Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new episode of
the Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters and
I am joined by Tim Duckworth. It is Monday, February sixteenth.
It is some holiday that I don't even know what
holiday it is. I just know that my kids are
off from school, which is extremely annoying. Yeah, I mean,
when you pay money for the kids to go to school,
they should always go.
Speaker 2: To school, right with you?
Speaker 1: Or my monthly whatever the heck it's called. What's it
called fee? Yeah, tuition, couldn't think of that word for
the life of me. The monthly tuition should should go down,
it should be cut. Like this is just this is
how it is. You can't just be taking mondays off.
This is not how this works anyways.
Speaker 3: Listen, in my son's first year of school, we had
more days off for like President's Day and all these
things then I had in thirteen years of school.
Speaker 1: In Australia, it's President's Day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't understand it. Maybe
this is why this country's not intelligent anymore. Too many
days off in school.
Speaker 1: It's not that they're not intelligent anymore, it's it's just
that they're too soft and actually speaking that intelligence factor.
By the way, it's two ten pm. I got to
point out the time as always two ten pm on
Monday February sixteen, when I was playing poker over the
weekend at Venetian there was a gentleman at my table
from Europe and he said, in Europe, none of their
tests that they have in school have multiple choice answers
or possibilities on them, you know how like you go
to a test it says what's his collar and it
gives you a through D or whatever. And he said,
you know, he said, it's just you either know the
answer or you don't. You write it in on the line,
and that's that. And that makes a lot of sense
to me. Again, it just goes back to just every
one here is soft. I guess and we're having multiple
choice and you know, the worst you can do if
you just guess blindly as twenty five percent, which is
kind of ridiculous, like know the answer or we don't
know the answer. End of story.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, enough of that rambling. So on today's episode,
we're gonna talk a lot of PGT PGT kickoff. That's
wrapped up. We're gonna hit on that PGT Mixed Games
that's wrapped up. We're gonna hit on that Super High
Rollerble Mixed Games is also wrapped up. We're gonna hit
on that. We're also going to do our mailbag episode,
which we have a bunch of questions from. We are
not going to talk about the WSITV schedule, just putting
that out there, and the reason is is because Tim
and I it just dropped today, Yes, but Tim and
I like to digest it, actually come with some coherent,
somewhat coherent thoughts on it, and not just be shooting
from the hip. We do enough shooting on the hip,
but for the very important topics such as the WSITV
schedule that drops every single year, we're gonna We're gonna
leave that to either the next episode or maybe the
next episode after that, but we'll get to it. Digest
our thoughts, come with some takes, all that sort of stuff.
So that is that is coming, that is on the horizon.
So if you're expecting that on this episode, sorry, you
just ain't getting it. As always, if you are listening,
please leave a review, hit the favorite button, subscribe if
that's what you can do on your podcast, catch or
whatever it is. It does help us grow and it
is very much appreciated. Shout out to everyone who did
submit a question or just a suggestion as my dogs
go nuts for the mailbag that's coming up at the
end of the episode. If you guys ever want to
drop us a line podcast at PokerGO dot com and
we might read it on air.
Speaker 2: Don't you have a door? But can't you shut you
office door?
Speaker 1: I don't have a door to my office.
Speaker 2: That is that's maybe the first thing you should handle.
Speaker 1: It is number one on the next projects of the
house list is the door on the office.
Speaker 2: Also the guy if you want if you need a handyman, I.
Speaker 1: Mean I have a guy too. It's just just getting
around to doing it, you know, saving up some money
to get it done because I kind of want to
do a bunch of different things with the office in here,
the door being one of them. It's also it's it's
an enlarged entryway because it's basically just the hallway, so
you're gonna have to kind of reframe it.
Speaker 3: And maybe it's a double door. Yeah, the doors that
a is a French like a French door, like a
French double.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I don't know. We'll see
how it goes. I want to put some shelving in
here and whatever, and it would kind of benefit the
house in that. I think it's a rule that you
have to have a door on it in order for
it to be counted as a bedroom.
Speaker 2: Like officially you have a door and a window.
Speaker 4: Right, there's a window. Yeah, I think that's the closet,
and I just think you need a closet that I
think that's the rule.
Speaker 1: I don't know there's something like that, right, but I
think door is one of them. So need to put
a door there for it to be counted as a
as a bedroom. If for whatever reason we go to
sell the house and you know, it goes up in
value or whatever. But that's it's on the top of
the list, and it's going to happen eventually. It's just
a matter of when I can get around to it.
If I just stop playing too much poker in my
downtime and actually get around to doing something that my
wife would like me to do, that would be great.
Can't put the dogs outside, though, buddy, because coyotes in
the area. Two small dogs that'd just be a recipe
for disaster, so not doing that. I guess I could
go full Daniel and the gronding style thing, but I'm
just not rich enough to do something like that. So
there's that.
Speaker 3: That's just some chicken wire man. That's they can get
home deep at a couple hundred bucks done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I could, but no. New seasons of
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All right, let's get into actually some substance here instead
of me just complaining about what I need to do
around the house and my dog's barking. PGT Kickoff Event
number one, Andrew Lichtenberger won the event one hundred and
sixty two thousand dollars, the same event he won a
season ago. He asked right now after he won, if
he was the first person to go back to back
in the same event. That is not true, or he's not.
Kristin Foxen did it. She did in the final event
of the PGT Kickoff series. And I think it's only.
Speaker 2: Those two, right, I think so.
Speaker 1: And I know we'll touch on it, but Kristin Foxen
almost did the three P when she finished. She actually
finished seventh in event number five at PGT Kickoff, which
is the event that she won the two past seasons.
Event number two. Brian Battistone won that for one hundred
and seventy three thousand, Event number three Andrew moreto one
hundred and sixty two thousand. Event number three, Andrew Moreno
and Jim Colpy made a deal during heads up play.
Moreno took home one hundred and sixty two thousand dollars. There,
Taylor Parr one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars for
winning the event number four e at number five, Michael Burke
two hundred and sixty two thousand dollars. That's the biggest
prize first place prize from this series. And then Aril
Mantel and event number six one hundred and seventy one
thousand dollars for him. He topped Clement Dang and denied
Clement Dang a second title. Three cashes were had by
Andrew Lichtenberger, Dan Smith, Clemen Dang, Dan Maher, Patrick, Leonard, A. K.
Pads and John Reordan and then after the series was
all finished, Andrew Lichtenberger topped the PGT leaderboard of five
hundred and thirty one points. What say you on the
kickoff series?
Speaker 3: My man, it was very impressive. It we saw numbers
that I don't think anyone was expecting. Obviously I had discussed,
you know, let's be prepared for a decline. It went
literally the other way. And for the laugh of me,
I cannot tell you how why that happened. But hey,
we're not going to complain, you know, we want to
compare it kind of to the previous year where we
were looking at, basically in the five case averaging basically
you know, one hundred and five entrants. This year we
went up to you know, one hundred and thirty five entrants,
one hundred and fifty one entrance, one fifty nine one,
like just absolutely kind of ginormous numbers.
Speaker 2: Window wise. It was great.
Speaker 3: It was after the Borgata had finished, it was after
Seminole had finished. We saw you know, ten to fifteen
players that had never been in the studio partaking those
first few events. Plus we saw people you know coming
out that hadn't played in a while, and obviously, you know,
we were still missing some of our regulars too, for
whatever reason that may be. So yeah, look, we came
into the year, the season talking about all the tax
issues and you know what was that going to mean
for poker or you know, we used that seminal data
where we saw pretty steep decline in the twenty five k's,
and you know what, maybe it's just the fact that
like some of these guys are you you know, they're
going to concentrate on that five K buying. You know,
we always discuss that we think threes and fives are
just like the best price point here in America. And
with the numbers that we had at kickoff, you know,
you look in totally, we had one hundred and twenty
eight unique players, which is, you know, one of our
biggest kind of showings for a series. And you know,
the five case they're just gonna they're just the beast.
And we're going to do a few more of those
this year. And obviously as the year kind of goes on,
we'll see, we'll see how the rate of play kind
of evolves. Hearing from players, they're going to kind of
take shots early and if things go south, they'll slow down.
If things go well, they'll kind of keep playing, so
we're going to make adjustments every series.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Obviously we have our next big No Limbit series coming
up in March, and you know, who knows what.
Speaker 2: That will bring.
Speaker 3: Is that going to be bring record breaking numbers or
are we going to see what I kind of expected
a little bit of a trickle off. So, like I said,
don't really have an answer, which is unlike me, but
it was just great.
Speaker 1: It was just great because one of the one of
the mailbag questions kind of pertains to the tax situation.
So I guess we'll hit on it a little bit
more later. But I wanted to jump in and ask
you because you hit on or you briefly mentioned those
those Seminal numbers. Do you do you have those numbers?
Did you remember exactly what happened there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, somewhere I believe.
Speaker 1: One of the twenty five k's was canceled.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So look, and I spoke with you know, Jason
Heidenthal who runs Seminal, about a week ago, so we
had a little discussion. Look, I made a big tweet
about it, and he kind of actually thanked me for,
you know, being able to take that to his higher
apps and say, hey, we need to adjust our schedule.
They did just release their upcoming April schedule and they've
made those adjustments.
Speaker 2: So that's really good to say. I'm not saying it's
on me.
Speaker 1: I think it's just adjustments. I see no twenty five K.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the big adjustment. So over the last few years,
you know, they've done a variety of events, seminal in January,
always at the thirty five hundred main event. Those numbers
kind of pretty dropped pretty heavily of the last few
years until this year where we saw a slight increase,
and then they've normally done a twenty five K and
at least a five K and then occasionally at ten
the ten you know, the last two years, seventy two
to seventy four players. No drop off there. We look
at a twenty five K back in twenty twenty two,
we had ninety three entrants drop down, a seventy four
drop down to fifty twenty twenty five, was fifty six
this year, twenty eight, and they they added a second
one that didn't go.
Speaker 2: Now the second one was.
Speaker 1: The second one for six max or was it the
other way around.
