Speaker 1: Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Goo A Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. It
is Saturday, May thirtieth. It is one oh seven am,
nice and late here in Las Vegas. I gotta say
the weather has been damn awesome for the start for
the first week of the twenty twenty six World Series
of Poker. A fun episode ahead. I'll hit on the
big reveal that happened today for the new w SP
Grand Arena. Also got a couple of guests coming up
at some point in the show. We got Daniel Gebbo,
winner of the five K. We spoke with him earlier
in the day, so we'll put that into the podcast.
I also got a nice, long one sit down with
Nick Palmer, you know, a fun, colorful personality in the
poker world. Somewhat polarizing out there as well, but we
had a good sit down almost thirty minutes with good
old Nikki p So stay tuned for that as well.
If you are listening to the episode, please you know,
wherever you're listening, I should say, hit the favorite button,
leave a review. Give us five stars, six stars, seven stars,
eight whatever the heck the mac stars is. Give it
to us, all that sort of stuff that engagement. Share
the podcast, tell your friends, you know whatever, it helps
us grow. It really does. Another thing I want to
kick off is, let's really let's let's start getting some
emails flowing in. Hit me up on Twitter if you
want Donnie Underscore Peters DM me on Instagram. If you
want to just Donnie Donnie Peters over there. Do you
want to hear what you guys have to say, Tell
me where I can improve, Tell me what you want
to know from the floor, Ask some questions, give me
some takes. Shout out to Nick Denny who emailed in
the other day. I didn't see it till now because
I neglected to look at the podcast email. But podcast
at PokerGO dot com and if it's something worth talking about,
you know, maybe we'll read it on air. Of course,
a couple more items as well, High Stakes Poker. There's
a new season streaming right now over on poker Go,
so just head to pokergroat dot com, or you guys
can download the app and watch those legends go to work.
Use the promo code HSP sixteen for thirty dollars off
your first year of a new annual plan. This season
on High Stakes Poker steaks up to five hundred one thousand.
That is right, Aj Benza and Nick Shulman are on
the call. You got Kevin Hart has returned. You got
Andrew Rubbell in the mix. You got Alan Keating in
the mix. You've got Stanley Tang in the mix. You
got Jennifer Tilly in the mix. Doug Polk plays on
this season as well, So a ton of fun going
on on the latest season of High Stakes Poker. Sam
Kekey as well. He battles a lot with Kevin Hart.
So check that out. Pokergro dot com Season sixteen of
High Stakes Poker. And then if you want to play
some poker your well, if you want to play on
some high stakes Poker themed tables, you can do so
for free over at play poker Go. Visit playpokerg dot
com slash podcast. Got hooked up with a nice little
link there, and if you go to that url during
the summertime, you can claim a free one hundred k
in gold that'll get you started with a nice boost
to your play Poker Girl bankroll. So once again that's
play PokerGO dot com slash podcast. It is free online poker.
If you see poker Go Donnie, that is me. I
have my own custom avatar on there. Come try and
take my chips, but I will guarantee you that I'm
going to take your chips first. Up today, I do
want to just mention the big reveal that happens inside
the Paris Ballroom. The curtain was dropped. You had CEO
of the WASIP, Ty Stewart was up there. You had
Jeff Platt, the MC of the WASIP up there. President
of Poker Go Escandani was up there as well. Justin Garone,
who is the president for Blueprint fifty two, he was
up there as well. Blueprint fifty two is the casino
and Studio Furnishing's arm of PokerGO that built this monstrosity
of a set that spans like it's basically the size
of a football field. And I'm not joking that the
room that it's in, it goes wall to wall on
each side. The room is two hundred and thirty eight
feet wide. You know, obviously there's a little bit of
buffer on each side, so let's call it two hundred
feet long. I mean, I know it's not completely a
football field, but it's pretty damn closed. It's got five
feature tables, It's got a cluster of twelve tables in
the middle of those five feature tables are kind of
shaped like a horseshoe type of shape. They are all
rfid'd out. They got all the cameras, all the bells
and whistles. I believe I heard justin say there's a
million and a half feet of LED tape. I mean
there's LED from as far on the left as you
can see to all the way over on the right.
It all wraps around smooth curves that go around, so
it doesn't really it's not hard edges or corners. It
doesn't really look like anything starts or stops. It's very
kind of free flowing throughout there. It's got two levels
to it. There's the floor level that you know, ropes
around where all the feature tables are, so you can
stand there. But if you want a higher vantage point,
there is a little balcony that goes around as well.
So it's pretty darn awesome. Oh and then of course,
you know, right in front of the cluster of twelve tables,
there is the the WSP pregame show set that's its
own little kind of mini stage up there. So I mean,
this thing is awesome. If you got to check it
out down there, it's incredible. If you haven't, in your coming,
I hope you really like it. Hopefully I didn't over
sell it, but the thing is damn awesome. I am
not easily impressed by a lot of this stuff. I
am a hard critic, but this thing absolutely blew me
up when I saw it in person. I am happy
now that everyone gets to see it, and it also
makes me feel like the twenty twenty six World Series
of Poker is finally one hundred percent alive. The heart
is beating, the heart is racing as far as I'm concerned,
and we are ready to freaking go. First thing I
want to get into today Daniel Gebba's redemption in the
five k nolam at hold Him. I told you guys
on the last show that Daniel Gebba is the type
of player that when he gets hot, big things can happen,
and Geba did just that. He topped a field of
five hundred and seventy entries to win half a million
dollars five hundred and two thousand dollars in his pocket
largest career score by a lot, his first Gabisop Gold
brace and when I mentioned the redemption, that is because
two years ago Geba got six in this very event
for one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. He is a
member of the chip Leader Coach and Crew. Chance Corneth
the head of chip Leader Coaching. He was on the
rail for the entire final table, sweating Gebba. Fox enjoined
later on. Foxen was busy playing in the twenty five
K Heads Up Championship, but then both Cornith and Foxen
jumped into the Winter photo flanking Gebba as he celebrated
there and posed with his first Dobasopy gold bracelet. It
was a pleasure to talk with Daniel Gebba afterwards. We
joked on our way from from the final table over
to the interview area where we were going to set
up with him. You know that just I had played
with him over the years, you know I had obviously
commentated on some of his stuff, and he was like,
you know, thanks for thanks for keeping up the image
telling people how much of a wild man am. I
was like, well, you are kind of wild man. That's
kind of how you play. I mean when we played
together I saw some hands and I was like, wow, okay,
this guy's out there. Got to adjust my strategy. But
you know, as we talked about, he's somebody who he
plays a certain style because he loves it and that's
the way that he believes the game should be played.
