Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to a new episode of the Poker
Speaker 1: Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters and looks left,
Speaker 1: looks right. I'm flying solo once again, and you are
Speaker 1: only getting an audio podcast once again. Don't worry. This
Speaker 1: one will be I think, on the shorter side. But
Speaker 1: then again, as I say that, I know that in
Speaker 1: past years, every time I say that, it tends to
Speaker 1: run long. But we'll see. I don't think we have
Speaker 1: a whole ton of stuff to go through on this podcast,
Speaker 1: but I did want to get one out there. Today
Speaker 1: was officially Day one of the twenty twenty six World
Speaker 1: Series of Poker, my first day actually on site between
Speaker 1: Paris and Horseshoe. I do think now we need to
Speaker 1: put Paris first before Horseshoe with the way that things
Speaker 1: are laid out, and I'll talk about that today. I
Speaker 1: wanted to just kind of give you know, some first
Speaker 1: impressions of walking around the place, because there is a
Speaker 1: new feel, a new look to things this year. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, we did have a couple of
Speaker 1: tournaments that kicked off today. We had the Mini Mystery Millions.
Speaker 1: We also had the five K eight handed Nolan at
Speaker 1: Hold Them at time of recording, it is twelve o
Speaker 1: six am on Wednesday, May twenty seventh. Those two tournaments
Speaker 1: are still playing out right now, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: stick around it and wait up on this day one.
Speaker 1: So you know, forgive me for that one. Also, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to forgive me because no interviews on this show.
Speaker 1: You know, it was going a little bit late. I
Speaker 1: don't know, things, things felt like they were dragging on
Speaker 1: a little bit there today. But you know, nonetheless, it
Speaker 1: was good to be there. It was good to start
Speaker 1: start feeling the vibe for everything. As always, please do
Speaker 1: like subscribe, rate review to the podcast. Hopefully we'll be
Speaker 1: coming to you daily, but the goal is at least
Speaker 1: five times a week, if not more, that we'll be
Speaker 1: coming to you guys from the twenty twenty six World
Speaker 1: Series of Poker. First things first, let's just talk about
Speaker 1: the start. You know, quiet, but I think that that's
Speaker 1: relatively normal for the World Series. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's building, right, it builds towards that storm. It is calm,
Speaker 1: but also not really calm, because you can feel the
Speaker 1: excitement in the air. You know, you can feel the
Speaker 1: excitement when you talk to a lot of people that
Speaker 1: you may have not seen for weeks, months, you know,
Speaker 1: basically a full year since the last wsop. You definitely
Speaker 1: feel it all. You know, you feel the buzz is
Speaker 1: starting to build, You feel that tension is starting to
Speaker 1: come into play. You know, I think the day one
Speaker 1: is always it's kind of laid back. I know people
Speaker 1: are coming into the summer obviously taking things very serious. Yes,
Speaker 1: but you know, you're you're seeing people that you haven't
Speaker 1: seen for a while, So maybe your focus isn't you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent locked in because in between hands, you're
Speaker 1: you're shooting the shit, You're dapping people up at adjacent tables,
Speaker 1: You're going around giving some hugs, you know, checking how
Speaker 1: the fam is, how people have been doing, where they've
Speaker 1: been lately, you know, all that sort of stuff. So
Speaker 1: you know, I get it same sort of vibe on
Speaker 1: my side of things, you know, on the industry side
Speaker 1: of things, the media side of things, like like that's
Speaker 1: just you're kind of out there, just you're gaining your footing.
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're you're saying you're hellos to everyone,
Speaker 1: and you're just kind of getting acquainted with the people.
Speaker 1: The space and everything that's to come over the next
Speaker 1: you know, six seven, eight weeks. So so that's kind
Speaker 1: of the feel of it all now. One of the
Speaker 1: things that everyone's got to get a little bit acquainted to.
Speaker 1: And if you're coming out here for the w SIPE
Speaker 1: this year, you're going to see it. But the new setup,
Speaker 1: so basically Paris and Horseshoe have flipped the Horseshoe Event Center.
