Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Speaker 1: Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. It is Sunday,
Speaker 1: August second, ten forty nine pm, the eve of the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table.
Speaker 1: When you guys are listening to this, it will be
Speaker 1: the day of the first of three days for the
Speaker 1: Epic Finish two, the greatest poker tournament in the world. Sorry,
Speaker 1: Matt Savage, you gotta hear that. Right out of the gates,
Speaker 1: nine players remain. They are all playing for the ten
Speaker 1: million dollar first place prize. Those nine players came from
Speaker 1: a field of nine thousand, two hundred and eight entries.
Speaker 1: They've had two and a half weeks off, give or
Speaker 1: take a little bit, not your the exact amount of time,
Speaker 1: but it's finally here. It is finally here. I am
Speaker 1: pumped for it. I've watched the episodes. I watched a
Speaker 1: bit of the streams to get caught up on some things,
Speaker 1: see how it all played out a little bit more. Yes,
Speaker 1: I was there in person, but it's always one thing
Speaker 1: to be there in the room on the floor. It's
Speaker 1: always another thing to uh to see all the action
Speaker 1: come through the screen, via the streams, via the episodes.
Speaker 1: It's been it's been a lot of fun to get
Speaker 1: caught up. The time frame here between reaching the final
Speaker 1: table and then you know, getting to it on Monday feels,
Speaker 1: i'll say a little bit awkward because it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's about two and a half weeks. It's not like
Speaker 1: the full November nine experience. But it's also not right after.
Speaker 1: It's not the the day after. You know, they did
Speaker 1: take that day off recently. So I'm ready for it
Speaker 1: to be here and I'm happy that it's going to
Speaker 1: be able to to see through to the end. Just
Speaker 1: got done with was down at the Poker Grove Studio
Speaker 1: for shout out to the guys on the Poker News
Speaker 1: podcast Chat Holloway, Ben Ludlow, and Mike Holtz. They just
Speaker 1: had their one thousandth episode. It was a live in
Speaker 1: show ordeal. A lot of fun to be down there.
Speaker 1: I would say sixty to seventy people in the room,
Speaker 1: had a lot of different guests, a couple people from
Speaker 1: the couple players from the main event final table. Greg
Speaker 1: Mueller was there, Michael Gagliano Gaggs was also in the building.
Speaker 1: They had a former main event final table list there
Speaker 1: as well. Jeremy Osmas was there, Jamie Gold was hanging
Speaker 1: around also. I hopped on there for a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: Sarah Herring got on there as well. It was really
Speaker 1: cool to be there and see that all come together,
Speaker 1: and glad those guys got to do it, and glad
Speaker 1: we got to help them by allowing them to use
Speaker 1: the studio because I would say quite the perfect setting
Speaker 1: for this sort of thing. Also, the timing was just
Speaker 1: great eve of the WSP main event final table, so
Speaker 1: a lot of people in town got to see my
Speaker 1: Lance Bradley out there, tons of others as well, So
Speaker 1: really cool for that to happen. I'm sure that's going
Speaker 1: to be dropping on their feed, both on YouTube and
Speaker 1: on the podcast players pretty soon, so make sure that
Speaker 1: you check that out. I did look back. I was
Speaker 1: on the first ever Poker News podcast. I couldn't remember
Speaker 1: if I was or if I wasn't, but I did
Speaker 1: find some stuff online. A lot of it's just not
Speaker 1: available from the old stuff. But the first one was
Speaker 1: Matt Parvus hosting and it was ahead of the November
Speaker 1: nine so kind of coincidentally times up with what we're
Speaker 1: talking about here twenty ten, I believe it was, and
Speaker 1: he had myself on alongside Eric Ramsey and Mickey Doft,
Speaker 1: and we previewed the final table. We gave some take
Speaker 1: some thoughts on it. So that was the first ever
Speaker 1: episode of the Poker News podcast. Rich Ryan producer Rich
Speaker 1: producer here was also producer there. The guys just been
Speaker 1: an absolute freakin' lifer. Tries to get out of poker,
Speaker 1: but we won't let them. We still got pods that
Speaker 1: need producing. They got to be edited, always be producing, sir,
Speaker 1: Let's go. You know so again, just check out the
Speaker 1: Poker News Podcast one thousandth episode when that drops as
Speaker 1: soon as it does for us here on the Poker
Speaker 1: Go Podcast. This show today just going to be running
Speaker 1: to the final table. I got some bio stuff that
Speaker 1: I want to hit on. I know I did talk
Speaker 1: a lot of bit about these players, but a little
Speaker 1: bit of a refresh here, both for you guys out there,
Speaker 1: but also for myself. You just make sure that I
Speaker 1: remind myself who everyone is, and then I want to
Speaker 1: kind and dig into I don't know, just some thoughts
Speaker 1: that I have going into the final table. There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of talk out there on social media on
Speaker 1: ICM and like start, a final table approaches based on
Speaker 1: where everyone is in chips, So I'm going to touch
Speaker 1: on that a little bit. I'll give some thoughts on,
Speaker 1: you know, how this thing could play out at the start,
Speaker 1: what I think might happen, or maybe what I hope
Speaker 1: might happen. Maybe I'm leaning into this is what I
Speaker 1: want to see versus what I think we'll see. And
Speaker 1: then also I just have some kind of thoughts, some
Speaker 1: questions that I was I throw myself because I'm the
Speaker 1: only one on this damn show. So that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do, and then we will get to you guys
Speaker 1: out of here. Three days for the w s AP
Speaker 1: Main Event Final Table are planned, all live on either
Speaker 1: ESPN two or ESPN if I have the schedule correct.
Speaker 1: On Monday, we're gonna be live, not we but you know,
Speaker 1: w s AP Main Elevment Final Table is gonna be
Speaker 1: live on ESPN two. It starts at nine Eastern time,
Speaker 1: six Pacific, and it's scheduled to go nine to twelve,
Speaker 1: but of course it'll probably get determined by play, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's like last year when MS Rocky just just
Speaker 1: ran through the final table like it was just you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, that guy just absolutely steamrolled that freaking thing.
Speaker 1: Could be out of there on ho or who knows
Speaker 1: that they obviously won't play him too late. They'll probably
Speaker 1: try and get down to I'll say five or six
Speaker 1: players is usually the target on this first day. Then
Speaker 1: they'll come back on Tuesday, same time slot nine to
Speaker 1: twelve Eastern that's six to nine Pacific time. That'll be
Speaker 1: on ESPN, So the main main ESPN. He won as
Speaker 1: I believe they call it. So that's gonna get to
Speaker 1: the second batch of this final table will take us
Speaker 1: down to either three handed play or heads uplay. And
Speaker 1: they're gonna come back on Wednesday, ten thirty Eastern time
Speaker 1: start seven thirty Pacific time, is what I'm saying on
Speaker 1: the schedule. That's also gonna be on ESPN, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna take us right down to a winner ten million
Speaker 1: dollars up top. Believe it's Ali Najade and Nick Schulman
Speaker 1: on the call. Those two are the goats. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to tune in for that. I'm gonna be there,
Speaker 1: but I'm also gonna have the stream on. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try and like double dip and not get spoiled. But
Speaker 1: of course, because I'm there, because of the delay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have some spoilers, So I'm just gonna have to
Speaker 1: deal with it. But I freaking love it. It's the
Speaker 1: best time of the year to be a poker fan.
Speaker 1: Lucas Jumalan is the chip leader entering the WSIP Main
Speaker 1: Event Final table, and holy crap, is it a big
Speaker 1: chip leader. If you guys have been living under a rock,
Speaker 1: this chip leaders out of control. One hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: four million for Jumalan. That's more than thirty five percent
Speaker 1: of the chips in play. In fact, that is the
Speaker 1: most the largest percentage of the final table chips that
Speaker 1: a chip leader has had entering the final nine. I
Speaker 1: think it was Karai. Aldemir was the next closest with
Speaker 1: thirty five point oh six percent. Jumalan's got thirty five
Speaker 1: point oh eight percent. Jumalan definitely has the biggest gap
Speaker 1: between first and second. If if that was that Aldemir year,
Speaker 1: which I could just I could pull it up right
Speaker 1: now because I have it all in my nice little document,
Speaker 1: Yeah it was Aldemir. Aldemir had thirty five point oh
Speaker 1: six percent of the chips in play, one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty million, George Holmes. It was ended, it ended up
Speaker 1: being those two getting heads up had twenty point nine
Speaker 1: six so a difference of about fourteen percent there. But
Speaker 1: as it relates to Jumalan, he's got one hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety four million, thirty five point eight percent of the
Speaker 1: chips in play. Romy Hamoud is in second with seventy
Speaker 1: nine million, fourteen point twenty nine percent, so almost twenty
Speaker 1: one percent more chips than then second place. Here. We'll
Speaker 1: get into the size of the chip lead for Jumalan,
Speaker 1: what it means, what it might mean a little bit
Speaker 1: later on, but right now I'm just kind of running
Speaker 1: through the chips in This is in chip order. When
Speaker 1: I talk about the players in a second, I'll go
Speaker 1: through and see order. Rami Hamoud's in second seventy nine million,
Speaker 1: Jamie Shavell in third with fifty six million. This next
Speaker 1: batch of one, two, three, four, five players, they're all
Speaker 1: bunched really close together. They got Jamie Shavell fifty six million,
Speaker 1: Greg Mueller FBT forty eight point five million for him,
Speaker 1: Michael Gagliano GAS forty six point five million, Mario Boos
Speaker 1: forty four million, Luri Sascalatti thirty seven point five million,
Speaker 1: and then after that you have two short stacks. One
Speaker 1: is slightly ahead of the other one. Han Feng's got
Speaker 1: twenty five million. That is I believe seventeen big lines.
Speaker 1: And then Eva gorris Iva Goru has fifteen big lines,
Speaker 1: a twenty two point five million, and that is the
Speaker 1: final table of the DIBYSSIPI main event. Now let's go
Speaker 1: around the table in seat order hit on these players
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper than just naming their chip count.
Speaker 1: In seat one, we have Finland's Louri Sascalatti. He's thirty
Speaker 1: nine years old out of Helsinki, now resides in Spain.
