Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. Friday, July third, one,
ten am. Here we just wrapped up very possibly, quite
possibly the most fun and exciting day from the twenty
twenty six World Series of Poker so far. Daniel mcgranu
won his eighth WSOP bracelet. Yes, sir, he did the
damn thing. He won the one hundred KPLO high Roller
for more than two point two million dollars and it
came on the same day that the WSOP main event
kicked off. Today was Day one air. Yesterday was Day
one A. We'll be talking about it. We caught up
with Scott sever I, got an interview that Renco Rinkima
did with Phil Hellmuth and his son Nick. I spoke
with Jason Kohon at the end of the night, so
all of that is coming in this episode. Of course,
we will also bounce around Horseshoe and Paris to see
some of the other stuff that went on on Thursday
at the World Series. But it is negro on you.
It is the WSP main event headlining this show, so
let's go as always, please like, subscribe, rate review five
stars only spread the love, help us grow. This is
the poker grol podcast, trying to do this as often
as possible and hopefully we will be doing this daily.
Now that the WSP main event is here, If you
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play poker go. All right, first things first, listen, I
hate to kick the w SIB main event, you know
to the second standing here on the rundown. But we
got DNX, we got kid Poker. We have Daniel Legrod
who winning his eighth WSOP bracelet and he did it
in emphatic fashion. The one hundred k PLO high roller
eighty three entries in this bad boy Daniel took it
down two million, two hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars
in the bank. I think he was down around six
hundred k or so if I remember what is vlogs
the tally. He puts the tally. You know, he keeps
up with it at the end of his blog or
at the end of his blog every every episode that
comes out. And now you know, now that he's banked
more than two point two million dollars, he obviously cleared
the deficit. He's well into the black and there is
absolutely no way he has a losing summer from here
on out. So that's pretty freaking awesome for Daniel McGrane.
Of course, the eighth gold bracelet, it is going into
his trophy case. That's great. He's also now in the
running for WSIP Player of the Year, something you know,
we really weren't talking about as it relates to Dani mcgranney.
I know, I talked at length in the last episode
about Sean deeb you know, and his chase for the
Player of the Year, and we got you know, the
thoughts from Sean directly. We also talked about how you
know that top fifteen of the top ten to fifteen
of the WASIP Player of the Year leader board is
absolutely jam packed with great players, awesome names, superstars, et cetera.
And now d Nex is right in the running because
as long as my math is correct, he should be
in the top ten now with this win. This was
his twelfth cash of the summer. He's had a whole
bunch of deep bronze, He's had a few final tables,
hadn't won a bracelet yet, but he gets that done here.
He has always said, always, always, always said that PLO
is his jam. He feels it suits exactly the type
of style that he likes to play. He said that,
you know, every time he talks about this game, that's
what he says. PLO is my jam. Here's why it
suits my style. I fit it really well. I love
the strategy, all that sort of stuff. Not an easy
road for Daniel to go to get bracelet number eight.
He had the top archer Martirosian in heads up play,
Christopher Frank got third, Phil Sternheimer got fourth, You took
him Mickey out of Japan, really good player got fifth,
Sean Winter six, Sergio Martinez Gonzales seventh, and then Jeremy
Osmas finished in eighth place. Of course, tons of other
killers Daniel had to battle with along the way, you know,
for years. You know, what was it, twenty and thirteen
was his last bracelet.
Speaker 2: When he went.
Speaker 1: But you know, before he went into that super long
drought of what ended up being eleven years, you know,
up until twenty twenty four, and the narrative around him
was very simple, you know, it was, listen, this guy's awesome.
He's a legend. He's one of poker's greatest, if not
the greatest ambassador. He's the face of poker. But the
bracelets had stopped coming, you know, and sometimes many claimed
that the big wins had stopped coming. He just couldn't
do it for that stretch, you know, for whatever reason.
And you know, again, twenty thirteen to twenty twenty four,
that is a long ass period of time to be
sitting on six bracelets when you know, you were poker superstar,
you were the one winning everything, you were crushing everything,
and all of a sudden you just couldn't close the
deal when it comes to the World Series, right, so,
more than a decade without winning a bracelet, you know,
and he's he was obviously close many many times, many
final tables all that sort of stuff. Twenty twenty four
comes around, Bam rips off that fifty K Poker Players
Championship win. That was freaking incredible. He got number seven.
I still remember that night, being in there, seeing the
rail on the stage, all the people, you know, chanting
Daniel's name, him crying, like the whole the scene was unreal,
absolutely unreal. You could not have scripted it better. That's
one of the most prestigious titles in poker, you know,
Daniel has always talked about many top pros have talked
about how, yes, w SE main event. Of course that's
the Unicorn, but outside of that, it's the PPC, right, Like,
that's the one. Now two years later he goes and
gets another bracelet, wins the one hundred KPLO for more
than two point two million dollars two point two five
million dollars. I mean, that's an incredible tournament, a very
very tough tournament to win in and of its own right,
you know. So it's not just that he's back to
winning these racelets, you know, because we have two in
the span of three years. It's also what he's winning
fifty k PPC, hunter k PLO high Roller. I said
it earlier. He has always said that PLO is his game.
He said it's his jam. Okay, that's what he's always said.
PLO is my jam. He loves the game, he likes
the strategy behind it. He feels like it suits him
incredibly well. He likes to be able to limp in it,
all that sort of stuff. I talked about how tough
the field was in this one. I read off that
final table. You had other people like, you know, if
phil Ivey was out there, only Yuka Mine and the
Finnish legend, you know, just absolute freaking killers in this tournament.
