Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the
Poker Go Podcast.
Speaker 2: My name is Donnie Peters.
Speaker 1: It's one o nine am on Tuesday, July seventh. This
episode is going to be largely about Day two a
b C of the w s OP Main Event, the
same day that I busted out of the greatest poker tournament.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 1: But it is what it is. We'll talk about it
towards towards the end of this episode. We're gonna hit
on some of the happenings from the first of two
day two s at the World Series of Poker in
the Granddaddy of the mall, the WSP Main Event, and
then I think we have two winners to touch on
as well from events that I haven't touched on yet,
so I'll hit on those and then we'll.
Speaker 2: Get up out of here.
Speaker 1: We are getting into the thick of it for the
WSP Main Event. You know, it's feels like it's starting
to get more real and deeper and you can start
to feel the tension building in the air, but it's
also so far away from anything, like we're like, the
first Day two just ended, so these players are going
to Day three. It's likely that you don't make the
money till early on day four, so you still have
a whole another full day of play before you're even
in the money. I mean, it's like this tournament is
just such a grind and you kind of forget about
it because you're lost in all these other tournaments that
are happening, and they operate at a much faster pace.
You know, they're anywhere from two days most of the
more three days. Some of them might extend to four days.
Of course, you have a couple like the Monster Stack,
for example, or the Milli Maker that that do go
a little bit longer, but you're kind of just used
to being in or close to the money on a
day one, if not, you're into the money on a
day two, and then you're playing down to a final
table and you're going to a winner on day three.
That's generally what you see the most of But not
that up is to be made event, not that we
don't know that, but it's just you kind of have
to catch yourself at times when you're walking through the
field and you're like, oh my gosh, this person has
so many chips. This person has this many chips, Like,
oh my gosh, you know, and it's like, yeah, but
that person might not even cash, just with how how
much can happen between now and hitting the money and
all that sort of crazy stuff. But that's what we're
gonna talk about. The player that I caught up with
today was the one and only Tony Dunst. He bagged
a pile of chips on a day too ABC. So
I caught up with Tony Dunst. Well, we'll catch up
with him later on. If you're looking to play some
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Speaker 3: Go.
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Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You can go on web, you can go on iOS,
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poker Goro is available there. Go there, claim your free
bonus and start playing now. All right, Day two, ABC.
The numbers are in. I checked Poker News, I checked
keV mess Twitter. I tried to get these numbers dialed
in as much as possible. I guess just forgive me
if they're incorrect, but I think they're pretty correct. We
had operating at you know, a decrease year over year. Yes,
the big talking point that I saw and heard today.
You know, you saw some stuff on social media. I
heard stuff talking to my friends and text messages and
group chats and whatnot. When I was playing, you know,
at the table, you heard some chatter as well about
are they gonna hit nine thousand, Like that's the big number, right,
And I think that they are, especially after what we
saw today that we'll get into in just a second.
I think they are. And I also want to point
out that it's not the sky is falling if they
get let's say, eighty nine hundred, or if they get
nine thousand, just because last year was nine thousand, seven
hundred and thirty five, you know, and just because yes,
we did have two years above ten thousand. I mean,
it's not the end of the world. This stuff is
going to go up and down. I say it all
the time. Yes, we're going to talk about the numbers,
and yes we're going to compare them to previous years.
It's the talking point, you know, it's a barometer for
for where poker is but it's not it's not like
the sky is falling. I mean right now as things stand,
through the first floor starting fights and the first day two,
there are eighty three hundred and eighty nine entries total
in the Doubissippy main event as long as my numbers
hold correct. For Day two ABC, you had three hundred
and twelve late entrance come in. So players that that
joined on like either right before the start of day two,
they skipped all of day one, they could come in
some point between or during the first two levels and
then up until that third level started, so you had
the first two levels in the first two breaks to
get in there. There was one player at my starting
table that did that. There was a couple other players
or a bunch of other players as I mentioned, three
hundred and twelve players.
Speaker 2: Throughout the field that did that.
Speaker 1: Last year Day two ABC, I believe I had this number.