Speaker 1: He has a really cool story, one of the better
Speaker 1: ones from the final table because he's not He doesn't
Speaker 1: list himself as a professional poker player. He works full time,
Speaker 1: or at least he did. Who knows what's gonna come
Speaker 1: after you win seven figures or much more more at
Speaker 1: the WISIP main event, but head of sales for a
Speaker 1: packaging company considers poker more of a hobby than a profession.
Speaker 1: A lot was talked about how his family was coming
Speaker 1: in from Europe for the final table, and then they're
Speaker 1: going to be planning in a vacation down to San Diego,
Speaker 1: also to Disneyland great spots. I was just in San
Speaker 1: Diego myself for a few days with the fam during
Speaker 1: this little break in the action, so that's going to
Speaker 1: be a really fun trip for Sascolatti and his fam.
Speaker 1: His oldest daughter already thinks that her dad is the
Speaker 1: best poker player in the world, and I mean it's
Speaker 1: pretty hard to refute that when you make the wsup
Speaker 1: being main event file say well and the heck if
Speaker 1: he wins the damn thing. I mean, he is the
Speaker 1: best poker player in the world. So Lauri Sescalotti out
Speaker 1: of Finland, thirty nine years old, Seat one, thirty seven
Speaker 1: point five million, twenty five big blinds, see two gags,
Speaker 1: Michael Gagliano. He's quietly put together one of the strongest
Speaker 1: resumes in the A lot has been talked about Greg Mueller,
Speaker 1: and I know we're going to get to him shortly
Speaker 1: about how he's the most experienced, the most accomplished player
Speaker 1: at the table. But let's not sleep on gags. He's
Speaker 1: got four WSOP bracelets, more than two million dollars in
Speaker 1: live earnings. He's a sponsored pro with bet MGM. He's
Speaker 1: spent years and years and years not only playing poker
Speaker 1: both live and online and having a lot of success
Speaker 1: doing so, but he also coaches players. He's very good
Speaker 1: at that. He consults for various poker operators or earth.
Speaker 1: He has right now of course partnered up with bet
Speaker 1: MGM Poker. He's one of those players who's I think
Speaker 1: he's just seen it all when it comes to the game.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, if you guys remember back
Speaker 1: to when I talked with him after they made the
Speaker 1: wsp Man Event final table, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: and he also said this again today when we were
Speaker 1: down at the Poker News podcast, a live show. But
Speaker 1: how it's it's just another poker tournament. And you might
Speaker 1: get some for saying that, but for gags, it is.
Speaker 1: And yes, it's awesome and it's the biggest poker tournament
Speaker 1: in the world, but also like he knows exactly what
Speaker 1: this is, this situation. He's played, however, many thousands of
Speaker 1: final tables in his life, live and online. You know,
Speaker 1: just that wealth of experience there. He's got thirty one
Speaker 1: big blinds forty six point five million coming into the
Speaker 1: final table. I mean he's been in this spot time
Speaker 1: and time and time again. It's a poker tournament. There
Speaker 1: are big pay jumps. He's got a thirty big blind stack.
Speaker 1: Let's go to work. So for gags like that's how
Speaker 1: he's approaching this thing. Just the fact that he has
Speaker 1: seen likely every single situation imaginable. You know, that's I
Speaker 1: think that's a really big advantage. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: someone who's gonna get flustered at all when the lights
Speaker 1: come on. You know. He talked about how the the
Speaker 1: about two and a half weeks off or whatever it was,
Speaker 1: was a little bit awkward for him. It's like almost
Speaker 1: it's too much time to just stay in Vegas, but
Speaker 1: then almost not enough time to like go home and
Speaker 1: actually get settled in New Jersey. But he did go home,
Speaker 1: tried to get settled as much as he could, came
Speaker 1: back out here today to get this done. He's forty
Speaker 1: one years old, I said, he resides in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: He's married with two kids. That is Michael Gagliano in
Speaker 1: Seed two, Seat three, the Frenchman Mario Boose forty four million,
Speaker 1: twenty nine big blinds a full time poker professional. He's
Speaker 1: looking to become the first French player to win the
Speaker 1: WISOP main event. There have been some deep runs, there
Speaker 1: have been some final tables from French players before Anton sayout.
Speaker 1: He actually did it twice. In two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: he finished third for Joshi three point five million, Then
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen he got fifth for two million. Also
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, Benjamin Pollock, another Frenchman, got third place
Speaker 1: for three point five million, and then in twenty thirteen
Speaker 1: it was Sylvan Loosely who got fourth for two point
Speaker 1: eight million. Boose's resume isn't you know, quite as extensive
Speaker 1: as some of the other pros at this table. I mean,
Speaker 1: we just talked about all the stuff, all the success
Speaker 1: that Michael Gagliano has had. But for Boose, you know,
Speaker 1: he's steadily been building his results throughout Europe over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. His previous best score before this
Speaker 1: run was a sixth place finish from a field of
Speaker 1: more than seven thousand entries in a three hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty euro Italian Poker Sport main event in Rosvedov. That
Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty five, So last year three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty euros, but he won fifty four thousand, six
Speaker 1: hundred dollars because there was more than seven thousand entries
Speaker 1: in that field. He also won a Swiss Poker Series
Speaker 1: main event in April twenty twenty six or earlier this
Speaker 1: year for more than forty nine thousand dollars. On his
Speaker 1: player profile, he described himself as a survivor and after
Speaker 1: making it through a field of more than nine thy
Speaker 1: two hundred entries, that's pretty fitting. And also, you know,
Speaker 1: at a final table like this, when the pay jumps
Speaker 1: are so large, the minimum pay jump at this basity
Speaker 1: Manhavn final table, he's a quarter of a million dollars.
Speaker 1: So a lot of players will take that let's just
Speaker 1: survive approach. Survive survives, survive, ladder up, ladder up, ladder up,
Speaker 1: And that could really be Boos's m o here. He's
Speaker 1: thirty two years old, he's been playing poker since two
Speaker 1: thy and eleven. Seat four belongs to FBT Greg Mueller.
Speaker 1: He's probably the most accomplished live tournament player left. I
Speaker 1: know Gagliano has more bracelets. Mueller has three, Gagliano has four,
Speaker 1: but everything else on on Mueller's record, I think probably
Speaker 1: lends himself to being the most accomplished live tournament player left.
Speaker 1: He's fifty five years old, is Mueller. He's out a
Speaker 1: white Rock van Hoover at Canada the FBT. His nickname
Speaker 1: stands for full Blown Tilt. He's a former professional hockey
Speaker 1: player who spent years playing hockey in Germany before turning
Speaker 1: to poker full time, and that has obviously worked out
Speaker 1: pretty damn well. He was a recent guest on the
Speaker 1: Face the Ace podcast, Face the Ace Excuse Me podcast
Speaker 1: with Remco Rinkima. You can find that right here on
Speaker 1: this podcast feed or over on the Poker Go YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: So definitely go check that out if you guys haven't already.
Speaker 1: Greg talks about his run. You know, a lot's been
Speaker 1: made about how he kind of was going through the motions,
Speaker 1: he wasn't feeling it. He got into it with his
Speaker 1: good friend Sean Buchanan. He's been on his rail. Bucky
Speaker 1: gave him some tough love and Greg put it all
Speaker 1: together and now here he is in the final nine
Speaker 1: in the World Series of Poker Main Event. So Mula
Speaker 1: talks a lot about that in the podcast with Remco
Speaker 1: so I would highly encourage you guys to go check
Speaker 1: that out. It's a great little appetizer here before we
Speaker 1: get into this main course for the main events. Mueller's
Speaker 1: won three WSP Gold bracelets. I think for Gagliano, by
Speaker 1: the way, it was it's one live, three online. For Mueller,
Speaker 1: all of them are live. In two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: he won two. I think it was within a week
Speaker 1: or a week and a half time that he won
Speaker 1: both of them. He won the ten k limit hold
Speaker 1: Him for four hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Then he
Speaker 1: won the fifteen hundred dollars limit hold Him Shootout for
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety four thousand dollars. Ten years later,
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, he won the ten k horse for four
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. He's also got two
Speaker 1: seconds in WSP events. He's got two third place finishes
Speaker 1: in WSP events. He also has two WPT final tables
Speaker 1: on his resume, so millions of dollars in tournament earnings
Speaker 1: for Mueller. He's been around the biggest stages in poker.
Speaker 1: Obviously poker tournaments. As I just ran through some of
Speaker 1: those highlights there he's played played in some stream cash
Speaker 1: games as well, you know, so I don't think he's
Speaker 1: someone who's going to be shying away from, you know,
Speaker 1: the bright lights, the cameras and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: So Greg Mueller FBT seat four forty eight point five
Speaker 1: million for him, by the way, thirty two big blinds. Again,
Speaker 1: he's really bunched up in that middle group there, seat five.
Speaker 1: We got Jamie Chevelle with fifty six million or thirty
Speaker 1: seven big lines. Of that group of five players, that's
Speaker 1: that middling bunch. He has the most of that group.
Speaker 1: So it's Jumalan's way up on top. Then you got
Speaker 1: Ramija mood like comfortably in second place, still a bit
Speaker 1: of a ways off of Jumalan, but he's got enough
Speaker 1: gap between him and Jamie Schavelle and the third and
Speaker 1: then it's Chevelle with the biggest of this bunching middle stacks. Here,
Speaker 1: he's one of the veterans of the w CP main event.
Speaker 1: He's thirty nine years old, but he's played this tournament
Speaker 1: eighteen times. I mean, that's just freaking wild. And what's
Speaker 1: even crazier is that he's cast in this event what
Speaker 1: is now eight times two thousand and nine, three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifth for just under thirty thousand dollars. That's his
Speaker 1: first cash on the old Hendon Mob overrunhendonmob dot Com.
Speaker 1: Twenty eleven he got one hundredth for almost fifty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Next year, twenty twelve, he gets three hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy six for thirty two thousand, eight hundred. A
Speaker 1: couple of years when he doesn't cash okay fine. Twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: he's back two hundred and fifty ninth for thirty six thousand,
Speaker 1: seven hundred. Twenty seventeen, he's running it back four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifteenth for twenty seven thousand, seven hundred dollars. Again,
Speaker 1: a couple of years off. Twenty twenty two bang six
Speaker 1: hundred and thirtieth for twenty three k twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred and tenth for a min cash of fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. So those are seven cashes in the w
Speaker 1: SUP main events. That is an incredible record. I Mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's people out there that I know that talk
Speaker 1: about how they've played this tournament ten, fifteen, eighteen times
Speaker 1: and they haven't cashed one. So they've cashed only once
Speaker 1: and it's been a min cash and whatever. But not
Speaker 1: for Jamie Shable. He is a main event grinder here.