Nick Shulman was in the field, etc. Etc. Like it
was just Jason Kuhne was out there in absolute murder
when you're when you're playing one hundred k PLO turn
right and Daniel's coming out on top. So yeah, it's
it's just awesome. It was a great scene down there
at Paris. You know, the w SBE main event Day
one A is going on and that's taking up the
large bulk of the room in the main Paris ballroom.
But then one of the side feature tables is this
hunter K PLO high Roller final table and the rail
around it was I don't know, two hundred people deep,
you know, like I mean, they kind of didn't have
enough room. I mean, obviously, I think everyone in poker
roots for big names to do well because that's good
for the game.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure with Daniel being attached to the Gig brand,
you know, they're hoping that he makes final tables all
this sort of stuff. So, but that's not really planned for,
especially on you know, the day when everything's supposed to
be shifting to the greatest poker tournament the world and
that is the main event. But then all of a sudden,
you have Daniel kind of stealing the show from the
greatest poker tournament in the world because he's over there
doing the damn thing. And uh yeah, you know, of
course Amanda, his wife, shows up. He's got his whole
rail there. It's a whole thing. People are chanting his name.
Like I talked about on the last episode about how
it's refreshing to see the way that Michael Msrocky wears
his heart on his sleeve when it comes to poker
and celebrating his wins and all that sort of stuff.
You saw very similar things from Daniel when he won
this and also when he lost it, because there was
a couple times when he looks kind of pretty upset
with things, not to the point where it was like
going to rattle him. But Daniel is an outgoing personality,
both vocally and then also physically with a lot of
his mannerisms. Case in point, when he smashed that selfie
stick a couple of years ago in this exact room,
actually we took a six sick beat, you know, and
that was in the midst of the whole drought thing, right,
you know, So here he gets all in at one
point when he's heads up with Archer march Rosian. I
think Daniel thought he might have made it straight but
he didn't or whatever. But Archer doubles up, and Daniel's
kind of like like, you know, he he gets kind
of gets kind of mad, right, but then he you know,
he sits back down, he calms him out, down, he
locks back in, and the next time he gets him
all in, he ends up taking him out and winning
the tournament. You know, hands are in the air, he's yelling,
he's jumping up and down like like the whole thing.
People are chanting, so it's a whole awesome thing. He
runs over to make sure he gets his vlogging camera
because he wants to put it all on the vlog
so you guys will see that. So just really really
cool stuff to see that. You know, this is poker's
biggest superstar, the most popular player, the most popular poker
player in the world, and to see him act that
sort of way is just like Michael m is Rocky.
It's it's refreshing, it's cool to see. We also cannot
overlook the fact that he's now very much right into
the thick of it for this incredible race for the
Player of the Year title. You know, Daniel jumped up.
I want to say he was like forty third or
something when I looked, and then the win put him
into the top ten. I think he's eighth, maybe ninth,
if he's able to keep playing, keep putting in the volume.
I know he does have a baby on the way
that's supposed to come later in the year. Not that
that's going to affect this world Series of Poker during
the summer, but maybe that could possibly take him away
from you know, going to Paradise or something like that.
That said, there's still a lot of Doubsip he left
here in the summer, we're getting into the waiting Man event.
It's not like he hasn't run deep in that thing before.
He has. There's a lot of big tournaments still left
that Daniel can certainly make a run in, and yeah,
I think he's I think he's ready to go. You know,
it wasn't like we were really thinking of Daniel in
terms of the WASIV Player of the Year race just
because of a lot of the results that the Sean Deep,
the Alex fox In, the Nick Shulman's, Benny Glasser or
Calvin Anderson, all these players like they're just putting up
like win after win after win, big resolve, that they're
big result, that they're big result. I mean, it's crazy.
You had Calvin Anderson, Nioa Kihara, Elis Parson and all
winning two bracelets this summer, you know, and then of
course you have all the other success from all those
other you know, really really good players, and Daniel was
you know, yeah, he had eleven cashes coming into this
cash here. This was his twelfth Wasity cash this summer.
He has had some deep runs, He's had some final tables, right,
you know, but you really have to finish out like
the top of that stuff to really challenge for Player
of the Year. And then boom, he rips off this win.
He gets it done, and now he's back into the
top ten, he's back into that race, he's back into
that conversation. He's won the speed Player of the Year
title before. He won the first one in two thousand
and four. That's when he won that tyt of truck.
Remember the tyto truck. Yeah, that thing was crazy. Let's
let's bring back Jeff Jeff Jeff Platt. Can you can
you make trucks happen? Can we get like trucks and
cars and stuff like that for the WSB Player of
the Year. That's that'd be badass. And he won again
in twenty thirteen, so you know, it would be kind
of fitting if he's able to get it for a
third time. Sean deeb is currently the front runner. He's
also won it twice. He's looking to make it a
third time there, but Daniel could do it as well
now and he's right in the thick of it. So
I think the Player of the ear race thing is
just very cool. You know, we just we kind of
weren't talking about it with Daniel just again because of
all the success that everyone else has happened. But now
you know he's right there, so we're definitely going to
be talking about it, and it's all eyes on Daniel.
I think overall, you really can't ignore the whole longevity
aspect when it comes to Nigranu. You know, poker has
changed a ton in the last ten to fifteen years.