Speaker 3: I don't know on how many players at the table,
but the second one was kind of poorly scheduled. It
was on the same day as the College Football Championship,
which was also held in Miami, so it was kind
of about a bit of an oversight there. The first
twenty five K, you know, half the field drop off,
fifty percent drop off in that and supposedly they had
put in two players from They ran a promotion in
the poker room where two players qualified, knowing that you
would expect the numbers to be a bigger but then
also having spoken to so many poker players, you know
that played both our events and seminal, they had always
they had always been weary of the twenty five k
and probably skipping those. So look, they've seen the data,
the big drop off and the cancelation. Looks like, hey,
that's not going to be on the schedule for the
foreseeable future. As confirmed for the AFL event, the ten
K has being strong. They also do a five K
that normally has a two hundred or quarter million dollar
guarantee that that just crushes nearly every year. Back in
twenty twenty two, one hundred and eighty two players. They
took a year off twenty twenty four was one hundred,
twenty twenty five was one point fifty three, and then
this year was one seventeen. So you know, looking at
those those data points, fives and tens seemed to still
be strong, fives especially strong. And then obviously the thirty
five hundred this year went up about five percent, so
that's good there. And you know, this stop is always
a weird one, always kind of slightly overlaps the Borgata
January event, so you're gonna split the player pool. And
then this year they also had and not a new event,
but maybe I guess you call it a return, they
had a Biloxi main event that was also a bet
MGM property. So three kind of pretty big no limit
holder main events all running kind of simultaneously. Isn't great
for the industry. Now, you could argue that, hey, ones
in Florida, ones in you know, Biloxi, ones in uh
up in the up in the cold. It's it's completely
different player pools, but you are just making you know,
players pick and choose. It's a little difficult. I'd rather
just have some more offset for these for these companies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that I think that that
what what you just outlined gets into how I think
we're going to eventually see the poker landscape kind of shift,
meaning if you're going to have these events that they
do compete with each other, and you know, like you said,
the argument for doing them anyway is like, well, they're
just pretty different locations. But when you're making players pick
and choose, the players that Tim is talking about is
the traveling player, right, You're making the traveling player pick
and choose. Right, There's only a select few people like
let's say Brock Wilson, for example, Who's going to hop
on a plane and try and hit like every single
stop one after another. You know, there's just not a
lot of those, so that you know, you might you
guys that you know they travel just to Borgada and
then back home, or they traveled just a seminole and
then back home. So you're making those players pick and choose.
So I think eventually, when I talk about this shift
in the landscape, I think you're going to see a
shift to these venues who are running these really big tournaments,
these really big series. Is like I think they're going
to shift things to more of a regional and local
focus and not so much as like we're putting on
this big series to attract people from everywhere. I think
it's going to be more dialed in or at least
I mean partly is like that's what I would advise
these places to do. So, like you know, Seminal, for example,
should focus on just that region like that really southeast region,
draw people from like all the way up to like Atlanta,
right and then listen, if you get traveling players and
you get people to come in from Afar, great, you know, bonus.
But I think you start catering really towards more that regional,
local crowd, probably anywhere that's within like what in our
flight two hour drive something like that, like that's your region.
Maybe a little bit more extended on the drive part,
but still that's what I think you're targeting. So you know,
when you have someone something like in January where you
have that Biloxi event, you have the Borgata event, you
have the Seminal event, all happening at once, Well, if
they're all just trying to pull from regional pools, then
it's just a little bit more. It's a little it's
less overlap between the player pools, so it's going to
be more beneficial to those players, so you know, yeah,
I also think that kind of the model that seems
to be working in some places is like a big
one K one K slash eleven hundred and then like
a thirty five hundred main like those are your two
core products, and then you build around those. I would
even say that you could take that thirty five hundred
Maine up to a five K if you wanted, so
then you have like a one K price point and
a five K price point and then build all around that.
And I think those just just tend to you know,
kind of cater to a more regional, local crowd, of course,
bolstered by you know, plenty of promotions and stuff like
that getting people into these tournaments.
Speaker 3: So I just don't think you need to cap yourself though,
that's what do you mean? I know you're talking about regional,
but got big?
Speaker 1: What do you mean, like give me more, sir.
Speaker 2: Like taget, like I want to own.
Speaker 3: I want to own the entire playoffool if I'm one
of these bigger rallies, like I'm not tolling it from
the PGT if I'm if I was, if I was
in charge of Bolgada, if I was in charge of Seminole.
Speaker 2: You know, I want to. I want to own the
entire PLAYOFFOL, so I want.
Speaker 1: To, So I don't I don't necessarily agree with your
goal there. I just think that you're not going to
be given the resources to be able to do that
because of some of the stuff that's happened recently with Seminole.
I'm always going to point back two years ago when
they came out with that big ten million dollar guarantee.
They tried to run it, and they got absolutely slaughtered
on the guarantee. So I just don't think that in
any way, shape or form. Like if you want to
say I want to own the whole player pool everywhere,
I want people coming in. In order to do that,
you need to do something like let's say WPT does
in December, right or I think WSP Paradise does a
good job of it, although they're pulling more international. I
think WPT in December is pulling more from the US, right. So,
but still like, you got to have big guarantees, big promotions,
throw a lot of money behind it, a lot of
resources behind it, and I just don't think you're going
to be able to be given that sort of marketing
and promotional firepower to be able to do such a thing.
So if I'm just coming into it with the assumption
that I'm not going to be given the firepower I
need to make it this big, big, big thing, then
I think the shift is going to be to more regional.
That's where I'm coming at my side of things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you also don't have to like, yes, you
can throw money at things, but you can also do
it like we do it where we don't have that
money to spend, right, we have to just kind of
work within what we have, you know.
Speaker 1: So like skill all of poker, I mean, I think
that's the high roller is because we're I.
Speaker 3: Think that's like I'm looking at Okay, I'm bulgada, Okay,
I'm looking at the Bolgatta Winter Poker Open. Their main
event overlaps the Seminal like the Seminal twenty five k
it overlaps the WSP. So could plan in Hollywood at
overaps our series and MPG two Champion.
Speaker 1: Well also hold on Let's Bargota has zero excuses because
they have an online partner as a foundational situe. So
if you have an online partner built into your company,
which they have with BETMGM poker, you have absolutely no
excuses whatsoever, like none. Now someone like Seminole who doesn't
have an online platform to support it, it's gonna be
a little bit harder to do things right. Even Biloxi
Bloxi is that's an MGM property. They were running qualifiers,
which is also kind of silly if you look at
those two events, because you're running qualifiers on betmgm to
either send people to Burgata or send them to Biloxi.
Why are you not having those events at two different
times and sending why why are you making people choose
from the qualifiers? Like that's silly, But like if you're
Seminoal it's it's a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 3: But let's look at seminoles April schedule. You know, their
main event starts, you know, April twenty fourth, which in
hindsight looks fine, but it actually overlaps azim millions. That
overlapse WSLP Austin, which I think will be big h
and it leads into Bolgada. Now I understand the convention
space and booking, but also you know, if you move
that up one weekend, you have nothing. You're against absolutely
no one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're also kind of making my point for
me in that I'm saying things are going to eventually
shift more regional, and if you don't.
Speaker 3: I'm saying you don't have to do it that way.
You can still be a big dog.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can still be a big
dog and still be like regional. I mean, I think
in Seminole's case, I think the best thing that they
could do is they could start a national tour. I
think they have enough properties, have enough hard walks around.
You have the one that's coming in twenty twenty seven,
I believe, is when it's going to open here in Vegas,
you know. Ultimately, like I would make that your finishing
points for things. I would build up the tour this
year and next year, and then that twenty twenty seven
stop you nouns the championship event. You know, you could
probably line it up where it coincides with what's going
on here in Vegas in end of November and December,
you know, And I think you could take that approach
to things like like that would be my kind of
big picture plan for Seminoles specifically. And then and then,
like I said, with with you know, Borgata, you just
have to lean on bet MGM.
Speaker 2: So they also have it can do a tour as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and I think that also. You know,
I know that we've had conversations with our friend Matt
Savage about this just others. There's so much poker everywhere
that you know, eventually you're just going to have to
let this all play out. Let all these people go
to war, and you know, the strongest are going to survive.
Like that's just going to happen, right, It's just the
kind of just how it's going to all just shake
out in the end. So yeah, a lot of people
can can keep trying to contest with other people and whatnot.
But I do think eventually, like someone like a seminole
is going to be okay versus someone that's a little
bit smaller might might die out in the long or
just have to have lesser events because I think seminoles
ultimately just too big of a powerhouse right now, you know.
So so yeah, but I still think shifting to regional
plus I just factor in I think everything kind of lags,
you know, this tax situation. I know, like right now
we kind of think, like, oh, kickoff numbers were freaking booming,
like what's everything seems to be fine, But I always
just think things lack, you know, same with like the
economy or people having less money to spend all that
sort of stuff, Like it just kind of lacks, and
eventually it'll catch up and everyone will kind of kind of,
you know, be like freak out and be like, well,
why did this happen now? Well, which is because everything
just kind of lags behind anything else. On PGT kickoff
before we roll into mixed games.
Speaker 3: My only thought is, you know, like this series has
been fairly copypaste the last few years. You know, four
or five k's the ten K. This year we added
a single day ten K, two X points in all events.
You know, looking at the schedule next year, the windows tight.
I'm wondering if this, you know, does does this get
a bit of a shake up to what you've kind
of hinted before, where we make it like a multi
flight just one off of then maybe, But I just
I do love this series. It's just that I wonder
if if it if we shake it up a little bit,
I'm not really sure yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean again, I just think it goes back
to what what sort of resources we can have at
our disposal. I mean, I always thought my original idea
with the kickoff was a multi flight, multi day tournament,
you know, three day, three day, one flights, day two,
three and four, kind of stream the whole thing, big guarantee,
like all that sort of stuff. Right, If that can't
be done, I think what you've you know, molded it
into is the best way to go about it. So
I don't know, I don't think I would change anything
the way it is. I'm also a big proponent of,
you know, if it's not broke, don't fix it, and
if it's only getting better, definitely don't fucking fix it.
