Hello, everyone, Welcome to a new episode of the Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters, is eleven thirty pm on the Dot on Wednesday, May twenty seventh. I'll be quite honest with you guys up front. I debated for a good while, probably bounced it around in my head for a couple hours this evening on my drive home from down on the Strip at the World Series of Poker. You know, whether or not I wanted to record an episode tonight, you know, part of me said I need to do it. I want to do it. Part of me said, I don't know if there's enough there, and I don't want to force it, and and I do feel like I want to be honest and candid with you guys about how I feel about everything and going through the entire summer. Now it is only day two of the World Series of Poker. There hasn't really been a massive story yet shout out massive. There's been really no you know, controversies. There hasn't been any winners, you know, there hasn't been any like big bangs just yet, you know. But I also know that stuff is coming, right, you know. It's it's it's interesting because you know, I think I think part of it is that every single year the World Series of Poker seems like it gets here before we know it and kind of before we're ready, and then it's here and then we go and we dive in. But there is that bill, right, you know, people are still getting into town, the events are still ramped up, you know, like specific to this year, they haven't even done the big reveal for the new Grand Arena that's going to be the new set up there, you know, and I know that that's coming, so like I'm just trying to kind of ease into it without you know, going too crazy to start. So yeah, I mean, I just don't ever want to think that I'm forcing something, right, you know. But then I said, you know what, this is what the WACOP is, this is what we love about it. It's just here. It's awesome. The build you know, grows every single day, and then ultimately, you know, we get down to mid July and then it just it ends. It just gets taken away from us. And we all hate that feeling, you know, we want the we never want that to end, and then all of a sudden it ends. So you know, I do need to to feel some gratitude and and like, you know, cherish these these early, these early days of it all, you know, because that's part of it. It's not just the giant moments that take place, you know, on July twenty seventh, or during the main event or whatever it may be. The build up is part of it. And seeing the atmosphere change day by day when you are there on site, you're walking around, you're feeling it, and every single day that goes by, you feel it a little bit more. Right now, I know Monday wasn't officially anything, and I know we weren't on site at the World Series of Poker, but even being in the draft room at the Poker Growth Studio for the twenty five K Fantasy draft, that buzz starts to build. Then you go to the tournament setting the next day, the buzz builds a little bit more than today, even though it is only day two of the WSP, it's building even more. You know, you're getting you're starting to see a little bit more of the stuff happening, and you're at least my mind is kind of thinking like, Okay, that's potentially going to be a story, or that's potentially going to be a story, or there's some breadcrumbs there that could possibly, you know, be a little bit of a story. The rooms are slowly starting to fill up, you know, there's the emergence of different personalities, different characters, you know, old and new, the feeling of the entire poker world really just waking back up to being at the World Series of Poker once again. You know, it's kind of like how I would view poker players kind of wake up in the morning, you know, they roll over, they toss over, maybe they hit the snooze a couple of times. Eventually they're like, you know what, I might as well get down there. I know the tournament started at twelve, but I get that it's two thirty whatever, still a couple hours of late rege, so you know, I can get a couple of bullets in if I need to. That's kind of how I feel like I'm starting the WSOP this year. At the end of it all, I do want this podcast to ultimately reflect what we're feeling, what we're observing here at the World Series of Poker, Like I want these episodes to feel like those daily observations, and even on days when it feels a bit slower, and it feels like, hmm am I forcing things. You know, I think it's it's still all part of the big story, like, because without the small you can't have the big. So right now we're in the you know, the the build up era of it all. And it'll get there, of course. But also you know, today I got there a little bit late. I had a lot of things to take care this morning, you know, as it pertains to work. Don't know if you guys know, but we did drop a new season of High Stakes Poker, Season sixteen, first four episodes dropped. You guys can check that out on Poker Go. Kevin Hart is in the mix. He's battling with Sam Kekey. That's a lot of fun. Those guys just go total tone and go back and forth. As for the World Series of Poker, though, you know, you really started to feel it today, and I think it was probably due to the fact that the rooms were a bit more full. You know, you can walk around Paris and that energy it's a