The heck gets changed in the last three to five years.
You know, it's the game is evolving more than it
ever has. And plenty of big name players, notable players,
you know, players from the boom era, right those stars.
There's a lot of them that they just have and
kept up, and because they haven't kept up, they really
just can't win anymore. And Daniel is not that person.
You know, He's shown over time that he can win.
And there was a period of time when maybe he
was starting to slip and he really hunkered down and
he got studying or coaching. He studied a lot, you know,
he got into the lab and he grinded and he
improved in a lot of ways. You combine all that
sort of stuff with his modern game, and you're taking
his game into the modern era. Combine that with all
of the decades of experience that he has, you know,
and yeah, he's as good as fierce as any competitor
out there, and he has certainly dapten and been able
to keep up with things. So it's really cool to
see him to get another result here at the World
Series of Poker and to have that happen. I know
it did overshadow a lot of what happened on Day
one A of the WSP main event, but also, you know,
this to be kind of the last thing before we
are full swing into the SPE main event is also
really cool, right. It's like boom, Daniel one, Okay, let's
go WSP main Event, you know, which happened right away
right afterwards, yes, but then also what's gonna happen tomorrow
and for the next two weeks and then lead into
August for the final table. So just just really cool.
There was an awesome scene down there. Dwight from Cincinnati
shout out to Dwight from Cincinnati talked with him for Dwight,
I don't even know how long we talked, half hour,
forty minutes. I mean, you kept saying you were gonna
let me go, and you never let me go. But
as I told you, I'm happy to talk poker with
any of the podcast fans out there, any of the listeners,
for as long as possible, because I love this shit
and I will absolutely nerd out for hours and hours
and hours. And we just kept talking about but Dwight,
you know, he's in town, he's visiting, and he basically
just wanted to come down and sweat the action. And
he was he was asking me, you know, you know,
how sick How sick am I? How sick are we that?
You know there's not really any cameras around. We can't
see the whole car, you know, there's only the one
flop cam up top, you know, but we're just standing
here twenty feet away, just just watching for hours and hours.
I said, yeah, but that's why I know you're a
diehard just like I am, Dwight, because that's the shit
we love to do. Okay, And yeah, it's really cool
that he that he happened to come and one of
the days that he's in town for he got to
go down to Paris and see Danielgrand who win bracelet
number eight. And it was just I mean again, incredible
scenes down there. As always, when Daniel gets gets deep
like this, it's just absolutely crazy times. And the fact
that it was in the hundred k pl O high
roller with well north of two million dollars up top,
just truly spectacular stuff. Speaking of the spectacular, the WSP
main event is here. Thursday was Day one A, the
first of four starting flights. We'll have one A, one B,
one C and one D of course, then they will
have two Day two's as well to ABC and then
two D. Those will be how those two are broken
up as long as the board is correct on the app.
What I saw when I was there at Paris today
before coming home, seven hundred and seventy one entries were
tallied for Day one A. Now have to be honest
with you guys, that is down from last year. Last
year's Day one A nine to twenty three, so we're
looking at a sixteen and a half percent decrease, which
I don't think is too alarming. I think that's somewhat expected.
You know a lot of these no limit hold them
tournaments have been down, let's say in the realm of
ten to twenty percent, right, you know, I had that
episode many episodes ago when when I broke down or
I went through kind of the the overview of the
numbers for through the first fifty events on the the
WSB schedule, I have felt like there's been a bit
more buzz. Things have been picking up in the last
week or two, you know, at Paris and at Horseshoe. Yes,
but I don't think that this is any sort of
prize that the ivis to being the ain event is
down and you know, as I laid out in the
last episode, I'm going like I think it was nine
to one seven seven was my number nine and seventy
seven entries, which which would be a decrease over the
more than ninety seven hundred that they had in twenty
twenty five. So down, Yes, big deal, Definitely not you
had past champions in the mix. Greg Merson is out there.
He was wearing his Milkman jersey. I think he wore
two different Milkman jerseys. He had a baseball jersey on
at one point, he had a I think a hockey
jersey on at another point. Believe it's the first of
his to be tournament of the summer for Gregy. He
spends a lot of his time doing the whole sports
cards thing. Not not quite as big as a Blez
Jared Blesnik is in that regard, but you know, Greg
holds his own for sure. Joe Katta was in the mix.
Daniel Weinman was also out there playing. You had Phil Hellmuth,
another w s AP main event champion, in play for
Day one A, but he showed up later as he
always does. And of course it wouldn't be Phil Hollmuth
playing the ws to be main evented it did. It
didn't come with one of his wild, famous, over the
top entrances.
Speaker 2: Phil, what's it like to have your sons in the man?
Speaker 4: It's nerve wracking. When I'm at the future table and
he's the future table and I'm just like geez, and
I look over and it looks really intense, and I'm like, ah.
Speaker 2: You know, like I mean, I just want.
Speaker 4: To like it's I'm a father, you know. And I
was pretty good for the first month of trying to
ignore their results, but I see how much effort they're
putting in, and then I'm like, oh, so then you
are it even harder. So as much as I'm trying
to keep the focus on me and playing great I'm
looking over there and I can't help myself. How Manny
chips you got Nick back?
Speaker 5: Fifty thousand almost exactly?
Speaker 2: Great?
Speaker 4: Yeah, fifty And I told think, if you make it
through the day with thirty k, you're still really deep. So,
you know, so I think maybe he thinks of it
differently than than other people. Nick.