Like this got way better than last year. The only
thing that you did is you added one more event
as a single day event, And that doesn't really matter
in the grand scheme of this because this tournament series
doesn't have a series title. It's just about the double
points aspect to it all. So yeah, I think as
long as this series, if we continue to see numbers
increase like they are, if we continue to get more
unique players, which I think is the most important point
from this series, you know, trying to get people into
the pgt ecosystem, hopefully they have a great experience, they
love playing in the studio, they get some points, and
then they continue to play the whole series. Like that's
the goal with this series. So as long as those
things are being achieved, I mean, just just keep running
it back, you know, because it's a lot of fun,
all right. Let's move on to PGT Mixed Games. Speaking
of a fun series, this one's always the most fun,
you know. I think that part of me says mixed
game players get a bad rap, and I would say
deservedly so, you know, because a lot of them are
just absolute chromade with everything constant complaining, whining and crying
like the whole thing. Right, But the ones inside the
studio I think are pretty fun and entertaining, and even
the few curmudgeons that we have are still wildly entertaining
in the grand scheme of things. Seven events as part
of this year's Mixed Games series. This this did have
a series title winner, and that was Yuri Zebeleski aka
Yuri Nerd Guy or Yuri Martins has multiple names that
he goes by the brazil By.
Speaker 2: He also goes by Goat.
Speaker 1: He also goes by go By God or Jesus, you
know whatever, because absolutely flying high. So Yuri had three cashes,
all three were top three finishes. In fact, all three
were top two finishes in a first, a second, and
a second, five hundred and thirty four pg T points
in total, seven hundred and forty five thousand dollars in
change in total winnings. He won event number five, He
finished second in event number six, and second in event
number seven. Event number seven was the twenty five K
Championship event. So Yuri Zevelevski is the PGT Mixed Games
Series champion and a very fitting champion. I don't think
there's any debate here in terms of who is the
best performer from the series, but I do want to
give some honorable mention to the man who finished in
second place, King Hi Pan aka Jackpan, who also had
three cashes, also three top three finishes, but his were first, second,
and third. So it's just absolutely wild how all these
guys were battling to the end. But Yury Zeveleski does
come out on top here. Just running through the event winners.
Event number one, Chino Reem comes out on top for
one hundred and twelve thousand dollars. He did make a
deal with Dylan Lindy in heads up play, and right
out of the gate, I was like, here we go.
Chino reim third PGT series title, Like here we go again.
Justin Liberto won Event number two. Great to see Justin
Liberto in the mix for more PGT events. He did
play some kick off events. He played the entire mixed
game series, so that's good to have him in there.
Ryan Hoenig his first time at the PGT Mixed Game Series.
He won Event number three for two hundred and thirty
two thousand dollars. A Liberto one Event number two for
one hundred twenty seven thousand dollars, So excuse me there.
Nick Shulman the real goat event number four two hundred
and thirty five thousand dollars for him. Yurizevilevski won Event
number five two hundred and sixty two thousand dollars. Event
number six, King Hipan won two hundred and seventy three
thousand dollars, and then event number seven was Brian rast
Rast winning four hundred and eighty thousand dollars in the
twenty five K ten Game Championship event. I'll let you
correct me in a second, but just let me kind
of set the table here in that I think every
event was down except for the last one. Basically, what
I'm saying is we saw booming numbers for Kickoff, we
saw a pullback in numbers for mixed games.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you touched on the the you know, the twenty
five K finale, that was obviously the outlier, just absolutely
smashing through the previous record. But yeah, numbers were down
this year. Most notably though, it was the five k's.
You know, the five K horse went from one hundred
and thirty to one oh one, five K eight game
went from one forty eight to ninety eight. The ten
K Horse it was a new event, it was a toss,
but that went down by twelve players. The ten K
eight game that went down by eight players, So that's
pretty marginal. That's just kind of some reentry variance. The
Big Bet mix was I would call a return, So
if we're comparing it to the previous Big Bit mix,
it was also different buy and can't really do that
dealer's choice down a couple people as well.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of reasons for this.
Speaker 3: The first one is I would say about ten regulars
and when I say regulars. I'm talking guys that are
firing every event multiple times. We're not here now. They
made the terrible mistake of getting married and having kids
and doing all those things, so that's why they didn't attend.
So they need to do a better job next year
planning their family lives. But you know, you take those
ten players, you give them a rebuy in the Horse
or the EIGHTKA and there's twenty entrance right there.
Speaker 2: We would ran pretty awful in the satellite.
Speaker 3: Everyone that won a seat was probably going to DBI anyway,
So that's six people there, so that kind of makes
up for that for that Horse number, and you know
the eight game number, the ten Game Championship. You know,
the biggest reason that went up is really you know,
Phil Stenheimer and his recruiting of players to come play
this series.
Speaker 2: You know, we had a lot of.
Speaker 3: People flying for you know, the Dealer's Choice that the
twenty five k, then the hundred K, or even just
the twenty five and one hundred, so you know a
lot of new faces kind of rocked up for their
last event. That kind of help, you know, really boost
that number. But you know, like I think we all
agree Mixed game players are on the tighter side, and
I would say that maybe this is where the tax
the tax laws kind.
Speaker 2: Of hit players.
Speaker 3: You know, do I want to play the ten k
horse that gets one hundred players or don't want to
play the ten k horse of the World series that
gets you know, three hundred players. They're going to be
a little bit more tighter with their you know, with
their with their bankrolls, especially in this new day and age.
Speaker 2: But yeah, either either way, I think it was a
great series.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of you know, we had new
players that have never been in the studio playing, so
that was great. It's always a fun event, a fun series.
It's like it's basically a multi table home game, and
I think it's just a great week of poker. These
mixed guys don't get any series like this around the world,
you know, outside of the World Series, which is obviously
stretched over seven weeks. But to come here for you know,
ten days and play a bunch of different games. The
cash games were absolutely popping I heard, and then all
leading into the one hundred k.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought the series was great. I love
the atmosphere in the room during this series. You know,
a lot of fun, a lot of entertainment from this
kind of wacky and wild group of mixed game players.
You know, I'm always surprised that there aren't more people
that I know play mixed games to come out to
this series. And I guess I see your point about
you know, let's say you have ten K and you're like, Okay,
should I play the ten K here? Should I play
the ten K at the WSP. I mean my counter
would be, it's only twenty K to play both. I mean,
it's not like I'm asking you to play, you know,
three hundred ks or whatever. Like you could take a
shot in both, you could raise money, like you can
make it happen, you know. And I would say that
for a lot of these guys, you're not getting high
buy ins like this in a condensed time frame anywhere
else in the world. And I would say really kind
of even the WSP, because the difference between this and
the WSP is that the WSP is just spread out
much more. You know this, you can basically take a
week off, come play at all in once, and then
you get the benefit of things like elite staff and dealers,
incredible luxurious studio that's private, it's nowhere near a casino.
You know, It's just everything is just really top of
the line. I know that does sound like company man
speak coming from me, and while it is, I think
you guys out there know me enough to say that,
I wouldn't say that if I didn't believe it. I
would just probably dump on it or ignore it altogether.
But yeah, it really is the best. And again, you
know you mentioned it, a shout out to Phil Sterneimer
for a lot of the recruiting he does, not only
for the bigger buying events, but just kind of about
this whole series, just just really getting behind it. You know,
he really is the guy behind this whole thing, almost
to the point that we should put him on the
payroll for all these But I heard he did all
right in the mix and the cash game, so I'm
sure he's doing just fine. And he did have a
couple of couple of deep runs in the tournaments as well.
Speaking of the twenty five K ten Game Championship, he
got third there for two hundred and sixteen. So yeah,
so overall, I think a really fun series. Hopefully we
get some of these guys that start playing more than
just mixed games, you know, I would love to see,
for example, Yuri's e Aleski start playing more of our stuff,
you know, around the rest of the year. You know, yeah,
Yury's gonna he's gonna be there for the entire WSP
and play all that sort of stuff. But you know,
can we get him for Poker gro Cup. It's not
like he's not good at Nolam at Oldham. He's great
at that too. He's literally great at all of the games.
So can we get him out there for that sort
of stuff. I mean, that's probably gonna factor in. Does
it coincide with Scoop and stuff like that? And I
know they move Scoop this year, and I don't even
know if they fully release schedule yet. I just remember Patrick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if he joked the pads, he's pretty upset of them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well he's upset that they moved it and whatever,
but he was also upset that they hadn't released the
schedule yet. So I don't even know if it's out yet.
But you know, someone like Yuri, I would love to
have him come out for you know, Poker gro Cup
and have him or sorry, yeah, Poker gro Cup, you
know us Poker Ope and stuff like that get out there.
I think it would just be incredible. My favorite event
from all seven events that we had during the Mix
game series was this Big Bet Mix, even though it
had the lowest turnout with fifty three entries fifteen K
price point, Uri Beats Pads heads Up. So two online
legends there, you know, going at it in the live realm,
very familiar with each other's games. But just I thought
the mix was super fun and unique and interesting. You
certainly don't see it anywhere else in the world. A
bunch of the games, you know, just being there throughout
the entirety of this event, A bunch of the games
players had no idea what they were doing. Also, several times,
probably a dozen times, players were playing the wrong game.
Like so if you if you're on the fence about
playing this sort of thing, Like for example, I saw
John Reardon at the Venetian the other day and I
was sitting right next to him and I said, you know,
you should have played this Big Bet Mix. He's like,
I know, I thought about that. I didn't, And I
was like, you don't understand, man. Like players are playing
the wrong game, Like they had no idea what the
rules were. They had no idea like kind of hand
rankings all this sort of stuff, and he's like, man,
damn it, I should have played. I'm like, yeah, you
should have played, because as good as you are and
like some of these games, you know, you probably could
have figured out the other ones quite nicely because some
of the players I don't think I had any idea
what they were doing, which was awesome.
Speaker 3: So and it wasn't just the like the the you know,
the no elimental PLO guys coming in and not understanding
you know, no limit. So we saw some mixed game
legends get some games wrong and we're like, oh, oh,
you know, so kind of happens to everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was it was a lot of fun
that one. It was a very very laid back atmosphere
as well. Matthew Wantman Bucky. He got fifth place in
this event. He was hammered on D Day Walk, absolutely hammered.
Also shout out to Maxim piece of Ranko, who I'm
I'm not joking. I think during this entire series, probably
had one hundred shots of vodka throughout the entire series.