I pulled it from Poker News. Had two hundred and
sixty five entries, is what they wrote in the end
of day recap for this day, So three hundred and
twelve this year, which which aligns with what I was
thinking that players are becoming more aware of the value
to coming in late. You know, they realize Listen, I
can still come in at the start of day two
with a ton of chips. Fifty big lines is a ton,
and you basically you get to skip a day and
a half of poker, a long grind of a day
and a half of poker, because we know how slow
and methodical the WSP made of men structure is player friendly,
like the epitome of player friendly structure. Right, But if
you want to skip all that sort of stuff, you
want to play a little bit more meaningful poker but
still have a healthy stack to start, then maybe you
come in a little bit later. And yeah, I mean
I think players are much more aware of the value
of doing so. And we saw two hundred and sixty
five people last year and then we see three hundred
and twelve players this year. Last year there was a
little bit over one thousand total came in for the
day two late regiment. Between both day twos, I think
we're going to be right around that same number, if
not above it. And we're already at a seventeen point
seven percent increase for that first day, so that bodes
well for getting this number up over nine thousand. We
are six hundred and eleven entries short of nine thousand.
I think nine thousands of lock. My number was nine
one hundred and seventy seven a few episodes ago. Overall,
with eighty three hundred and eighty nine entries right now,
that is a decrease over last year at this point
of six point four percent, So a much more palatable decrease,
you know. I know again going back to the one
A that flight year over year was down sixteen and
a half percent. Now we're only looking at a decrease
of six point four percent across everything that has happened
so far, which is fine. I mean, the economy's kind
of be in the shit in terms of like everything's
really expensive. People don't have a lot of money. It's
just hard. Crypto's not anywhere near what it once was.
You got the ninety percent tax thing. I say all
this stuff over and over again. I just want to
drive it home that it's you know, it's not like
poker is losing popularity or it's healthy or it's you know,
unhealthy or anything like that. I think the game is
very healthy. I think that it's as popular as it
has ever been in a lot of ways. But unfortunately.
You know, I think people just have a little bit
less money to throw around, especially when you get up
to something like a ten thousand dollars buying tournament. Right now,
I know this is ultimately the biggest bucket list tournament
that we have in the game. Yes, of course, but
it's it's still hard to really make that splurge. Then,
of course, you have the thing that we've always been
fighting for many many years, and that's just that online
poker isn't what.
Speaker 2: It once was.
Speaker 1: So it's not, you know, qualifying as many people, it's
not creating up and coming poker players like it once did,
you know, all that sort of stuff. So there was
always going to be some drawback coming out of COVID.
It was just a more matter of when it was
going to happen, and it's starting to happen this year. Again,
I look towards next year more so than I look
towards this year. Next year, if we start to see
a decline again, and if that decline mirrors the decline
this year percentage wise, then I would start to raise
some alarm bells and be like, hmm, okay, maybe as
operators we need to start rethinking some things, maybe as marketers,
maybe as promoters, maybe as an industry, as a community,
we need to start rethinking some things. So you know,
we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, because
we're plenty of time away. But I think this is
going to be well over nine thousand, and that's still
great for this year. The chip leader coming out of
day two a b C is Gaspar Fernandez with seven
hundred and fifty four thousand chips. That's three hundred and
one big blinds for day three. The big blind for
Day three, I believe is gonna be one K, twenty
five hundred, or maybe fifteen hundred, twenty five hundred.
Speaker 2: I forget it's one of those two.
Speaker 1: So three hundred and one big blinds for mister Fernandez. Now,
seven hundred and fifty four thousand chips sounds like an
absolute freaking truckload of chips. And it is a truckload
of chips. But as I was getting at a little
bit earlier, that can go fast. It can go really fast.
I mean, me sitting here on the sidelines, I would
I would kill someone for seven hundred and fifty four
thousand chips. I mean hyperbably, of course, But you guys,
get the get my drift there. I looked back at
the day two ABC chip leaders for the past four
editions of the WSB Man Men, so twenty twenty two
through twenty twenty five, and I wanted to see where
they finished on their first day two or the first
day two of the two day twos, and then where
they went on to finish in the tournament, just just
just to really drive home, you know that you can
have a ton of chips on at day two and
finished day two going into day three, but you are
still so far away from doing anything in this tournament.
And on the flip side of things, you know you
can have ten, twelve big blinds, whatever it is, and
you can then be like, you know what, it's a grind.
This this structure allows you to be patient. You know
you can if you need to, and you can ultimately
spin something up and just just grind it out, grind
it out, grind it out. So going back to let's
start with twenty twenty two, we had Gavin Munroe who
bagged I mean, this number is out of control, one
point six million in chips after day two, four hundred
and twenty five big blinds going into day three and
Gavin Monroe ended up finishing in eleven hundred and thirtieth
place for fifteen thousand dollars. That's a min cash. He
had four hundred and twenty five big blinds going into
day three and he min cashed the tournament. Next year,
Christopher Bramer bagged eight hundred and seventy nine thousand, which
was three hundred and fifty two big blinds. He did
not cash in the tournament. At least I checked tendonmob
he's not there. I checked the Poke News payoffs, he's
not there. So Christopher Brammer went from day two ABC
Chip leader with three hundred and fifty two big blinds
in his stack to day three and he did not
cash in the tournament. Twenty twenty four, Anthony Marisco bagged
three hundred and nineteen big blinds. Seven hundred and ninety
seven k was in his stack. He finished in four
hundred and eighty first place for thirty five thousand dollars,
So a little bit of a deeper run there for Morisco.
