Hello, everyone, Welcome to a new episode of the Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters and looks left, looks right. I'm flying solo once again, and you are only getting an audio podcast once again. Don't worry. This one will be I think, on the shorter side. But then again, as I say that, I know that in past years, every time I say that, it tends to run long. But we'll see. I don't think we have a whole ton of stuff to go through on this podcast, but I did want to get one out there. Today was officially Day one of the twenty twenty six World Series of Poker, my first day actually on site between Paris and Horseshoe. I do think now we need to put Paris first before Horseshoe with the way that things are laid out, and I'll talk about that today. I wanted to just kind of give you know, some first impressions of walking around the place, because there is a new feel, a new look to things this year. And then, of course, you know, we did have a couple of tournaments that kicked off today. We had the Mini Mystery Millions. We also had the five K eight handed Nolan at Hold Them at time of recording, it is twelve o six am on Wednesday, May twenty seventh. Those two tournaments are still playing out right now, so I'm not gonna stick around it and wait up on this day one. So you know, forgive me for that one. Also, you're gonna have to forgive me because no interviews on this show. You know, it was going a little bit late. I don't know, things, things felt like they were dragging on a little bit there today. But you know, nonetheless, it was good to be there. It was good to start start feeling the vibe for everything. As always, please do like subscribe, rate review to the podcast. Hopefully we'll be coming to you daily, but the goal is at least five times a week, if not more, that we'll be coming to you guys from the twenty twenty six World Series of Poker. First things first, let's just talk about the start. You know, quiet, but I think that that's relatively normal for the World Series. You know, it's it's it's building, right, it builds towards that storm. It is calm, but also not really calm, because you can feel the excitement in the air. You know, you can feel the excitement when you talk to a lot of people that you may have not seen for weeks, months, you know, basically a full year since the last wsop. You definitely feel it all. You know, you feel the buzz is starting to build, You feel that tension is starting to come into play. You know, I think the day one is always it's kind of laid back. I know people are coming into the summer obviously taking things very serious. Yes, but you know, you're you're seeing people that you haven't seen for a while, So maybe your focus isn't you know, one hundred percent locked in because in between hands, you're you're shooting the shit, You're dapping people up at adjacent tables, You're going around giving some hugs, you know, checking how the fam is, how people have been doing, where they've been lately, you know, all that sort of stuff. So you know, I get it same sort of vibe on my side of things, you know, on the industry side of things, the media side of things, like like that's just you're kind of out there, just you're gaining your footing. You know, you're you're you're saying you're hellos to everyone, and you're just kind of getting acquainted with the people. The space and everything that's to come over the next you know, six seven, eight weeks. So so that's kind of the feel of it all now. One of the things that everyone's got to get a little bit acquainted to. And if you're coming out here for the w SIPE this year, you're going to see it. But the new setup, so basically Paris and Horseshoe have flipped the Horseshoe Event Center. That's what used to house the feature table stage, you know, the mothership, the Thunderdome, whatever you want to call it. It was over there in the event center. Then you had that other Horseshoe ballroom, I don't remember exactly the name of what it was, called the Front one. And then on the Paris side you had that giant Paris Ballroom that was where you know, a lot of the cash came action took place. They had the King's Lounge in there. Previously they had that kind of high roller section off to the one side of the King's Lounge. It was just a huge, huge, huge room, just a sea of poker tables as far as you can see. Well, they flipped the Horseshoe Event Center and the Paris Room so that the Paris Room now houses the new set. And I mean, I'm just going to say it right now off the top, but calling that thing a stage or a set honestly does not do it justice. It does not do that thing justice. As my dog Duke can't attest to. I can't say much yet because the big reveal of this new what I'm gonna call the arena, is still to come. It's all going to get revealed. The full reveal is on Friday, May twenty ninth. But this thing is absolutely effing absurd. The scale is hard to believe. I know that I've seen the renderings. I've seen the plans. I've seen part of it builds at the warehouse in Las Vegas where we have our office the Poker Go Campus, you know, but you never really get the full thoughts. You know, the juices aren't really full in. It doesn't all kind of the dots don't connect altogether until you actually see it in person. The lights are going, it's in the room. You hear the chips getting shoveled in the background, like all that sort of