Speaker 1: He owns an LED lighting company out in southern California.
Speaker 1: I think it was Santa Monica if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: He does host some pretty big cash games around the
Speaker 1: LA area. That's his forte. On the last episode that
Speaker 1: I did from that after they made the VENN final table,
Speaker 1: you heard him talk about how you know cash games
Speaker 1: are his jam doesn't play that many tournaments, says that
Speaker 1: winning the WSB main events won't really change his life
Speaker 1: financially successful business has had what looks like plenty of
Speaker 1: success playing poker as well. But the one thing that
Speaker 1: will change is that, even though he is allergic to dogs,
Speaker 1: he promised his kids that if he wins, he's going
Speaker 1: to finally be getting them a dog. So that's pretty cool. There.
Speaker 1: Fifty six million for Chevelle, thirty seven big blinds for
Speaker 1: him in seat five, Seat six is Han Fang. One
Speaker 1: of the two short stacks. Fang's going to be bringing
Speaker 1: twenty five million or seventeen big blinds to the final table.
Speaker 1: He starts near the bottom, but I don't think that
Speaker 1: He's somebody you want to be overlooking. He's twenty seven
Speaker 1: years old on the younger side, not the youngest at
Speaker 1: this final table, but one of the youngest. He's only
Speaker 1: been playing poker since twenty twenty, yet he's already built
Speaker 1: up a couple million dollars in live tournament earnings. He
Speaker 1: was named the GPI Mid Major Player of the Year
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four. He was born in China. He
Speaker 1: now lives in Houston, Texas. Plenty of tournament experience even
Speaker 1: though he is just twenty seven years old. He's got
Speaker 1: four six figure scores. Prior to this run. He won
Speaker 1: a ws AP Circuit main event in I think it
Speaker 1: was Tulsa twenty twenty four for one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: four k. There that same year, he won the fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars main event at the Champions Club Fall Poker
Speaker 1: Open for one hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars. He's
Speaker 1: had two deep runs in the w SIP main event
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: he got three hundred and ninety six for forty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four, two hundred and eighty six for fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Last December, he got fourteenth in WPT World
Speaker 1: Championship over at the win for one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars. So this guy can play, you know.
Speaker 1: I've seen him around. I've seen him on some streams
Speaker 1: as well. He can play. He will get after it. Yes,
Speaker 1: he is a bit restricted here with his stack size
Speaker 1: coming in just seventeen big blinds to work with, but
Speaker 1: he's dangerous. He's coached by Michael Josop. He's been in
Speaker 1: his corner, he's been on his rail. Josoff is a
Speaker 1: high roller, puts in a lot of reps, online play
Speaker 1: some tritons, has played plenty of PGT stuff. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's gonna go a bit of a ways for
Speaker 1: Han Fang. You know, of course he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: fight off that short stack and get himself back into
Speaker 1: the mix. But if he does that, he's he's gonna
Speaker 1: be somebody that's gonna be really, really dangerous and could
Speaker 1: be could be a dark horse out there. You know,
Speaker 1: if you like to if you like to bet on
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff and you like to take a
Speaker 1: long shot, you know, He's probably the one that you
Speaker 1: want to take, just given the experience and the skill
Speaker 1: that he has. But then when you put that in
Speaker 1: with the amount of chips that he's bringing, being on
Speaker 1: the shorter side, you might get some good odds, is
Speaker 1: what I'm getting at here for Han Feng seat seven,
Speaker 1: romy Hamoud seventy nine million, firmly in second place, fifty
Speaker 1: three big blinds to work with when things kick off.
Speaker 1: He's from Montreal. He's one of the more relatable stories
Speaker 1: here at the final table because he won his seat
Speaker 1: via a satellite so that's pretty freaking cool. Away from poker,
Speaker 1: he's an analytics manager for a Rowblocks studio. He studied
Speaker 1: actuarial mathematics, which means that he uses math and probability
Speaker 1: all the damn time and he uses it to estimate
Speaker 1: rix risk. Excuse me, So it's probably pretty safe to
Speaker 1: say that that you know this, this whole poker thing
Speaker 1: fits right in with Romy. He's already made one WSP
Speaker 1: final table before, but this one here, of course, is
Speaker 1: poker's biggest title. He's got a legitimate shot at it
Speaker 1: coming in second and here. That final table that he
Speaker 1: made was in twenty twenty four. The WSP five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars Salute to Warriors event foury five hundred and seventeen entries. There,
Speaker 1: Hamood got fifth place for more than fifty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, he won the Playground March Million
Speaker 1: Main event up in Canada four hundred and twenty three
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and Hamood is thirty six years old. Let's
Speaker 1: move on over to seed eight where we got Eva Gorris,
Speaker 1: Eva Goru, the other short sack, the shortest stacker remaining
Speaker 1: twenty two point five million, fifteen big blinds. Forty eight
Speaker 1: years old out of Cyprus. He is an optician by trade.
Speaker 1: He mostly plays cash games back home in Cyprus. This
Speaker 1: is his first trip, if he can believe it, to
Speaker 1: the US. His friends got together bottom of a ticket
Speaker 1: to the World Series of Poker, and here he is
Speaker 1: in the final nine doing the damn thing. He's cashed
Speaker 1: four tournaments at the World Series of Poker this year.
Speaker 1: His first ever WSP cash is among them. He got
Speaker 1: four hundred and eightieth in the Mystery Millions for thirty
Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty dollars. He got three hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy fourth in the Mini main event for forty six fifty.
Speaker 1: Then he got fifteenth in the six hundred dollars Deep
Speaker 1: Stack Championship for almost fourteen thousand dollars. Here in this one,
Speaker 1: of course, guaranteed a million dollars. But he's going to
Speaker 1: have some work to do if he will ladder up.
Speaker 1: You know he did. I would say he played conservative,
Speaker 1: playing down to the final table. So he might be
Speaker 1: one of those short stacks that is simply hard to
Speaker 1: kill her, or that is simply just around because he
Speaker 1: doesn't want to put his money in right. So we'll
Speaker 1: see how it goes for Uveagoro, of course, but he's
Speaker 1: going to have the fewest chips to work with come Monday,
Speaker 1: rounding out the table in seat nine. I guess we're
Speaker 1: just leaving the best for last, or at least the
Speaker 1: biggest for last. We got the chip leader, twenty two
Speaker 1: year old Lucas Jumelan out of Spokane, Washington, almost two
Speaker 1: hundred million ships, one hundred and ninety four million, and
Speaker 1: they unbag him on Monday evening. He's got complete control
Speaker 1: with that chip stack. I talked about how he has
Speaker 1: more than thirty five percent of the chips in play,
Speaker 1: that is freaking wild. We'll get into more on that
Speaker 1: on his chip stack and his lead in a bit,
Speaker 1: but Jumlan has said that he's been playing poker since
Speaker 1: he was eight years old. I don't even know how
Speaker 1: that's possible, but he says it is. Now he plays professionally.
Speaker 1: Also did mention that he was close to giving it
Speaker 1: up not too long ago. Didn't know that if he
Speaker 1: could do it. His live tournament results before this summer
Speaker 1: totaled around one hundred and eight hundred and seventy five thousand,
Speaker 1: something like that. So maybe things just weren't going his
Speaker 1: way out there on the grind. But here he is thankful,
Speaker 1: of course that he didn't give it up, because he's
Speaker 1: made the biggest and baddest final table of them all
Speaker 1: his friends. His best friends traveled the circuit with him
Speaker 1: around They're going to be on the rail all week.
Speaker 1: They were in all some rail super fun loud doing
Speaker 1: the whole damn thing. Hayden Hetland his best friend aka
Speaker 1: Big Red. As he's going out there in the poker world,
Speaker 1: you know, he could just become the best supporting actor
Speaker 1: from this whole wsby Man event final table because he
Speaker 1: is an absolute wild man and absolute character out there
Speaker 1: on the rail. Yes he's not at the table, but
Speaker 1: we could be talking a lot about Big Red for
Speaker 1: these next three days with how wild and crazy he
Speaker 1: might be getting there with his boy doing the damn
Speaker 1: thing up there on the table. If Jumalan can close
Speaker 1: this out, he would become the second youngest main event
Speaker 1: champion in history. Joe Katta is the youngest twenty one
Speaker 1: years old eleven months and twenty three days when he
Speaker 1: won it. If Jumalan wins it, he would be twenty
Speaker 1: two years old, four months and twenty seven days. Big
Speaker 1: chip lead here, biggest ever, and we can get into that,
Speaker 1: you know, straight away here I mentioned thirty five point
Speaker 1: zero eight percent of the chips in play, largest percentage
Speaker 1: of chips for any final table that any final table
Speaker 1: chip leader has started with going back to two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. I didn't look prior to them. I don't
Speaker 1: really think the data is available, and if it is available,
Speaker 1: I don't know how accurate it is, but I trust
Speaker 1: this stuff. Going back to Moneymaker's year, this is the
Speaker 1: largest percentage that any Final table chip leader has had.
Speaker 1: He also has the largest gap in chips between his
Speaker 1: stack and second place. Again, it's one hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: four million for Jumlan, it's seventy nine million for Hamud
Speaker 1: and second. That's a difference of one hundred and fifteen
Speaker 1: million or seventy six big blinds. That is freaking wild.
Speaker 1: How big of a gap. That is. Another way to
Speaker 1: put this into to context, just how how big this
Speaker 1: chip lead is. Jummalan has more chips than if you
Speaker 1: combined second, third, and fourth play stacks. If you took
Speaker 1: Hamoud stack seventy nine million, Chevelle stack fifty six million,
Speaker 1: and Muller stack forty eight point five million, they do
Speaker 1: not add up to as many chips as Jumalan has.
Speaker 1: That is also wild. I think it's like one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty something million for them combined. Like, it's just crazy.
Speaker 1: How big this chip lead is? It really really is.
Speaker 1: I dug through all the starting stacks, the starting chip
Speaker 1: stacks for the final table going back to two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. Pretty sure all the information is correct. Forgive
Speaker 1: me if there might be some mistakes in some of
Speaker 1: the stats, but it just generally paints the picture overall.