So really really cool to hear from Daniel Gebba. But
let's get into that right now. Two years ago this
very event, you had a deep run sixth place, one
hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. You feel a sense of
redemption now that you were back on that stage and
you were able to close it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I actually didn't think about that, but it's, uh,
the player I was then versus the player I am
now is you know, wildly, wildly different. It was quite
insane circumstances. But back then I think I just started
working with the chipular coaching the chance, so then you're
just making the final table. Back then it was just insane.
Every page jump was like life changing like so, but yeah,
I guess it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Harh.
Speaker 3: You came back and you know, won the same event.
Speaker 2: That's nice.
Speaker 1: Your playing style is an exciting one, aggressive, fearless. You're
certainly someone who you know you're you're not going to
ever hold back, right, You're always going to go for it.
Why does that approach fit you?
Speaker 2: I think the approach.
Speaker 3: Is the right way to play, honestly. I mean, I
think the poker is very dynamic and the human psychology
aspect of it, the fact that you're playing against humans
is extremely relevant. So knowing how to adjust against the
ever changing circumstances that I at a poker table is
very important. So, you know, sometimes you got to put
them in tough spot.
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand and three, I did a little
bit of digging. You responded to a post on social
media from chip Leader Coaching, and you said, the moment
you start second guessing yourself, it's over rule number one
in poker, do not hesitate. You know that philosophy seems
to really perfectly match your play. Why is that mindset
important to you to not hesitate, to always kind of
trust yourself and go for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's extremely important. I think that's one
of the things that you know. I think Alex Foxon
is the best in the world at probably the best
at or as in terms of performing and going with
the with your instinct not second guessing yourself, not overthinking
in a game where which requires a lot of thinking.
So it's you know, and it's incomplete information. So I think, yeah,
that's having the confidence in your abilities and trusting your
intuition is something that you can't learn. You have to train,
you have to be out here, you have to grind,
no other substitute for that.
Speaker 1: There's always kind of an inflection point in a tournament,
you know, when when you start to kind of think, okay,
like maybe this is the one, maybe it's gonna happen.
You know, it's starting to all come and work in
my favor. Was there kind of a moment in this
tournament when you thought, okay, like it's getting real, I
have a lot of chips, like I'm making a run,
I'm this far away, Like, you know, when does that
start to happen for you?
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny, I almost didn't play this tournament.
So I've played the first bullet, I busted one hand
off bagging and then the next day. Yeah, it was
very close in terms of of maxing, but I'm glad
I did so that worked out As far as understanding
or you know, having that feeling, I think it was.
This tournament went by pretty fast. There wasn't that many players.
I think Day two was fairly smooth for me, and
I think when I had the chip lead is kind
of when it became real. I think like final two
tables is when I started chipping up, and that's when
I was like, Okay, here we are. Let's let's make
sure we don't mess this up. Let's let's not mess
this up this time. Let's let's close it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've been around this game for for you know,
kind of a long time now, and you've been knocking
at the door several times. What does this victory mean
to you at this stage of your career, of your journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it means this victory is it's literally a dream
come true. I said that earlier. You know, I've been
playing for almost six years now, and the the process
that you have to go through, most people would refuse
if they actually realized what it would be, right, So
I kind of got lucky that I've managed to get
through it because it's extremely brutal. The swings are brutal,
the mental game, aspect, performance strategy, there's a lot of
that goes into it that you finally overcome you know,
the different plateaus you go through, right, you know, so
being able to get to this point means means a lot,
it means, it means everything. Yeah, it wasn't all a waste,
if you will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, poker journeys are never easy. As you just mentioned
along the way, any people who you would say, are
you know were the most influential to you to help
you along that journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, obviously the chips are coaching Chance and
fox and Chance literally changed my life. I was just
a young kid who you took a chance on me.
So I'm glad to repay that, repay the trust, and
so yeah, I'll always be grateful for that. And then
you know, Alex Foxon is I think the best poker player,
tormo poker player in history, so getting to learn from
him is invaluable. And yeah, so it's been that's as
far as the strategy said. Yeah, that's those two have
been pretty pretty massive in my.
Speaker 1: J We're not even through the first week yet, You've
already got a bracelet, You've.
Speaker 4: Got five hunderd K in your pocket.
Speaker 1: Do you view it as okay? The summer is a
success or are you like okay, I'm hungry for more.
Speaker 3: I have to control myself. Here the HURK looking at
I'm looking at the hunter Ka. It looks looks looks interesting.
Uh yeah, no, I do have to you know, bankle
management has never been my expertise or something that I
have excelled at, so I have to be careful kind
of you know, now blast off five bullets in the
twenty five k. So yeah, it's but I'm gonna play.
I would like to play. I'm probably not gonna do
a full summer grind, but uh, you know, I'll play
some of the bigger stuff and then obviously excited for
the main event that's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1: And then last question here, when you look back on
this tournament, this win years from now, let's say, five, ten,
fifteen years down the road, what are you gonna remember
most about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the crazy thing about something like this is like
it just goes by so fast that you're so like
focused and you're locked in, you're not really paying attention
or like being in the moment as much. I think
I did a good job this time. But yeah, I
think at the I would say the moment I'll always
remember is like right after I won, and then I
had like fox with a chance standing there and I'm
like holding a bracelet. It's felt pretty surreal, felt like
a weird, like sim thing, like, oh, okay, that's crazy
that I'm here, And yeah, it's pretty cereal.