Speaker 6: For you, this event kickstarted your dad's legacy and massive
sort of.
Speaker 2: List of results in poker.
Speaker 1: What has it been like for you growing up seeing
this event from a distance and then now being in it.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I don't think it's that deep for me. You know,
poker is something my dad did when I was growing up.
I didn't pay as much attention to whether it's the
main events or this event or that event. Honestly, I
don't even know how the World's Series worked, you know
what I mean? Was a series of events?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean? Like with just one big tournament.
So I mean I kind of compartmentalize, you know what
I mean, Like Dad's had his own journey. I'm having
my own journey, and I hope to just focus on
my own progression and hope to do as well as
I can. But honestly, I don't think about it that much.
Speaker 1: Phil, last question for you, The life of a poker player,
with all the ups and downs and all the swings,
can be very emotionally unstable.
Speaker 2: It can be just taking over your whole life. Do
you have to make your sons away how tough this
life can be? And then how do you view them
if they were potentially to play full time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean it's been a good case study for Nick
because he's spent he spent like a month straight now
playing poker almost every day. And I see he's handling
it really well, like he's he's getting with kings and
losing and then kings and losing, and then queens and
losing an ace king.
Speaker 1: But he's coming back.
Speaker 4: Yeah he's not. And I'm like, it's a good son.
You keep playing big pots with big hands, and then boom,
the deep runs started coming for him, two or three
deep runs in the next like four or five tournaments.
And so he's handling it well. He's not like feeling
I have to go drinking or you know what I mean, like.
Speaker 5: Or get all oat pressed or a two upset or emotional.
You know, I just don't have to keep adding. So
we actually have like a little list of all the
hands I get knocked out on or go broke with,
you know what I mean. And so it's funny. It's like,
you know Ace King, King Gang, King Gang, you know
Ace Queen Queens, you know, So it's funny we keep
adding to the list. Is a good room that like,
if I just keep it up, you know what I mean,
then I think I'll get there. And it's it's been
I feel like I've been breaking through these past couple
of weeks.
Speaker 4: So it's it's incredible to see him get better, but
to also handle the emotional swings, because you're right, and
I used to go crazy and I would call his mom,
who I'm still very happily married with after thirty seven years.
I'd be calling him but a little too emotional. And
he's handling it better then I was handling it. And
you can see him getting better every day thinking about things.
Speaker 2: You come to me and.
Speaker 4: Say I think this, and I'm like, oh my god, Nick,
that's really advanced. Thinking. No one else, all the all
the great players don't do this well.
Speaker 1: They all the great players don't.
Speaker 2: Do this well.
Speaker 4: And you've already figured out that you need to do it.
That's something an element of patience. But I think he
hit the nail on the head, you know, to rewind,
and he's just he's handling it well, and you know,
he's you know, it's my first world series and you know,
and and it's it's you can't get too tied to
the results.
Speaker 2: Final one for you, Nick, what's the ambition.
Speaker 5: In povert Well, I quit my job last year, like
early fall, late summer. I saw my brother had been
doing this for a little while.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I thought I'd give it a try, and I I
have a liking for it. I really liked laying poker
and so ambitions, you know, I just take things one
step at a time, you know what I mean. I
tried to think too big or too grandiose, just to
focus on the next step, next goal for me to accomplish.
And there's always going to be a goal after that.
So you know, one step at a time, well.
Speaker 1: Said, Well said, he's so solid.
Speaker 2: I love that that's so solid.
Speaker 4: But that makes me proud because then he's not going
to get too emotional, and then that that's.
Speaker 2: A good thing.
Speaker 1: This one, he was dressed as I think Superman but
he was in all black. He had his sons on
his side, Nick and Phil. He had Jungleman alongside. It
was it was as outrageously cringe slash awesome at the
same time as you would imagine, like it's just it's
it's just the thing that Phil Helmy does. It's a spectacle.
Those of us in the industry are kind of like, Okay,
we've seen it, you know, we'll put up with it.
We got it, you know. I don't really know, like
what the outside world thinks of it. Yeah, I mean,
Ali and Jodd Nick Schulman were in the booth losing
their minds over the tightness of Phil's costume in certain
man areas at a couple of bulging parts going on.
I mean, yeah, the whole thing is always it's always
a fun day when Helm phil Helm makes makes his entrance.
He had he had seventeen models. Everyone had a sign
with a number on it. Of course for his seventeen bracelets.
There's music blasting. I mean the whole thing, right, the
whole the whole freaking thing. You also had some notables
in the field, Scott sever Jason Kuhn, Adrian Matteos was
out there. I saw Eric Sidell rocking his New York
Knicks hat set day in the mixed legend, Billy Baxter,
Japanese vlogging sensation, Masado Yokasawa, Jeremy Ozma, Samsover, Olivier Busque,
and then Andrew Lichtenberger. They were all in the mix
they played. Speaking of Andrew Lichtenberger, don't forget to go
check out the Face the Ace podcast that Liechtenberger did
with my guy Remco Rinkim. You guys can find it
on the feed. If you want to watch the video format,
you can find it on the Poker Go YouTube channel.
As always, you see some wild and crazy shit on
the day ones of the w CP main event. The
first elimination, at least as it was reported by Poker News,
was Anthony Marini. He got involved in a pot against
Ryan Sands and it was I believe there was an
open at the table than Marini three bet. They're playing
one hundred two hundred for the blinds. You start with
sixty K, so you start three hundred big blinds deep.