Speaker 1: Only once has a w S APT Main Event final
Speaker 1: table chip leader with at least thirty percent of the
Speaker 1: chips in play. Not one, and that was Darvin Moon
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and nine. He had thirty points
Speaker 1: two four percent of the chips in play. He ultimately
Speaker 1: finished second to Joe Katta Kat had a six six run.
Speaker 1: I hate you Ridge Ryan for still pulling that out
Speaker 1: in our little fantasy thing back and forth, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he ultimately beats Darvin Moon. There the other chip leaders
Speaker 1: who had at least thirty percent of the final table
Speaker 1: chips to start, who then went on to win. You
Speaker 1: had Greg Ramer back in two thousand and five. Remember
Speaker 1: Greg Ramer, he was just freaking bulldozing his way through
Speaker 1: that main event, had a ton of chips. He had
Speaker 1: thirty two zero point thirty nine percent of the chips
Speaker 1: in play. Goes on to win, of course, twenty ten.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Duhamel thirty point zero four percent of the chips.
Speaker 1: Joe McKeon, we all remember his chip lead. He took
Speaker 1: out dan On mcgrand new in eleventh place. He goes
Speaker 1: on to just absolutely control that final table. It was
Speaker 1: it was really never in doubt that Joe McKeon was
Speaker 1: gonna win that one. It was one of the most
Speaker 1: dominating performances that we've ever seen twenty fifteen was that
Speaker 1: one he had thirty two point seven to five percent
Speaker 1: of the chips in play hosting ens on. We also
Speaker 1: heard him make some noise in this event with a
Speaker 1: very very very deep run made the final two tables,
Speaker 1: almost did the damn thing and it went went for
Speaker 1: another win. Twenty nineteen for him thirty four point three
Speaker 1: eight percent of the chips in play, and then Karry
Speaker 1: Aldemyer already touched on him. He had thirty five point
Speaker 1: zero six percent of the chips and play in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, he went on to win, beating George Holmes.
Speaker 1: Going back to and including two thousand and three, so
Speaker 1: the year that Chris Moneymaker won the of his main event,
Speaker 1: the w s B Main Event chip leaders have averaged
Speaker 1: a third place finish in this event, so if you
Speaker 1: average out all their finishes, they finish in at least
Speaker 1: third place, which third place this year is worth three
Speaker 1: point seven five million dollars. It's ten million for first,
Speaker 1: it is six million per second, it is three point
Speaker 1: seven million for third. Play. Only twice has the main
Speaker 1: event chip leader finished outside of the top five and
Speaker 1: then and both times Funnily enough, it was in ninth
Speaker 1: place finish. You had Matthew Sue in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Now that that year was a little bit tricky, and
Speaker 1: I had to do a little bit extra work here
Speaker 1: because if you guys remember, I think it was because
Speaker 1: Day eight or whatever the day was that was setting
Speaker 1: the final table. It went so long that they ended
Speaker 1: with ten players and they came back with ten. They
Speaker 1: didn't come back with nine, so they come back with ten.
Speaker 1: They played I think it was seven hands before Astra
Speaker 1: Kniff busted. He got it all in with ace king
Speaker 1: versus two tens I think, and it just flopped quads
Speaker 1: for his opponent, Mickey Dueck. But that year, Matthew Sue
Speaker 1: and espen Georstad, when there was ten players remaining, they
Speaker 1: both had the exact same amount of chips, so they
Speaker 1: were co main event chip leaders with ten players left.
Speaker 1: But to try and keep everything the same throughout all
Speaker 1: this data that I was looking at, I watched those
Speaker 1: seven hands back on stream, right. Sorry, I went through
Speaker 1: the Poker News reporting. So if there's narrow here we
Speaker 1: got we got to blame Poker New, Sorry, Chad. We
Speaker 1: gotta blame you guys. And I busted out a spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: I did all the math on all the chips for
Speaker 1: all the hands, because Poker News does do hand for
Speaker 1: hand coverage, and then I saw that Matthew Sue was
Speaker 1: the chip leader when they started nine hand and play
Speaker 1: with hand number eight. He ultimately went on to finish
Speaker 1: ninth that year. Back in two thousand and seven, Philip
Speaker 1: Hilm also finished in ninth there. But other than that,
Speaker 1: you know, it really is, it's like fifth or better
Speaker 1: for for everyone, and usually it's third or better if
Speaker 1: not winning the damn thing. The main event chip leader
Speaker 1: does perform very very very well at this final table.
Speaker 1: So knowing that and knowing some of these stats, knowing
Speaker 1: these these chip counts, how they all shake out, you
Speaker 1: know what can we expect at the final table? There
Speaker 1: has been a lot of conversation out there. There always
Speaker 1: is every single year, especially when you get some time
Speaker 1: off and people are able to crunch some numbers, they're
Speaker 1: able to run some sims, all that sort of stuff
Speaker 1: that we really lean into the ICM of it. All Right,
Speaker 1: you got ten million dollars up top. Everyone's guaranteed a
Speaker 1: million dollars right now, the pay jumps are very very large.
Speaker 1: The minimum pay jump is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: That's a quarter of a million dollars. It does jump
Speaker 1: by a quarter of a million all the way up
Speaker 1: to six place, so it goes one million for ninth,
Speaker 1: one point twenty five, one point five, one point seventy
Speaker 1: five for six places. Then the pay jumps start to
Speaker 1: get a little larger right once you get into the
Speaker 1: final six six to fifth. It goes up five hundred
Speaker 1: k up to two point twenty five million. From there
Speaker 1: it goes up another five hundred k to two point
Speaker 1: seven five million, Then it goes up a million to
Speaker 1: three point seven five million, Then it goes up even
Speaker 1: more than that, two point two five million to six million.
Speaker 1: Then it goes up to ten million, a four million
Speaker 1: page jump between second and first. And of course we
Speaker 1: know that, you know, there are not deals allowed unfortunately
Speaker 1: in WSP events, and in this event. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: people can go do what they want off to the side,
Speaker 1: but you know, this amount of money at stake seems
Speaker 1: like it might be difficult the times to get things done.
Speaker 1: But you know, if we hear about it, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it. If we don't hear about it as usual,
Speaker 1: then you know, we got nothing to say. It is
Speaker 1: interesting to see where everyone's ICM shakes out right now, Jumalan,
Speaker 1: You know we talked about how big his chip lead is.
Speaker 1: His ICM percentage is just over twenty percent, So just
Speaker 1: just think about like those two discrepancies. He's got a
Speaker 1: little bit more than thirty five percent of the chips
Speaker 1: in play, but his ICM percentage is just over twenty percent.
Speaker 1: His ICM value is six million, one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: eight thousand, or six million, one hundred and eighty nine thousand,
Speaker 1: if you want to round up, so almost a full
Speaker 1: four million dollars short of first place. Like he's his
Speaker 1: ICM value is basically sixth place, sorry, second place, excuse
Speaker 1: me there. No one at the final table has less
Speaker 1: than an ICM value of two point one point eight
Speaker 1: five million, which is basically fifth place. Two point twenty
Speaker 1: five million, even that is fifth place. Eva gors Eva Goru.
Speaker 1: His ICM value is two million, one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: five thousand, six hundred dollars, so like that is basically
Speaker 1: fifth place. If any of these guys bust before getting
Speaker 1: to fifth place, I mean I guess technically based on
Speaker 1: ICM they lost some value, so that could certainly play
Speaker 1: into how things play out on Monday. Now, it is
Speaker 1: a little bit interesting because you have these two short sacks,
Speaker 1: Fang and Eva Goru, who just because they are on
Speaker 1: the shortest side of things, like, yes, their ICM value
Speaker 1: might be right around that fifth place number, but you
Speaker 1: know how many times are both of them or even
Speaker 1: just one of them going to realize that, given that
Speaker 1: they are on the shortest side of things, right, So
Speaker 1: you know, I get it, but overall throughout, you know,
Speaker 1: if you do this over millions and millions and millions
Speaker 1: of times, that's that's how it's all gonna shake out.
Speaker 1: So you know, kind of the obvious next thing to
Speaker 1: go with is, I guess who has the most pressure
Speaker 1: on them? From just a general narrative standpoint, like, you know,
Speaker 1: who's got the pressure on them? You could say Lucas
Speaker 1: Jumelan because his chip lead is so large. There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of talk. We talked about it a lot
Speaker 1: on this podcast here. A lot of people have been
Speaker 1: talking about in the media just about how big his
Speaker 1: chip lead is. Biggest chip lead entering the WSPM and
Speaker 1: men found sab whatever. Okay, so people are expecting him
Speaker 1: to win. I think also because of his play and
Speaker 1: how much skill he has exuded, people are even just
Speaker 1: more so expecting him to win. Like this isn't like
Speaker 1: just lucky that Jumlan got here with this chip lead. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's had some fortunate hands go his way. That happens
Speaker 1: to everyone in every single tournament, and there are people
Speaker 1: on the other side of the coin as well, But
Speaker 1: Jumalan has played very very well, Like you can definitely
Speaker 1: tell that he knows what he's doing. He studies, he
Speaker 1: understands situations and the game flow and theory and all
Speaker 1: of that. And the fact that he has one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety four million and he has more than thirty
Speaker 1: five percent of the chips in play, and such a
Speaker 1: big lead like this, there's a lot of expectation and
Speaker 1: therefore a lot of pressure on him to ultimately close
Speaker 1: this thing out. But if you want to move away
Speaker 1: from like a narrative standpoint and move towards an ICM perspective,
Speaker 1: he might not have that much pressure, or at least
Speaker 1: not the most pressure. You know, because everyone's tournament equity
Speaker 1: is worth roughly fifth place money, as we said, which
Speaker 1: is two point twenty five million. That's more than double
Speaker 1: what they're guaranteed, which is a million dollars. Jubalan is
Speaker 1: the player who's most likely to realize closer to his
Speaker 1: ICM value than anyone else just given the starting point
Speaker 1: at how many chips that he has, he I mean,
Speaker 1: he could really not do anything. Like, yes, we you
Speaker 1: know he's likely gonna do a lot, and we want
Speaker 1: him to do a lot because that's more exciting. But
Speaker 1: he could just sit back and do nothing and get
Speaker 1: pretty close to that ICM value, right, Like that's how
Speaker 1: it could shake out. He's the one player who has
Speaker 1: the freedom to attack and attack at will. Now he
Speaker 1: doesn't need to, nor do I think he really wants
Speaker 1: to play huge pots. So, like, don't mistake the aggressiveness
Speaker 1: that he's that we think he's going to come in
Speaker 1: with and that he's likely to take on with the
Speaker 1: fact that he wants to just play a pot worth
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifty sixty eighty million chips, whatever it
Speaker 1: may be, you know, because the money that he's going
Speaker 1: to be making overall throughout this whole final table is
Speaker 1: just like through the red right just just winning pot
Speaker 1: after pot after pot and keeping the pressure on everyone else,
Speaker 1: really really leaning on those other stacks, most notably the
Speaker 1: middling stacks, you know, that middle bunch of players, you know,
Speaker 1: picking up the blinds and anties, continuation, betting on flops,
Speaker 1: three betting pre flop, you know, being able, he's the
Speaker 1: one who can really put everyone else to the test
Speaker 1: in spots that's gonna make them feel extremely uncomfortable, right,
Speaker 1: he can really force everyone into those uncomfortable decisions. He's
Speaker 1: got a really good seat at the table as well.