Speaker 1: That was Daniel Gebba, a really cool cat, somebody who's
been in the game for six years now. He's got
his biggest career score, he's got his first bracelet. He's
also one of those players you know, put him in
the same sort of stylistic vein as an Alex Foxen
as a Jesse lonaz As. If you want to take
it a little bit more old school Vanessa Selbs like
he's just gonna have the pedal to the floor, pressing
on the gas. He's not going to miss an opening
in terms of taking a shot there. That's just how
he likes to play. That's how he wants to play.
And when those types of players get hot. I said it,
big things can happen. A big thing happened here. But
now going forward, now the fact that he's got half
a million dollar score here. Right at the start of
the summer, he said, Bankroll's not his strongest trait. Bankroll
management should say is not his strongest trait. Well, don't
be surprised that this wouldn't be the last time that
we hear or see Gebba making a deep run. And
it could even be a bigger tournament. You know, if
bankroll management is not his thing, maybe he's out there
blast in the twenty five k a fifty k and
he's just going for it. Maybe if he's got chance
corner and Alex Foxon in his corner, you know, willing
to help when we know how successful those guys are,
so willing to help, you know, financially buy some pieces
that sort of stuff. I mean, this guy could do
some really, really big things this summer. And again it
was a pleasure to talk to Daniel Gebo. For as
much as that was good news, I do have some
bad news that I need to jump into. Tristan Wade's
a new PLO friend Josh. He did not make the
money in the five k PLO. So I'm sorry to
break it to everyone there, but I'm gonna guess that
it's not the last time we hear about Tristan and
Josh's friendship. I will try and check in with Tristan
throughout the summer see if anything else has happened between
the two. But they obviously exchange numbers. They had a
lot of a lot of fun chatting together. I was
right there for that whole interaction, So so that was
very cool and hopefully, you know, we get some more
stories out of it. Josh's busted out hany and he
did send it to Tristan trist and sent it to
me blind verse blind on the King Queen seven deuce
is when they got the money in. Josh had King
seven six five for what he flocked was top and
bottom pairs, so he had kings and sevens. His opponent
had King ten eight deuce turned two pair, but then
the river was a ten and that ten obviously sent
Josh out the door short of the money over in
the Mystery Mini Sorry, the Mini Mystery Millions had that backwards.
Up to two hundred and twenty six entries total four
five hundred and seventy nine on day one d There
are two more starting fights to go. Both of them
are going to take place on Saturday, May thirtieth. One
starts at ten am, the other one starts at six pm.
Now ten thousand entries sounds like a lot and it
is a lot, but.
Speaker 4: It's not in the.
Speaker 1: Top fifth ten all time yet. It's not in the
top ten of course either. It needs thirteen thousand, one
hundred and nine to break into that top fifteen. I'll
say that's a foregone conclusion for sure. And then if
it wants to get into the top ten, eighteen thousand,
one hundred and eighteen entries is what this needs to
get there. I think that's very likely to happen as well.
You know, I would expect this thing to get up
to twenty thousand, if not more. Now, normally you would
get in the fifth starting flight, you would get a
bigger number, and then in the sixth and final starting
fight you would get an even bigger number. But the
fact that these these two starting fights are on the
same day, it might fall that, you know, one E
is really big. Let's say, I mean, if if today
got almost forty six hundred entries, then one E is
gonna get what six seven thousand, I feel like is
a ballpark number. And then you know, you'll get a
lot of carryover. But because it does start from or
at six pm, probably I don't know, another three thousand,
four thousand or so, But that's certainly well over ten
thousand between those two flights. What puts this tournament up
over twenty thousand. That would get it into the top
ten all time, which is pretty crazy. And someone's gonna
win a boatload of money. I mean, a bunch of
people are gonna win a boatload of money. But that's
gonna be a lot of fun to see people pull
the bounties in that one for what was a five
hundred and fifty dollars buy in. Largest ever tournament does
belong to the WSP In twenty nineteen, the Big Fifty
generated twenty eight thousand, three hundred and seventy one entries.
A couple of winners that we're going to get into.
We got Jason Daily. He won event number four, the
fifteen hundred dollars Omaha High Low for his third WSOP Goldberry,
so that he also scooped one hundred and ninety one
thousand dollars. Perry Green got sixth for almost thirty one
thousand dollars. Perry Green is ninety years old, He's got
three gold berry so it's on record. I believe it
was Stue Hunger's win in nineteen eighty one where Perry
Green finished second. He finished second to Stue Younger. I
believe it was the nineteen eighty one w SPEMIN events.
Poker dot Org did some coverage of Perry Green specifically,
and in one of their stories, they said that while
the while an official record was unavailable, he's believed being
Perry Green to be the oldest player ever to make
a soop final table. So that's pretty crazy. I mean,
even if that's not true, Perry Green doing this at
ninety years old, it is freaking just an incredible feat.
So he's out there battling thirty one thousand dollars for
him over in the Casino Employees event. We did get
a winner. Jerome Nepple won the event for sixty four
thousand dollars. Nepll is a poker dealer from New Mexico.
I was reading through the Poker News recap of it,
and according to Poker News, it's Neple's second career live cash.
Prior to this, had one cash for six hundred and
thirteen dollars. I think, which is wild that he's now
won sixty four k and that he does plan on
continuing to deal at the twenty twenty six disip this summer.
Nepple also told Poker News that he's planning a move
with his girlfriend to Florida and that this money is
life changing and will help me get debt free. So
congrats to Jason Daly on winning the Omaha High Load.
Congrats to Jerome Nepple on winning the Casino Employees Event. Now,
next up, I want to play for you guys a
special interview that I did Tonight's or last night, excuse
me with Nick Palma. Now, Nick Palma, he's one of
those players who he's been a pretty popular or I
should say, well known figure in poker and kind of
growing more and more over the last few years. He's
quickly become a talking point in the early week here,
the first week here, the twenty twenty six World Series
of Poker. If you've been following the stuff that's happening
in the action the social media, you've probably seen his name.
You know you got Day one Sean deeb is tweeting
how he threatened to spit on someone they do. He's
in a video with Phil Helmy with Phil Mey saying,
this guy called me a pansy.
Speaker 4: So there's that.
