see with the coverage. I plan on sitting down to watch the full main event, you know, basically from start to finish. I'll just binge it once the final table is reached and I have a bit more time on my hands to actually consume it all. But you know, I would like to get some thoughts from the listeners out there and be like, hey, you know, what if they did this, or what if they did that? Or I think this would be cool or I think that would be cool. I don't think we've ever asked for that before on this podcast. I'd be interested to hear it, and you guys can send that stuff into podcast at PokerGO dot com. Thanks as always to producer Rich for his work behind the scenes. My name is Donnie Peters and I will catch you guys for next time. Express