Speaker 1: That's what used to house the feature table stage, you know,
Speaker 1: the mothership, the Thunderdome, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1: It was over there in the event center. Then you
Speaker 1: had that other Horseshoe ballroom, I don't remember exactly the
Speaker 1: name of what it was, called the Front one. And
Speaker 1: then on the Paris side you had that giant Paris
Speaker 1: Ballroom that was where you know, a lot of the
Speaker 1: cash came action took place. They had the King's Lounge
Speaker 1: in there. Previously they had that kind of high roller
Speaker 1: section off to the one side of the King's Lounge.
Speaker 1: It was just a huge, huge, huge room, just a
Speaker 1: sea of poker tables as far as you can see. Well,
Speaker 1: they flipped the Horseshoe Event Center and the Paris Room
Speaker 1: so that the Paris Room now houses the new set.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm just going to say it right
Speaker 1: now off the top, but calling that thing a stage
Speaker 1: or a set honestly does not do it justice. It
Speaker 1: does not do that thing justice. As my dog Duke
Speaker 1: can't attest to. I can't say much yet because the
Speaker 1: big reveal of this new what I'm gonna call the arena,
Speaker 1: is still to come. It's all going to get revealed.
Speaker 1: The full reveal is on Friday, May twenty ninth. But
Speaker 1: this thing is absolutely effing absurd. The scale is hard
Speaker 1: to believe. I know that I've seen the renderings. I've
Speaker 1: seen the plans. I've seen part of it builds at
Speaker 1: the warehouse in Las Vegas where we have our office
Speaker 1: the Poker Go Campus, you know, but you never really
Speaker 1: get the full thoughts. You know, the juices aren't really
Speaker 1: full in. It doesn't all kind of the dots don't
Speaker 1: connect altogether until you actually see it in person. The
Speaker 1: lights are going, it's in the room. You hear the
Speaker 1: chips getting shoveled in the background, like all that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. Right, So all that's happening, it's behind this
Speaker 1: big curtain. You can't see it yet. Got to give
Speaker 1: a huge, huge, huge credit, massive credit shout out massive
Speaker 1: the first one of the summer to the team at
Speaker 1: Blueprint Blueprint fifty two. They are the guys that build
Speaker 1: this whole giant thing, headed up by Justin Garone. His
Speaker 1: team is absolutely freaking incredible. You guys can see some
Speaker 1: of their work over at Blueprint fifty two dot Io
Speaker 1: that is the Casino Furnishings, the studio Furnishing's arm within
Speaker 1: the Poker Gaut Umbrella. They absolutely freaking crush this damn thing.
Speaker 1: It is unreal, absolutely unreal. But that's that's all I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say for now. The full reveal again is on Friday,
Speaker 1: May twenty ninth. You know, I'm assuming, like w SIPP
Speaker 1: always does when they do something like this, they do
Speaker 1: a great job at getting a lot of media out there,
Speaker 1: drawing a lot of tension, getting a lot of buzz
Speaker 1: around this thing, do a big reveal. I would guess.
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but I know what they've done
Speaker 1: in the past. When they do sorts of things like this,
Speaker 1: they get some sort of person or celebrity to come
Speaker 1: down and kick it off. You know. I mean, we
Speaker 1: had Lisa Vanda Pump with her dog on the table.
Speaker 1: One year, we've had Guy Fieri doing the bracelet. You know,
Speaker 1: all the you get all this sort of stuff that
Speaker 1: just happens at the World Series of Appropriate. It honestly
Speaker 1: is just a giant spectacle and this, this stage, this set,
Speaker 1: this arena is a spectacle. So you guys will get
Speaker 1: all the videos, you'll get all the social media, you'll
Speaker 1: get all the photos from that coming out on Friday,
Speaker 1: May twenty ninth. But it is absolutely something you do
Speaker 1: not want to miss if you do come out to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas this summer. You know, even if you're coming
Speaker 1: out for a regular chip, maybe you're coming out for
Speaker 1: the Stanley Cup now that the Golden Knights made it.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe you're just popping out here to play
Speaker 1: some of the other events that are going on around town.