Speaker 1: I asked Nick about both of those things. In the interview,
you also got Nick himself constantly on social media, just
with how with how outspoken he is, with how confident
he is, his his personality, how colorful he can be.
I think he's a great follow on social media just
for the entertainment aspect, for the content aspect, you know.
But I wanted to get to know, like, like, who
this guy is, what makes him tick, you know, beyond
what we just see in headlines or what we see
on people posting on social media. He's had success in poker.
He wanted up as Supeagle Bracelet in twenty twenty five,
but it wasn't online bracelet, and you know, according to him,
then we'll get into that. But it's like one of
those things where yes, I have this, but I need
to win a live one. I just think that Nick
Palmer is one of the most fascinating personalities in poker
right now. You know, whatever side of the fence you're
on with him, because he can be a bit polarizing.
That's just the nature of his persona, the nature of
his attitude. I wanted to sit down with him. I
want to learn more about who he is, what drives
him why he approaches the game the way that he does,
why he loves it so much. He's constantly saying, like,
I love poker. No one loves it more than me.
I got the biggest heart, all that sort of stuff.
So it's a longer one, but I think it's a
really good one, and here's my sit down with Nick Palmer.
All right, Nick Palmer, first of all, thank you for
coming on the Poker Real podcast with me. The first
thing that I want to ask you about, so when
you ever walk into a room, there's just a confidence
about you. You see it on your social media, you
exude it with your attitude, your personality at the table.
Has confidence always come natural or did you have to
learn that throughout your life?
Speaker 5: When when I was younger, my uncle always he gave
me the best advice I ever got, and he said,
do something. Whatever whatever you do, you do it one
hundred percent. You don't do it at all.
Speaker 2: So everything I've ever done, I've given my I've given
my all, and when you give your role, I've always
had that confidence.
Speaker 5: If I was a half asset or something, I wouldn't
have that confidence. But anything I've ever done, I do
it one hundred percent or I just don't even bother
doing it?
Speaker 4: Has that been your whole life, like since you.
Speaker 2: Was a teenager young teenager? Yeah, okay, I like it?
Speaker 5: And uh yeah, I mean like also like if you're
gonna do something, you better believe in yourself or why
even do it?
Speaker 4: I mean that's true. I agree.
Speaker 1: Is there a line in your mind where confidence can
become arrogant?
Speaker 2: Illusion?
Speaker 4: I mean delusion? Yeah, whatever, I mean, listen in your mind.
Speaker 1: Maybe not right, but some people might look at you,
but this guy's ca this guy's arrogant, he's.
Speaker 4: Full of himself.
Speaker 1: But is that how you view it? Are you just
like No, I'm just supremely confident in me.
Speaker 5: The truth is you have to have like a form
of delusion or other things, because the truth is most
people aren't gonna do what you're doing, and it takes
a lot of determination and guts to make it and
if it was easy, everyone would do it.
Speaker 1: One of the things I always see you say, I
mean you even told it to me and our text
messages like you love the game more than anyone. You
care about it. We know how much you talk about heart.
I mean, what makes you care so much?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 5: So The truth is, I went through a lot of
hardships when I was younger and I found poker as
a MIDI like a mid teenager, like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen
years old, and I lost a lot of my family
when I was younger and I found poker and so
it's just been me and poker since then. So it's
Poker's my family, and the people I met in poker
are my family.
Speaker 4: Is that in your mind like an escape from what
that once was?
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's basically my safe haven.
Speaker 5: So basically, when I'm at the table, nothing else matters
besides me the cards and the and the players that
are around me. And it's always just been a safe
haven of mine. And to be honest, when I'm away
from the table, I have a little bit of a
hard time because I think about, you know, things that
I shouldn't be thinking about sometimes. But whenever I'm at
the table, that's why I play so much. It's like
my it's my getaway.
Speaker 4: Do you feel like you're a bit of a lone
wolf in this game?
Speaker 2: I guess like yes and no.
Speaker 5: But the truth is, I have so many friends in
the game that I've made throughout the years. But uh,
I guess I have isolated myself at times because of
just things I've been through. But as I'm growing up
and getting older, I'm learning to open myself up more
and and it's not the truth is you are and
by yourself in life. I have I have people, a
family that took me in that I got lucky. I
have close friends of mine Brandon Hamlet and others and
that are always there for me. So like it can
seem like you're a lone wolf okay at times, but
the truth is, you wouldn't be anywhere in life without
the people around you.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you don't mind me asking, and what
was it like growing up when you were younger and
you were going through some of that adversity, Like do
you care to elaborate on a little bit more and
just just kind of paint the picture.
Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, yeah, I don't know, to be honest, Like, uh,
as I was coming up, I guess I was younger,
So you don't really realize that, like the severity of
things until you get a little older. So it's given
me hard uh you know, tough skin, but it also
gives me the It gives me the resolve and like
the determination to keep fighting through.
Speaker 2: No matter what.
Speaker 5: Cause a lot of people have faced hardships and it
doesn't matter what happened to you. It matters what you
do after that. And and I think that's the most
important thing.
Speaker 1: Was there a point in life or your poker life,
I should say, when when the game itself like almost
broke you, or maybe you thought I can't do this,
or I want to quit, or it's just too much.
I mean, obviously we know variants can be a bitch
for lack of a better term, you know, but just
going through it all, live in this life.
Speaker 5: So I messed up with money in twenty eighteen with
a few people that I rectified, but that was a
tough time where Like, you know, I built a lot
of good relationships in poker throughout the years and people
some people turn their backs on me and they wanted
to kick me when I was down, and a lot
of people would have just packed it up at that
point and just gave up. But that's how That's when
you find out who you really are and the real
people around you, and you keep going and even since then,
you know, you go through down swings.
Speaker 2: It happens to everyone.
Speaker 5: I'd like to say, like, I like to not compare myself,
but it's like a Michael Jordan or a Derek Jeter.
Derek Jeter, you know, he goes to the plate, you know,
thirty forty times in a row.
Speaker 2: Even he'll have some self out and stuff, you know.
Speaker 5: But uh, the strong competitors and the strong people in life,
they find the way and they keep going. And I mean,
if it was easy in whatever field you were in,
everyone would do it.