Speaker 1: He's got second in chips Rami Hamood two to his right,
Speaker 1: and that's extremely beneficial because the best place to be
Speaker 1: pre flop is going to be on the button for everyone,
Speaker 1: right in any poker tournament, like you ultimately want the position.
Speaker 1: When Hamood's on the button, he's got to deal with
Speaker 1: Jumlan in the big blind. So that's going to handcuff
Speaker 1: a Mood a bit more so because he knows that
Speaker 1: no matter what he does on the button, like if
Speaker 1: he raises, it's likely that Jumlan is going to be
Speaker 1: coming along and then make life difficult for him post flop.
Speaker 1: And this also just isn't some chip leader, as I've
Speaker 1: talked about, who's just gonna, like, I don't know, play
Speaker 1: kind of straightforward ABC poker and you know, not really
Speaker 1: take advantage to the full extent that he should with
Speaker 1: his chipstack. Jumlan is going to do that. In my opinion.
Speaker 1: He's a very very good player, and I think he
Speaker 1: recognizes the situation that he is in where he can
Speaker 1: really really lean on everyone. So he's got a really
Speaker 1: good seat, you know, to make to make to make
Speaker 1: life even better. As if one hundred ninety four million
Speaker 1: and thirty five percent of the chips and play wasn't
Speaker 1: great enough for this guy he's got, he's got an
Speaker 1: incredible position at the table. Now, speaking of Hamoud, you know,
Speaker 1: he may be the most handcuffed player at the table.
Speaker 1: You know, of course he Now he is in second place.
Speaker 1: He's comfortably in second place with the seventy nine million,
Speaker 1: which is fourteen point three percent of the chips in play.
Speaker 1: He's got an ICM value of just over four million.
Speaker 1: But he's going to be incentivized to really wade out,
Speaker 1: you know, some of these shorter stacks Fang and Evil
Speaker 1: Goru for sure, right, Also coupled with that positioning where
Speaker 1: he is too to the right of Jumalan. So it's
Speaker 1: going to make life a little bit difficult for Hamud,
Speaker 1: you know. I think that again, his button opens are
Speaker 1: probably going to be a little bit restricted, even like
Speaker 1: later positions cut off when Jumalan is still to act.
Speaker 1: I mean, just any time he really wants to get active,
Speaker 1: he's got to worry about Jumalan being behind him. To
Speaker 1: be honest, the best position for Hamud to maybe get
Speaker 1: a little bit more free with everything would be from
Speaker 1: under the gun, because that's when Jumalan in relation to Hamud,
Speaker 1: is going to be at his earliest position, and because
Speaker 1: Jumalan will then have so many players still to act
Speaker 1: behind him, you know, he might not be able to
Speaker 1: get as liberal with his pressure that he's putting on
Speaker 1: ham Mood. So maybe we look for that early on,
Speaker 1: is that when Hamoud is under the gun, that's when
Speaker 1: he says, you know what, this is when I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get a little bit more liberal, go outside the box
Speaker 1: a little bit more. I'm gonna be restricted more in
Speaker 1: my later positions button and cut off right, But when
Speaker 1: it's under the gun, then then okay, let's go from there. Now,
Speaker 1: I will also say that when Hamood is the big
Speaker 1: blind or the small blind and Jumlan gets out of
Speaker 1: the way from either under the gun or under the
Speaker 1: gun plus one, that's gonna effectively make Hamood the chip leader.
Speaker 1: So that's also going to open things up for him,
Speaker 1: and then the other players at the table need to
Speaker 1: recognize that. Okay, now, this guy, even though the chip
Speaker 1: the overall the overwhelming chip leader, did fold and get
Speaker 1: out of the way, we still got to worry about
Speaker 1: this guy because now he is basically the de facto chipleader.
Speaker 1: So we do have to be worried about possibly opening
Speaker 1: into his big blind his small blind and him playing
Speaker 1: back at us and us, you know, worrying about that guy,
Speaker 1: you know, especially these middling bunch of stacks who are
Speaker 1: really keeping an eye on Fang and Eva go Uru
Speaker 1: as the short stack. So just kind of keep all
Speaker 1: that in mind. I personally think we're gonna start slow
Speaker 1: to this final table. I'm just drawing from that where
Speaker 1: these guys have had a little bit of time now
Speaker 1: to let the whole ic M thing sink in, right,
Speaker 1: And I also I watched a bit of how they
Speaker 1: played down towards the final table and I thought generally
Speaker 1: everyone played pretty conservative, right, so I think that's just
Speaker 1: gonna carry over. You know, people are gonna play conservative here,
Speaker 1: and I, you know Eva Goru for you know, also
Speaker 1: like I don't think he's just gonna be blasting it
Speaker 1: in even though he is the shortest stack. I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be cockroach like and it's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: to kill him. So now that brings us to the
Speaker 1: to the middling sacks. Jamie Shevell, Greg Mueller, Michael Gaglianamar Boose,
Speaker 1: and Lori Sasclotti. They've all got between I think twenty
Speaker 1: five and thirty seven big linds. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: they all have enough chips that they're not in any
Speaker 1: sort of danger to start. They can certainly go on
Speaker 1: a run and become a big stack pretty early, eventually
Speaker 1: go on to win the thing, or at least to
Speaker 1: really really challenge to win the thing. But one bad
Speaker 1: decision when you have Fang on seventeen big lines, when
Speaker 1: you have evagor around fifteen big lines, you know that
Speaker 1: one bad decision could cost them millions of dollars in equity.
Speaker 1: You know their ICM value is anywhere between two point
Speaker 1: eight million and three point four million. They don't want,
Speaker 1: like none of these guys for sure out of event,
Speaker 1: Like these guys definitely don't want to go out ninth
Speaker 1: or even go out eighth and just get a million
Speaker 1: dollars or one point twenty five like that would just
Speaker 1: be an absolute disaster for those guys. So I think
Speaker 1: these guys are going to be playing really, really really
Speaker 1: snug early on. I guess the one wild card that
Speaker 1: I don't know about in this bunch is Lori Sasclotti
Speaker 1: not a professional player. He'll tell you that. Is he
Speaker 1: gonna be Is he gonna kind of just come out
Speaker 1: swing it? I don't know, you know, maybe he's the
Speaker 1: one guy that that might. I think Gagliano is obviously
Speaker 1: well versed in all this sort of final table dynamics
Speaker 1: and situations. He's just gonna do what he does, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think he's probably just gonna end up locking down.
Speaker 1: Jamie Chavelle, I think is probably gonna be on the
Speaker 1: more locket down side. Greg Mueller, I don't know, kind
Speaker 1: of a live pro, you know who, Not that I
Speaker 1: think Greg's gonna make mistakes, But I think I think
Speaker 1: Greg has been pretty open with the fact that Nolan
Speaker 1: could hold him in these spots like that's not his forte.
Speaker 1: Not that he's not a very good player and he's
Speaker 1: able to figure things out because he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of talent and we're not saying that, but maybe he
Speaker 1: gets himself into a bigger pot than he should be
Speaker 1: playing at a time when he shouldn't be playing it,
Speaker 1: and that ultimately costs you know, Greg Mueller or something.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be really interesting to see what happens.
Speaker 1: And also the longer that these guys kind of lock down,
Speaker 1: I would say, the more free range Jumalan has to
Speaker 1: just do whatever he wants and continue to chip up
Speaker 1: and chip up and chip up and just really really
Speaker 1: widen that gap. Let's talk about the two short stacks
Speaker 1: as well. Han Fang Eva, gors Eva, Gooru. You know, yes,
Speaker 1: they're the two shortest stacks. They have every reason to
Speaker 1: weigh each other out. You know, Fang's gonna be got,
Speaker 1: It's gonna have one eye over on Eva gor Evigora
Speaker 1: is gonna have one eye over on Fang. That said,
Speaker 1: you know, this isn't like you just have one short stack.
Speaker 1: This is you have two short stacks, so first and
Speaker 1: foremost they're gonna kind of be looking at each other,
Speaker 1: you know, which again leads to the fact that or
Speaker 1: the idea that I think we're gonna start a little
Speaker 1: bit slower here early on. Of course, cards generally speak,
Speaker 1: and if if the deck just cooperates in a way
Speaker 1: that we get some exciting bangers right out to shoot,
Speaker 1: then I mean, so be it, let's go. But I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna start on the slower side of things.