Speaker 1: You got to make your way over to Paris and
Speaker 1: you got to check this damn thing out because it
Speaker 1: is freaking unbelievable. Other than that, you know, I walked
Speaker 1: around both venues. You gotta just get your sea legs
Speaker 1: a little bit, because for the past couple of years
Speaker 1: it's been everything has been at Horseshoe. Paris has been
Speaker 1: kind of the secondary venue for the entire World Series
Speaker 1: of Poker this year. It's flipped, so you know, we're
Speaker 1: housed in Paris. That's where we're sitting up. I mean
Speaker 1: it just the whole flow of it feels a lot better.
Speaker 1: It feels more modern, newer, you know. Obviously the Paris
Speaker 1: side is a little bit more up to date than
Speaker 1: the Horseshoe side. The Horseshoe side though, does have like
Speaker 1: a lot of history to it. It feels nostalgic when
Speaker 1: you're walking around the Horseshoe side, you know, yeah, we
Speaker 1: can all do without the smoke. I get it, but
Speaker 1: you know, it just still feel it pulls on those
Speaker 1: nostalgia strings a little bit. There's many, many, many more
Speaker 1: tables I feel like, which I believe they put out
Speaker 1: there at some point that there was a bunch of
Speaker 1: new tables. A lot of the tables look brand new,
Speaker 1: as if they were just built. The felt looks brand new,
Speaker 1: you know, So I don't know, everything just feels like
Speaker 1: it's it's like, wow, it's twenty twenty six, and everything
Speaker 1: is also in twenty twenty six with us. You know.
Speaker 1: It's just it really feels like this is officially the
Speaker 1: new era of the dobsip, which in recent years you
Speaker 1: could say, Okay, left the Rio, coming down to the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, trip to Horseshoe in Paris, Like, that's a
Speaker 1: new era. I get it. Last year, the first year
Speaker 1: or the first summer under the new ownership of gig Poker,
Speaker 1: that's a new era. Yes, those are I will say
Speaker 1: small e eras new eras, but this truly feels like
Speaker 1: this is the new era. This is the modern era
Speaker 1: right now for the world's racey poker. That's that's the
Speaker 1: feel I get, the vibe that I get when I'm
Speaker 1: walking around that place, So you know, it's just it's
Speaker 1: really cool to be down there again. Just definitely come
Speaker 1: check it out if you're in town. I would highly
Speaker 1: encourage you to do so. And if you're gonna to
Speaker 1: be around on Friday, May twenty ninth when they do
Speaker 1: that big reveal of the new the new setup down there,
Speaker 1: you know, just just try and be there. Seriously, be
Speaker 1: in the room. It's it's going to be absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: On the events themselves that were playing today, two WSOP
Speaker 1: events took place. You had the five hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars buying mini mystery millions tournament believe they are scheduled
Speaker 1: to play twenty two levels on their day one This
Speaker 1: is Day one A. It is the first starting flight
Speaker 1: of six starting flights. They got six hundred, sixteen hundred,
Speaker 1: excuse me, sixteen hundred and thirty five entries, which I
Speaker 1: think is a tad down a tad from where I
Speaker 1: thought it might be that said, you know this, this
Speaker 1: thing is it's one of those ones, big multi flight tournament.
Speaker 1: It's going to just build, build, build, build build. It's
Speaker 1: a newer event to kick off the series. Last year
Speaker 1: they kicked off with the one K Mystery Millions, So
Speaker 1: same concept, same tournament in theory, but half the price point.
Speaker 1: They had five starting flights last year. It had twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen hundred to start in Day one A, and
Speaker 1: then of course it just build, built, built, and the
Speaker 1: final starting flight, the fifth starting flight, had like eight thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred entries or something ridiculous on its way to
Speaker 1: you know, well over nineteen thousand total entries in the field.