Speaker 2: And it's not easy.
Speaker 1: Is there any other path that you could have seen
yourself ever choosing.
Speaker 4: Like a job or a career outside of poker? Is
only this?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: I mean, well, obviously when I was younger, I wanted
to be a New York Yankee, but that wasn't going
to be a thing.
Speaker 2: But I mean, like a regular job, you're.
Speaker 4: Just not good enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I was pretty good up until a
certain age.
Speaker 5: But I mean if you're not from a place that
like place full like all the way around and all
this disadvantage. But if I were to work a regular job,
I would have wanted to be a lawyer. That's a
lot of schooling though, But uh, I've always been good.
I have a gift of gab as like some people
know and I could argue and uh and I'm pretty persistent,
and uh yeah I would be I would have wanted
to be a lawyer, but I don't want to do
eight or ten years of schooling.
Speaker 2: But yeah, a lawyer for sure.
Speaker 4: What a I mean kind of in the vein of school.
Speaker 1: And you know, what's been your poker study like or
is it just you just playing through experience?
Speaker 4: Do you study in your off time?
Speaker 2: Like a lot of you so a lot of it
is experienced.
Speaker 5: And then also I came up with some of the
best players of all time. I came up with Alex Foxen,
who might be literally the best player of all time.
I came up with Bucky Matthew Wantman, mikey Wang I
used to travel with all over Europe for two years
and he's another great mind in the game. A couple
of the younger online kids that are friends of mine
are Julian Julian.
Speaker 2: Barnardis Brandon Hamlet.
Speaker 5: T Slaate, Tyler Hurtfield and basically just keeping good network
in a good good group around me and just brainstorming
talking about hands with them experience online and live and yeah,
just a lot of experience and a lot of brainstorming
with some of the best minds in the game, specifically
like Fox and when he was coming up, Mikey Wang
and now my friend's Brandon Hamlet and these other kids.
Speaker 1: Got to ask you about the heart again. You know,
what does heart mean to you? In poker?
Speaker 2: Specifically, heart means.
Speaker 5: That feeling when it's the tenth tournament in a row,
when you're deep and they take it away from you,
and you could pack it up and give up, or
you could learn from what happened and you just give
your thousand percent the next time and you're.
Speaker 2: Gonna get it. It's all up to you.
Speaker 5: Like that heart is, heart is falling down and getting
back up. What happens is people fall down too many
times and they.
Speaker 2: Don't get back up.
Speaker 5: But if you get back up, it's all up to
you and you could and you could achieve anything you
know you set your mind to.
Speaker 1: My friends and I have a kind of a running
joke where we we have what we call the heart rankings,
and we say, you know, so and so's king of
the heart rankings, or so and So's king of the
heart rankings. I would say you're probably king of the
heart rankings, at least from what I see you put
out there, the persona that you exude. You know, you're
always talking about how much you care for the game,
and I think you see you at the table, like
with your fight and your determination. Now what is it
that's driving you behind that?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 4: Is it the money? Is it respect? Is it just
the pure competition of it all?
Speaker 5: So I've always I was really bad with money when
I was younger.
Speaker 2: But this is off topic.
Speaker 4: But uh, I don't get good.
Speaker 5: I don't care about money at all. I want to
do the be the best poker player ever. I want
people to know me for being a hard worker and dedicated,
being friendly at the tables. I want to I want
to be one of the best players ever. I want
to have the most final tables, the most wins. So basically,
it's just respect, it's the competition. And on top of
all of what I said before, it's I lost all
my family when I was younger, and I want to
keep my family name going. My uncle's name was the
same as mine, Nicholas David Palma, and I want our
name to live on forever. He's not I'm the last
one left, and so I'm doing all of this to
basically put on for my family and myself and try
to just see how far I can go and how
much I can accomplish.
Speaker 2: And I want people that have went.
Speaker 5: Through stuff in life and uh that to know that
they can accomplish whatever they set their minds to if
they just you know, stick to it, and if you
have the hard work, if you keep good people around you,
the sky's truly the limit on.
Speaker 2: And it's not just for poker, it's any field that you're.
Speaker 1: In now along that journey that you're on. You know,
do you where are you at in terms of the
respect earning? Are you? Have you earned it yet? Are
you still earning it? Like like do you feel like
it's it's there?
Speaker 5: The respect is definitely there out of a say, like
out of a level, out of a level ten and
a fox and is a ten. And because I relate
everything to a fox it because Foxing to me is
number one. There's a few other people obviously if Foxing
is a ten, I'm at like a seven or a
seven and a half right now, and I got a
lot of work to do. But I mean to the
average person, yes, I have a lot of respect but
I hold myself to a very high regard, so I
want to get to the ten.
Speaker 1: You want a WSOP bracelet online in twenty twenty five
in October? Do you still feel like job's unfinished with
a live bracelet? Like how do you look at you
personally that has an online one but doesn't have a
live one, But it's out here chasing it.
Speaker 2: The job is far from finished.
Speaker 5: The truth is when you're great in whatever field you're in,
it's never enough, but you need that because if you
didn't have that, you would just be complacent.
Speaker 2: The truth is about life.
Speaker 5: A lot of people just want to get by, have
enough money to do whatever they want, and then there's
another group of people who want to be the best,
and those people they have a sickness, but in a
good way. Like it's never enough. If I win a
tournament today, it's good for a day. I gotta do
it again, because the true great it's all about consistency
and longevity. If you don't have those things, you're just
a flash in a pan or you know, like it's cool.
But the real respectable people and the real legends, they
stand that tests of time, and that's what my whole goal.
Speaker 1: Is sounds like you're one of those people who might
be deep into Kobe Bryant videos or Michael Jordan or
you know, like those types of great I mean, I'm
a sucker.
Speaker 4: For that stuff too.
Speaker 1: Write you know how often they were in the gym,
how many shots they put up, all the different workouts
that they did. It seems like you're that type of
person as well, and you're kind of drawn to that,
that chase for greatness.
Speaker 2: Definitely.
