Hello everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the Poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. His name is Tim Duckworth, a shirtless, mullet wearing, mustache growing Tim Duckworth. Listen. We have plans to do this podcast on video this summer. Your god, those plans are followed through with because y'all need to see this bogan ass on the other side of the screen. I mean, it is absolutely incredible, absolutely impeccable, sir. I'm glad you brought the heat. I guess quickish episode today.
We have a bunch of episodes in the hopper that we're going to be firing at you guys rather quickly, so expect that. Now we are a week away from the World Series of Poker. Today is Tuesday, May twentieth. Next Tuesday, it's WSP timeb today. I know Tim went down to Horseshoe and he did his whole WSP plus verification process, so we're gonna talk about that. I want his first hand experience, boots on the f and ground reporting. Let us know how it went. We'll talk about that.
We released our plans for the summer streaming schedule as it relates to poker gh so we can inform you guys on what to expect there. The first cold bracelet of twenty twenty five was already one if you can believe it. Maybe you missed the news, maybe you didn't, but we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna find out what Sean Deep does with his gold bracelets, which was interesting, something that I didn't know until an article dropped from Poker News and then listen, we got to fact check
our guy Alex foxon it be done. I'm sorry, I'm doing it on the episode. I got a bone to pick, so I'm picking it right here on the Poker Go Podcast. As always, if you want to play free online poker, I would highly encourage you to go check out play poker Go. With play poker Grow, you can get the thrill of authentic poker anytime anywhere, quick casual games, action pack tournaments, they got sit and goes. It's play Poker Grow.
That that's the place to compete against real players from around the globe and you can do it for free. Hone your skills, make new friends, and enjoy that authentic poker experience that you love so much. Play Poker Grow is available on web at playpoker grow dot com, also on iOS and android. So deal yourself in now, let's go, all right? WASB plus verification, loading money, doing the whole thing. You went down to horseshoe, you got verified to talk me through it. How did it go? Was it a breeze?
What were the hiccups? I want to know it all. I have not done it yet, and I'm sure many people out there haven't done it yet, so what can they expect to go through this process?
Yeah, it was pretty simple. I was probably been the first one to do it. I was there pretty early on opening.
Day giving you a number.
Yeah, like a little commemorative coin or something. There's a couple GG Poker representatives down there just hanging out. But the main thing is Paris Main cage for at least another few more days. Middle of the casino, basically right under one of the Eiffel Tower legs. And I went to the cage. They were just like on that side, please, thinking I was cashing out or something. I was like, no, I'm trying to do the WSP app. She goes, oh, yeah,
come here. Gave them my player's card. I gave them my ID, told them my six digit WSP plus app number. That is, you can find that in your app. They basically linked it asked me if I wanted to deposit any money, and I said, yes, here you go. Here is twenty five hundred dollars, which I believe is the minimum. And I didn't know that at the time, so lucky I.
Brought again, this makes no sense five hundred when you have events that are three hundred dollars. Yeah, but hot, okay, so hold on, you.
Can withdraw it. You could deposit twenty five hundred play the Gladiator is bike out twenty Let me ask you.
Is that you're and I don't know. I'm possibly I might not be asking you. I might just be asking out loud, but maybe you have answers or insights here. So everyone needs that. It is to be plus app. That's how all of this is done. Yet they have buy ins that are three hundred dollars five hundred dollars, So you can't just buy into the Gladiators for three hundred dollars via the app. You have to put twenty
five hundred dollars on. That seems like quite a large disconnect, Like if the messaging out there is everyone needs this app. Get this app. This is how you're going to go through that whole registration process. I mean, and the coss is specifically, there's eighteen thousand people in that damn thing. Like how many people are going to show up with three hundred or six hundred or nine hundred dollars not twenty five hundred and be like, hey, I want to play?
Oh well you need twenty five hundred to play. I mean that that that can't be a thing. I feel like that can't be.
I mean, I think we've kind of touched on this before, but you know, just to finish my experience pretty quick, money was in the account, I could go buy into the mister millions, so that was fine. But no, no, no, did you No, I'm only playing the main event. I'm only playing the main event. Okay, let's it.
Well, how are you gonna play the minium? Ever for twenty five hundred dollars? Buddy?
I got seventy five hundred more common eventually. But another poker player there brace the winner and PGT title winner David Fonkauser looking for a W two from last year. So who's obviously a little late on his taxes? Sorry to call you out, David. I asked him. I was like, are you here for the WSP plus up as well? And he goes, what's that? So I was like, great, so explain a bit to him and he's like, oh,
so we have to use that. And as he was getting his self verified for you know, finding w two and all that stuff, the cage manager was there, so he was kind of converse with, you know, between us three, and he's like, well, what do you think of this? And I say, well, it's going to be a problem for the seniors event because not everyone has an iPhone, not everyone has a phone, so that's kind of a problem. And he basically hinted that, you know, for those kind
of emergency situations, will have a workaround. So my prediction is that if there will be potentially maybe one line, you know in the registration area over on Paris once the WSP starts, that's for like cash only, but it's going to be so slow that people will basically say, I never want to do this again. I'm going to load up my WSP app in all these other lines that are available so that I don't do experience that.
That is my prediction, and you know, I'm guessing, mister million is we're going to have someone without an iPhone. We're going to have people without twenty five hundred dollars on them. You know, they only have a thousand to just play one bullet. You know, what are they going to do? I'm assuming maybe they'll bring down the minimums as well. You're right, we both have kind of discussed
this last year with Bravo. The minimum should be really what the minimum buying of any event at the World Series is, and it actually should be less than three hundred. It should be two fifty for the two hundred and fifty Deep Stacks, right, if you're trying to get everyone under this app and everyone registered Deep Stacks is supposed,
I believe, Yeah, you can well Bravo last year. Yes, I'm assuming for WSP plus you can as well, but you should if you really want everyone on this app, you need to make essentially the minimum deposit one dollar, right, Like there should be no minimum, There should be no maximum.