Speaker 1: So this is one of those ones where it's definitely
Speaker 1: gonna build, build build throughout the week and it's gonna
Speaker 1: get there. But I just I can't help but think
Speaker 1: it's it's slightly down from where I thought. And this
Speaker 1: is gonna be this is gonna be a theme of
Speaker 1: this part. And it's not just WSIP related. And you'll
Speaker 1: you'll see what I'm getting to in a second. The
Speaker 1: w SIP five K, the eight handed NOLA MIT hold
Speaker 1: them five thousand dollars by an event. It looks like
Speaker 1: right now they are a bit over four hundred entries,
Speaker 1: which is good, right, of course, it's good. I mean
Speaker 1: four hundred and eleven entries. Right now, it looks like
Speaker 1: they are in the final level of the day level ten.
Speaker 1: I have about forty five minutes left at time of recording.
Speaker 1: Right now it's twelve seventeen AM. But last year Day
Speaker 1: one had five hundred and fifty eight entries and then
Speaker 1: it ultimately finished with six hundred and ninety three entries.
Speaker 1: There is late registration into Day two, same thing that
Speaker 1: happens this year. So it's looking like it's behind the
Speaker 1: pace of last year. Now I just say that, and
Speaker 1: I point that this all of this out because I'm
Speaker 1: just listen. I know it's Day one, but I'm already
Speaker 1: starting to think, like our numbers everywhere gonna be down.
Speaker 1: Another example of this the win eleven hundred that took
Speaker 1: place today. I got a message in a chat that
Speaker 1: I'm in with some poker players. You know, one of
Speaker 1: the guys was like value alert, you know, got to
Speaker 1: head over to win. They're brought to overlay on this
Speaker 1: eleven hundred dollars buying million dollar guarantee, and they ended
Speaker 1: up they ended up overlaying. By the math that I have,
Speaker 1: they got eight hundred and fifty five entries total. Of
Speaker 1: the eleven hundred dollars, nine hundred and sixty five goes
Speaker 1: into the prize spool, So that means a price spool
Speaker 1: of just over eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: You guys can do the mass math. That means that
Speaker 1: they missed by one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: the win so early on in their win Summer series
Speaker 1: missing a guarantee like the one K price point. You know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about it before on this podcast. I've said
Speaker 1: it many times. I think that's just the most elite
Speaker 1: price point in all of poker. And if we're starting
Speaker 1: out a series had a big, big property, a notable property,
Speaker 1: a very established summer series in the win Summer series, Like,
Speaker 1: that's that's just, you know, something that that catches my attention.
Speaker 1: You couple it with the fact that some of these
Speaker 1: other events look like they might be behind pace for
Speaker 1: what we might have thought, it's like, hmmm, is this
Speaker 1: going to start to become a trend throughout the summer?
Speaker 1: You know? I know that also looking around on I
Speaker 1: believe it was on Calshi the prediction market. They had
Speaker 1: a prediction market for the size of the Douvaspy main
Speaker 1: event this year. You know, up until last week my
Speaker 1: guys over in the Grid airon Gamble Discord channel, where
Speaker 1: we're often talking sports, sports, betting, poker, all this sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. I was bullish, very very bullish on over
Speaker 1: ten thousand entries in the WASP main event, which I
Speaker 1: still think I'm kind of bullish, but a little bit
Speaker 1: more lukewarm than Blazing Hot. But on Calshi the market
Speaker 1: was such that the under was the favorite. So I'm
Speaker 1: just starting to wonder overall if this is something we
Speaker 1: just need to kind of pay attention to, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's there's just there's a lot of freaking poker,
Speaker 1: and it's just I think at some point. You know,
Speaker 1: we always talked about it, Tim and I always talked
Speaker 1: about it a lot, where maybe the economy and what's
Speaker 1: going on in the real world is eventually going to
Speaker 1: catch up to people catch up to the industry, this
Speaker 1: industry and specific the poker industry. So maybe that's kind
Speaker 1: of what we're seeing here. So maybe we do see
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pullback. That said, it's day one.