Speaker 5: Also, like I'm on Instagram and a lot of my
stuff just Instagram inspirational quotes and inspirational pages.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what would you say to people who
might think that's cheesy? I mean, listen, I love that shit. Okay,
I love it. I think it drives me too, and
it helps I think.
Speaker 5: I think those people don't have a big enough goals
or they gave.
Speaker 2: Up on their dreams that they truly wanted to begin with.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, if you were to win a live race,
So whether it's this summer, next summer, or whatever, do
you think that changes for anything anything for you internally
or is it just one more notch up.
Speaker 5: It'll definitely change something, but it's just one more notch up.
The truth is, like I said, you need to just
keep doing it over and over, like uh, the sickness
is the gift and the curse, you know, like because
it's never enough, so.
Speaker 2: Like when does it end?
Speaker 5: But all you could do is just as long as
you're alive, just go one thousand percent and achieve as
much as you can achieve, and show people what hard
work rings and h and just have good energy about
you and and and just yeah, just be a good person.
Speaker 1: Basically, You've had a couple of moments over your career,
but two more recently that I got to ask you about.
You got Sean Deep's out there on social media saying
that you threaten to spit on someone you know. You
got Phil Helmi posted a video where like this guy
called me a pansy.
Speaker 4: You're like, yeah, it was me.
Speaker 2: It was me.
Speaker 4: It was right next to me. And what's what's going on?
Speaker 1: What's in your mind there trying to get in people's
heads or are you really.
Speaker 5: No, No, no, I'll be real, I don't care, So
I'm never I'm never just randomly telling like the nice
guy Joe the plumber, I'm gonna spit in his face
or aunt Betty, like, Hey, aunt, Betty, I'm gonna spit
in your face if I say like. And by the way,
I'll tell you exactly what happened. This guy was being
a really a real, I don't know, a real piece
of shit.
Speaker 4: You can say whatever you want. The guy was there.
Speaker 5: The guy was being a real piece of shit, and
he says a couple of things that I would never
say to anyone. And so I just said bluntly, if
we weren't in here, I'd spit in your face if
we weren't in this casino, because I'm a I'm.
Speaker 2: A top professional, so I'm never gonna get in trouble
on any properties.
Speaker 5: Basically along the lines of yeah, like like, I don't
I don't tolerate anyone talking to me the way you're
talking to me. But I'm at work now, essentially, But uh,
that's not any and I still shouldn't be doing that anyway.
I should still be a little bit big of a
person because I'm man enough to admit that. But it's
he was in the point point one percent of people
that I would talk to like that. But it's still
I'm thirty six years old, so I should do you
a little better. But the guy was fifty five and
he hasn't learned yet. So like sometimes I like to
teach a little bit of a lesson and then I
and then I was like, you know, being a dick
to him a little bit, but like the right way
like after that, like you know how to talk shit
get under people's skin at that point, because then it's
easy with those people.
Speaker 4: Well, let me let me just rewind once, like where'd
you grow up?
Speaker 2: I grew up in the Bronx.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly, So I mean I get it.
Speaker 1: You know, like your city life, you've got hard skin,
like you know, you know how, you know how to
dish it out, but you also know how to take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you need to take it.
Speaker 4: So so I understand what happened with Phil.
Speaker 5: Okay, I'll be honest, Like even though Phil came up
to me and like we shook hands in a pot,
like whatever, my thoughts on Phil is I think he's
the worst.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna be honest.
Speaker 5: I think he's an amazing poker player, or was an
amazing poker player and a poker legend. The games passed
him by immensely. That's my thoughts. And I think every
other top players thoughts, but he is an all time
legend and he is sixty years old, so like how
long are you going to be able to be able
to stay sharp as well? So like I'm not you know,
it is what it is. He's six years old, it's
a new climate. The kids are all very hard workers.
It's hard to keep up with them. So I'm not
gonna bash him on that sense. But uh, he's just
he's he's just the worst. In my opinion, He's a
walking infomercial. He was wearing a hat one time for
a year where like they rug pulled the people on
day one and he was definitely wearing the hat because
he was contract contractually obligated to keep.
Speaker 2: Wearing the hat.
Speaker 5: The company legitimately stole the people's money. I mean, this
is just this is just a fact. He's a walking infomercial.
He's just unbearable, to be honest, And I'm and I'm
I think I'm speaking for about seventy five percent of
the top professionals. I think they think the same as me,
and I think it might be higher than that.
Speaker 2: But I'm trying to be nice about it.
Speaker 4: But it sounds like the words you shook hands and
you know.
Speaker 5: That's because he came up to me on camera and
I don't want to, like, I.
Speaker 2: Know he's gonna post it.
Speaker 5: And and I just I don't want to be an
asshole just to be an asshole. So like I don't
mind berating him, like when it's just me and him,
you know, like I don't want to be too much,
too too brash. You know, it is what it is.
But uh, I think he stinks. And I told him.
I told him as he tweeted about it.
Speaker 4: I mean, you were in the video saying that, yeah,
you're like, yeah, I said that. I said that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Like I stand on anything I do and say
at all times. And I also will admit if I'm
wrong in my eyes or I'm man enough to I'm
not like Trump where like if I think I'm wrong,
I'll say it. I've apologized to people. Yeah, And I
also didn't say anything that's too crazy. I called him
a pansy, and I think I said he stinks. I
didn't talk about his family or anything, you know, like
so then I would have apologized seriously, but like, you know, whatever,
I called him a pansy whatever, it's for shits and
gig really like it's nothing serious. I don't I don't
want anything bad to happen to him or anything. I
think he's a legend, and I just he's just not
my cup of.
Speaker 1: Tea now this summer. I know we're only whatever less
than a weekend. I mean, how are things going for you?
Are you just right back in the groove? Are you
feeling like it's gonna be a big summer?
Speaker 2: I just want to continue on the last thing about Phil.
This is also something like that, like some of these
big names they just got away with.
Speaker 5: He was involved in the ub scandal with Russ Hamilton
and he just got a complete pass.
Speaker 2: I mean that's that.