And then last year twenty twenty five, Alexei Kravchuk bagged
three nine hundred and thirty seven thousand, five hundred, which
is good for three hundred and seventy five big lines.
He had a twenty seven thousand, five hundred dollars score
for finishing in six hundred and fourth place. So again,
like you you can think that. Listen, Gaspar Fernandez bagging
seven hundred and fifty four thousand, you know that's a
ton of chips, more than three hundred big lines heading
to day three. Let's let's lock them in for the
top one hundred. I mean, no, no, no, no, Like this,
a lot can happen between now and then, Like there
are obviously coolers. You can just hit a bad amount
of cards. You can do something where like you just
start doubling up like a few different people. Next thing
you know, you doubled up six seven people at your table.
Your stack has been cut in half, and then you know,
things just kind of spiral from there. So this is
an absolutely crazy tournament. And I just wanted to kind
of point out there that just because somebody bags a
boatload of chips entering day three doesn't necessarily mean they're
going to have an incredible score much later on. As
I laid out by the last four chip leaders prior
to Gasper Fernandez in the WSP main event entering or sorry,
finishing day to ABC, and I'll do the same for Tuesday.
When we talk about Day two d some of the
notables who did bag chips. In addition to Gaspar Fernandez,
you had Tony Dunst. I said, we're going to talk
to him or I have an interview to play with him.
He bagged four hundred and seventy nine thousand, one hundred
and ninety one big blinds for mister Dunst.
Speaker 2: I mean he was.
Speaker 1: I was following him on his Instagram just checking out
his stories. He had a pretty good Day one obviously,
had a really really good pre dinner Day two, and
then a big rush post dinner Day two as well.
I spoke with him for I don't know, five minutes
or so after play. You know, Tony is one of
the best, always willing to give time, so I wanted
to chat with him. He hadn't played a tournament, a
live ws A B tournament all summer, but of course
this is the main event, and if you're anyone in poker,
you're trying not to miss it the best you can.
It's his twentieth World Series of Poker Mino, which is
just which is crazy because I remember the first time
I saw Tony don in person, and to me back then,
he was still Bond eighteen, right, he was Bond eighteen online.
He had the blog online. I read it a lot.
He was Bond Bond eighteen online. You followed him all
that sort of stuff, and I remember seeing him. I
think we were in New Zealand for an a m
ZPT event and we were walking through the case. I
was walking through the casino and I saw him kind
of I don't know, maybe thirty yards away going down
an escalator while I was going up an escalator, and
I was like, oh, man, that's Bond eighteen over there, Like,
that's Bond eighteen. You know, you see that first that person,
You see that that figure in person for the first time,
and you're kind of like, oh, like that's who that is, Like, yeah,
that's him right there, you know, like that's the guy.
So anyway, now fast forward many many years later. Here's
my chat with Tony Duns two bagged four hundred and
seventy nine thousand. All right, Tony Duns, you put a
crap ton of chips in the bag. What the heck's
going on?
Speaker 3: I just had one of the bussats of poker my
entire life. I just hit every river, especially after dinner,
for just like three hours straight. I hit every river.
Somebody usually had something they could pall with too. A
few times I was bluffing, they folded. Just one of
those days, everything clicks.
Speaker 1: You've had a handful of deep runs in this tournament before,
so judging by what you just said, is this the
best start that you've had entering day three?
Speaker 3: Probably? I think maybe way back in twenty ten when
I went on a run. I ran very hot on
Day two or day somewhere around there. But as far
as being off to like an early start, this is
probably as good as it's been.
Speaker 2: What have you been up to?
Speaker 1: Because he didn't play a lot of the World Series,
but you're here for the main event, of course.
Speaker 2: What you've been doing.
Speaker 3: I played some online poker leading up, been traveling a
decent amount, taking care of some things with family at home,
and spending more time on prediction markets doing gambling. You know,
with the tax change this year, it becomes a little
bit tougher to put a lot of volume in at
poker and at gambling, but thankfully prediction markets are tax
like capital gains, so they're not really subject to that.
And it's been an interesting and pretty fun opportunity. The
last you know, a year or so is the popularity
is blown up.