It goes rays to an unknown amount, then a three
bet from Marini to fifteen hundred right, and Sands unclear
if he was the original razor or not, but whatever,
it doesn't really matter. He four bets the thirty five
hundred gets back to Marini. He five bets to seventy
five hundred. Sans moves all in for what I'm assuming
is sixty k. Marini calls with Ace King of diamonds,
Ace King suited. Sans's got the two black aces. There's
a king on the flop. Yeah, so a little bit
of hope there for Marini, but it breaks out from there.
He's busto and then Sands is up to double starting
in level one, ultimately goes on to bag one hundred
and forty four five hundred chips, and we're just freaking off.
The main is back. People are just blasting it off.
In level one of this tournament. You also had a
wild first level for Scott sever There was a report
on poker News. So Scott puts something on social media
where it was like I just doubled up in a
spot where like no one else would would play for
stacks or something along those lines. Right, So then I
obviously go check poker news. They got the hand. Sever's
involved in a three way pot on King five four
with two hearts. He ends up getting it all in
with Ace King against Gafang Lynn, who's got King seven.
I think, if this report is correct on Poker News,
Lynn over bet the flop. They had him as betting
ten thousand into a pot of what looked to be
eighty four hundred. Sever just goes all in for a
little over fifty k. He gets a call from Lynn
with the King seven. The turns and Ace and Lynn's
just drawing dead. So sever wins that him basically doubles.
But then also in the first level there's a hand
Whereceivers said he folded Queen's pre flop, like so, it's
just there's nothing like this tournament, absolutely nothing. So I'm
like reading through the updates, I'm seeing this all all there.
There was a few different hands where it was like,
what the Heck's going on off there? Mind you. I'm
also thinking, you know, I'm setting up to play this
event on Saturday for day one sea and I'm like, hm,
should I just go out there with the way some
of these people are just blasting their chips out and
just get my start today, because heck, it looks like
it's pretty profitable out there. So anyway, I'm reading through
some of the updates. There's a bunch of stuff happening,
but the sever stuff stuck out to me so much
so that I wanted to go catch up with him.
So after the first level, the first two hours were
in the books, I went out there and I found
Scott Severer and I just had to ask him, Man,
what the heck's going on? So here's my quick chat
with mister Scott sever himself. All right, Scott, you got
a pretty eventful first level. You doubled up, you folded
Queen's pre flaba. What's up with the start?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I've played four or five hands for stacks already.
I have one hundred and fifty thousand a little over.
It's been a really tumultuous and exciting first level.
Speaker 1: Is that something you kind of come into with maybe
a strategy. Listen, I'm gonna play aggressive early and just
go for it, or is it just take it as
it comes?
Speaker 7: I think your strategy has to be fluid based on
the type of table you're at. There's some tables where
you really just want to wait and hope that like
a good thing happens to you, and there are some
tables where you need to make sure you're in there
such that you have the opportunity for you to be
the one to receive a good blessing. And I just
had some spots where I felt I needed to make
pots kind of big and hope they went my way.
Speaker 2: And so far they have one of.
Speaker 1: Those pots that did get kind of big, the Ace
King versus the King seven. And you put on social
media that you played for stacks in a spot that
a lot of other people wouldn't get the full stack,
you know, just tell me about that decision in that process.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we were three ways in a three bet pod
and it came King five four and I have Ace King,
So of course I'm happy, but it's still just a
pair for three hundred big lines in the main event,
and the other player he let out ten thousand, and
I looked at him, and I just kind of felt
the energy and I thought I had the best hand,
which is the first thing you got to figure out.
And the second thing is usually I feel you would
either call or small, but probably just call to let
someone else either a bluff. There was a flusterrawl possible,
a straight draw possible. I just thought that he had
a hand that he wanted to get all in with
and also that my hand was somehow good, so I
just put all sixty thousand in over it and he
called with King seven on King Kai four and the
turn was an ace. It's giving me aces and kings.
But I feel with almost any other action, probably King
seven gets scared when the turn comes an ace. So
I feel happy the way I played it to get
the pull sixty.
Speaker 1: You played one level, you got two and a half
times this starting stack. Have you ever had a start
like this to the main event.
Speaker 7: I don't think I have. I think this is the
best level one I've ever had.
Speaker 1: So you heard it there sever multiple times. Just ready
to play for stacks, just absolutely ready to go for it.
Sever went onto bag I think around two hundred thousand.
He put on social media that he said he played
his heart out, and yeah, he's got almost three x
starting entering day two, which is an absolute mountain of
chips in this tournament. I mean, people cash in this
tournament with you know, the starting sackler or less of
course receivers out here, just building up to three X
starting in on the first day of play. But that
just absolutely sounds like he was willing to go for it.
In a lot of spots. The chip leader to come
out of Day one A was Ryuta Nikai out of Japan.
These Japanese players, let me tell you, they are taking
over the poker world like theyre. If they're not here already,
they are freaking comment like, there's a lot of Japanese
players that are out. They are playing not only the
big bet stuff specifically Nolan man hold them at the
World Series. They are playing everything. They are performing very well.
Some of them are even getting drafted in twenty five
K Fantasy. I have played with a bunch of the
Japanese players throughout this summer, I would even say going
back to last summer, and they are an absolute freaking
handful to deal with. They know their shit, they are
fearless at the table, they get after it. They put
you in super tough spots. So yeah, I mean shout
out to the Japanese players who are making making waves
here at the World Series of Poker. We've always kind
of talked about over the last let's say five years
or so, you know, give or take that, the Japanese market,
the Japanese region was you know, really getting ready to boom.