stuff. Right, So all that's happening, it's behind this big curtain. You can't see it yet. Got to give a huge, huge, huge credit, massive credit shout out massive the first one of the summer to the team at Blueprint Blueprint fifty two. They are the guys that build this whole giant thing, headed up by Justin Garone. His team is absolutely freaking incredible. You guys can see some of their work over at Blueprint fifty two dot Io that is the Casino Furnishings, the studio Furnishing's arm within the Poker Gaut Umbrella. They absolutely freaking crush this damn thing. It is unreal, absolutely unreal. But that's that's all I'm gonna say for now. The full reveal again is on Friday, May twenty ninth. You know, I'm assuming, like w SIPP always does when they do something like this, they do a great job at getting a lot of media out there, drawing a lot of tension, getting a lot of buzz around this thing, do a big reveal. I would guess. I have no idea, but I know what they've done in the past. When they do sorts of things like this, they get some sort of person or celebrity to come down and kick it off. You know. I mean, we had Lisa Vanda Pump with her dog on the table. One year, we've had Guy Fieri doing the bracelet. You know, all the you get all this sort of stuff that just happens at the World Series of Appropriate. It honestly is just a giant spectacle and this, this stage, this set, this arena is a spectacle. So you guys will get all the videos, you'll get all the social media, you'll get all the photos from that coming out on Friday, May twenty ninth. But it is absolutely something you do not want to miss if you do come out to Las Vegas this summer. You know, even if you're coming out for a regular chip, maybe you're coming out for the Stanley Cup now that the Golden Knights made it. You know, maybe you're just popping out here to play some of the other events that are going on around town. You got to make your way over to Paris and you got to check this damn thing out because it is freaking unbelievable. Other than that, you know, I walked around both venues. You gotta just get your sea legs a little bit, because for the past couple of years it's been everything has been at Horseshoe. Paris has been kind of the secondary venue for the entire World Series of Poker this year. It's flipped, so you know, we're housed in Paris. That's where we're sitting up. I mean it just the whole flow of it feels a lot better. It feels more modern, newer, you know. Obviously the Paris side is a little bit more up to date than the Horseshoe side. The Horseshoe side though, does have like a lot of history to it. It feels nostalgic when you're walking around the Horseshoe side, you know, yeah, we can all do without the smoke. I get it, but you know, it just still feel it pulls on those nostalgia strings a little bit. There's many, many, many more tables I feel like, which I believe they put out there at some point that there was a bunch of new tables. A lot of the tables look brand new, as if they were just built. The felt looks brand new, you know, So I don't know, everything just feels like it's it's like, wow, it's twenty twenty six, and everything is also in twenty twenty six with us. You know. It's just it really feels like this is officially the new era of the dobsip, which in recent years you could say, Okay, left the Rio, coming down to the Las Vegas, trip to Horseshoe in Paris, Like, that's a new era. I get it. Last year, the first year or the first summer under the new ownership of gig Poker, that's a new era. Yes, those are I will say small e eras new eras, but this truly feels like this is the new era. This is the modern era right now for the world's racey poker. That's that's the feel I get, the vibe that I get when I'm walking around that place, So you know, it's just it's really cool to be down there again. Just definitely come check it out if you're in town. I would highly encourage you to do so. And if you're gonna to be around on Friday, May twenty ninth when they do that big reveal of the new the new setup down there, you know, just just try and be there. Seriously, be in the room. It's it's going to be absolutely incredible. On the events themselves that were playing today, two WSOP events took place. You had the five hundred and fifty dollars buying mini mystery millions tournament believe they are scheduled to play twenty two levels on their day one This is Day one A. It is the first starting flight of six starting flights. They got six hundred, sixteen hundred, excuse me, sixteen hundred and thirty five entries, which I think is a tad down a tad from where I thought it might be that said, you know this, this thing is it's one of those ones, big multi flight tournament. It's going to just build, build, build, build build. It's a newer event to kick off the series. Last year they kicked off with the one K Mystery Millions, So same concept, same tournament in theory, but half the price point. They had five starting flights last year. It had twelve or thirteen hundred to start in Day one A, and then of course it just build, built, built, and the final starting flight, the fifth starting flight, had like eight thousand, one hundred entries or something ridiculous on its way to you know, well over nineteen thousand total entries in the field. So this is one of those ones where it's definitely gonna build, build build throughout the week