Speaker 1: Now, all of that said, all the busy stuff you
got going on in your life, you're not going to
miss this one, right, this may this event event you're
never gonna miss.
Speaker 3: I'll never miss the main event. I'll play the main
event every single year until I'm physically mentally incapable for sure.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: What is or described to me just just how special
this event is and why you're not going to miss it.
Speaker 3: I mean, just look around at this sea of people
and tables in this place, everybody chasing the same dream
and just playing a huge ten k, slow, deep stacked
tournament with so many people at varying levels of poker
and backgrounds. It's just like an interesting experience. And I
think if you play poker, if through a living, after
a while, it can kind of beat you down and
you you know, have a lot of days where it
just feels like the grind and you lose for months
on end if you're a tournament player, and then when
you come here you're just surrounded by people who love
the experience of playing poker and chasing the big score
and having this like once in a lifetime run. So
it's just a great energy to be a man.
Speaker 1: How would you say your career has changed? You know,
you came up as an online guy, you transitioned into
you know, part on the industry side with some commentary
and stuff. Yeah, now you're like it in a way,
a grizzled vet in a lot of ways, you know.
I mean, how would you kind of describe your career.
Speaker 3: Art a grizzled vet playing his twentieth main event. But
right that, I really came up just as a player,
started doing content and the like, you know, late two thousands,
writing a bunch on blogs and stuff, training sites, and
then land with the WPT in twenty ten and got
a ton of experience doing our online streams, getting to
work with some of the best commentators in the game,
you know, getting to sit in the booth with a
legend like Mike Sexton, and to play a whole bunch
of our events and have the chance to be on
the tour, you know, around our players and learning from
some of the best. And now you know, I've taken
on a consulting role with WPT as well, so hopefully
having some influence on the product and getting player feedback
to help shape the way we do our tournaments. So
hopefully some you know, kind of new interesting changes in
the mix, uh coming up with WPT. But yeah, just
you know, happy to have been part of the poker
world for such a long time. When I was like
a high schooler watching WPT and World Series on TV,
this was the lifestyle that.
Speaker 1: I was hoping for.
Speaker 2: All right, last question here.
Speaker 1: Obviously we talked about how good of a star you
had going into day three.
Speaker 2: What's it going to take to really make a count.
Speaker 3: Getting past day six? Because I've come into day six
with lots of chips two of the last three years,
and remember thinking I was like eight out of I
don't know, eighty one hundred players anything like that where
you start to really believe that you're in striking distance
up the final table. Fuck, I'm in the top ten
and chips of the one hundred left and both day
six as I've busted out. So that's the level of
the game I need to get past right now, and
I would be pretty happy with whatever came after that.
Speaker 2: Thank you to Tony for taking the time there.
Speaker 1: I know the players want to get out of there
at the end of the night, but Tony was gracious
enough to chat with me. He's had many deep runs,
as we talked about in the WSFP main event, and
it's interesting to hear how in a way he kind
of feels a little bit of pressure, like having this
start and wanting this to actually materialize going forward. You know,
Tony always an open book, very honest with everything, so
I appreciate him taking the time there, and we'll see
if he can make another deep run. This is an
incredible start four seventy hundred and ninety one Big Blinds
going forward. Tony is a very, very excellent player. He
puts in a lot of work off the felt I mean,
maybe not as much as he once did, but you know,
he has certainly studied a lot. He's certainly got a
ton of experience this specific tournament with those deep runs
that he has had, you know, he knows what it
takes to go through this field. I would anticipate with
this start, you know, we're going to be hearing from
Tony Guns a bit later on that that would be
my guess our to place a bet I would say, Yeah,
Tony's going to be alive on day five, day six,
and then.
Speaker 2: We'll go from there.
Speaker 1: Brian Hastings bagged more than four hundred thousand, four hundred
nine thousand. He's got one hundred and sixty three big binds.
Freddy deeb Crushing three hundred and eighty three thousand for him,
one hundred and fifty three big blinds. Greg Ramer, fossil Man.
Greg Ramer is out there in the damn thing. Two
hundred ninety one thousand in the bag for fossil Man,
one hundred and sixteen big blinds. Chris Mormon. Chris Mormon
one of the best to ever do it online. Two
hundred and sixty five thousand, five hundred, one hundred and
six big Lilins.
Speaker 2: Chino Reem, Chino Reim.
Speaker 1: You know we've seen him make the WSBEE Main Event
final table before.
Speaker 2: Right, he's cooking.