And I'm in no way, shape or form am I exaggerating.
He had at least twenty five in one event and
multiple players can back me up. He would show up
at noon every day and order a shot at the
bar and a drink and then just drink the whole time,
the whole time, NonStop. And then I guess Brian Breck
shout out to him too. He was there a bunch
of times, probably fifteen Coors Lights a day, so I'm
like just three at a time on the table. I mean,
it's just absolute riot in the studio for this series. Overall,
shout out too, Uri Zevilevski, who won the series title.
And then because of all that, his five hundred and
thirty four points that he earned from this series was
enough to put him on top of the overall PGT
leader board for the entire series. He overtook Andrew Liechtenberger
by three points. And it was all heading in to
Super High ROLLERBLEL Mixed Games, the biggest buy in mixed
games tournament in the world. We no longer have that
title when it comes to the PLO one, but we
still have it when it comes to the Super High
ROLLABLEL Mixed Games one. And this is the only thing
that I'll say about the WSP schedule is that we
still have the title because I saw the schedule and
they did not do one hundred k mixed games buying
that I saw, So we still have the title, buddy,
for at least one more year. We're still there. And
naturally speaking, Yuri Zeveleski Day one chip leader, Day two
chip leader entering the final table and then he is
the champion of this event. One point three million dollars
for Yuri Martins four hundred PGT points as well, only
extended his lead at the top of the PGT leaderboard.
He's now got nine hundred and thirty four points, which
I mean might as well be qualification for the PGT Championship.
At the end of the year, he's four hundred and
three points ahead of second place. In this two week
stretch it was actually less than two weeks, but two
week stretch for mixed games and the Super High rollablel
Mixed Games. Uri won more than two million dollars inside
the Poker Ghost Studio. This event was freaking awesome from
start to finish. Much larger field than last year. Last
year had what was it, twenty one uniques and twenty
nine entries. This year was I don't know the uniques,
but thirty eight entries. How many uniques this year? Do
you know it was more than last year? Obviously?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was twenty nine.
Speaker 1: But thirty eight entries for one hundred k buy in
ten game tournaments Ye three days, nice slow player friendly
structure had coveraged on all three days. Alex Livingston and
Chris Vich were in the booth alongside Ali Najad. You know,
not only are Livingston and Witch you know, goats when
it comes to mixed game commentary. They know everything in
and out, but all in the Jade is a mixed
game player in his own right, so you know he's
able to dive in there, ask the right questions, all
that sort of stuff. So if you guys haven't watched
the coverage, I would highly encourage you to do so.
Just simply great action from start to finish. The top
seven spots paid. You had Yuris of Alefski coming out
on top for one point three million dollars. Chad Eve Sledge.
I mean, this freaking guy won the event last year,
finished second this year for eight hundred and thirty five K,
and in the middle of that he just won the
PGT Championship in January. No big deal for Chad. He's
just just like an all around goat when it comes
to stuff. Benny Glauser finished in third. Robert Wells got fourth.
Shout out to Robert Wells, you know, really kind of
emerging now as as a top mixed game player. He
took four hundred and fifteen thousand dollars there to buy it.
Speaker 4: Many finish the last year? No, no, wo, Benny did he?
I think he finished fifth fourth last year? Or sorry
you'ready got third last year? I can't remember something like that.
Speaker 3: Either way, all three of those cashing in it again
is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: And the granny was also at that final table was
Michael Mons. Nigranny played this year Texas. Mike did not,
but I think I saw a tweet from Texas saying
he's was getting some VOMO about not playing. Uh yeah.
So Robert Well's fourth Twicaelectness Lectnus got in via satellite HM.
So he turned a nice little satellite into three hundred
thousand dollars in prize money. Jared Blesnik sixth place, just
absolute freaking box office at the final table, as you
could have expected, immediately starts busting out cards. Nick Schulman's
buying half the pack. I mean, it was just it
was it was a plus entertainment and poker. I mean
at one point he like gets up from the table.
He still has his hand. This is very early in
the final table. He still has his hand. They're gonna
unbox stuff, you know, open the pack with Nick Shulman,
and he's just like, yeah, I'm just gonna use my time. Banks.
Like a couple of the players are like, what the
fuck is going on type of you know, and he
walks around the table. He's in like the two or
three seat. He walks all the way over to the
seventh seat to sweat the cards with Nick Shoman while
his hand is just being timed out, Like it's just
the whole thing is just crazy. I mean it's just
absolutely crazy. So Blessnik gets sixth plays and then Nick Shulman.
Nick Shulman, despite making one of the best folds you
will ever see when he folded jacks on the short stack,
still ends up busting in seventh place. Shulman joins a
pretty elite club of players who have cashed in multiple
super high rollable variants, and he also cashed in the
He got fourth I believe in the super high rollable
in December, the Nolan and hold them one. But there's
only there's only players that have cashed in two either
like Mixed and and PLO. Blesnik for example, he's he
cashed and Mixed and Plo, so he's in that club
as well, is Nan Yeah, Negranu obviously cash Mix and
then he's done well in the regular one, so you know,
but it's not No one's done three yet nope, So
we'll see if that can happen.
Speaker 2: But I mean, those two guys have to be the favorites.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well Blesslik doesn't play the Nolan one, right, so yeah,
it'd have to be Shulman and Nicroner to be the
favorite to do it there. So so we'll see. But overall, uh,
I mean, again, great tournament, great ending to it all.
You know, I was pretty much glued to it from
start to finish, as I'm sure many were. Again, if
you haven't watched that already, please do check it out.
It's on the Poker YouTube channel, It is on poker
Go as well. You can find it on demand and
watch it from start to finish. My question to you,
tim is is Yuri Zevelski now the favorite to win
PGT Player of the Year.
Speaker 2: I think it's lovely he.
Speaker 1: Won't put in the same volume as in Jeremy Osmas, Sam.
Speaker 2: Silver, et cetera.
Speaker 1: It's likely, but we know we're going to get a
full ten k plus schedule from URI's Eveleski at the Dimissopy.
That's a given. Now, maybe he skips out on like
is it though, Well, maybe he skips out on like
the fifty k plus Nolan at Oldham stuff. But other
than that, he's going to be in the mix.
Speaker 3: I mean, I haven't looked at the schedule that close yet.
That's kind of tonight's job. But here's the thing with Uri.
He's I think he's a mixed game first. And I
know how these mixed game guys are.
Speaker 1: Is it.
Speaker 3: If there's a fifteen hundred horse, right, they'll play it.
If there's a three K toss, they'll play it. If
there's a ten KL eight, they'll play it. They're going
to just play the mixed game. So I think when
you see a schedule clash, you know, a fifteen hundred
horse versus a ten kp low, I think Uri will choose,
you know, the smaller buying, but the more of his
bread and butter.
Speaker 2: Now I don't disagree, but if.
Speaker 3: He breaks, if he busts out of that, yeah, he's
going to probably jump in the ten k. Oh, he's
gonna lay register. So that's probably going to hurt his chances.
The other thing is like, you know, we have pug
A Cup in a couple of weeks. Is he going
to come back for that? Now he is living in America.
I did speak to him about this. I told him, hey, look,
you know, do you understand the championship player of here?
He goes, no, can you well yeah, a little bit,
but can you tell me? I was like, okay, well,
end of the year, we have a championship. The guy
with the most points has the most chips. Obviously you're
leading right now. I explained to him the twenty five
k kind of bonus you get for winning player of
the year, and he goes, oh, awesome, awesome, Yeah, I
got lots of extra value. And I go, look at
our events are always on there. You know, will we
see him come out for some of those no limits?
I'm going to probably say no. So that's why, like,
you know, you got someone like an Alex foxon or
the you know, Nick Shulman, they're going to play all
the big stuff at the World Series. They're going to
play all our stuff season season long. You know, nine hundred,
You know, nine hundred points is a lot, but I
don't think it's as much now with you know, the
little tweaks we made and kind of the volume that
you know, someone like an Alex Fox is gonna put
in where he had. He you know, he had three
thousand points last year. Several had twenty nine hundred, you know,
Chino twenty eight hundred. So although nine hundred is a
great start and might you know pretty much put your
bought in a seat for the championship, he's gonna have to,
you know, pretty much triple that if he wants to
win Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it really just does come down to
his appetite for coming to more of our of our stuff.
And I would say right now, I mean I don't
know what his travel plans are. Maybe you do, but
I personally wouldn't have left Vegas only because WPT Venetian
win millions Poker gro Cup PGTPO series. It's back to
back to back back for two months straight. You know,
a month and a half straight of poker here in
Las Vegas, and there's plenty of like there's some mixed
game stuff in there. I know it's some of the
lower buy and stuff, but still there's some mixed game
stuff in there. And you know, we we do know
Yuri like he'll play all the way down to like
those fifteen hundred dollars mixed games. He doesn't care, like
he'll play them all, you know. And then also like
there's enough kind of higher buying stuff as well to
kind of wet his appetite in that regard. So you know,
I would say that if I was him, I would
certainly try and make the push to just be out
here to play that sort of stuff. And then you know,
if you want to scallop back, maybe you don't come
to US Poker Open or something like that. But you know,
I would say, right now, you're hot, man, just just
keep you You're probably gonna win WPT Venetian one Poker
gro Cup event. I mean, this is how it's gonna happen, right,
So you know I would say that, yeah, you know,
have him keep coming out. And last year he didn't qualify.
He was finished one hundred and fifteenth place in the
leader board with six hundred and nineteen points, so he's
already well passed that. You know, I would think that
he's by far favorite to lock up a seat for sure,
basically like one result from this from the WSP and
a ten k plus event, then he'll just he'll be
locked in. Pretty much.
Speaker 3: Last year Ben Toleraine was the fortieth once adjusted for eligibility,
he'd one thousand and forty five points.
Speaker 2: So he is.
Speaker 3: From cash away basically, right, like a couple of cashes,
a couple of small cashes away from from what we
think will be you know, the bottom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he also seems to me, like, like I
would say, if to you stay on him a little bit,
because he seems like a he seems like a titles guy,
Like he likes to win titles. He likes to have
his name out there, like he likes to win stuff.