Speaker 1: Fang and Eva Goru. I would also expect where some
Speaker 1: of these other players, you know, if they do come in,
Speaker 1: I think they're going to come in for the standard raises,
Speaker 1: you know, just a just a min raise. Fang and Evagoru.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be more at least at
Speaker 1: least maybe for like the first hand or two that
Speaker 1: they play might just be an open jam, right or
Speaker 1: a three bed jam. They just don't have that many
Speaker 1: chips to work with, so I think, you know, off
Speaker 1: fifteen seventeen big lines, maybe we see them just get
Speaker 1: after it. In that sense, when it comes to like
Speaker 1: who has the biggest pressure, I don't know, the pressure
Speaker 1: is kind of different depending on you know, how you
Speaker 1: look at it right. So while Jumalan, you know, he's
Speaker 1: he's under the biggest part of the spotlight. But it's
Speaker 1: more so that when you move from narrative to the
Speaker 1: ICM perspective side of things, the middle stacks are the
Speaker 1: ones that are under the most pressure. And then then
Speaker 1: back to Jumalan, is that's what's going to allow Jumalan
Speaker 1: to chip up earlier. These other guys are going to
Speaker 1: kind of have to sit and wait to see what
Speaker 1: happens with Fang or Evil go And also if Fang
Speaker 1: or Evil Goru, if either one of them double, this
Speaker 1: doesn't really change a ton. I mean, I guess it
Speaker 1: depends on who they double through. Like if Fang doubles
Speaker 1: through Sascolatti, for example, then Sascolotti becomes very short. But
Speaker 1: no matter what happens, if if nobody busts, then it's
Speaker 1: only gonna benefit Juamlan in my opinion, because even if
Speaker 1: somebody else gets shorter, the situation is kind of the same.
Speaker 1: You have the short stack that people is waiting, that
Speaker 1: everyone's waiting. The person out Juamlan is going to have
Speaker 1: all that power to do what he wants. So even
Speaker 1: if let's say Fang doubles through Jumlan. Jumalan takes a
Speaker 1: tiny bit of a hit, not that big of a
Speaker 1: deal in the grand scheme of things, Eva Gore is
Speaker 1: still left short over there, so Juamlan can just get
Speaker 1: right back to work, right, same thing. If you know
Speaker 1: Evia Goru doubles through through Jumalan, or Evi a Goru
Speaker 1: doubles through Hamood, you know, like that's where Hamod right,
Speaker 1: he's the one that's not gonna want to double anyone
Speaker 1: up because if he doubles up one of the shorts stack,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get sucked back down into that group of Chevelle, Mueller,
Speaker 1: Gagliano Boos, Sasclotti, where he was once comfortably in second place. Yes,
Speaker 1: he still has a bit of a jail cell around him.
Speaker 1: He has to worry about things and play cautiously. But
Speaker 1: you don't. You're comfortably in second right. You can almost
Speaker 1: maneuver your way to the top three if things go
Speaker 1: your way, of course, but you don't want to get
Speaker 1: sucked back down into that group and have to fight
Speaker 1: with those other five or six players. Right, So, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I think we're in for a bit of
Speaker 1: a KG match here. You know, like if this was
Speaker 1: a boxing match, it's the first couple of rounds where
Speaker 1: they're throwing some punches, but they're not really letting it
Speaker 1: go just because they're still trying to feel each other out.
Speaker 1: Whereas Jummalan, you know, he's just gonna be like NonStop
Speaker 1: jab jab jab jab jab, like just constantly on the offensive,
Speaker 1: but not in a way that he's throwing big haymakers,
Speaker 1: big uppercuts. He's just gonna be constantly just like picking
Speaker 1: people apart as what he's going to be looking to do.
Speaker 1: It's always to see how these spots play out in
Speaker 1: such a big money situation, and this is the biggest
Speaker 1: money situation of them all, but also a lot of
Speaker 1: craziness can happen early on that just you think it's
Speaker 1: gonna go one way and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's just like bang bang bang bang bang, What the
Speaker 1: heck just happened? I mean, last year we all go
Speaker 1: into it and it's all of a sudden like bang
Speaker 1: bang bang bang bang. Michael Mans, Rocky has all the
Speaker 1: freaking chips. Where did everyone go? What the heck just happened?
Speaker 1: We're like already heads up, it's been two hours of play,
Speaker 1: can we like chill for a second. I don't think
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a repeat of that, but heck, you
Speaker 1: never know, right which player of the other eight, I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously other than Jumalan, would I personally like to see
Speaker 1: double up early? Interesting thought there, you know, I was
Speaker 1: trying to think, like, you know who who if they
Speaker 1: double up early, like really kind of excites me, like,
Speaker 1: oh this is cool. Now it gets a little bit different,
Speaker 1: and I think that's Han Fang. And if he's let's
Speaker 1: just say, for you know, simplicity, here he goes from
Speaker 1: what he starts with twenty five million, he gets up
Speaker 1: to fifty million. Depending on who he doubles through. You know,
Speaker 1: that puts him in the upper portion of the stacks.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe he doesn't. If he doubles through Jamie Schavelle,
Speaker 1: he's he's then up into third place. If he doesn't
Speaker 1: double through him and doubles through someone else, he's up
Speaker 1: into you know, fourth or third or fourth place. Right,
Speaker 1: So he's like right there. I think if someone like
Speaker 1: a Greg Mueller doubles up, I don't think all that
Speaker 1: much changes. Same with Michael Gagliano saying with Chevelle, saying
Speaker 1: with Boose Sascolatti, like, you know, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: maybe if Hamoud doubles up and he would have to
Speaker 1: double up through Lucas Jumalan, then maybe that changes things.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if Hamoud's going to really be
Speaker 1: driving the bus like we want him to be driving
Speaker 1: the bus. I think the most exciting person would be
Speaker 1: Han feg You know, again, he only starts with that
Speaker 1: twenty five million, But I think given the way that
Speaker 1: I know he likes to play, or I think he
Speaker 1: likes to play from some of the stuff that I've
Speaker 1: seen with him, both in this event, you know, earlier
Speaker 1: on when he had some chips, but then also in
Speaker 1: some other streams that he's been on, Like he'll certainly
Speaker 1: be one to get after it, at least as much
Speaker 1: as he's allowed. To couple that with your fresh off
Speaker 1: of double up, you're feeling good. You know, the wind
Speaker 1: is at your back, you got that momentum, Like maybe
Speaker 1: he can start to find some of these other spots
Speaker 1: to chip up a little bit more, and it really
Speaker 1: starts to kind of change the dynamics of this whole thing,
Speaker 1: you know. I think I think also when you're on
Speaker 1: the younger side of things, and he's one of the
Speaker 1: younger ones at this final table, being just twenty seven
Speaker 1: years old. You just generally have an overall confidence about
Speaker 1: you that at times can border on cocky. We were
Speaker 1: all like it, myself included. Not that it's a bad thing,
Speaker 1: but it can allow you to just really go after
Speaker 1: things when maybe someone else might be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: maybe that's too risky for me to dip my toes
Speaker 1: in over there. But if you're someone like a Fang,
Speaker 1: you just go for it. So I think overall that
Speaker 1: would be the most fun is if he's able to
Speaker 1: double up early. It would it would it would be cool,
Speaker 1: you know, it just could I would say it could
Speaker 1: unlock him, you know he I think right now, we
Speaker 1: talked about his coach, Michael Joseph. Michael josef is a
Speaker 1: well studied pro who plays a lot of high stakes
Speaker 1: you know. I think he's going to be coaching Han
Speaker 1: To to play basically situational ice in poker, which is
Speaker 1: boring for lack of a better term. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of what we saw from Fang in the
Speaker 1: later stages playing down to the finals, it was we
Speaker 1: saw just that. I don't think he ultimately wants to
Speaker 1: play this way. I think he's a very good aggressive
Speaker 1: player when the situation calls for it and he's allowed
Speaker 1: to do that sort of stuff, but also when you're
Speaker 1: just handcuffed, you're just handcoffed. If he is able to
Speaker 1: get a double up relatively early on, I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be willing to keep pushing a little bit more
Speaker 1: so than let's say, if someone like an Eva Gouru
Speaker 1: the other short stack, if he was able to double
Speaker 1: I think he just doubles up and kind of just
Speaker 1: sits back a little bit more. So. You know, Fang
Speaker 1: is the one who I would like to see double
Speaker 1: up early or first, however you want to put that,
Speaker 1: And you know, I think it gives him a lot
Speaker 1: of momentum that that would lean into a lot more
Speaker 1: fun to kind of make this one a little bit
Speaker 1: more chaotic at the At the start here, I was
Speaker 1: also trying to think about who is the player most
Speaker 1: likely to finish, not where they start. Basically, if you
Speaker 1: just take everyone's starting position and say, okay, Lucas Jumlans
Speaker 1: starts in first place, he's got this spinning chips Okay,
Speaker 1: he's most likely to finish them first. This thing, you know,
Speaker 1: and you just as sign it like that, I would
Speaker 1: say it's probably Greg Mueller. I just think when it
Speaker 1: comes to Greg Mueller, he starts in fourth. He's got
Speaker 1: forty eight point five million, that's eight point seven percent
Speaker 1: of the chips in play. I think he's got the
Speaker 1: widest range of outcome. We talked about a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier when I talked about some of his his bio stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got arguably more experience, especially in the
Speaker 1: live realm. I mean, Gagliano is probably the most overall
Speaker 1: experienced player, Like he's played the most hands, the most tournaments,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. Live focus probably more Greg
Speaker 1: Mueller than Gagliano because Gagliano has got the online stuff.
Speaker 1: So as an overall experience thing, it's Gagliano, But as
Speaker 1: an experience in the live realm, it's probably Greg Mueller.
Speaker 1: You know, he's played for bracelets, He's got three of them.
Speaker 1: He's got all those other seconds and thirds as well,
Speaker 1: a bunch of final tables. He's been under the bright lights,
Speaker 1: the cameras, all that sort of stuff. I think also,
Speaker 1: like you know, being a professional hockey player at times,
Speaker 1: or semipro or whatever it was, like that also helps,
Speaker 1: you know, just dealing with with high pressure competitive situations.
Speaker 1: I So what I'm saying is I don't expect the
Speaker 1: stage to be too big for him, you know, the
Speaker 1: money to own, overwhelm him, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I also think that him being more of a
Speaker 1: live player, a field player, somebody that relies on reads
Speaker 1: his pure talent of things that might to allow him
Speaker 1: to identify some spots that he might want to take
Speaker 1: where other players are unwilling to take them. I'm going
Speaker 1: to use the word carelessness, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's exactly the right word, and I'm probably just getting
Speaker 1: that wrong. Where Greg made a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: how he was kind of just going through the motions.