Speaker 1: One hundred and seventy six thousand, five hundred in the
bag for day three, seventy big blind Stephen Chidwick, hundred
and fifty two k Gerard Pique, the famous soccer player.
He's going strong. One hundred and forty four thousand in
the bag. Greg Merson the Milkman himself still alive, seventy
nine k for him, and then Mike the Mouth Madisow
sixty five thousand for the mouth. Going to day three,
some of those less fortunate players Daniel Weinman busted, Joe
Katta busted, Jason Kuhne, Antonio Wes, FONDIRII, Adam Hendricks, Nick Rigby,
John Riordan, and Ferraz Jaka. It looks like twelve hundred
and sixty players advanced out of the day to ABC
Flight two. Day three, there was around twenty five hundred
players that came into the day, and then of course
you had those three hundred and twelve laid entrance for
the day, and then you know, I don't know a
little bit more than half of them hit the rail
on Day two, ABC Big Big Day on Tuesday for
Day two D coming in. Of course, Day one D
is the largest of the four starting flights. It gets
its own Day two, So there's gonna.
Speaker 2: Be a lot to be said.
Speaker 1: My guess is that Gaspar Fernandez, you know, the chip leader.
Right now, he can enjoy it for about twenty four
hours and then somebody else is going to come out
on top, and there's probably a good shot that we
see our first WSB main event millionaire in terms of
chipstack coming out of Day two D but that's for
the next episode, not this one. I want to swing
over now to hit on the two winners that deserve
to be mentioned. First, we have in the fifteen hundred
dollars Double Board Bomb Pot PLO event, Justin Fawcett won
the tournament. He topped sixteen hundred and seventy three entries
to win three hundred and twenty two thousand dollars. Justin
Fawcett is a twenty five K fantasy player. Let me
see if he drafted himself, because I know he I.
Speaker 2: Know he had a team. He did draft himself.
Speaker 1: His team's not doing so hot though they are down
in Let me see the seventeenth place Dan Legrandew's team,
bolsted of course by the fact that Dnegs himself drafted
him to his own team and then went out and
won one hundre KPLO high Roller. As we talked about,
he is the current leader in the twenty five K
Fantasy League. Of course, you guys can check out the
updated standings on twenty five K fantasy dot Com, but
here Justin Fawcett taking home the bracelets in the fifteen
hundred dollars double board bomb bought plow, so good for him.
The other winner that we have to talk about is
Zijuan Lee. He won the one K Nolan at Holdham.
This was the two day event that took place seventeen
hundred and thirty two entries in this one. Lou walked
away with two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars. Tyler Phillips,
a grinder and also a twenty five K fantasy player,
finished in fifth place for fifty seven thousand dollars. But
congratulations here too, Zijuan Lou for taking home taking down
the one K Nolan Holdham event for two hundred and
nineteen thousand dollars. All right, so let's talk about my
day in the main event, Day two. ABC came into
the day with forty five thousand, nine hundred chips started.
I played the very first hand that was dealt. I
was dealt two sixes. I raised from under the gun.
Gentleman called in position. The flop came ten five four rainbow.
I checked, he bet, he bet quite large. I folded
and he ripped over a ten just funny that this
gentleman was funny. Later on, he and I played a
hand where so on that hand when he when he
bet the flop, he kind of like kind of like
threw the chipslick across the table, not like at me.
They didn't like he was on the I was in
the ninth seed. He was in the three seats. You know,
they didn't like cross the flop or anything like that.
But I don't know, he kind of like slid him
out like emphatically toward me.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it just seemed a little like, hmm,
I should.
Speaker 1: Just kind of make a little note of that, you
know how he's kind of acting here whatever, And then
he shows that ten okay, cool whatever. This guy was
splashing around. He was in there a lot like he was.
He was doing his thing. Later on, we play a
hand where he opens middle position high defend big blind
with ace of spades. It comes jack nine six one spade.
Nine of spades was out there. I checked call a
bet he was when he bet, he bombed. I mean
it was at minimum fifty percent pot, if not more so.
Speaker 2: I check call.
Speaker 1: Turn is I can't even remember what the turn was.
Turns a blank it's like it's a deuce something.
Speaker 2: It goes check.
Speaker 1: Check river is a five or not a five? Rivers
like a three?
Speaker 2: I check? He bombs again and.
Speaker 1: He does the thing where he like slides those chips
across the table, and I'm like, I don't know, man,
there's like too many draws here. I don't think I
want to have a ten because you know, I am
blocking some of those straight draws. But like he can
have seven eight, he can have Queen ten, like he
you know, he can have all these different types of draws.