Speaker 4: I don't really know how much he was involved.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 5: I don't think he was involved in the cheating, but
he knew stuff was going on and he just didn't
do anything about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean yeah, I think it's safe to say
that there are a lot of people out there that
might feel the same way you feel about that, which
is understandable because in those moments you might want an
ambassador like that to say the right thing or do
the right thing or not, because sometimes silence can condone
what something's being done right, and that that's kind of
the issue that I think.
Speaker 5: Basically, like I'm not trying to be that harsh, but
it's really it's really just being a sellout. It's like
just taking a paycheck, turning a blind eye and or
not doing anything about it and then like just washing
your hands with the situation when it was over.
Speaker 2: But like he's definitely culpable of something in this in that.
Speaker 1: Situation, do you think that your stance or your attitude
and maybe how some people perceive you might limit you
possibly getting deals if they're like, hm, do we really
want to sponsor this guy, give him money, make him
an ambassador if we know he's gonna speak his mind
because we might not be able to control that. Not
not that you're going out there going crazy, but.
Speaker 2: Okay, I definitely think that's the case for sure.
Speaker 5: But also this is poker, and and like it's not
like we have Disney behind us where we were like
when we're you know, and we have to like like
why can't people give real opinions. I don't say, like
don't be don't be racist, or don't be sexist, don't
be these things, but why can't you have your opinion
on like real topics and like give your That's why
a lot of people like me and dislike me. I
would say a good amount of people more a lot
more people like me than dislike me. But it's because
I give you my real thoughts. But those are my
own thoughts. That doesn't mean I'm right or wrong. It's
up to the person to gauge however they feel about it.
But uh, but yeah, if I was signed to, like
a more serious contract, I would tone myself down in
certain situations. I would know what topics to broach and
which ones not to. But I would still have my opinions,
but I would tone them. Like if I got signed
by like WSOP and they have ESPN behind them, then
I would know to tone it down a little bit
and what topics to touch and what topics not to touch.
Speaker 2: But until the.
Speaker 1: Flip side of that, though, some people might say that
it's fake, Well not necessarily that, But if the right
company were to approach you, right, they might want the
full Nick Palmer experience because that is what is gonna
get eyeballs, that's what's gonna get clicks. That's why people
follow this guy, right, So it might be maybe if
you then did that and kind of tone yourself down,
maybe then you're shooting your stuff.
Speaker 4: On the foot. So it's just interesting to think about.
Speaker 5: You know, well, well this hasn't happened yet because I've
always given my full opinions about stuff, so i haven't
held back clearly. But uh, even now, I'm I don't
know if I I'm with coin poker now, I don't
know if you're gonna put this in, but uh yeah, yeah,
I mean they let me say whatever I want.
Speaker 2: They know it's clicks.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm not like, I'm not like bashing people
on like a hatred level. I'm just giving my normal opinions.
And I'm sure they like that actually because it gives
more eyeballs and stuff. But uh yeah, I'm not trying
to be a bad I'm never trying contrary to what
like a small percentage of people thinking, I'm never trying
to be a bad guy or anything. I'm just giving
my own thoughts. And you could whether you could like
me or not like me, and but you're gonna get.
Speaker 2: The real me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, on the summer, how's it going, I'm three.
Do you feel like it's gonna be a big summer
for you. I almost feel like it is.
Speaker 4: I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I just have this weird feeling You're gonna like this
is like the summer of Nick Palmer for summers.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 5: I think I'm gonna have the sickest summer in WSLP history.
Speaker 4: And what is that? Four bracelets?
Speaker 2: Like what I mean?
Speaker 1: It's gonna I thowt you wrote an article you said
you're gonna win three.
Speaker 5: I'll be honest, It's gonna be really tough because much
respect to the Grinder, who's an all time legend and gambler,
he won the PPC last year and the main event,
so it's gonna be hard to do better than that.
But I'm gonna try my best to win the main event,
and then I'm gonna try my best to win one
or two other big ones. It's gonna have to be
two big ones because he won PPC, so I'm gonna
have to win two bracelets and then maybe the main
event to overtake the Grinder for the sickest summer ever.
But uh, I believe I could do it. I really
do believe that. Uh it's whatever. You have to be
a little bit delusional, but like, I.
Speaker 4: Truly we're all a little bit delusional in this industry.
Speaker 2: I truly, I truly believe.
Speaker 5: That I could do anything and I sent my mind
to Obviously in poker there's variants there.
Speaker 2: But like I've been on the wrong side of variants.
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of people say that, but I truly,
I I truly have been people could think whatever they want,
and uh hey, maybe if the I always I always said,
I just need to run a little bit bad. I
don't even want to run good. I just want to
run a little bit bad. Okay, And then yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you someone who are you only wsp Are you
only here because you're here chasing braicelets in the glory?
Speaker 4: Or are you gonna, you know, bounce around.
Speaker 5: I'm basically gonna be playing like ninety six percent WSOP.
Speaker 2: I'll play the two or.
Speaker 5: Three win main events, the ten k or the thirty
five hundred where versus a million. But uh yeah, I
want I want bracelets. I want WSOP.
Speaker 2: And I also have myself on a bunch of the ODB.
Speaker 4: Teams, so that's none yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's extra money, although it's it's unfortunate like
a bunch of good players that I know. They all
told me that I'm their bonus player on their teams.
So I'm gonna have to go to a bunch of
my good friends teams as well. But maybe we'll chop it,
you know, I'll get first, they get second or third
or whatever. But uh, yeah, we're gonna give them hell,
that's for sure.
Speaker 1: You said you're gonna have the best summer ever. You
said you're gonna win three braces.
Speaker 5: Well, hopefully I'm gonna. I'm giving my absolute all, and
I believe.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm getting is ultimately, you know, what is
what when the summer's done?
Speaker 4: What does success look like for you?
Speaker 2: The truth is.
Speaker 5: Success to me always has been if I give my all.
If I give my all, what.
Speaker 2: Else could I have done?
Speaker 5: So until the day I die, I am gonna give
my all every single day, and I'll be happy with
whatever happens.
Speaker 2: But I think good things are gonna happen very soon.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about doing a poker vlog or
I know you tested that recently.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2: It's just I did six and.