little bit more elevated, you know, in that main ballroom within Paris. You had day two of the five K playing a little bit closer to where that that arena is going to be. You had the fifteen hundred dollars Omaha High Low. That's always you know, a well tended event that was taking place. In the other area of the room. Of course, you had the cash games across the hall where you had the Champagne ballroom that was the old registration room in recent years, you know, that had the employees event running in it. And then at the other property, at the other venue over at Horseshoe, you had the Mini Mystery Millions Day one B taking place, so everything was a bit more full, and that's part of it. Also, you know, you really started to get some of these players and the personalities kind of starting to to pop up a little bit. And that's what I was getting out a little bit earlier when I said, Okay, like this is possibly a story or that's possibly a story, and I'll get into some of that in a little bit, but it does really feel like, you know, Okay, the summer is definitely underway. And I think also part of this, with the way that I'm feeling a little bit different this year than I think I might have in past years, is because I know on Friday we have this insane reveal for this new grand arena that is the dobis Api main stage set. I've seen the thing. It's freaking wildly awesome. Like I can't say how, I can't do it justice how awesome and insane that this thing is. And I can't wait for people to see it. And I can't wait for the energy from off of that stage to just resonate and be shot out like a freaking cannon into the room and for everyone just to be like, holy shit. I need to make it my goal this summer to go deep enough in a tournament that I make it there, Like that's the plan. So and like even today, like when I was checking it out a little bit, and you know, watching the team, you know, put the finishing touches on everything and get it going. You know, I was thinking in my mind in the events that I play, I'm like, man, I want to be up here as a player like that, that's what I want. I want. I want to and trying to visualize it. I'm trying to like kind of put it out there because I want it to happen, you know, I want to be up there, so I know that that's also still to come. And because I know that that's still to come. I'm kind of like waiting for it to get here. You know, these are kind of the days before Christmas, before before before the curtains dropping and everyone gets to see that thing. And then once that happens, you know, because that's going to happen on Friday. It's Wednesday, so you know, I mean it's two days from now, a day and a half an hour whatever. I mean, that's like, okay, we're here. It's buzzing'. It's the first weekend at the World Series of Poker this year, so you know, let's just freaking go. Now, all of that said and me talking about how the place felt, you know, a bit more lively, much more full, et cetera. I do have to talk once again about the numbers that we're starting to see, because even though it is only day two, I can't help but think maybe we're starting to see a little bit of a trend here. And I have had some conversations with some other people, you know, We've we've shared some thoughts, we've tossed around these numbers. I saw some conversation on social media today pointing to specifically the five k being down. You know, I touched on that on the last episode. But yeah, but these numbers. You know, one very interesting thing that I saw, as long as the sb Live app is correct, the Mini Mystery Millions Day one A had more entries than Day one B, sixteen thirty five on Day one A, fifteen sixty two on Day one B. And normally with these multi flight events, as you guys know, it just builds builds builds, you know, progressively and somewhat exponentially. If you were to graph it out to that final starting day and the fact that it, I mean, for all intentsive purposes it stayed just even, but it did downtick a little bit, but you know, stayed a little bit even. That's that's a little bit like hmm interesting. You know again, I've always said this when I talk about the wsp MA and event, the WSPA man event numbers, is that, yes, the numbers may fluctuate up or down, and everyone's going to talk about them. We're going to talk about them, but at the end of the day, when you look at the total number that the thing spits out, it's it's likely going to be a very good number all things considered. Right, So even if this this mini mystery millions ends up with a smaller number than we might have expected. It's still going to be an enormous number. So let's not get lost, you know, in everything else. But I do think it is interesting, and I do think that, you know, part of it is just there's a lot of stuff catching up finally to the to the poker industry. You know, I think poker's been kind of on a high for a while, and you know, for lack of a better term, whistling past the graveyard, because I think there's a lot of stuff happening in the regular world. You know, a lot of prices for everything are high. Producer Rich shout out producer, which, by the way, you know, he's been busting his ass helping me with this podcast every single day. But you know he's like, gases six dollars a gallon milk? Is this like, you