I call he's got seven eight, So great win. That
pot anyway, chipped up pretty nicely from forty five nine
hundred to a little bit over seventy thousand, was playing
a wide variety hands, had or had a really good
feel of my first starting table. Thought I was playing
pretty well for how like what I.
Speaker 2: Think my ceiling is.
Speaker 1: I thought I was right up there that table breaks.
We were on horseshoe to start, we break, we head
on over to Paris.
Speaker 2: I still don't really understand the.
Speaker 1: Whole double venue thing, but you know whatever, there's I mean,
I got good problem to have right when there's too
too many people, I just hate well can do that smoke, man,
It's just unbearable. Anyway, we get over to Paris new table.
I sit down, I open the first two hands I see.
I end up winning with with flop bets. Feeling good again.
You know, I'm up over. I'm close to ninety thousand now,
feeling great. The blinds go up to one fifteen hundred. Like,
this table seems pretty good. It seemed this table seemed green.
Like everyone seemed a little bit lesser experienced than normal, which.
Speaker 2: I'm fine with.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you're gonna have good table draws, you
are gonna have bad table draws. One player in particular,
like just watching him play some of the questions he
was asking some of the stuff like not knowing about
the color up or what happens on the color up,
or where to put the butt, Like I don't know,
I just got the vibe that either he was playing
the WAWE main event for the very first time or
he had not played a lot of live poker at all,
Like I don't know, he just seemed very inexperienced with everything.
He stacked his chips kind of in a way that
I would align with this player type. So whatever, anyway,
I get in this hand where so I had just
played a hand where I won.
Speaker 2: I had aces. I win this hand.
Speaker 1: It was a MULTIPI guy limps under the gun, I
raised big, mind calls limper calls. I bet flop, I
bet turn. I end up winning the pots there. And
then the next hand I opened two tens. Gentleman to
my left calls I believe I opened low jack, hijack calls,
and then the inexperienced player of the player, I say
inexperience player, I mean, heck, maybe he played a bazillion tournament.
I thought I read him as inexperienced. He's on the button.
He three bets. I had about I think eighty nine
thousand or so. To start the hand, I make it
three K. The guy calls, gentlemen on the button makes
it twelve K, folds back to me. I have two tens.
I elect to just call, we're pretty deep here. I
can take a flop. Other player in between folded. It
came jack eight seven jack of hartz or diamonds or
red jack eight seven of spades. I check player bets
relatively large fifteen k, which is a round half pot.
I contemplate maybe there's some check raising I can do
here with my hand, but I don't think I have
the right hand to do that. I think I can
just play check call. So I played check call. You know,
I think he have some ace kings in there. He
can probably have some ace queens. And then, honestly, I thought, listen,
there's probably a better likelihood that this player has in
overpair in a lot of spots here. But given this
bord texture, I think I'm pretty clean to a ten.
I'm definitely clean to a nine, and then maybe I
can rep spades or something else depending on how this
plays out.
Speaker 2: I think this.
Speaker 1: Type of wet bord texture, with the way that it
can run out, I think I do have some some
bluffing opportunities should they present itself, and I want to
go that route with my hand turn as a king
off suit king, I check he checks behind. So once
he checks behind here, I'm thinking I'm narrowing his range
into two hands here. Well, I mean really three hands,
I guess, but I'm thinking queen's probably a fair amount,
maybe some ace queen and then maybe some aces too,
just because aces might just get scared and one not
go nuts. I didn't It's interesting because while I think
that with aces, I don't think that with ace king.
And maybe that's a flaw of mine in my head
where I think it's just but I try and think
of how the other player is thinking about this. Whereas,
if you have aces, this board looks somewhat scary and
you want to kind of protect. But if you have
ace king, if you bet the flop with nothing and
now you improve, you're kind of like feeling more positive
about your hands, you might continue betting. Right, That's how
I would describe that. Anyway, he checks back, River's a jack. Now,
I'm like, okay, if anyone has a jack here, it's me.
And I think he has a lot of just pocket
queens here, and if he has some pocket aces, if
he has some ace king, like I think I can
get him off this hand. But I feel like I
have to go big pots. I think around sixty K,
I go fifty five K and I got seven K
behind and he goes into the tank for two to
three minutes. It's the full on, like he's completely uncomfortable.
He puts his head in his hands, he's rubbing his forehead.
I'm like, this guy hates life, right, now I'm like,
he does he just have two queens, Like I mean,
I don't think he ever has kings because I just
don't think he checks back. I don't think he checks
back Jack's either, you know. So I think so far
to me, everything is like been going. I feel like
how I have it planned? Anyway, he thanks for like,
you know, two to three minutes he ends up calling
with Ace King, so I, you know, blow it up there.