Poker is increasingly growing there and becoming more and more popular.
I don't think it, you know, and I could be wrong,
but I don't think it's like fully legal yet, you know,
to play for real money and all that sort of stuff,
even though some stuff has happened there, Yes, but it
seems like just going to continue to grow, right. And then,
you know, I've talked about it already on this podcast feed.
But when you got people like Masada Yokosawa leaving the
charge chartering Giant jets to bring over two hundred plus
people to come to the World Series of Poker like that,
everything just seems to be moving in the right direction, right.
Coupled with the fact that these players are super tough,
highly competitive. I mean, the player in me says like,
get the heck out of here, because I don't want to.
I don't want to have to deal with more tough
players in the fields. But they are very, very good,
and they are coming if they are not here already.
And on top of day one A, we got Ryuta
and Nikai, who I think was drafted in twenty five
K fantasy has let me check these chip guns. He
was drafted in twenty five K fantasy. Speaking of another
Japanese player by the way, Masado Yokosawa, who I just mentioned,
He bagged north of two hundred and twenty thousand in chips,
so you know he's crushing it too. He had a
great day. Helmuth went on to bag I think sixty
six thousand and his son as long as the app
is correct, which I don't know if it's fully updated
yet or not, but where it's going to roll with
it forty five thousand, eight hundred. Another superstar player in
the mix for Day one A was Jason Kuhn. Came
a little bit late to the day, not too late,
but maybe a level in or so. He had kind
of a tough first day, bagging eighteen thousand, seven hundred,
so less than one third starting. If you were watching
the stream, you know that a hand was caught. They
caught it on the river where Kuon is on the river.
The board's got the King of Spades, the Tennis spades,
and another spade. It's not paired. Kuon's got the Queen
Jack of Spades, so he's got the second nut flush
and his opponent has moved all in into him with
the Ace six of spades. Kuhn tanks for a little
bit ultimately folds the second nuts in this pot, the
second nut flush Kun I think ended up getting all
the way down to like three thousand and chips or
something like, just getting brutalized all day. I talked to
him afterwards, you know, he said he lost. He said
he folded second nuts another time offstream to a guy
when he was like sure that the guy had it.
He lost Queens to Ace nine for a pile. He
did fight his way back, and then in the last
level when I was standing out there waiting for the
end of the night to come around to hopefully talk
to Jason, he got Queens again. He got him in
against Ace King. He was able to double up there.
Tough day. Jason Kuhn had to fight. You know, not
everything comes easy in this event. You know, the big
blind starting with day two will be eight hundred, so
it'll be four hundred and eight hundred. So you know,
he has what twenty five big blinds to or sorry
not twenty five, twenty whatever, twenty three, twenty three and
a half big blinds to work with. So you know,
certainly not out of it. You're not as deep as
you want to be in this tournament. You know, especially
someone who is as aggressive and relentless and creative as
Jason Kuhn. But you know that doesn't mean you give up,
of course. But after play, you know, Jason was nice
enough to catch up with me for a few minutes.
So here is my talk with Jason Kuhn.
Speaker 6: All right, Jason, uh not necessarily your days stack wise,
but I mean you kind of should be out of
the tournament after that Queen Jack of Space and what
the heck that?
Speaker 8: I had about three situations similar to that later in
the day too.
Speaker 3: I've made some crazy folds.
Speaker 8: Obviously I'll never know because I didn't see him, but
uh yeah, I had that, and then I got Queen's
against a nine suited for a big one.
Speaker 3: Lost, but somehow I'm still in the tournament.
Speaker 8: But yeah, the Queen Jack of Spades was something, you know,
obviously not a recommended fold for people to make, but
I've been playing for a long time.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of things.
Speaker 8: Kind of I almost hold the turn, which would have
been completely ballistic.
Speaker 3: But I almost did.
Speaker 8: Man, I thought it would have been too crazy to
hold the turn because I thought if he had a
smaller clush, he may raise the turn.
Speaker 3: And check back the river. But when the money went
on the river, I just was pretty confident.
Speaker 8: That if he had a bluff, it would have the
hand would have played out differently.
Speaker 3: And you know, I could have been very wrong.
Speaker 8: I've made some big folds and a lot of tournaments
and most of them have been right.
Speaker 3: But sometimes look like a moron. But you gotta trust yourself.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: It seems like you were having a lot of fun
with your table. Take story.
Speaker 3: Lovely group, lovely group.
Speaker 8: And you know, every year I played the main Like, honestly,
I played this tournament today like like it was my
last dollar. I had to my name, Like I really
fought for every chip.
Speaker 3: I want to be around. I don't want to just
give up.
Speaker 8: And just prove to myself that, like, even if the
stakes are smaller, I'm always willing to grind it out,
you know.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the table was lovely. Everybody was having a blast.
And I really like the main.
Speaker 8: I like talking to people and enjoying enjoying their experience
with them. Because we had two first timers here today,
and you know, I like, uh, I like hanging out
with people.
Speaker 1: Well, you got around a little less than what a
third starting stack going to day two. Yeah, I mean,
what's just just grind it out?
Speaker 8: Been there plenty man, I mean we were coming back
to eight hundred BB.