Speaker 1: This stuff always builds, bills builds all summer. You're just
Speaker 1: coming off a Memorial Day weekend when you know, maybe
Speaker 1: people are just they're out doing their thing, they're finishing
Speaker 1: up their vacations, they're not traveling out to Vegas yet,
Speaker 1: like all that sort of stuff. Right, So I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna like, I don't think anyone should be freaking out,
Speaker 1: but I'm just you know, pointing out because I think
Speaker 1: it's a notable talking point here. Yeah, it looks like,
Speaker 1: you know, well over four hundred entries. Of course they'll
Speaker 1: probably push I would say five fifty five eighty in
Speaker 1: that five K, So that's going to be a huge
Speaker 1: prize school there. You got this mini mystery millions that's
Speaker 1: just gonna be freaking gangbusters. I'm curious at the end
Speaker 1: of that all, when when all six starting flights are done,
Speaker 1: you know, that's one of those tournaments where you know,
Speaker 1: it's like what place on the ranking list for largest
Speaker 1: turnouts ever in a poker tournament, Where's this only gonna fall?
Speaker 1: You know, I would say it's likely going to be
Speaker 1: within the top ten for sure, and then it's just
Speaker 1: where does it go from there? And then you know,
Speaker 1: I touched on the Wind tournament, and I guess I'll
Speaker 1: touch on some some things you know around the industry.
Speaker 1: We are you know, going to be focused on the
Speaker 1: WSP Yes, of course that's the biggest and baddest UH
Speaker 1: series in town, in the world. But you know, when
Speaker 1: when things stick out like this that have to build
Speaker 1: into a larger trend, you know, like this opening eleven
Speaker 1: hundred over at the Wind, then then you know, well
Speaker 1: we'll hit on it. Something else I saw today out
Speaker 1: of the out of the content pool was from my
Speaker 1: good friend, my old friend Lance Bradley. So so Lance
Speaker 1: has a sub stack, it's called the Overlay. Lance is
Speaker 1: also writing for ESPN this year, so I would highly
Speaker 1: encourage you guys to check him out on social media,
Speaker 1: give him a follow or read his stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Lance As. I'm obviously biased
Speaker 1: because you know, he's a good friend of mine, been
Speaker 1: a colleague as well for for a long time. But
Speaker 1: this the substack article that he dropped today. It was
Speaker 1: titled five threats to Sean Deebs Historic WSP Player of
Speaker 1: the Year repeat Chances, and he listed five players, and
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't agree with all these players. Michael
Speaker 1: Monchek Texas, Mike James Ovs been you Chatty Sledge, Marco Johnson.
Speaker 1: But I did want to weigh in on Marco Johnson.
Speaker 1: I'm big on Marco Johnson. This summer. Touched on him
Speaker 1: a tiny bit in the last pod. You heard David
Speaker 1: Baker ODB talk about him, how Marco is out here,
Speaker 1: He's playing a full schedule. He's even staying at Odb's house. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Marco being on this list, like that's someone
Speaker 1: who when it you know, when we get to you know,
Speaker 1: July rolls around and it's it's kind of halfway through
Speaker 1: the was Man event and we're checking in on the
Speaker 1: WSP Player of the Year standings, and you might see
Speaker 1: Marco Johnson's name challenging for the league he's in the
Speaker 1: top three, he's in the top five, he's within striking distance.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't be surprised. Marco plays all the games.
Speaker 1: He plays all the games. Well. The only knock that
Speaker 1: I think you could have on Marco Johnson in this
Speaker 1: sort of setup is like he might not play the
Speaker 1: super big PLO and Nolan and hold him high rollers,
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't even know if he'll go
Speaker 1: as high as twenty five k, but you know, the fifties,
Speaker 1: the one hundred, the two fifty, like he probably won't
Speaker 1: be in there, at least to my knowledge. That said,
Speaker 1: you know, he's certainly good enough to get a bunch
Speaker 1: of points elsewhere. Now, of course, it's going to be
Speaker 1: very very hard to chase down Sean Deep, who got
Speaker 1: a great start at dubis apub in this year. Europe counts,
Speaker 1: Vegas counts, and the Bahamas count so you know a
Speaker 1: little bit of an advantage to start the summer for
Speaker 1: Sean Deep. But you know, I wouldn't be surprised at
Speaker 1: all if Marco Johnson is certainly in the mix. There
Speaker 1: another nice little nugget that came out of this this
Speaker 1: sub stack from Lance Bradley is that Sean deeb is
Speaker 1: the only player to have finished in the top one
Speaker 1: hundred of the Player of the Year race every year
Speaker 1: for the last ten years. That that's wild, I mean.