So yeah, I mean that hand is I don't know,
it's hard because I think I think I read the
situation well. I also don't necessarily think that that's solver approved.
I haven't really dove into the hand yet. But I
also think that at times you have to break from
a solver and try and go into a more exploit
exploitative strategy, which I was, yes, trying to exploit this
specific player. And yeah, I think it's very tough for
him to make that call there, as exhibited by the
fact that he took so long, looked extremely pained, all
that sort of stuff. That said, at the end of
the day, the bluff didn't work. You know, I was
I was obviously turning my hand into a bluff. I
was not betting for value.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't fully know if it was a mistake right,
because sometimes this is a tricky part in poker, where
you can do things and they cannot go your way,
but they can still be correct. On the flip side,
you can do things they can work out and they
can be wildly wrong right like the both those things
can happen. So I did trust my read. I believe
this guy was pretty capped with his range. I thought
he was very much captive two pair, and I decided
the only way that I could win this hand here
was by putting maximum pressure on my opponent, Like I
didn't think that I could bet like twenty five k
or thirty K or something like that and get I
think he calls the hands that I'm targeting folds from
pretty easily there, So I have to just go for
like the gusto. I think on one side, it's easy
to just chalk it up to listen, bad luck, guy
made a good call, whatever. But I don't want to
just walk away thinking about these situations like that. You know,
if you I do believe, if you want to make
deep runs in tournaments, you can't play scared. You have
to trust yourself. You can't just sit around and wait
for premium hands and premium hands and premium hands. You know,
at some point you do have to trust your instincts
and be willing to make a move when you think
the spot is right. I thought that this spot was right,
and I guess I could say that I was correct
because I thought he was captain two pair. He ultimately
had two pair. I put him in a really tough
spot to make a tough call. Okay, but maybe I
just need to get better at identifying the opponents that
I'm trying to bluff, I guess is my takeaway here
if I'm trying to learn how or trying to read
into how to learn from the situation, because ultimately he
didn't fold, you know, so I don't know. It does sting,
you know, especially because you have people supporting you, you
have investors like I do, and I just I don't
ever want to feel like I let people down. I
do want to, like do very well in these tournaments
that I play. I don't get to put in a
whole ton of volume. So yeah, you know, you study
from it, you learn from it, you hope to come
back better next time. But you know, that that's the hand.
So on one side, I think, I think I played
extremely well throughout this entire tournament.
Speaker 2: And I'm like.
Speaker 1: Seventy five percent happy with this hand that went wrong,
and then the other twenty five percent of me is like,
was it really that bad of a screw up? I mean,
I don't know, you know. I mean, like I bluff,
you know, and there's a lot of times you don't
see the big bluff because they just work and you.
Speaker 2: Just move on.
Speaker 1: You kind of just move on with your day. And
then there's times like this when it just absolutely sucks
because it didn't work out. It's just it's a very
hard thing mentally, this this poker stuff, and it just
when you when you're trying to get better, it just
kind of eats you alive. So that's where that is.
But if you guys want to let me know what
you thought of the hand, and I don't use you
guys as sugarcoat it for me, just if you want
to email podcasts at pokergot dot com if you want to,
you know, send me a DM on Twitter or whatever.
You know, I'm happy to take whatever you say. If
you tell me I'm a stone idiot, cool, But at
least can you just back it up with some reasoning
so I can hopefully learn That would be great my
summer overall. I came into the summer planning to play
a little bit over thirty thousand dollars in tournaments at
the World Series of Poker. I ultimately only played twenty
five nine hundred because some of the tournaments I planned
for multiple bullets, I didn't use all the bullets.
Speaker 2: I played eight.
Speaker 1: Tournaments, I fired eleven bullets total. I cast for sixteen
eight hundred, so had a loss of ninety one hundred
in terms of what I put in and what I
get back out looking back on it all in terms
of my play, because this is it for me playing.
I'm a guy who I build up to the main event.
I play the main event, and then I can't really
play anything else after, and if I did, I would
be burning my own money and everyone else's money that invests,
just because to me, it's like build up to the
main play it as that big climax, and then move on.
Maybe if I was a professional player, like I know
a lot of people out there are, then yeah, it's
just next tournament, whatever, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's keep getting it in, but not for me. Plus
couple with the fact that now it's right back into
work mode, let's go. Overall, though, feel really good about
how I played, and also how I showed up every
single day, which I think is a big, big thing
when you're out there playing. We're the mistakes in my game.
I mean, of course, I mean, let's some be idiots here.