Speaker 3: It gives me, you know a little over twenty five BB.
Speaker 8: I can make that work, and twenty five can become
one hundred real fast.
Speaker 3: This is a long tournament. I don't need to bag
the tip of the day one.
Speaker 1: All right. So that was Jason Kuhne, and you heard
him say that he's trying to play this tournament like
it's his last dollar. And if this guy's able to
get some chips and make a run, you know, that
could be quite the handful for players to deal with
later on. Of course, as always, you know, a bunch
of players do bust whenever poker tournaments happen. It doesn't
matter how good the structure is. We already talked about
Anthony Moriny going out when he had the ace king
suited into Ryan Sans's pocket aces. Jason Coon did survive, Yes,
you know he's short. You know some of the players
who didn't survive, you ha, Jared Blesnik busting, David Bach busting,
Nick Seward out, Dan Smith gone, Leo Margetz gone, Chetty
Sledge Gone, Set Davies and Adrian Mittaos I mentioned them earlier.
They are also busted. Mateos was on one of the
feature tables, and it just looked like nothing went his way,
like he just had the second best hand, the second
best hand, the second best hand, and a lot of
really tough spots, cooler spots, just over and over and
over again. And sometimes you know that's just the hand
your delt or the hands that you are dealt in
a poker tournament. And it certainly looked that no matter
who sat in Adrian Matteos's seat today, on day one
A of the twenty twenty six to pace, no one's
going to be winning that day. I'm trying to see
how many people advanced through. It looks like around five
forty to five fifty.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: A little bit over two hundred players busted out on
day one A, so you know a good amount of
them have moved on to day two. They'll be back
on Monday, so a couple days off Friday, Saturday and
Sunday off while the other day ones play. I guess
just my thoughts walking around Paris, walking through the field,
I did think I thought the field looked pretty good
in terms of like value. I also thought, you know,
then I'm reading some of the updates and stuff on
Poker News, and I'm thinking, okay, yeah, like this field
looks pretty valuable on day one A. I think if
you couple that with the fact that you get three
days off, and if you do end up making a
run in this thing, having those days off early could
probably pay dividends much later on when this thing really
does become a grueling gauntlet that you have to get
through and you have to have that stamina and you
have to be able to power through and try and
be as fresh as possible. So I don't know, day
one A might be something that I think more players
might want to start looking into playing.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: There were some tough tables out there. I would say that,
you know, in terms of like known really good players.
Not not that players can't be really good, they're just
you know, you don't necessarily recognize them by face or whatever.
You have to dig a little bit deeper, find their name,
look them up, et cetera. Just like first look looking
around out there, I think the worst I saw was
a table with like three known good players at it,
you know, so that's not the worst thing in the world.
You know, it's not like a table had five or six,
like absolute killers or something like that. So of course,
you know, day one D the last starting flight, has
always been the largest starting flight. I know a lot
of people opt to play that flight, but you know,
I also think that there's a good chance you could
end up getting stuck with a lot better players and
then you have, you know, fewer rest days going forward
if you do ultimately run deep. So I kind of
think one A might be the one ame might be
the player I'm playing one se though. Listen, once I
make a deep run starting with one seed, I get it.
I got to keep it up until it doesn't happen.
So that's what's gonna happen with me. Plus got to
juggle the work schedule and all that sort of stuff.
But one I looked, uh, one I looked good. Plus
I feel like with one A, you kind of you
kind of fly under the radar a little bit. You know,
you kind of just go out there, workmanlike, punch the clock,
get it done, bag tips for day two, get a
few days off, and you know, you don't really have
to think about it, you know, and it's kind of
a little bit easier on the whole pressure side of things.
I'm going to take a scan here around the rest
of the tournaments that took place at the twenty twenty
six World Series of Poker. Not going to go in
depth too much into this sort of stuff, just because
listen today was about Danna and Grandu winning embracelet number eight.
Today was about the kickoff for the twenty twenty six
and WSP main event. But we did have the winner
in the mini event, Daisuke Ogita. Guess where he's from, guys, Japan,
that's right, winning a million dollars tops the field of twelve,
five hundred and sixty entries. Canada's Jaywa Sun took second place. Now,
I got to mention a hand that Sun played because
this hand, because it was at my table and we're
we're so earlier in the day. On day two, Sun
is at my table, doesn't play a single hand for like,
I don't know, in our maybe a little bit longer,
doesn't play any hand. Of course, that could simply be
card distribution. Fine, our table breaks, we go our separate
ways whatever. I think it was. Two table breaks later
for me, Son moves back to my table, okay. He
doesn't play a hand for a little while. Then all
of a sudden, he plays this hand where it full.
I'm in the small blind, he's in the he's on
the button. It folds to him. On the button, he
puts in a raise to three point twenty five x
the big blind. Immediately I'm like, well, that's just too big,
like and then I'm looking at the clock, thinking, oh,
the blind's about to go up, and he maybe thought
that they were already up whatever, so he just jacks
it up on the button. I fold player in the
big blind goes all in for nine big blinds. Son's
like tanking for a while and then slams in the
chips for the call on tables in his hands, got
seven deuce off, dead serious. It's like, what the hell
is going on? Big Blind's got queen ten of hearts.
The Queen ten of hearts holds and you know that's that.
So that hand happened. He ends up getting heads up,
he got short. Later on he was involved in a
three way pot where I ended up doubling up, but
he ended up folding pre flop. It was like a
sky went all in for like seven big lines. He
called I jammed over top, then he folded and I
won that pot. But it was yeah, just seeing that
and then you know him going on to finish in
second place here for six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.