Speaker 1: It took that tough love from his good friend Sean
Speaker 1: Buchan to kind of kick his ass into gear. And
Speaker 1: now he's made it here and he's nine or one
Speaker 1: million dollars and this is incredible. So does he just
Speaker 1: kind of let it flow a little bit more and
Speaker 1: maybe get himself into some spots that he maybe shouldn't
Speaker 1: be in. I don't know, maybe I'm just reading a
Speaker 1: little bit too into it when it comes to Mueller,
Speaker 1: but I could just see him kind of just playing
Speaker 1: a big one at a time when we kind of
Speaker 1: are like, wait, why is this pot all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, seventy five eight eighty million, and you know
Speaker 1: it's it's Greg and whoever, and they're just just going
Speaker 1: for it. There's the other side of that too, where
Speaker 1: he could get in that situation and he could he
Speaker 1: could win that situation, and he could come out on
Speaker 1: the other side positive, and he could accumulate all those chips,
Speaker 1: and then he could all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 1: Greg's got ninety million in chips, He's in second place,
Speaker 1: he's feeling freaking pumped up, and he's just like he's
Speaker 1: going for it right Like he's he's on that rush
Speaker 1: that you know live players feel where they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: like let's go, let's go. And he's just driving, drive
Speaker 1: and driving, and then all of a sudden, it's like
Speaker 1: he's charging up on Jumalan. So I don't know, I
Speaker 1: just feel like the range of outcomes from Ler are
Speaker 1: really all over the place at this final table. I
Speaker 1: love the guy. I think he's got great character here,
Speaker 1: certainly lively. Maybe at times the coaching and a lot
Speaker 1: of the talk that he's been doing with his good
Speaker 1: friend Bucky, maybe that does rein him in. But also
Speaker 1: maybe he's just you know, I don't know, gets his
Speaker 1: hand caught in the cookie jar at the wrong situation,
Speaker 1: and next thing you know, he's busted in eighth. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I feel like Greg could win this tournament.
Speaker 1: He could also be out in ninth, whereas some of
Speaker 1: the other players. I think it's a little bit fine
Speaker 1: or a fine line with you know, fine lines I
Speaker 1: should say for where they're going to finish, you know,
Speaker 1: the top and the bottom. But I also think that
Speaker 1: they don't they might not necessarily have the ceiling that
Speaker 1: me what has here. Somebody asked this question to me
Speaker 1: the other day, just a friend of mine who he's
Speaker 1: he likes poker, but he's not like a super die hard.
Speaker 1: But you know, every time the main event comes around,
Speaker 1: of course they're into it. He said, you know, is
Speaker 1: who's who's the best winner for poker? Made me think,
Speaker 1: you know, so who is out of this bunch of nine,
Speaker 1: who is the best winner for poker? And how I
Speaker 1: interpreted that is is who creates the most interest in
Speaker 1: the game beyond like the fellow Donnie Peters is of
Speaker 1: the world, like the people who are really in it,
Speaker 1: and also likely you guys out there who are listening.
Speaker 1: You know, you guys, the listeners to this podcast are
Speaker 1: certainly more die hard than a common poker fan. Like,
Speaker 1: it's not even close. So, you know, how does this
Speaker 1: kind of resonate a little bit further than that? Is
Speaker 1: it Jumlan twenty two years old, the kid with this
Speaker 1: huge tip lead? Is it Mueller who I just talked
Speaker 1: about that established pro do. We get a little bit
Speaker 1: of buzz from Hammoud because he's a guy who has
Speaker 1: a regular job, is a satellite qualifier, Obviously everyone's going
Speaker 1: to lean into that, you know. Or is it someone
Speaker 1: like a Sascolatti or Evoguru who are more the amateur
Speaker 1: with full time job full time jobs? You know, so
Speaker 1: you can kind of go every way with all these
Speaker 1: different stories here, I lean and I thought about this
Speaker 1: for quite a bit of time. I landed on Mueller,
Speaker 1: you know, I know, I just talked about how I
Speaker 1: think his range of outcomes is the widest here. And
Speaker 1: I don't think that Mueller and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: throw any shade here, but I think he would probably
Speaker 1: admit it as well, which is fine. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's the best technical player at this table. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he can't win, because any of these guys can win,
Speaker 1: but I think he's the player who has the strongest
Speaker 1: built in story. He's got the ties to the hockey,
Speaker 1: to the sports, former professional hockey player, he's got the
Speaker 1: three time bracelet or three time bracelet winner. He's respected,
Speaker 1: well liked in the industry. You know, the big names,
Speaker 1: the pros, they've they all know him, they've played with him,
Speaker 1: like all that sort of stuff. So if Mueller does
Speaker 1: go on to win, you've got a champion who is
Speaker 1: also great personality, lively, colorful, not going to shy away
Speaker 1: from the spotlight, going to talk to anyone that throws
Speaker 1: a camera or a microphone in his face, and he's
Speaker 1: going to be great at that stuff because he's done
Speaker 1: it forever. You've got a winner that the large majority
Speaker 1: of the poker world already knows the sports world, which
Speaker 1: Greg does have a lot of ties to. You know,
Speaker 1: like you heard what was it the coach of the
Speaker 1: Ottawa Senators or something like it was calling him after
Speaker 1: he made the mother like he had like those people
Speaker 1: can they can immediately understand him and like they're immediately
Speaker 1: drawn in because this guy guy just won. I think
Speaker 1: you get that tie in from an international media sense
Speaker 1: because he's Canadian. I saw there was at least I
Speaker 1: was on Facebook the other day I saw, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was Instagram, I can't remember, but he posted something
Speaker 1: where the media in Vancouver came and they did a
Speaker 1: little hit at his house. It was on the news,
Speaker 1: like all that sort of stuff. So like, that's that's cool, right.
Speaker 1: I get a little feeling of Joe Hasham and Australia.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna be big as what Joe
Speaker 1: Hasham did for Australia, you know, and it's also just
Speaker 1: a different era. It's a different time. But Hashim winning
Speaker 1: wasn't just good for Joe. It helped do good things
Speaker 1: for poker in Australia, and I think that Mueller could
Speaker 1: have a small piece of that success for what it
Speaker 1: could do for Canada and how it could resonate that way. Again,
Speaker 1: not to throw shade on anyone here, I just don't
Speaker 1: think that Romihamu has that same sort of pull name
Speaker 1: brand wise that Greg Mueller does. In this sense, I
Speaker 1: think I can also make the argument that that Jumalan,
Speaker 1: a twenty two year old chip leader becoming the world champion,
Speaker 1: you know, second youngest ever behind only Joekatta. You know,
Speaker 1: there's obviously a lot of talk in recent years about
Speaker 1: how there's kind of fewer and fewer younger kids getting
Speaker 1: into the game just because online poker isn't as widespread
Speaker 1: as it once was, all that sort of stuff. So
Speaker 1: I think, you know, he could be a really really
Speaker 1: good champion as well, a really good one for poker
Speaker 1: as a whole. I also think he's someone who's going
Speaker 1: to just keep on blasting. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff there are stories that do kind of just
Speaker 1: come and go, and we get those every single year
Speaker 1: and we recycle them. I think Mueller has that built
Speaker 1: in reputation that's already there. He's got a following, he's
Speaker 1: got a bit of credibility to him as well. If
Speaker 1: he wins, I think people are for sure still talking
Speaker 1: about him six months from now. I think that that's
Speaker 1: generally healthy for poker now. I also do want to
Speaker 1: be careful in saying that he's the biggest draw, because
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, Yes, he might be the biggest draw,
Speaker 1: but I think you can make an argument for draw
Speaker 1: for kind of all these people. And I'm not going
Speaker 1: to say that he's some sort of household name outside
Speaker 1: of the poker world, right, It's just there's like two
Speaker 1: of those players in all of poker. But I say
Speaker 1: he has the most recognizable and accomplished figure remaining right now.
Speaker 1: I will also say that one thing that does worry
Speaker 1: me about Mueller is something that he said on that
Speaker 1: face these podcast with Remco where if he does go
Speaker 1: on to win and win ten million dollars, we might
Speaker 1: only see him going forward for the fifty k PPC
Speaker 1: and the ten k main event, like that's all he'll
Speaker 1: play than that. Like he's got ten million dollars retirement money.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be on the golf course NonStop, doesn't need
Speaker 1: to grind whatever. So if we want someone to win
Speaker 1: who ultimately stays in poker and like is always around
Speaker 1: as a face of the industry, then maybe it's not Greg, right.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's it's interesting, But I think for
Speaker 1: right now, at least I lean with Greg Muellers that's
Speaker 1: my answer. There. I got two more kind of thoughts
Speaker 1: here that I've been brewin with, and then we'll get
Speaker 1: on out of here. I know we're a little bit
Speaker 1: on the longer side for this episode, but I mean
Speaker 1: this is that I basically made have been found table
Speaker 1: that would leading into babies. So let's go. We've talked
Speaker 1: about Jumalan, his chip stack, his positioning. I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say he's the most likely to win this.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's still a lot to happen. There's three
Speaker 1: days of poker ahead of us. Knowing that that he
Speaker 1: you know, let's give him the most likely chance to win.
Speaker 1: Would Lucas Jumlan immediately become a major poker star. Now,
Speaker 1: of course you have to think of that in relative
Speaker 1: terms to the era that we are in. He's twenty two,
Speaker 1: he's the chip leader of this tournament, the biggest spot
Speaker 1: of his life. He's gotten a lot of media coverage already.
Speaker 1: He's already a professional, which I think helps. Is all
Speaker 1: that enough or is it more about like his what's
Speaker 1: his willingness, his personality, his appetite to stay visible and
Speaker 1: what do we get out of him going forward? So
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a question there or not.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to think, like what happens basically if
Speaker 1: Juemlan does go on to win, whereas he is the
Speaker 1: most likely person to do that, right, everything that I've
Speaker 1: gathered from this kid, he was just on the Poker
Speaker 1: Weekly Show on Serious XM with Nick Shulman. I thought
Speaker 1: he was great on there like that. I think he
Speaker 1: wants it. I think he wants the spotlight. I think
Speaker 1: he wants to start right. I mean now, he's only
Speaker 1: twenty two, but I still think he wants it. And
Speaker 1: because I think he wants it, because I think I
Speaker 1: know he's really fucking good at this game. He's already
Speaker 1: a pro. So, like, you don't need to worry about that.
Speaker 1: Maybe that questionable bull nature of like you know, should
Speaker 1: I yes, I can have a lot of money, but
Speaker 1: if I leave and get into this new thing, you know,
Speaker 1: am I going to make a fool out of myself?