You know, Like, yeah, obviously poker players do it for
the money, but I think Yury also like loves to
just be at the top. You know. Not that he's
in any way, shape or form like a cocky guy
at all, because he's not. He's the complete opposite, completely humble,
one of the nicest guys, if not the nicest guy
in poker. But I still think like just you know,
being able to stack up those those wins, the trophies,
all that sort of stuff is is great. So I
would love to have him, you know, come out. Maybe
he can turn into some content he you know, he
does a lot of content around his own you know,
maybe that's another angle for him.
Speaker 3: He did that once six years ago, did that at
the Pokemonsa's I mean, we're.
Speaker 1: Of course very welcoming to all the content creators in
inter in the in the poker studio. So yeah, yeah,
stay on his ass.
Speaker 2: Let's go very funny, is you know?
Speaker 3: Speaking of that, I've had a couple of players ask me, like,
you know, what's the rules with you know, filming. Do
I have to fill anything out? And I got like,
how do I get? Like how do I qualify? I'm like,
you qualified? He messages us, You're good, bring your camera
see you there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's just general. The rules are basically
general common sense. Don't be an idiot, don't be a dickhead,
and like, well you'll probably be fine, like you know,
if you're if you're acting a fool, or if you're
making us or other players look bad, then we'll probably
tell you to go kick rocks. But other than that,
like it's pretty fine. You know, like we're pretty leaning
overall in the studio and we want to benefit the
players as much as you know, we like when the
players benefit us, so you know, overall, it's all good.
I think I'm gonna make the argument that Yuri is
the favorite for players that year, Like I think we're
gonna get some more volume out of him, and then
I think he's I think he's just in line for
a pretty big summer, Like he had a pretty bad
summer I think last year, So I think this year
things will turn the other way. The pendulum will swing
and uh Ury will be in the mix for Player
of the Year. And then also, like you gotta figure
even if he doesn't come into Cup or USPO, let's
say he has a big summer and now he's up
two thousand points something like that, then it's like, okay,
like I can really win this thing. Yeah, I'm coming
to Masters, I'm coming to this other stuff, Like I'm
gonna I'm gonna go for it. I would even say,
like with him one hundred k buy in for Super
High Roller Bowl, Like if that happens again at the
end of the season, Like that's not out of his realm.
His biggest score is in a one hundred and fifty
k Nolan hold Him event. Yeah, Like, so he's he's
one of the best. Yes, he's known for mixed game
more so, but he's certainly has enough that it takes
to be able to compete at the you know, the
six figure Nola math Holden price point as well. He's
no slouch in any way, shape or form, which which
probably you know, helped him a lot when he had
some of these runs when when the big bet games
were involved, you know, because he had a lot of
success in these mixed games when the big bet games
were involved in the various mixes, case and point being
the Super High Rollable Mixed Games Ten Game Tournament, some
other little PGT nuggets from this stretch of events to
open the season. So Uri has the most wins with two,
he has the most final tables with four, and he
has the most podium finishes with four. So every time
he's made the final table, he's made the podium. Every
time he's cashed, he's finished in the podium right, every
time he's cash, he's finished in the top two, first
or second.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: He's got two wins and two second places. Crusher Chaddy East,
Legendchino Reeim have the most cases. They both have five
cashes on the season, and then URIs of Alefski, Aril Mentell,
Nick Schulman, Patrick Leonard and Matthew Wallman they each have
four cases apiece. Next up for the PGT, I'll let
Tim hit on these schedules a little bit more in depth,
but we got the Poker Girl Cup coming up March
first through fifteenth, and then we have the PGTPLO series
at Venetian Las Vegas March twentieth through twenty ninth. What
do you got on those schedules that you want to outline.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Poko Cup, a little bit of a trying a
fifth few new things for this series. We're kind of
in partnership, I would say, with Win and Venetian. You know,
we've tried to navigate this kind of three week stretch
of poker so that everyone is you know, has the
ability to play as much as I can. You know,
we're going to start with a three K opening event.
If you guys, remember we did a five K showcase
for Poker Massa's this year, we're going to try a
three K. See how that goes, same kind of concept,
two starting flights a day two then something new for
this series. And this is basically due to the overlap
with Win Millions. Is we're going to run three single
day five case on March fourth, fifth, and sixth. They
will finish in a day and you know, there is
some other events at the win We're trying to give
players a chance to play both or you know, pick
and choose how they go. Then we're actually taking the
whole weekend off. You know, we take Sundays off this year.
You know, we're taking Saturday and Sunday off basically due
to a poker player's wedding and him stealing steal, yeah,
more weddings. This is terrible, terrible decision making from these
poker players.
Speaker 1: Invited entire tours around these weddings and we can't get
a damn invite. Not that I'm going to go over weddings,
but you know.
Speaker 2: H yeah, we should. Yeah, at least got an invite
two days off.
Speaker 3: You know, he's going to take twenty to thirty poker
players out of the studio, so why even try and
run something. Give them the two days off, they'll come
back fresh and and you know, let's be honest. The
first one we're talking about is Joey Weisman. He is
the defending Poco Cup champion. So with this actual schedule,
he won't play every event, but he could play every event.
I think he's going to get him. He might have
to skip a couple of those single days, but he
if he wanted to, he could play everything. And then
that second week we're kind of back to normal. We
hit we up the stakes, we go up to ten K,
and it's those two day events all the way through
to the twenty five K, sorry, the fifteen K finale,
which is kind of the new thing this year. We
as the players said, twenty five to much and you know,
I've got something to kind of add to that once
we get to that mailbag. But fifteen K finale, we're
also going to try a satellite into that fifteen K
for the first time, so when you really need the
players to support that so we can keep that round.
But yeah, looking forward to it. Ten events March first
to fifteenth, New Trophies you know, I'm always excited about trophies.
We've got new PoCA Go Cup trophies this year, both
the big one and the little ones, so hopefully the
players appreciate that as well.
Speaker 1: Well. I just wanted to ask you one thing. I
don't think you hit on. Correct me if I'm wrong,
if I'm a spaced out there, but I want to
mention one thing and then I want to let you
talk about one other thing.
Speaker 3: Is that.
Speaker 1: One thing I want to mention is that these events,
and I'm gonna say this a lot this season, these
events are open to everyone, okayed the buy and you
just need to come play. I think the PGT events
and the stuff that happens inside the Pokergro studio tends
to get the rap that it's kind of invite only
or you need some sort of qualifying criteria or whatever
to get in there. No, the only thing you need
is the money. If you want to play a five K,
you need the five K. If you want to play
a three K, you need a three K. If you
want to play a twenty five K, you need twenty
five K.
Speaker 3: Like that.
Speaker 1: That's it. So you know you are welcome to come
on in and play those events if they fit your schedule,
if they fit your bank well, all that sort of stuff.
And then along those lines, there's a lot of satellites,
right or two satellites for this, so.
Speaker 3: There's yeah, two satellites for the three K. Then is
that that new twenty three hundred dollars satellite for the
fifteen K.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you don't have the full bankrell, get
into the satellites. I'm going to try and play some
of those three hundred dollars satellites. Get into that three
K opener. That's that's my jam right there. So yeah,
you know, definitely check out PGT dot com slash schedule
for all the events if if you know, if your
bankroll is flush enough that you're able to gamble in
there and can get in on the PGT or if
if you know it's a little bit lower and you
want some satellite offerings, they got those two. Overall, I
think it'll be good. I'm curious how this this three
K performs at the start. I think it's gonna do well.
I think it's timed really well with everything that's happening
in the Las Vegas. You know, you got WPT Venetian
that's a five K You got thirty five hundred dollars
win Millions Championship event, and then you got our three
K Poker Rol Cup Showcase to open things up there.
So you know, for that sort of price point player
like that's like bang bang bang, you can do all three.
It's a nice little stretch of stuff, you know. I
know we often talk about poker in Las Vegas centered
around everything in the summer and now centered around a
lot of stuff in December, right, but I think this
has become a quite a nice window as well with
everything that's happening, this little six week stretch, five week
stretch that's happening if you want to include the Mixed
Game series a little bit, you know, longer of a stretch,
but just for the kind of the big bet focus,
the Nola Holdham focus, You're getting a really nice stretch
of stuff at Venetian at Win and at the Poker
Grol Studio. So definitely check out those schedules, try and
pair it up. We would encourage you, of course to
play the Poker Girl Cup opener and see if you
guys can parlay that into something. But overall, just a
really good time to play poker in Las Vegas. So
so come on out. I know Tim and I will
be playing a lot of that stuff, or trying to
play a lot of that stuff at Venetion and and win,
you know, leading into some of the stuff that happens
at the studio when we have to work. So you
can also see us around town say hello, chat it
up a bit. Always love to meet the listeners. And
then after that PLO baby, Yeah, we pumped he he's
pumped for we talked all about the other day.
Speaker 2: Good. Yeah.
Speaker 3: We're heading over to the Venetian, Las Vegas for the
new PLO series and it's a you know, look, if
you thought us our previous PLO series a little too expensive,
this one's for you. We're opening with a three kmi
flight half a million dollar guarantee, and then we get
into a stretch of five k two day high rollers.
You know PLO. We've got a Cottro Brownie, we have
a Mystery Bownie, and then we're doing the ten k
PLO Championship half a million dollar guarantee there. This championship
will be a really slow structure. You can register on
the start of day too as well. It is unlimited
re entries, and yeah, we're trying to give you know,
a price point for players kind of basically resembling what
we do with the one hundred k Super High Rollerball,
but at a price point substantially less. And then on
those final two days in March twenty eighth and twenty ninth,
we're doing some single day five ks. So yes, it's
a considerable cheaper series. That's what we normally do with
the PGTPLO series, and we're just trying something different.
Speaker 2: Like I said, we made a lot of.
Speaker 3: These decisions pre the twenty twenty six so taking it
into account what kind of what we would see with
the taxes and all that stuff. And uh yeah, I
think a lot of players of lacking this as you said,
John Yordins, and a lot of the local guys are in.
Hopefully we get you know, people traveling from Texas and
wherever to come play the PGTPLO series of Venetian and
you know what satellites. Yes, I'm the many satellites.
Speaker 1: Hiring into some of these satellites. I'm not a big
PLO player, but I have been playing a bit more
of it as of late. I really do like the game.