Speaker 1: But that's also why I'm so big on Deep when
Speaker 1: it comes to fantasy poker. And I'd say that, you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty three dollars for him as the
Speaker 1: most expensive player, and this year's twenty five K Fantasy draft,
Speaker 1: it's too cheap. It is just too cheap for Sean Deep.
Speaker 1: And then I wanted to throw another player into the
Speaker 1: mix here. If Lance was to allow me to add
Speaker 1: a six person, I would add John Rasner. I think
Speaker 1: John Raisner, I'm big on him this year. I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be challenging for WSB Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: I think he has, you know, a really good shot
Speaker 1: at making multiple final tables, winning multiple bracelet's. Like John
Speaker 1: Rasner is that type of player. Coupled with the fact
Speaker 1: that this year full schedule rented a house all summer
Speaker 1: with my fam, he is ready to go. So John
Speaker 1: Rasner is absolutely ready to go. Somebody that I would
Speaker 1: have paid a lot more than I think he went
Speaker 1: for eighty six bucks. Maybe tiny bit, but I would
Speaker 1: have pushed into the nineties, maybe even flirted with six
Speaker 1: figures for John Reister, and listen, maybe I'll be wrong there,
Speaker 1: but I would back John Rasner this year. And that's
Speaker 1: really all I have for you guys today. You know,
Speaker 1: the big thing coming out of this is that you know,
Speaker 1: the WASIP is here. It's a quiet start, but of
Speaker 1: course it's building. Everything feels like it's much more modern
Speaker 1: at the whip. It feels like this is truly the
Speaker 1: start of a new era for the World Series of Poker.
Speaker 1: And if that new set is any sort of sign
Speaker 1: for like what's to come in the future, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think poker as a whole isn't a really really
Speaker 1: good place. Because at the end of the day, if
Speaker 1: the World Series of Poker does well and grows and
Speaker 1: draws in a lot of eyeballs and gets new players
Speaker 1: in the game, and you know, reinvigorates old players to
Speaker 1: come back into the game, and all that sort of
Speaker 1: stuff happens, it's ultimately good for every single person in poker,
Speaker 1: every media outlet, every operator, every player. It's good for
Speaker 1: every venue out there, small poker rooms, big poker rooms,
Speaker 1: giant casinos. It doesn't matter. It's all good for poker, right,
Speaker 1: so you know, hopefully that all that all pans out.
Speaker 1: Of course, moving on to Wednesday, May twenty seventh, that
Speaker 1: is when you guys are likely listening to this. We're
Speaker 1: going to have day one B of the five fifty
Speaker 1: Mini Mystery Millions, also going to kick off the five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars Employees event, and then another event that's very
Speaker 1: very big every single year, Mixed Games event, the fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars buying Omaha High Low. First day of that one,
Speaker 1: that one always draws a very very very large field.
Speaker 1: So everything's starting to pick up a little bit of
Speaker 1: the calm before the storm type of feel today. But
Speaker 1: you know, day two, I think we're going to increase
Speaker 1: ten X Thursday even more so Friday Boom Weekend is
Speaker 1: going to be here. It's going to be absolutely you know,
Speaker 1: just just freaking balls to the wall. Let's go. So
Speaker 1: that's all I got for you guys today, nice and short,
Speaker 1: when I actually did keep it short today, so you know,
Speaker 1: I stuck to my word. Appreciate you guys for listening.
Speaker 1: As always. My name is Donny Peters and I will
Speaker 1: catch you next time. Night Express,