know, he's shooting me all the numbers. I mean, I get it. You know, like in the real world, it's it's tough, you know. I even I go to the grocery store and at the end of it, I wonder where the hell all my money went. So, you know, maybe maybe people do finally have fewer bucks to throw around on a poker turn, or maybe you know something that I'm not totally ruling out. Maybe it's like, listen, I don't want to play these earlier events because I'm saving it up for the main event, right, I mean I could certainly see that, you know, if you only have so much money to spend, and you got to be a little bit careful, a little bit more budget conscious for what you put where you put that that poker money, you know, I think you're going to fire it into the main event versus anything else. So just just something to I guess keep an eye on. You know that that five K did finish down as well, down from last year five seventy entries this year, six ninety three last year. The fifteen hundred dollars Omaha eight that got eight hundred and twenty eight entries this year. Last year had nine ten, So you know thing. And we also talked about the win event the other day or yesterday. You know that eleven hundred one million dollar guarantee missed by one hundred and seventy k. If you just throw all the rake in and put all the money towards the prize school, I think I saw Ryan Laplant on social media say that it's a like it's a it's a true guarantee, true overlay of sixty K. I think he had it at so, you know, but still, I mean, it's it just seems like, hmm, interesting, And I guess this is probably a good time for me to talk about another idea that's been building in my mind probably for the last year or so. And I can't recall if I talked about this on last summer's podcast, but I think that when when everyone is going in the same direction, that's not gonna allow everyone to win. Like, yeah, certain players are gonna win, when I mean a player, like an operator, That's what I'm getting out here. But everyone in poker seems to build their like summer schedules around these price points of like let's say six hundred dollars up to five k, like that that's what everyone really focuses on. And it's really six hundred dollars up to two k like in that range, you know, the wins, the Venetians, the Arias of the world, you know, and and they have to then compete with the juggernaut that is the World Series of Poker, or that is the biggest and the best, of course, but I just feel like there's I feel like there's a path or maybe a slight door opening for someone to go the complete other way and just put on an entire high roller series. Like I'm talking minimum buying twenty five k, have some twenty five ks, some fifty ks, that sort of stuff. And listen when I say this, I'm also looking at us, meaning poker Girl on the poker Gro tour, because I feel like we could do this, you know, in the poker Gro studio, turn it into a lounge type of atmosphere and just run these bigger buying events and make it, you know, more of like an exclusive memberships type of club, although it wouldn't be a club and it wouldn't be require a membership, it wouldn't be closed off, but have that luxury feel to it, right like, Oh, like that's the members only club over there, that's the country club. Oh how do I get in there? Oh I gotta have twenty five k oh, I gotta have fifty k oh. Oh that's interesting, you know. So so that like I feel like there's a there's a pathway for every time, every time somebody or a group of people or whatever are all going one direction. It's just my mind that I want to go the other direction, and that's in everything. So you know, maybe that's that's something to come in the future because you can only fight over you know, the one k players that population. There's only so many of those people to go around, and there's a lot of really good tournaments and venues on offer, but again, there's only so many players that can play all that sort of stuff. So if you're all trying to grab that same piece of the pie, I mean, I mean, it's just not gonna work out. So maybe think about going the other way. And I'm not saying to run one of those every single day, those high buying events, because I do think you need to be you have to pay attention to what the World Series is doing because that's again that's the biggest and the best, and then you kind of build it around that, right, So you know, I don't. I just thought that was an interesting thought that I had, And maybe maybe I'm just a total idiot when it comes to that. If you guys won't let me know if I'm an idiot or not, just you know, fire some tweets at me and I'm happy. I'm happy to engage with it on. But again, you know, just back to the numbers. I'm not gonna sit here and I'm gonna say that that the sky is falling. I think a lot of people, did, you know, expect numbers to be down a little bit this year compared to last year. You know, even if you just look again at the prediction markets out there, they do have they favor the numbers being down more so than up. So you know, of course, as always, it's only day two. We've seen this thing start on the slower side and then explode later, so you know, I'm not going to be too worried either way. The big story that that I'm I'm just starting to get through all of this is that the