Speaker 1: He's already a pro, like, so I don't think we
Speaker 1: need to worry about that. I think he's somebody who
Speaker 1: just immediately like starts playing big high roller events, he
Speaker 1: starts playing trite and stuff, he starts playing PGT stuff,
Speaker 1: like whatever it is, you name it. I mean, the
Speaker 1: kid's got ten million dollars now and you know, obviously
Speaker 1: minus taxes, pieces whatever. But he's going to have a
Speaker 1: large chunk of money, and I think he's just going
Speaker 1: to be out there going for it. Whereas we just
Speaker 1: talked about Mueller, who he said on that podcast with
Speaker 1: Remco that maybe he just comes out for those couple
Speaker 1: of events. And we've seen it in the past where
Speaker 1: you have someone like a couple of years ago, Dan
Speaker 1: Wyman doesn't play that much anymore, you know, won the
Speaker 1: main event, was kind of already trying to get out
Speaker 1: of poker, then wins it. Anyway, Now he comes out
Speaker 1: for a few events here and there, and that's it.
Speaker 1: We've obviously seen plenty of WSP main event winners over
Speaker 1: the years. They're really not just in it daily as
Speaker 1: they used to be. I think Jumalan will be in it,
Speaker 1: like I think he will just be doing the damn thing.
Speaker 1: I also think you're gonna get it's not only gonna
Speaker 1: be him, You're gonna get his whole friend group that's
Speaker 1: just tagging along traveling the world, grinding tournaments together. Like
Speaker 1: I think that entire group could just start moving up
Speaker 1: in stakes. You know, you got jumalans as the kingpin.
Speaker 1: You know he's willing to take pieces of all these guys.
Speaker 1: Let's just go right and they've become familiar faces like that.
Speaker 1: That to me is is cool. I think Jumlan has
Speaker 1: the game to back it up. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people out there who have watched his game would
Speaker 1: agree with that. He's if you watch the stuff that
Speaker 1: he does at the table, if you hear him talk
Speaker 1: about hands, which he has done a bit, now, I
Speaker 1: think you get a good sense that he really is
Speaker 1: pinned down on how poker should be played, how it
Speaker 1: should be played specifically in this spot. He is rooted
Speaker 1: in a lot of theory with stuff, even though he
Speaker 1: is only twenty two years old. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's really cool. You know, winning the w CB main Events.
Speaker 1: It doesn't automatically make you an elite player just because
Speaker 1: you happen to conquer the biggest and best poker tournament
Speaker 1: in the world, right, But I think that Jumalan is
Speaker 1: already an elite player. So now if he does go
Speaker 1: on to win this, he's going to have the ability
Speaker 1: and the bank roll to then go on to compete
Speaker 1: on even bigger stages. Right, some players that have won
Speaker 1: this event, you know, they haven't jumped up in stakes,
Speaker 1: or maybe they did try and it didn't go their
Speaker 1: way so they kind of backed off. Other people have
Speaker 1: straight up won of the main event and said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll see you later. I don't really need to be around.
Speaker 1: But I think Jumalan here, I think he's gonna embrace
Speaker 1: the opportunity and he could really light the poker world
Speaker 1: on fire. So that that's something that I would look
Speaker 1: at with Jim a lot. I would also put Han
Speaker 1: Fang in that same category. He's got a lot more
Speaker 1: work to do given where he starts at this final table.
Speaker 1: And maybe it doesn't take a win from either these guys,
Speaker 1: of course, because multiple millions of dollars, even if you
Speaker 1: finish anywhere else at the table, could launch you into
Speaker 1: doing some big things. But I think that Han Fang,
Speaker 1: like he's shown a willingness to fire a big schedule,
Speaker 1: play some bigger events. He's only twenty seven, so on
Speaker 1: the younger side, he's really built an impressive resume in
Speaker 1: a short period of time. We mentioned earlier, he's only
Speaker 1: been playing poker since twenty twenty, so you know, whether
Speaker 1: he wins or not. I could also see Fang becoming
Speaker 1: a much bigger presence in poker over the next few
Speaker 1: years on some of those bigger stages. You know, we've
Speaker 1: seen main evan champions go really in two completely different directions.
Speaker 1: Some win and just you know, largely disappear, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like there are some that ultimately completely disappear. There are
Speaker 1: some that pop in every so often. For others. It
Speaker 1: really is a launching pan. I think for for Jumlan,
Speaker 1: it's definitely going to be a launching pad to bigger
Speaker 1: and better things. And I think part of that launching
Speaker 1: is up into poker stardom. And then lastly, here what
Speaker 1: kind of champion does poker need? Or should we even
Speaker 1: think about things in this way? I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: so hard because on one side of things, building off
Speaker 1: of what I just talked about, I think poker does
Speaker 1: need someone and also wants someone who wants the role.
Speaker 1: They want to be the wasp manum and champion. And
Speaker 1: I know it's easy for people out there to say, yes,
Speaker 1: I want to be the was to be Man of
Speaker 1: n champion, but do you want everything that comes with
Speaker 1: it or the expectations that come with it, I should say, right,
Speaker 1: I know, it's a lot to put on someone who
Speaker 1: just want a poker turn to dumb it down. Now.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because everyone signs up, and I think that
Speaker 1: they tell themselves that they want to win the event.
Speaker 1: Myself included, like like, I'm in this camp too, like
Speaker 1: of all the people and thinking like, yes, I want
Speaker 1: to win. I want to win ten million dollars whatever
Speaker 1: it is. I want to win the bracelet, I want
Speaker 1: to be the world champion, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But do people also want to just become the de
Speaker 1: facto ambassador for poker for at least a year, if
Speaker 1: not longer, because whether you like it or not, that
Speaker 1: comes with the territory like that that that that just happens.
Speaker 1: You can't I mean, yes, you can omit that responsibility,
Speaker 1: even if it is a full responsibility if you want to,
Speaker 1: you know, go that far with it. But the winner
Speaker 1: does become the face of the game for at least
Speaker 1: a year again, if not longer. You know, as long
Speaker 1: as that person doesn't disappear and they keep playing and
Speaker 1: keep showing up like they're going to be the face
Speaker 1: of the game. So yeah, poker wants someone who's going
Speaker 1: to keep playing, They're going to keep showing up. They
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe you don't have to like go on
Speaker 1: full on vlogging to what I'm about to say next,
Speaker 1: but you allow people to fall along with you and
Speaker 1: follow your journey, and you're out there and you're doing it.
Speaker 1: I guess this goes back to what I questioned about Mueller,
Speaker 1: just based on what he says. We're like, hey, you
Speaker 1: might not see me that much anymore because I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna have retirement money versus someone like Jumalan, Like, I
Speaker 1: think he's out there right. Not that this is smoke,
Speaker 1: but I think the kid wants to smoke like that.
Speaker 1: That's my read on him. I think every player at
Speaker 1: this final table has a story that we can lean
Speaker 1: into and build around it. Jumalan's that that young chip leader,
Speaker 1: just twenty two years old, got the friend group behind him,
Speaker 1: the relationship with his dad. Mueller is the accomplished vet
Speaker 1: who's got the ties to sports, who was falling out
Speaker 1: of love with the game and now he's got that
Speaker 1: all back. Amod's got the sad light entry Sasclatti and Chavelle,
Speaker 1: they got the family stories. Their businessmen are working business,
Speaker 1: you know, real jobs. The same with Eva Goru, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's all these different stories that you can tell, but
Speaker 1: can there still be more to the story after winning
Speaker 1: the WSP Main Event. That's what I'm looking at, is
Speaker 1: this is this the end of the story or is
Speaker 1: this just the start? With Jumalan, I'm looking at it
Speaker 1: like this is just the start. Same with Han Fang,
Speaker 1: to be honest, like I'm looking at it like this
Speaker 1: is just a start. So those are the kind of
Speaker 1: the two guys that I'm really looking at, more so
Speaker 1: Jumalan than Fang, just because of he's got the best
Speaker 1: chance to do it. So the main Event is the
Speaker 1: biggest launching pad that poker has, but it's also only
Speaker 1: a launching pad if you actually launch. So we've seen
Speaker 1: those ones that have stayed visible, done the interviews, played bigger,
Speaker 1: embraced the spotlight, all that sort of stuff. We've also
Speaker 1: seen the ones the champions is what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: who have kind of just disappeared, not played as much whatever.
Speaker 1: Maybe they've fallen out of love for the game. Maybe
Speaker 1: they've just decided I've got retirement money now I don't
Speaker 1: need to be grinded, whatever the heck it is. But
Speaker 1: the ideal champion is someone who we're still talking about
Speaker 1: two years from now, five years from now, ten years
Speaker 1: from now. You know, my friend Mickey Doff and I
Speaker 1: we always have this thing where we're like, hey, remember
Speaker 1: that guy, where is he now? You know, like, we
Speaker 1: don't want you to be that person, right. So I
Speaker 1: know it's hard because that's a responsibility that's sort of
Speaker 1: one of those unwritten responsibilities that just gets thrown on you.
Speaker 1: But I do think, you know, Lucas Jumlan here, I
Speaker 1: think I think he wants it. I do really think
Speaker 1: the kid wants it. So it's gonna be a fun
Speaker 1: final table. That's really all I have to talk about.
Speaker 1: I know I ran a bit long here on today's show.
Speaker 1: I was probably all over the place with my ramblings.
Speaker 1: But you know, you give me, if you give me
Speaker 1: two and a half three weeks, whatever the heck it is.
Speaker 1: If you give me that amount of time off where
Speaker 1: I just got to sit here and stew on the
Speaker 1: WSP main event for many, many hours of every single day,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just come up with all these different thoughts
Speaker 1: that I gotta get out and I'm getting them out
Speaker 1: here through the Poker Go podcast. So all right, guys,
Speaker 1: Monday evening, we have Day one of three on ESPN
Speaker 1: two four the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table.
Speaker 1: The plan for us on this feed, I think, I hope.
Speaker 1: I want my guy Remka Rinkima to be joining me
Speaker 1: every single night for a little recap on what happened.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't join, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: doing it every single night as we wrap up the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six World Series of Poker. The twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six World Series of Poker Main Event, Baby, all right,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for me. Donny Peter's shout out
Speaker 1: to producer Rich thank you for getting this out. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, guys, and I will talk to you on
Speaker 1: the next month. Jenny