I want to learn more of it. So I don't
think I'm just ready to dive into a three K
or higher right now. Yeah, but I'm certainly going to
get into some of these satellites, try and win a
seat and then try and go from there. I think,
you know, this sort of offering is just going to
be really great. I hope the hell it succeeds because
I think it's it's an awesome idea. So yeah, if
you love PLO, come support the damp thing.
Speaker 2: Let's go. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, basically, we have four satellite opportunities with three C
guarantees into the thirty three hundred main event, and then
the night before each of the five ks we have
a five hundred and sixty dollar PLO satellite, and then
the night before the PLO Championship we do an eleven
hundred one, and then the night of day one we
also do eleven hundred because you can obviously maxilate on
day two. So lots of chances for people to take
shots when a satellite seat getting to the you know,
one of these PGTPLO series events.
Speaker 1: I love it. And again all the PGT stuff PGT
dot com slash schedule, the satellites are listed there. Tim
keeps that updated as much to date as he can.
I know he's been trying to finalize the US poke
groping schedule, for example, so once that becomes available, you know,
if you don't hear about it on this podcast, you
can just check that page pretty regularly. Of course, stay
tuned to all the various Poker gro and pg social
media channels as well for updates there. So that's where
you can get all of your PGT stuff. Next up,
it's mailbag time. Had a bunch of questions come in.
I'm going to be answering four maybe five of them.
I think one might be a two parter here, but
we'll get into them. Tim will share our thoughts on this.
First up, we got Andy Heidelberg who said, for the
last few years there's been talk about how more people
per year should be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
One of the reasons for this is the amazing growth
in numbers over the last ten to twenty thirty forty
fifty years. How hard people would have laughed in nineteen
seventy nine if you said a thousand person main event,
forget about ten thousand would happen growth means more. Now,
all of a sudden, an influential voice is saying there
are too many bracelets. Seems inconsistent to say more Hall
of Fame but also say a fewer bracelets. Am I
missing something? I want to say. The in influential voice
is Josh Aria, I think was saying some bracelet stuff
on Twitter. But you know, if I'm wrong, there, forgive me.
I mean, I'll take this one first. I just think
that I think that the two arguments are coming from
different places. I'm not not necessarily going to tie them together.
You know. I think when you're suggesting that there are
too many bracelets, you know your guests. My guess is
that that influential voice is saying that because he thinks
the bracelets are a little bit more watered down or
as watered down as they ever have been, and that
there's more value in scarcity, which I do agree with there.
And then as it relates to the Hall of Fame,
I think that idea of wanting to put more in
is that there's just at the rate of one year
per many, and I know they did did two last
year technically with the the the off the cuff one
of Michael MSS Rocky when he won the main event.
But at a rate of one per year, just with
the current backlog of players that should likely qualify and
get in, it's just never going to happen. So you
got to kind of start getting more in there, so
probably go to two per year, maybe three per year.
I don't know. I think it should just be kind
of a voting thing, and then you know, if you
get a certain amount of votes, you're in. So like
some years, maybe that's eight people get in. Some years
maybe it's one person gets in. Like it's kind of
all over the place. It's never just one. It's never
like a set number of people get in. It's it's
based on if you get the qualifying votes, then yes
you should should get in, because there will be years,
you know, in a perfect world, some years there might
be a bunch of people that are eligible and qualify
and people want to induct. In other years, maybe there's zero. Honestly,
maybe no one deserves to get in in a given year.
Who knows, you know. I can see how Andy here,
you know, might think that there's a bit of an
inconsistency with these two things. But I just don't particularly
you know, draw the line as these two things being connected.
I think they're rather two independent thoughts. And that's how
I think, you know, the influence your voice, who talked
about this is kind of kind of coming about it.
Speaker 3: Look, we're gont have a number of bracelets. We're basically
averaging like two hundred and forty a year, and that
number is not gonna go down. It might go down
one or two, but it's not gonna go down dramatically.
I think we're we're gonna have one hundred bracelet events
this year. I think that's gonna be pretty much the cap.
You're gonna have online, you're gonna have Europe, you're gonna
have Paradise. You're gonna have an online series in October
on both WSP and GG. Will we see WSP Macaw
or Asia Pacific or Antarctica. Probably, So bracelets are going
to go up. The real problem here is the Hall
of Fame. And I'm gonna read you some names, Okay,
Donnie Scott, Severer, Ben Lamb, Jeremy As, Josh Aria, Antonio
s Fandiari, Mike Madison, Ted Forrest.
Speaker 2: Those people.
Speaker 3: Have already been up for nomination or have not been nominated.
But they qualify. You know, whether you think they deserve
to go in, that's up to you. But I would
say probably yes to those guys. I'm going to read
you another to set of names al.
Speaker 1: Ready, names did you give me just now?
Speaker 2: Like eight, one, two?
Speaker 1: I would say that I would say that probably probably
four to five of them deserve to get in.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to give you the names of people,
and I'm using a website. I'm not going to name
the website. I'm going to give your names of people
that are eligible in twenty twenty six, and you tell
me if they're deserving. Okay, I'm going to read this
in a particular order just to tell you. Jeffrey Platt nope, Okay.
Speaker 1: Do I even need to respond?
Speaker 2: Jonathan Tomayo.
Speaker 3: Nope, Okay, moving on, what is this website just polker
half dot com? Okay, let's get a real name. Mike
Grodinsky Okay, all right, Okay, John Raisner, No, okay. Jason
Kohon Yeah, I mean he I think we have to.
Speaker 2: Look outside the world serious here, right, He's.
Speaker 1: The first one on that list that I would consider.
I I personally, in my own thoughts, I think Hall
of fame should be the absolute top of the top.
This is not the Hall of very good, This is
not the hall of you know, we're giving out ribbons
for people. Know, this is the hall of the absolute elite.
Speaker 3: Okay, so then I'm going to give you the first
ballant name for this year. My best friend in the
poker world Sean Deep.
Speaker 1: Right, Shawn Deep's for sure in there.
Speaker 2: So, like, you know, we name some of those names.
Speaker 3: Now if we're only putting, Let's say, if we even
put two this year and we put in Okay, Osmus
and Deep. Hypothetically, you know, we still have some of
these namess Fandiari, josh Aria. You know, I still think
Mike Mattisons deserving pretty strong names. Let's just fast forward
a little bit to twenty twenty seven. Throw a couple
more names, are you real quick? And I'll stuff there.
Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan, Chris and Foxon. You know, these
people multi brace winners and obviously have careers that extend
to the online fell and all around the world. And look,
it's only going to get hotter and harder every year.
So I think now they should be looking at this
list that I'm looking at that has eligibility all the
way to twenty thirty five and say, look, we're gonna
have some issues coming up. Let's rethink this, let's make
it three four five this year, and then now we're
in a good spot going forward.
Speaker 1: One of the problems that I like wrestle with and
I can't fully wrap my head around. Maybe you can
help me with it, is that you know, you mentioned
someone like Jeremy Osmas, you mentioned a Kristen Fox and right,
And the reason you're mentioning that them is because they
obviously have a certain number of accolades, and then they
also meet the requirement of being forty years old. I
think the age just has to go way up.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
Speaker 1: My reason is, like Kristen Fox is a good example,
is that she's kind of still right now in the
peak of her powers. So if and when her name
gets on the list, if the person's in the peak
of their powers, you're gonna just kind of rate them higher, yep.
Versus like let's say someone like a Jason Mercier for example,
you know, he's just he's been out of the game,
like not not out of the game. He's still in
the game, of course, but like out of the spotlight
of the game for a decent amount of time where
you can look at it and you can say, like, Okay,
is he still deserved to get in? And I think
a lot of people, myself included, would make the case
that yes, Jason Mercier should get in. But I think
that you need that time away to be able to
look back on it as opposed to the person being
front and center of your mind right now. Like if
Kristin Foxen stopped playing poker today, or if Jeremie olismonth
stopped playing poker today, or if for somebody who is
like just turns forty stops playing poker. If if you
fast forward twenty years, do you still look back on
their career and say, this person's Hall of Fame worthy?
Or are you only selecting them to be in the
Hall of Fame because they're so in your face right now.
So that's why I think, like you have to just
and maybe the number of forty, the forty years old
thing was made that way because years and years and
years ago it was forty was just much older than
forty is now. I mean, forty is.
Speaker 2: Like younges these days.
Speaker 1: So that's why that's why I struggle with the age
thing because it's like a lot of these people that
are nominated at forty are still just very much in
your face and they probably get a bit of a
boost from that. Now, that doesn't mean that they don't
deserve to get in. I'm not saying that, right, I'm
just saying that there's still very much like in your
face that when you're looking at two people, you might
be you might shed it or shade it towards going
to the person who's just more in your face at
that time versus somebody who's not, because it's just front
and center and it's all you know right now.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I have this theory with the Poker Hall
of Fame, and you know, unfortunately, you know, someone we're
pretty close with, Jeremy Osma, is probably not going to
like what I'm going to say. But my theory with
the Hall of Fame is that when you're considering someone
can if you're writing, you know, the history of poker,
would they be in this book?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: The way I look at that is, unfortunately, Jeremy Osmus, no,
you're probably not making If I was to write this book,
you might not make it. Right now, someone like Scott
Severa who didn't get who was nominated last year but
didn't get in. Yeah, three bracelets Player of the Year.
I think you would be in the book. Christen Foxon
just domination as a female with bracelets and titles all around,
she would probably be in that book. Now, someone else
that would make it that probably won't get in. I
think you can't write the book on the history of
poker without mentioning Tom Dwan. So although he may not
qualify in the current world, he would qualify in how
I kind of feel like the Hall of Fame should
be And obviously my theory it's going to knock a
lot of these people out, but yeah, it's going to
bring some people in that, you know, a lot of
others may not think are deserving, such as you know,
I think Mike Mattis or Ted Forrest. You know Ted
Forrest winning was a three bracelets in three days back
in then. You know, I think that in itself is
an accomplishment that obviously will never be repeated due to
the the way events are now, but even at the time,
it's just something incredible and I don't think you could
write that history of poker without him. You know, and
as we go down the list and we start looking
at you know, like I said, I think Tom Dwan.