w SIP finally feels awake alive. Here it is maybe it's maybe we're at the point where, like you know, you're sitting up in bed and the WSP is like stretching its arms to the side and it's getting ready to get up and out of bed. But one person who is fully ready to go is mister Martin Cabrell. Like that this guy is He's off and running. The Martin Cabrell show has begun, it has started. It helps that he has a pile of chips at least right now at the time of recording. In the five K nolam at hold him. On day two deep into the money, last I checked, he was in fifth place. You know, obviously give or take based on the chip fluctuations, but with forty four players left. So I mean you and you hear it too. I mean, he's he's doing his whole thing, casino royale, talking to people. Oh, he's just waiting for kings, Oh, reading for races, you know, the whole like everything about him is happening. So, first of all, I don't think that this should surprise anyone, because Martin Cabrell is an incredible poker player, especially in you know, these kind of higher buying events. I would say a five K starts to get up there a little bit. You know, it's not quite a ten K, it's obviously not a twenty five K, but you know, you got to have a little bit going for you if you're going to start firing into these five k's at the WSP. He can absolutely play when he gets chips and he's feeling it and he's in the groove. He's frustrating to play against, for sure. He's also frustrating to deal with when he's when he's feeling himself and he's being the character that is Martin Cabrell. So all that sort of stuff, I feel like is just just makes him like a vacuum for the chips around him. I thought coming out of the twenty five K Fantasy draft that Martin's pro of sixty nine dollars was too low. That's to me, that's tremendous value. Now is he going to be firing every single tournament under the sun like Sean Deep is doing. No, the volume will be less, but Martin Carell is going to be at the World Series of Poker every single day. And last year I think he got a taste of the Player of the Year race. He was, you know, right up there contending like till the very end. And this year, if he can have some sort of really big success in this five K, now a deep run like this is great and he's making you know, two or three access money and all that sort of stuff. But obviously, for Martin Cabrell, it's about making final tables hundreds of thousands of dollars and winning bracelets, and if he's ultimately able to let's say, finish top five in this event or top three year or heck, when win the damn bracelet to start, I feel like he's going to be extra motivated to go on and really chase that player that here. Him and Sean deep have a nice, like friendly rivalry. I think they're friends and then they kind of, you know, go back and forth with each other about stuff. So, you know, being able to go toe to toe with Sean deeb throughout the Player of the Year race, that would be fun. I think for Martin as well, he's just somebody who he thrives in chaos. Yes, he is polarizing, of course, you know, I know he has both sides of him. There's the constant debate, you know, is Martin Carell good for poker? Is he good for poker? And people can kind of take both sides. I think I know where the large majority of you land on that, on that that idea, but you know, still, you know, I think that a character like this does bring a fair amount of eyeballs to the game and too what he's doing, and you know, I don't know, I feel like it's kind of it's kind of just one of those wacky things that that poker has that you ultimately just love about it is that these characters can be themselves and it just feeds into the entire whackiness of this whole industry. Now, at the same time, you also have another polarizing figure in the same event, also going deep with Martin Cabrell, and that is Maurice Hawkins. And he's still in and he's still doing well. And at when I'm looking at the app right now, it's eleven fifty one. There are thirty two players left. You got Cabrel right now in fifth place. You got sixth places Maurice Hawkins. Obviously, Maurice Hawkins, you know, has had his situations that he's had to deal with over the years. That said, on the Felt, he is the winningest WSB's Circuit player of all time. He's got twenty five gold rings. I mean, it's it's unbelievable, like all the stuff this guy goes through, how often he's in the news kind of fighting and bickering with people, but then when it comes down to playing and winning, like he seems to just do it on the Felt, which is crazy, but he's also still in so you know, earlier, you know when I said, like there's a story here that's happening, there's a story there that's happening. These are two of the stories that are starting to happen. You know, Martin Cabrell looking like he's picking up, picking up right where he left off last year. And then Maurice Hawkins despite all the stuff that's happened and all the noise, all the shit that people are yelling and screaming about him, like he's now going deep. So like, if those two make this final table and this thing ends up getting streamed, I mean, just just get your freaking popcorn ready. I mean, like, let's I mean, holy hell, I mean, that's just just wild. I mean, people are gonna be constantly