I mean, you know, good for him. Jeffrey Evans got third,
am in most stuff most of AVI got fourth with
three and sixty k. Evans got four to seventy five
for third, Richard Harris fifth for two to seventy five.
I mean, this this tournament, man, it was over super
super quick on on Thursday. You know, the average stack
was really really shallow entering that final day. But you know,
congratulations to Japan's Daisuke Ogita for winning the mini main
event at the twenty twenty six Cool Trees It Poker
for one million dollars. The twenty five hundred dollars mixed
triple draw. Patrick Stacey topped a field of five hundred
and eight entries there. Stacy's won his first bracelet and
he also took home two hundred and twenty three thousand dollars.
He beat Danny Tang in heads up play. Mark Gregorich
got third, Alan Kessler got fourth, Andrew Kelsall aka aj
Kelsall fifth place there and Arthur Morris sixth place on
that one. The six hundred dollars Deep Stack Championship is
down to fifty players remaining. Okay, okay, this was five thousand,
one hundred and seventy seven entries in this tournament. Six
hundred dollars buying up top is two hundred and eighty
two thousand dollars. Ship leader looks to be Song Han
is leading the way narrowly ahead of Lisa Tan. It's
six point two to eighty five million up top for Han,
and Tan's got six point two to three million up
on top there. I don't see any notable notable players
sticking out to me in the top batch of the
chip guns, but that's fine. You know it's gonna get
a new superstar that comes out of this one. Yeah,
just a quick skin here. I really don't recognize any
of the names in the field, but two hundred and
eighty two thousand dollars up top. They're going to finish
this one out, I'm assuming on Friday, So stay tuned
for the winner of the six hundred dollars Deep Sack
Championship event. I definitely know the front runner of the
chip leader with fourteen players remaining in the three K
freeze out, and that is mister Andrew Moreno Amo for
show is up on top. He's got a nice chip
lead there with what looks to be almost twelve million
in chives one hundred big blinds. I mean he's about
two million ahead of second place first place in this one.
I think it's almost seven hundred K, six eighty three,
six hundred and eighty three thousand dollars. Of course, everyone
is deep into the money here, seventeen hundred and ninety
two entries in this field. You've got David Mischaikowski in
the mix, Chris Mormon is still in. Martin Jacobson is
also in there as well. So again down to fourteen
players in the three K freeze out that will also
finish out on Friday. Andrew Marino had a deep run
in the WSP Monster Stack earlier this summer, another deep
run in that tournament. He's had several deep runs in
the Doubsity Monster Stack. Good friend of Mine, absolute killer
on the Felt, is one of those players who it's
about time he wins a WSP Goald bracelet, and this
could very well be it he is the chip leader
with fourteen players remaining, so we'll keep tabs on this
one and talk about it on the next episode. The
ten K eight Game Mixed Championship, we have twelve players
remaining from a field of one hundred and ninety nine entries.
More than four hundred thousand dollars up top four hundred
and thirty one thousand dollars to be exact, leading the
way atop those final twelve players. Brian rast second place.
Alex Foxen. You know you guys, don't think don't sleep
on mister Alex fox And when it comes to the
mixed games, because he's out there battling Matt Vangren's still
in the mix. Taylor Atchison. The reason why I bring
up Taylor Atchison is I'm sure the listeners out there no,
he won a bracelet already this summer. We've already had
three people win to this summer, and Atchison could become
the fourth to do it. Bryn Kenny is still in
the mix. Ryan Miller and David ODB Baker friend of
the pod. Let's go short stack twelve out of twelve,
but spin that baby up. Let's go ODB Come on,
let's go odb sporting the cop aviators out there, his
new glasses. He doesn't have to deal with headaches. Let's go, buddy,
do the damn thing. The eight hundred Summer Celebration drew
a field of twenty five hundred and eighty four. Oh
this is only day one A. Good lord, josh Aria
bag in a big stack in this tournament. Okay, he was.
He ran over to be in the winter photo for
Daniel Legrandero from that one hundred k PLO. All right,
that's enough of the eight hundre dollars Summer Celebration. If
I find out it's day one A of this tournament, yeah,
I'm just not gonna talk about you that much more.
And then you had the fifteen hund dollars Double Board
Bomb Pot PLO tournament taking place. What's this one? Sixteen
hundred and seventy three entries, three hundred and twenty two
thousand dollars up top? All right, cool, that's enough of
that one as well. But you guys know the drill
daily episodes during the ws BE main event. It is
one B on Friday. I'm gonna be looking to play
one C. Shout out to my guy Ryan who is
playing the ws BE main event for the first time.
He is playing one B. We chatted for a bit today.
I know he's excited. I know he's ready to go.
I know he recently got through a downswing and is
on the positive side of things now with Varians starting
to work back in his favor, and maybe, just maybe
he can catch some heat in the biggest tournament of
them all and go on a run. Ryan, I am
pulling for you. Let's go, Let's make it happen. All right,
that's gonna do it for me. Fun episode here, negroan
you winning number eight WSV main event kicking off. It's
gonna be a fun two weeks ahead and I can't
wait to be on this podcast feed every single night.
My name is Donny Peters. Shout out to Rich Ryan
for making the magic happen, making us sound good, and
I will talk to you guys next time.
Speaker 2: Express