I mean, for example, probably some mistakes in this main
event blood that I ran that I'll have to study
and learn from and get better from, and also several
other ones that I need to learn from and improve.
I did the thing where I was writing down every
single hand I played the summer, so I have all
of them. I'll review them, I'll get with my coach,
get back in the lab, keep working, hopefully come back better.
If I had to grade myself over the course of
the summer, I'd say I'd say I played a minus poker,
maybe even a poker heck, maybe even a plus, but
firmly somewhere in the a's Now that's me grading myself
on my scale. Is my a game on the same
level as some of the very best players in the world. No,
some of the top players in the world, good players
in the world. No, but the standard that I judge
myself on, you know. And it's not to say that
I lack any sort of confidence, because I don't think
that I do, is just I need to I need
to judge myself by how good I think I can play.
And I think I played the best poker that I've
played for an extended period of time, and I'm very
happy with things. My job is also to show up prepared,
which I think I did, make the best decisions that
I can with the information that I have, you know.
So yeah, I think I did all that sort of stuff,
and now the next step is to hopefully keep improving.
I lost money, but I didn't lose a lot from
what I planned to put in, so I guess silver
lining there. You know, plenty of plenty of players out
there have losing summers, and plenty of them lose pretty big.
Didn't have the summer that I was hoping for financially,
but also didn't feeling you know, don't don't feel like
I beat myself in if I'm going to phrase it
that way, just because I you know, again, twenty six
thousand dollars in sixteen eight out minus ninety one hundred,
not that big deal. I also put myself in a
couple spots to make some deep runs and I competed well,
and I came away with some ideas, you know, un
where like where I can certainly work to get better.
So again, I just I feel really good about things.
This is obviously gonna be my last little, you know,
event session, so bear with me out there, listeners. I
appreciate you guys. I feel the best I ever have
playing and that's for sure something that I that I
can build on. And then I don't know how much
live poker I'm gonna play in the back half of
the year. I mean it's hard, you know, you have to.
At least with the World Series of Poker. It's good
because you can go I go down there and I'm
already gonna be working, you know, every single day, and
then I can plan a few days to play here
and there, and there's just so much poker in a
relatively short period of time that you can just get
a couple of these events in, which is awesome. Outside
of that, I kind of just prefer to play online now,
you know, you can fire up multiple tables. You can
get more volume in online competition, you know, at least
on wisip dot com. I think is fairly tough, but
I like that because it allows you to get better,
you know, Iron Shopper AND's Iron. The next thing I'm
looking forward to the most is at end of the year.
Like I almost wish I could fast forward for those
WPT World Championship Series. At the win, I talked about
how they announced their dates and how they are coming
back in December. I love that series. I love that venue,
and I can't wait to get out there and get
after if you guys have the opportunity to come out
and play that event, especially the WPT Prime Championship. But
that tournament alone is worth the trip, you know, as
long as they have it again. Yes, the schedule is
not out, but I would anticipate they would. Why wouldn't they?
That tournament is freaking awesome. So I can't wait to
get out here to play that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'll pop into some stuff here and there, but mostly
online and just trying to improve to get better.
Speaker 2: But all right, that's gonna be the show.
Speaker 1: My main event is over, but that does not mean
the main event is over. Because we are going to
be tracking this thing all the way till the end.
On Tuesday, we have Day two D that's the biggest
starting flight coming in. There's a ton of players still left.
I can't wait to see where this late registration number
comes in as well, because then we'll have the official
field size for the twenty twenty six World Series of
Poker Main Event, and then we'll be on to day
four or sorry, day three. Then day four. Day four
is likely when the money's gonna hit, and I cannot
freaking wait for this thing. I'm also really because let's
say they get let's say just nine thousand, just for
argument's sake, I'm curious if they keep first place prize
at ten million. I think they will. I also kind
of hope that they will. I think first place in
this thing should pretty much be ten million, as long
as it's anywhere in the realm of ease to happen.
I just think that that's such a big, cool number.
I also don't think you need to go a way
above it. And then if you, if you can help
not going below it, I think that that's great. You know,
World Series of Poker Main Event, come out, try and
turn ten thousand dollars into ten million.
Speaker 2: That's great marketing. That's the headliner, all.
Speaker 1: Right, But that's gonna do it for me. As always,
don't forget to like, subscribe, rate, review, all that.
Speaker 2: Sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Send your questions, your takes, whatever they are, Tell me
how bad I play. Podcast at PokerGO dot com is
the email. Thanks to producer Rich for his work behind
the scenes. As always, my name is Donny Peters and
I will catch you guys on the next Express