debating them in the chat on social media. You know, each of them separately can become the story of any tournament that they run deep in, and now they're doing it together. I don't know if they're gonna like butt heads at all. I'm guessing yes, just because I know how they both act when they're in poker tournaments. So we'll see, just you know, something to keep an eye on here. Of course, we know how poker tournaments are. They could flame out in the next ten minutes. But you know, it's looking like these guys are primed to make a deep run. And then we know, when it comes to this game, how much early success in a long series like this, how much that can do for your confidence, your momentum, and ultimately the rest of your summer in terms of having you know, achievements and and success going forward. So just just keep an eye on that another uhh yeah, I mean I think he falls into the category of a polarizing figure. I know plenty of people that tell me that they can't stand his antics. I know other people that absolutely love it. That's the one and only, mister Phil Helmeth. He's officially back in the mix. He's firing everything, he's chasing. Bracelet number eighteen. He played the five k Nolan had hold him. He did fall short of the money in that one. He jumped into the fifteen hundred dollars Omaha High Low where when I left Paris, he was seated next to Vanessa Salps. A bit of a throwback between those two sitting next to each other. You know they're having a great time. They were chatting it up mostly Phil was chatting, of course, you know. But Phil's ready, He's ready to go. He's he's having a moment. And I saw that. He also posted on social media that he's seated right next to Nick Palma. Helmuth claims that Palma called him a pansy, said that Pauma said that he stinks, and and and Moore said that he's bad at poker or something like this, this whole thing. And then, according to Helmuth, Palma received a warning. Pauma's right next to him, like jumping in and out of the video. You guys can see this on Phil Helmy's Twitter account. One guy called me a pansy. It was me, Nick Palmer. NICKI. He told me he hates me. He told me I stink shouted in. It's true, It's it's true. They gave him, they gave him a warning. No more P word, no more P word. It's very interesting because I play it usually if I for a whole month before someone's out of line. Wait, hold on, only only Phil is allowed to be out of line. Only Phil could talk to people like this. No one else. Oh yeah, right, aren't you known for that? Or no, are you not known for that? Is he not known for that. I mean, in my line, let's see what the comments say. Put it up, put it on Twitter, Let's see what they say. It's just the whole thing is just crazy. And that comes just one day after you got Sean Deep going on Twitter saying that Palma threatened to spit on somebody on day one of the of the five K. So another thing is like, are we is this about to be the summer of Nick Palma? I mean, I mean, this guy, so, Nick Palma is He's he's always he's always out there, he's always making some noise, he's always talking. He's extremely confident. You know, he carries he carries an enormous amount of confidence to the point where you think he's overly boisterous. You might think he's cocky, but I don't know. I kind of love it the character that he is. I love all these wacky characters in this freaking game. He's also quite a bit of a lone wolf Palma. I mean, maybe I have that wrong, but like every time I see him, he's just he's just doing his own thing. He's marching to the beat of his own drum, and that's just who he is. He doesn't give a shit what people think about him, and he says what he thinks and what he believes, and he puts it out there. I think he's pretty comfortable being viewed how he is. He'll certainly be combative at times with people, but you know, poker is great for that. The game has always had personalities like that. Somebody like him, I think is extremely colorful. I'm glued to Nick Palm my content this summer. I posted, I reposted one of his videos from this morning. I said, this might be the best follow you guys can have all summer. I do believe that, because I mean, let's just ride the wave up, down, left, right, whatever, Let's just ride the Nick Palm a wave. You know, he talked in one of his recent videos about going through some adversity in life and having to bounce back from difficult situations. He didn't really go into detail, but I will say that that's the type of person that he is. You know, he just he's got that chip on the shoulder type of energy. And he believe he won a bracelet last fall online. But I mean, I think he wants a live bracelet. He wants success. I think he got third place in a fifteen hundred, maybe a six inund I don't remember. It was maybe a year or two ago live at the World Series of Poker, and I remember he was like, you know, oh man so close, Like that was my shot, But I'll be back, all that sort of stuff. I mean, he definitely cares. He's definitely up there in the heart rankings, and I think he ultimately wants to prove himself and put himself out there. He's just I don't know, he's just a fun, crazy character. I do hope that I can get him on this podcast. I do want to sit down and like learn a little bit more out him. Hear how he ticks. Let