You know, if it's a history of poker, it's not
just WSP. You have to look at WPT. You know,
someone like a Darren Elias is going to he's going
to shift up a little bit in the rankings. You know,
we're going to talk about cash games, You're going to
talk about the biggest parts in televised history. You know,
Andrew Roebel is going to be moved up the rankings
a little bit. We're going to look at the trying events.
You're going to look at obviously Jason Kohn with all
those titles, and you know, in a few years, who
knows who else will be kind of with him. So
that's the way I view the Hall of Fame. You know,
I'm probably in the minority, but that's my take on it.
But undercurrent you know, criteria and how many people they
put in, it's going to be tough. And I think
they need to change several aspects of it, such as
I don't think the age they need to change, or
they would help, but let a few more people in,
you know, even if it's just going to two. Going
to two would be a dramatic difference. I think going
to three is fine with one of those, say every
three years, being like an industry member. You know, they
talk about Lana Normal, they talk about Mats Savage, they
talk about you know, the industry side. You know, maybe
one every five years or something, you vote one of
those in. But yeah, I think some changes need to happen.
I just I just don't know if they if they
will do anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean listening, going to two is better than
leaving it at one. Having the industry person thing every
so many years is better. But I think the best
way is just you get X amount of votes you're in,
and there's there's a line like r x amount of
points or however you want to do it. You know,
every voter get I think.
Speaker 2: He had ten.
Speaker 3: I think he had ten votes, and you can assign
them any way you want, so you can go one one,
one on one, ten, ten, like ten and zero, five
and five. So like you'd have to look at obviously,
every time you add people that the amount of voting
members goes up, so you'd have to kind of that vote.
That line you're setting will have to adjust every year.
Speaker 1: I agree. I also think the voting needs to be
open to certain industry members or members of the media
that meet some sort of criteria or whatever. I wouldn't
go as far as like the GPI did when they
were having some of the people who had weighed in
those awards. But I also wouldn't keep it to just
Hall of Fame members. You know, I've had enough converse
with just Hall of Fame members about it that I
think that that's somewhat flawed and could be improved upon.
Speaker 2: So you could do it could be way.
Speaker 3: It could be twenty five percent media seventy five Hall
of Fame members, but.
Speaker 1: There's definitely ways to improve it. I will say that
I'm very I know we talk about this every single year.
I kind of hate talking about it because I've just
wanted to put it past me. But I will say
that I think it's I think it's going to get changed.
I don't know if it will get changed for this
year or going forward, but I think there are changes coming.
I have absolutely no insider info as it comes to that,
other than the fact that I've seen a lot of
changes in the last year and a half to two
years under the gg poker ownership as it pertains to
the DIVISIP. I think the biggest thing is, of course
thesp plus app, you know, and I think I would
I would imagine again, I have no insider info whatsoever,
but I would imagine somebody like a Jeff Platt or
a TJ. Reid is like, has this on their list
of things they want to improve? You know.
Speaker 3: I wonder if now that you know Jeff does hopefully
still listen to the pot and.
Speaker 2: The fact that I said his.
Speaker 1: Still screw him. No, But I think I think those
changes will will eventually come. Michael Larimer, Hello, Greatest poker
podcast in the line. That's damn right. Michael said he
wanted to submit a couple of questions. Uh, when he
sees top pros firing twelve bullets in the Superman I
think the highest was fourteen. I believe it evaporates any
desire I had to play. Do you think something needs
to be done to curb entries? Or am I just overreacting?
I'll go first. I can't say that I blame Michael
for feeling this way. I I somewhat feel this way too,
But I also think that it's just the nature of
that Beast, that WISP Paradise Super Main Event Beast. You know,
I think that that event and that that series is
it's made a certain way. It's to cater to a
certain type of poker player, and yeah, you're gonna get
some shot takers, some qualifiers, some people chasing those promotions. Yes,
but I think just just knowing that it's it's not
supposed to be the same thing as the ws AP
in the summer is I just personally don't view it
like that. I don't think it's been put out like
that in the start. I think it's just it's a
dobasipy high roller series, super high roll issies. That's what
it is, right, So if that stops you from playing it,
I get it. I totally understand it. It's probably why
I won't ever play it, because I feel like I'm
going in there at a little bit of disadvantage. And
that's not just with this event. I've opted to not
take shots in some other events where I felt kind
of the same way. The biggest one I think would
be WBT five Diamond in the past, where you just
know that people are in there for endless bullets and
I might be able to fire one or two. Now,
there's obviously some middle ground when you have these bigger
buying events that have only like one entry per day
or two entries per day or something like that, so
you feel a little bit more on par with everyone else.
But I can't blame Michael, and I'm sure many people
feel this sort of way. But I also do think that,
you know, the WSP Superman Event has its place in poker,
like I think that it's again, it's an event catered
towards the super high roll or crowd, and that's what
it's designed for. I mean, even the structure itself is
designed to pump as many bolts in the damn thing
as possible, right, So I think that it's fine. You know,
if it turns you off from playing it, I get it,
you know, but you're always going to have the w
SP Man Event in the summer, which is still the
biggest and best tournament in the world. So you know,
I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to
play this event or not wanting to play it for
that reason, because there is still a lot of poker. Now,
let's say, in some crazy hypothetical world, if they were
to have taken what they did with the WSP Superman
event and make that the new w SP main event
in the summer. Then I think, Okay, everyone freak out,
and that's just over the line. But they're two different things.
They're offered in two different places, two different you know,
two very different times times of the year. So I
think it's fine to have both of them. But I
do understand where's coming from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, firstly, congrats on you, Michael for having potentially
twenty five K play.
Speaker 2: But how rich, Yeah, how rich.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a world for these kind of events,
and there's obviously worlds for the ten K freeze out.
I think you have to offer variety for all the
poker players out there, and yes, this does appeal to
you know, the top pros being able to fly, you know,
fire endless bullets. Now that sounds like it's not for you.
It's definitely not for me, it's probably not for Donnie.
So we just go find something else to play. That's
the beauty of poker in the last few years that
we've just had this you know, gluttony of events and
options all around the world and all around the city
you're in, you know, obviously us being in Las Vegas
is you know, a luxury, So yeah, you can kind
of pick and choose. Does it, you know, hurt poker
a little bit, But it's like I said, it's these
events are not that you know, there's not endless multi
flyer twenty five k's, multi entry twenty five k's all
around the world, So I think it's fine.
Speaker 2: You obviously get to choose to play it.
Speaker 3: I don't think we need a curb re entries because
when you look at it from the industry side of things,
that's where you know that extra revenue comes in for
these poker rooms. So I don't think re entries will
ever go away. They have to just find a balance
with freeze outs, and you have to find a balance
with the buy ins, and you have to find a
balance with the type of events you're offering. All these
companies want to they all want a money grab, They
all want as much riag as they can, but they
I think a lot of them are still trying to protect,
you know, what poker is, whether that's with freeze outs
or with the events that you know, if WSP cared
about money, they would probably never run a mixed game tournament.
Let's be honest, everything would be multi entry, multi flying
elemen hold them in pay a lot. But look, it's
obviously they still care about you know, they still care
about the brands, still care about the game because you know,
fifteen hundred Horse and Dealer's Choice and Raz and they're
all still on the schedule. So yeah, that's kind of
my take on it.
Speaker 1: And then the second part here to Michael's question, he said,
you also love to hear our thoughts on the twenty
twenty six tax deduction change. From my perspective, it seems
pretty devastating. What's the best case you've heard for the
whole thing being overblown? Where do you land on the debate?
I know, Tim and I've talked about this a little
bit in the past. Right now, where I stand is
that I obviously don't think it's a good thing. You know,
anytime you're trying to take more money out of the
pockets of poker players, it's not a good thing. But
I would also guess that it's not going to slow
down much, both in the greater poker sense and then
also for me personally. I mean, listen, these are just
kind of the new rules, the new guidelines that we
have to play by, and it's gonna be a little
bit of more money out of everyone's pocket. But that's
just how it is. There's nothing we can do really
to change anything. You know. Obviously we can try and
voice our support to get it taken away, to get
it reverted back to what it was, and and hopefully
that does happen. So I'll kind of try and remain
positive in that light. But overall, I would say generally
it's it's probably more overblown than not. You know, again,
I don't want I don't want you to confuse me
or twist what I'm saying in that it's I don't
think it's a positive thing. I don't think it's something
that we should just completely ignore to the extent that
we're not trying to fix it. But I do think that,
you know, it's a little bit overblown and like all
these people out there saying like no one's gonna play
poker anymore, And if I said that in the past,
I've definitely changed my tune on it. Just also seeing
some of the numbers, like I think we'll still see
the biggest pullback in the really high buy and stuff,
and then it'll kind of just scale from there and
just be more normal as you get down to like
the the price points that like Tim and myself play.
So yeah, you know, I think it's also going to
be kind of a wait and see approach, at least
for this year. People are just gonna be doing whatever
they do and then tax season will come around, then
maybe they get hit, then maybe they adjust for the
next year. But for this year, I don't really say
it's going to affect poker overall too much. I think
the number of venues that are running big tournament series
against one another is going to have a greater effect
on poker in terms of like tournament numbers then this
tax thing will. That's kind of where I'm at in it.
So what do you got?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, we've had discussions about this, and we
thought it was going to be a big drop off,
and then we ran a series that had record breaking numbers.
So it's hard to really feel like what's going to happen.
Just we know what they've told us, what players have
told us, whether or not they follow through with that,
it's kind of out of our control. Just the biggest
stuff to not be at all attended very well around
the States outside of the world series. And like we
touched on earlier in the episode, seven are already pulling
back removing their twenty five k's. We've pulled back, you know,
adjusting our twenty five k's as well. Will we see
a reversal possibly? Will we see creative accountancy? Most likely?
And I think it's going to be the most adjustments
will probably later in the year, when you know people
are stuck a lot or they're up a lot, and
they'll make you know their adjustments according to what you
know their accountant kind of recommends.
Speaker 1: And then we have Lars Swanson who says I've been
playing a lot of Duce to seven single draw tournaments recently.