and it's gonna get there. But I just I can't help but think it's it's slightly down from where I thought. And this is gonna be this is gonna be a theme of this part. And it's not just WSIP related. And you'll you'll see what I'm getting to in a second. The w SIP five K, the eight handed NOLA MIT hold them five thousand dollars by an event. It looks like right now they are a bit over four hundred entries, which is good, right, of course, it's good. I mean four hundred and eleven entries. Right now, it looks like they are in the final level of the day level ten. I have about forty five minutes left at time of recording. Right now it's twelve seventeen AM. But last year Day one had five hundred and fifty eight entries and then it ultimately finished with six hundred and ninety three entries. There is late registration into Day two, same thing that happens this year. So it's looking like it's behind the pace of last year. Now I just say that, and I point that this all of this out because I'm just listen. I know it's Day one, but I'm already starting to think, like our numbers everywhere gonna be down. Another example of this the win eleven hundred that took place today. I got a message in a chat that I'm in with some poker players. You know, one of the guys was like value alert, you know, got to head over to win. They're brought to overlay on this eleven hundred dollars buying million dollar guarantee, and they ended up they ended up overlaying. By the math that I have, they got eight hundred and fifty five entries total. Of the eleven hundred dollars, nine hundred and sixty five goes into the prize spool, So that means a price spool of just over eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. You guys can do the mass math. That means that they missed by one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars the win so early on in their win Summer series missing a guarantee like the one K price point. You know, we've talked about it before on this podcast. I've said it many times. I think that's just the most elite price point in all of poker. And if we're starting out a series had a big, big property, a notable property, a very established summer series in the win Summer series, Like, that's that's just, you know, something that that catches my attention. You couple it with the fact that some of these other events look like they might be behind pace for what we might have thought, it's like, hmmm, is this going to start to become a trend throughout the summer? You know? I know that also looking around on I believe it was on Calshi the prediction market. They had a prediction market for the size of the Douvaspy main event this year. You know, up until last week my guys over in the Grid airon Gamble Discord channel, where we're often talking sports, sports, betting, poker, all this sort of stuff. I was bullish, very very bullish on over ten thousand entries in the WASP main event, which I still think I'm kind of bullish, but a little bit more lukewarm than Blazing Hot. But on Calshi the market was such that the under was the favorite. So I'm just starting to wonder overall if this is something we just need to kind of pay attention to, you know, And it's there's just there's a lot of freaking poker, and it's just I think at some point. You know, we always talked about it, Tim and I always talked about it a lot, where maybe the economy and what's going on in the real world is eventually going to catch up to people catch up to the industry, this industry and specific the poker industry. So maybe that's kind of what we're seeing here. So maybe we do see a little bit of a pullback. That said, it's day one. This stuff always builds, bills builds all summer. You're just coming off a Memorial Day weekend when you know, maybe people are just they're out doing their thing, they're finishing up their vacations, they're not traveling out to Vegas yet, like all that sort of stuff. Right, So I'm not gonna like, I don't think anyone should be freaking out, but I'm just you know, pointing out because I think it's a notable talking point here. Yeah, it looks like, you know, well over four hundred entries. Of course they'll probably push I would say five fifty five eighty in that five K, So that's going to be a huge prize school there. You got this mini mystery millions that's just gonna be freaking gangbusters. I'm curious at the end of that all, when when all six starting flights are done, you know, that's one of those tournaments where you know, it's like what place on the ranking list for largest turnouts ever in a poker tournament, Where's this only gonna fall? You know, I would say it's likely going to be within the top ten for sure, and then it's just where does it go from there? And then you know, I touched on the Wind tournament, and I guess I'll touch on some some things you know around the industry. We are you know, going to be focused on the WSP Yes, of course that's the biggest and baddest UH series in town, in the world. But you know, when when things stick out like this that have to build into a larger trend, you know, like this opening eleven hundred over at the Wind, then then you know, well we'll hit on it. Something else I saw today out of the out of the content pool was from my good friend, my old friend Lance Bradley. So so Lance has a sub stack, it's called the Overlay. Lance is also writing for ESPN this year, so I