you guys learn a bit about him as well. You know, again, the whole thing is just my love for the industry is rooted in the characters that are in this industry, and there's a lot of there's a lot of fun ones. So you know, we'll see if we can get a mister Nicki p on the podcast. At some point this summer. We got Martin Cabrell starting to make some noise. We got Maurice Hawkins starting to make some noise. Also interesting about Maurice is that while he does have all this success, he has all these gold rings on the WSP circuit hasn't had that same type of success when it comes to the World Series of Poker. You know, you could say the same thing about Phil Helmuth. You know, he's somebody who's had the bracelet success, but like he doesn't have a World Poker Tour title, you know, or some of this other stuff. So it's just interesting how these players all seem to kind of find their own path and then really focus and have a lot of success down that one singular path. Of course, that could just be you know, some luck invariance and how it all breaks and then the numbers thing. I think, you know, it's just something we gotta do. Just just keep an eye on, just keep an eye on. So yeah, I think overall, the WACIP is really starting to build. I know I talked at the beginning of this episode about how I didn't know if I was going to do this episode, but now I'm happy that I did, because I don't know, it's it's it's almost here. Like the what I mean by almost here, the full energy is almost freaking here, and I'm freaking ready for another thing. I want to shout out just real quickly. Is David Odib Baker the deadline for odb Fantasy League was today? I know, I believe he said one pm was the deadline today or yesterday if you're listening to this on Thursday, of course, and then people can still you know, find him and give them their money. A couple of things there. One I have I have no idea how this guy stays so focused on actually playing poker when every four minutes he has somebody coming up to him and giving him money for his fantasy league, and then he's got to go into his phone, check off the person's name, make sure that they're paid, like you know, all that sort of stuff. That just seems like way too much of a hassle. Yet Odib seems to be locked in and pretty focused in every single tournament that he played. He did cash the five K no limits on day two, so you know he's already off to a decent start to his summer. I don't know how he does it in terms of that. Obviously that goes away within a few days, but to get started like that seems to bit crazy. Second to that, I think he also said somewhere that his fantasy league is breaking a record. He saw the early numbers and he was blown away. So that's incredible. So, you know, we can talk about numbers kind of being down for some of these actual tournaments here, but it seems like that number. I mean, the twenty five K Fantasy we already mentioned and how it got the same twenty four entries this year that it got last year. I was very surprised by that, pleasantly surprised. That's awesome. And then this ODIB Fantasy League, you know, if it does blow away last year's number, based on what Odib was saying, it sounds like that's the case, that is also incredible. So put it all together, I think the but the appetite for poker is still extremely healthy. Numbers are always going to fluctuate in tournaments. That just is what it is. But it's early in the summer and we have a very long summer ahead of us, so I'm looking forward to it all. I guess I'm just gonna say this is gonna be the summer of Nick Palmer. That's what I think is going to happen. You know, we had several years ago, we had the whole Will Casoof thing, and then that you know, came back last year as well. We also had the past two years really the Martin Cabell Show, you know, really coming up. And maybe this is just the summer of Nick Palma. Maybe he's that crazy, wacky person and that you know, gets ten times the popularity and ten times the following and notoriety that he once had. I don't know, but you know we're here. We're here every day, and we're gonna find out. That's gonna do it for me. It is just past midnight. I appreciate you guys for rolling with me once again. Going forward, we're still waiting to get set up in our official area where we're gonna be able to sit down, put our podcast mics, do all that sort of stuff, likely gonna you know, kick off the video portion of the podcast. I know we did have a lot of people that did watch on YouTube in past summers that that is coming. You know, we just need to get our areas set up for right now for these early days. Well, while that whole big, giant ass new awesome set is getting set up, our area is not set up. So we're just we're waiting for that to happen. So so it might be Tomorrow, might be Friday, might be Saturday. I don't know it's coming eventually, but you know, the more important thing is getting that set ready to go for Friday's big reveal, of course, and then we'll ramp things up here on the podcast as we go. But as always, I appreciate you guys for tuning in. Don't forget to like, subscribe, rate, and review all that good stuff wherever you listen to your podcast, and tell your Dan friends about this show. All right, boys and girls, I will talk to you next time.