I also hate bounty tournaments. They are terrible and negate
the inherent benefits of tournament poker. However, I have played
a lot of them online, and the mechanics of a
bounty tournament and of Duce to seven singles are all
line up really well. I'm not your target demographic of
someone who would buy into a three thousand dollars due
to seven Nolmit mystery boundy, but I do think it
would be funny, fun to watch excuse me, and the
two concepts fit together. So I think what Lars is
getting at here is he thinks if we were to
host or he suggests maybe exploring hosting a bigger buying
no limit due to seven single draw tournament that is
also a bounty, which sounds interesting. I think it could
be fun as a relations I'm not sure where we
would put it in, but I could certainly see this
being a thing. I don't know if I would do
mystery bounty. Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't, but I
think it would be cool to do this.
Speaker 3: It'd be just for the seventy three people that play it.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of our events, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's oh our I was talking about serious?
Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean I don't think I would.
Speaker 3: Get seven players.
Speaker 2: I think it's too niche. Like it's like, I mean,
the Big Mix was too niche.
Speaker 1: Like, No, I get that you're offering five card draw
and pot limit triple draw.
Speaker 3: Great games, blood games. Let's talk about it from a
more of a world serious perspective. I think it's easier.
You know, they have a fifteen hundred, they have a
ten k, you know, three K fine price. I think
the mystery boundy would possibly scare people off, but you
are right, it does kind of align no limbit single
drawer in bounding. There is some alignment there. But you know,
when you start adding things to a poker tournament, you know,
so for here we're going from no limit produce to
seven and now we're adding a bounding. It just shrinks
the potential player for the buying goes up, shrinks it
even more.
Speaker 2: And although it would be a.
Speaker 3: Cool event, if I had money, I would play it,
I don't think it would be well attended. The cool
idea maybe online, you know it would, it would fit better.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the events that a lot of
the people were talking about was they're mostly talking about
during the mixed series, but a three game draw event
duce to seven draw. Did you hear about this?
Speaker 3: I suggested that originally as the replacement for Morey's mix.
Speaker 1: Well, why didn't you do it? Are you in charge.
Speaker 2: Against it? They were against the.
Speaker 1: Duce to seven triple draw, pot limit duce to seven
double draw, and no limit duce to seven single draw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, win Win's done it before. That's how I got
the idea. And the double draw scared people off because
they haven't played double draw. Double draw is much better
for pot limit, and you know, would that get more
entries in the Big Bet Mix? Probably not, so we
went Big Bet Mix.
Speaker 2: Originally.
Speaker 3: That was actually my first thought on that event.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Joe Jackson the final one here from
the mid shuless Joe Jackson. Yeah, he's you know, he's
just he's back and he submitted questions to the podcast
that book gown dot. I would like to hear more
about staking by an action, et cetera as it relates
to the top pros. I'm sure it varies greatly, but
can you give any insight as to how much the
top tier pros are backing themselves versus hedging with some
sort of backing agreements, And specifically someone like Daniel and Legranu.
I'm sure his deal with GIGI is extremely rich, but
would that be a part of the arrangement also turning
buy ins at a certain level or a percentage. I
don't know Daniel's deal, I won't pretend to know his deal,
but I do know that various sponsorship deals in the
past have allotted all, if not part of, like the
sponsorship money in buy ins. I think that's what Poker
Stars used to do for some of their ambassadors. For example,
you get like this fee per year, but then you
also get like x amount of tournament dollars that you
can use to go play, like you know, the epts
and apts and like all that sort of stuff. So
maybe someone like Daniel has that worked in, or maybe
other pros have that worked in for various places like
let's say you know a ramp or brad Owen where
they're associated with WPT in a way there, so maybe
that's built in. So I would say it just kind
of comes down to the the specific deal and how
that deal is worked out. If it was me, I
would probably try and lead to some sort of both
of them, you know. I like, i'd want the fee
right to just be like kind of my salary, my income,
Like I'd want that as like some support. But then
i'd want like the tournament buyings as well. I wouldn't
put it all in one bucket. I'd like to bet
on some upside with the tournament buying stuff, but I
also what wouldn't want to put it all on that
sort of upside. So so that's how those work out.
A lot of action and staking and peace buying and
all that sort of stuff for the high rollers. Of course,
you know, there's a lot of guys that share a
lot of action. There's a lot of people that swap
with one another. You know, even someone like Danon and Granu.
You know, he every single year he puts out different
packages for the different WSOP events. He does one in
the summer where he puts stuff on poker Steak. He
does one for ws Paradise where he puts it on
poker Steak. So even he's not playing, you know, one
hundred percent of his own action, you know, he's got
some of that allotted out there. Now. Maybe Daniel's doing
it more so just to like kind of give back
to the fans and grow his follower base and all
that sort of stuff, versus like he actually needs to
do it for the money. But there's there's a lot
of stuff out there. You know, a lot of people
don't have one hundred percent of themselves, even down to
lower buyings. It's just a way to reduce variants. I
regularly sell action in myself for various things. You know,
I sold for this eight hundred play that I played
over the weekend. You know, just a little bit, but
it's still you know, it's good to have your friends
sweating along. I also know that, at least as it
pertains to me, friends want to get involved, like they
almost get annoyed me. You don't sell them a piece
because they just want to be in on the action.
So yeah, there's a lot of it that just goes around.
And then the staking and the backing deals are just
they're kind of all over the place. You know, you
have stuff that's just like what I do, for example,
where it's not it's not any sort of agreement with people.
I just hey, I'm going to go play this event.
Would you like the action? They buy it as a
one off, and once it's done, it done. I either
give them money back or they send me money for
their shares and that's it. There's no makeup. There's none
of that. Other ones have you know, lengthy makeup deals
and contracts and you know you only get fifty percent
and then you know, but if we're down and if
you're in makeup, I get higher percentage or whatever. Like
there's all there's all different levels of it all. Yeah,
there's not really a one size fits all. A lot
of it's unknown and you kind of have to piece
together information. Some people are very upfront about it and
they'll just tell you flat up, flat out. Other people aren't,
you know. So yeah, like I think when when Espin
Yourstad won the main event a couple of years ago,
he was pretty upfront with like how much he had,
and he's like, yeah, I had whatever fifty percent of
myself or whatever the heck he said stuff like that.
So you know, yeah, you're in these circles, what do
you got? Probably the same thing.
Speaker 3: The first thought on the Grano is he probably I
would say his deal is more ownership base because and
really need any money. But moving on to like the pros.
I've been talking to these guys quite a lot recently
about this stuff, and what I've kind of always thought
that kind of really got confirmed was, you know, especially
with our players, you know, the three k's, the five
k's and the ten k's is normally on their own dime.
It's when they start getting over that they're looking to
sell off pieces or people are looking to buy, you know,
spread that risk a little bit.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: That's not for everyone. Obviously, you have people that where
five k's are a stretch, they're selling and you won't
seem in any ten case, but seems like the consensus
is ten k's is pretty pretty easy for them just
to play out of their own pocket. It's anything above
that they start kind of feeling out for, you know,
swaps or percentages. And I think in every event there's
probably you know, a swap here or there, or hey,
let me get a sweat here and there. But you know,
everyone's different. You know, we know that there's certain people
that buy a lot of pieces of every one, and
you know, they're the big piece buyers, and and you
know with that, you're gonna have to assume that even
some of these top guys, even the you know, potentially
even the Jeremy Osmus of the world and and you
the Steven Songs all the they probably do have coaches
and a lot of these new coaching deals nowadays involved
and I'll coach you for this, but I also get,
you know, X percentage of these events, et cetera. So
I think everyone's deals different. Just the higher buyings you go, obviously,
the more risk needs to be kind of spread out
a little bit. Yeah, it's it's it's always an interesting thing.
I always like to hear about this stuff. I was
going to see who's who's who's the big spender, who
buys the most pieces, you know, who who's coaching, who
who's in under you know, who's stable. I find that
stuff like really interesting but obviously quite private to a
lot of these guys, so you won't really hear too
much about it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, interests me quite a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's always certainly interesting, which I'm sure is
why shoeless Georgie Action over here decided to come up
from the grave. And yeah, right right us this uh,
this question into the mail bag. But no, in all serious, Yeah,
it is super interesting, but everything's just different, and you know,
some players are very upfront with it. Some obviously, you know,
like to stay private with it. So yeah, I mean
Tim can, Tim and I can only really talk about,
you know, some of the stuff that we no firsthand
or that we know is out there in the public.
And yeah, but yeah, I think, yeah, I mean, Daniel's
always been pretty open. I would say he probably just
takes all his own action other than the times when
he you know, puts it on poker steak like that.
Speaker 2: He's putting it on poker stake too, to give the
people yeah, more than thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, no, no, for sure.
Speaker 2: We all appreciate Daniel, please keep doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it's incredible. We talk about it
every year that we can get action in this thing.
We we love to buy the action and sweat along
with him. So and also, like you know, you can,
you know, for for Joe or anyone else who is
interested in this sort of thing, you can just go
to poker steak dot com. You know, you can also
go to Sta Kings and you can just kind of
see who's out there selling action. A lot of people
put stuff on social media. They say, hey, you know,
I'm playing this series, I'm selling action whatever. Like you
can find some information as to who's selling who's not,
you know, how much action they're keeping of themselves, all
that sort of stuff. Like it's it's available, you know,
at least to some extent if you want to, if
you want to dig around a bit. So yeah, all right,
well that's going to do it for us. We went
way too long, but it is what it is. It's
been a while, so all good. Two days of No
Gamble in the Future Live coming on Tuesday and Wednesday
this week, and then of course we have the Poker
ro Cup that is coming up at the beginning of
March for the first two weeks, a lot of streaming
there as well. So so yeah, so that's going to
do it for Tim and I. As we talked about
at the top of the show, we will be coming
to you with our WSOP schedule thoughts in the coming days,
up to a week or something like that. We'll you know,
we'll get to crack in on what we think about
the schedule. You know, I've already seen on social media.
There's a handful of submissions, there's a handful of new
events in there. So we'll be touching on it all
on the next show. All right, Cool, that's gonna do
it for us. We got nothing else, right, all right?
Speaker 2: Cool?
Speaker 1: For Tim Duckworth. My name is Donny Peters. We'll talk
to you guys next time.