would highly encourage you guys to check him out on social media, give him a follow or read his stuff. You know, I'm a big fan of Lance As. I'm obviously biased because you know, he's a good friend of mine, been a colleague as well for for a long time. But this the substack article that he dropped today. It was titled five threats to Sean Deebs Historic WSP Player of the Year repeat Chances, and he listed five players, and I mean, I don't agree with all these players. Michael Monchek Texas, Mike James Ovs been you Chatty Sledge, Marco Johnson. But I did want to weigh in on Marco Johnson. I'm big on Marco Johnson. This summer. Touched on him a tiny bit in the last pod. You heard David Baker ODB talk about him, how Marco is out here, He's playing a full schedule. He's even staying at Odb's house. So, you know, Marco being on this list, like that's someone who when it you know, when we get to you know, July rolls around and it's it's kind of halfway through the was Man event and we're checking in on the WSP Player of the Year standings, and you might see Marco Johnson's name challenging for the league he's in the top three, he's in the top five, he's within striking distance. I mean, don't be surprised. Marco plays all the games. He plays all the games. Well. The only knock that I think you could have on Marco Johnson in this sort of setup is like he might not play the super big PLO and Nolan and hold him high rollers, you know, like I don't even know if he'll go as high as twenty five k, but you know, the fifties, the one hundred, the two fifty, like he probably won't be in there, at least to my knowledge. That said, you know, he's certainly good enough to get a bunch of points elsewhere. Now, of course, it's going to be very very hard to chase down Sean Deep, who got a great start at dubis apub in this year. Europe counts, Vegas counts, and the Bahamas count so you know a little bit of an advantage to start the summer for Sean Deep. But you know, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Marco Johnson is certainly in the mix. There another nice little nugget that came out of this this sub stack from Lance Bradley is that Sean deeb is the only player to have finished in the top one hundred of the Player of the Year race every year for the last ten years. That that's wild, I mean. But that's also why I'm so big on Deep when it comes to fantasy poker. And I'd say that, you know, one hundred and thirty three dollars for him as the most expensive player, and this year's twenty five K Fantasy draft, it's too cheap. It is just too cheap for Sean Deep. And then I wanted to throw another player into the mix here. If Lance was to allow me to add a six person, I would add John Rasner. I think John Raisner, I'm big on him this year. I think he's going to be challenging for WSB Player of the Year. I think he has, you know, a really good shot at making multiple final tables, winning multiple bracelet's. Like John Rasner is that type of player. Coupled with the fact that this year full schedule rented a house all summer with my fam, he is ready to go. So John Rasner is absolutely ready to go. Somebody that I would have paid a lot more than I think he went for eighty six bucks. Maybe tiny bit, but I would have pushed into the nineties, maybe even flirted with six figures for John Reister, and listen, maybe I'll be wrong there, but I would back John Rasner this year. And that's really all I have for you guys today. You know, the big thing coming out of this is that you know, the WASIP is here. It's a quiet start, but of course it's building. Everything feels like it's much more modern at the whip. It feels like this is truly the start of a new era for the World Series of Poker. And if that new set is any sort of sign for like what's to come in the future, I mean, I think poker as a whole isn't a really really good place. Because at the end of the day, if the World Series of Poker does well and grows and draws in a lot of eyeballs and gets new players in the game, and you know, reinvigorates old players to come back into the game, and all that sort of stuff happens, it's ultimately good for every single person in poker, every media outlet, every operator, every player. It's good for every venue out there, small poker rooms, big poker rooms, giant casinos. It doesn't matter. It's all good for poker, right, so you know, hopefully that all that all pans out. Of course, moving on to Wednesday, May twenty seventh, that is when you guys are likely listening to this. We're going to have day one B of the five fifty Mini Mystery Millions, also going to kick off the five hundred dollars Employees event, and then another event that's very very big every single year, Mixed Games event, the fifteen hundred dollars buying Omaha High Low. First day of that one, that one always draws a very very very large field. So everything's starting to pick up a little bit of the calm before the storm type of feel today. But you know, day two, I think we're going to increase ten X Thursday even more so Friday Boom Weekend is going to be here. It's going to be absolutely you know, just just freaking balls to the wall. Let's go. So that's all I got for you guys today, nice and short, when I actually did keep it short today, so you know, I stuck to my word. Appreciate you guys for listening. As always. My name is Donny Peters and I will catch you next time. Night Express,