Speaker 4: I heard you talking about the other day like it's
a lot of work. You gotta do all this stuff
so you.
Speaker 5: Could type Nicholas Palmer WSOP and I did six WSOP
vlogs every day at Prague for WSB Europe.
Speaker 2: It was a ton of work, to be.
Speaker 5: Honest, I wish I could be like a lot a
lot of the Asian players that are GG players.
Speaker 2: They have people following them with cameras and.
Speaker 5: Like, I would rather have have that being done so
I could, really because the truth is, I'm a poker
player first. A lot of these guys are more contrate
people first, so it's really hard when I'm trying to
be the best poker player. There is to be focusing
on that end of vlog, But I should be doing
the vlog. I should be this I could do is
because it's not at the table. But I'm gonna start
podcasting soon, possibly one with me and Mike Holtz. I've
been talking to him about something, and possibly one on
my own, and I think people would be really interested
and intrigued with a lot of thoughts I have on
mostly poker, but maybe.
Speaker 4: Some other stuff. Is it only poker? Is it?
Speaker 2: I like to talk about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be mostly predominantly poker, but I'll also talk
about other things and see if people are interested. But
I think I'm a pretty intelligent person and I think
people would like to hear my thoughts on a lot
of different things, but mostly poker obviously, but a lot
of other things of life as well.
Speaker 1: I don't really think I have anything else for you.
I thought it was a great conversation. I've been wanting
to get you on the podcast for a while and
just chat get into the mind of Nick Palmer.
Speaker 4: I mean, is there anything else you want to share?
Speaker 5: I wanted to say thank you to anyone who truly
roots for me. I really appreciate it, and I wanted
to say I love you too, my mom, Rosemarie, and
my nephew Bobby, and hopefully I come home with a
bracelet or too.
Speaker 4: Where can people follow you this summer?
Speaker 5: Twitter is nick Underscore Palma ten ten and YouTube. You
could just type in Nicholas Palmer WSP or Nicholas Palma
vlog that'll pop up. And Instagram it's Nicky P ten
ten and every morning on Twitter, I'm gonna be putting
up a little morning video of what the day holds
for that day. I'm gonna be putting updates throughout the tournaments,
and I also wanted to say I do it for
like all the grinders who play poker, and I wanted
to say rest in peace to Daniel Sunig and Ryan
Estrada who passed in the last two years, and I
do it for them and everyone else who ever wanted
to play poker and who loves poker.
Speaker 1: So that was Nick Palma. You heard him say the
best wsp ever. I mean, this guy does not lack
confidence whatsoever. So we'll see. I kind of think this
could be the summer of Nick Palma.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Now, there's a couple of summers that I'm gonna make
the analogy to that that have happened recently. You had
kind of a summer of will Casue. Now, obviously it's
not for like the reasons that I think we all want,
but nevertheless, I think a lot of a lot of
people watched because of what he was doing at the table.
Martin Cabrell is another one like that.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't think Nick Palma goes as far as those
guys go, but it's the it's the same sort of
idea where their personality is so big that that's what
people are drawn to more so than they're kind of
just drawn to the poker. They just want to see,
like what's gonna happen with this sort of stuff and
when and when he got the stuff? Like I mean,
i mean the Helmeth video is like you know, case
in point, when you when you got the When Helmuth
is putting this guy on camera saying like this is
the guy who called me a panza and Nick's just
owning it on camera, I mean, that's like, Okay, people
are start to like kind of tune in, you know,
so it doesn't really matter what side of the fence
you're on with him. It's almost like, Okay, I gotta
watch this guy. I gotta see if he's gonna make
a run. So it's just listen. The characters in poker
are why I love poker so much and why I
like to be in and around this industry. In this game,
there's all different types of people, you know, all different
types of people from like a professional sense, all different
types of people in terms of like they all have
these crazy different stories and it's just you know, Nick
is just another one of those colorful personalities. And I'm
happy that I got to sit down with him, so,
you know, hope you guys enjoyed that as well. Last
thing before I get up on out of here, you
got to give a shout out to Sean from Fort Lauderdale.
I was sitting there kind of watching the end of
the twenty five K the Heads Up Day one A,
which also, by the way, I didn't talk about today,
just because at time of recording, they're still playing the
final round of the day. I don't really know what's
happening there. I'm home already, so we'll just catch up
with that one on the next show and see how
it goes. I do know that Michael mcsrocky was playing
Phil Helmuth in the third rounds. That's an absolute blockbuster
of a match. But back to Sean from Fort Lauderdale,
he came out to Vegas to play a few events.
He recently landed. Like when I had talked to him,
his body clock was still three hours ahead. But he's
got a couple of events coming up. So good luck
to Sean out there. I hope to see him up
in that w s AP Grand Arena doing his thing,
making a deep run. He said that he has a
lot of success in a lot of tournaments that have
like four thousand plus player fields. You know, I'm talking
deep runs like you know, I think you mentioned two
twelve fifteen something like that, so he can do the
damn thing. So, you know, looking at like the monster stack,
looking at that seventeen dollars SOP circuit showcase event, I
forget what that one is called. But you know you
got those big field no limit events coming up, so
we'll see if Sean out of Fort Lauderdale can can
make a run at it. But that's gonna be it
for me. Thank you guys once again for tuning in
to another episode of the Poker gro Cod Podcast. It
does really feel like, Okay, we're in it.
Speaker 4: And we're ready to go.
Speaker 1: I'm happy I was able to get some interviews. I'm happy,
you know, we got some winners down there. The freaking
stage is revealed. I mean, look like I'm pumped.
Speaker 4: I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: I got I got an interview coming up, I think tomorrow,
as long as it happens or today or whatever, with
Jeff Platt, the MC of the SIP, the face of
the SIP Experience. I don't really know what his title is.
I'll ask him on the podcast what the hell I
should be calling him, but Jeff's awesome. We're gonna talk
a lot about what the WP is doing for this
summer and then obviously going forward in this new era
for the brand, the biggest brand, the biggest series in
the game. But that's it for me, Donnie Peters, I'm
out of here and I will talk to you guys
next time.