Yeah, I mean, I don't see why there is a minimum, Like it should just be the stone lowest. You said, one dollar. Yeah, I agree.
My only thought is that it just kind of X reduces the amount of times you have to go to the cage and therefore reduces potential future lines. So you know, you know, some people are only going to put a thousand at a time or five hundred at a time. This way kind of saves them a few visits and that you know, saves a little bit of traffic in the future. That's my only guess is why they're doing them that way.
Yeah, I think, you know, just just thinking ahead to future years, not even you know, later on this year, but future years. Like I don't and I don't even know if this is even possible or if you could ever get to this point that you know, there should just be various kiosks around where I can go up
to them. There's probably a barcode scanner on them. I can pull up a barcode on my w s AP plus app, which then like basically logs me into the kiosk, and then I can just stick cash into the kiosk, yeah, instead of like having to actually go to a cage. And then you just have those everywhere all over the property and then people can just you know, put more
money in or whatever as they go. So, like you said, if there are people that are like okay, I'm just going to do a thousand, then I'll do a thousand in three weeks or whatever it might be. They just don't constantly have to go up to a cage, you know, but I do.
I didn't test it like I Like I said, I deposited with cold hard American USD and you can obviously to positivey other methods. There is a method for AH which is a bank transfer. It's credit cards. There's there is an option for WSP dot com, so that kind of interests me. Does that mean I can transfer my WSP dot com balance across I think that's quite good, especially when you're cashing out. So there are other methods
you don't have to go and deposit cash. Once you verify and verify that your method, that's the best way. I wasn't planning on doing PayPal. I wasn't planning on using a credit card or anything like that, so I didn't really worry about any of that. But you know, at the time, I probably should have just set them all up just to see what that experience was like.
Any idea on if you get payouts through the app, I feel like, I mean that would be ideal.
Ideally, yes, you think of the lines for like the classes, when you cash out, you to go stand in that Not that I have experienced that in a while, but standing that payout line, you can see it wrapping, snaking around powers or horseshoe wherever they're doing the payouts. So you would hope that, you know, you could just be like, hey, you finished in eight hundredth place, he is eleven hundred
dollars coming into your account. You know, go get it whenever you want so you can just move on to the next event.
There was a version of this before using the Bravo TBIIC, but it it wasn't exactly the most efficient process in my because you bust out of a tournament, you have to go immediately stand in like this first line in the tournament room. Yes, with your little ticket that says, you know, ninety sixth place, and you get up to the counter. You give them your idea, your player's card
and the ticket. They basically log you into the system right there, and they always tell you, especially in the big field events with tons and tons and tons of people and like thousands of people cashing, they always say you have to do this first. You cannot skip this part of the process, because this is what ultimately logs you into the system to then go collect your payout
in the payout room whenever you want. So you do this first process, you stand in the line whatever, and then later on you go into the payout room, you know, which oftentimes, like you know, if I like I've cashed in the Gladiators and I've cashed in the classus, so I'll stand in this first line and then but I won't go get my payout right away. I said. You go to the payout room and there's a bazillion people in there, so it's like whatever, I'm gonna be here
all summer. I'll go at a different day whatever. But then when you eventually go into that room and you go through it and you go up to the front, they say to you, or they said to you, you know, how do you how do you want your payout? Do you want cash? You want chips? Do you want it
in your wsip TBIC account. So I'm assuming there you would get just a replacement of wysip plus app versus you know, w tb C. Now, ideally you would just basically remove that whole process, like you would I think the most ideal thing both on the player side, you know, from like a player efficiency standpoint and a customer service standpoint, and then also from the business side, is that when you like go through that first line and you basically
get assigned to whatever place you finish it, and it should just default to go into your WASITP account, WSP plus account. And the reason why I say that from a bit on the one side, it's it's just good customer service. That's the most streamlined thing. You know that you don't have multiple lines all this sort of stuff. On the business side, you should want people to just have money in the bank at all times because then
they're likely to just fire again. Yeah, like that's oh, well I just cast for two thousand and it's on this ws P plus app. Well, this is kind of funny money, right now, Let's go, let's find the next tournament, what's next, you know, let's just let's just fire it in there, Versus if I go somewhere, I have to get the money, then I have to put it back in.
So I'm guessing that's going to be the case. But of course, you know, some of this stuff we're just going to kind of have to find out as we go with the whole thing.
My thought is that that first part of your story, the first line, that may we may have lost that bot, but going and cashing out may still exist. That's that's kind of my theory that if they're using tablets, if the flaws are busting people, that they'll bust people from the tablet. You won't need to line up, you won't need to standing in that queue just to assign your name to the place and then go standing on the line. That's what I think.
But yeah, I mean, would you just have like one, one or two designated floor people to basically have like a scanner on their phone and they can go up to somebody and like that person pulls up the barcode on their app, you scan it in, you type in ninety six place, okay, boom that that all is done, done, see you later.
Yeah, that's what I think.
So I think overall that the do basitv plus app and the integration of it for the twenty twenty five DOBSIP is I think it's going to very much streamline everything, make everything much more efficient, and it's going to ultimately create a better experience for both players and for the operations and the operations are important because the more the things are streamlined on that front, the better everything runs,
you know, on the front side of everything. Now, I'll say that also, there's probably gonna be some headaches and some obstacles and some hiccups here and there and growing pains and whatever. I get it, you know. So, but I do think ultimately like this is going to be, you know, pretty awesome overall, just in terms of like making everything faster, and the faster these guys can get butts and seats for everything, whether that's initial entries, whether
that's re entries. It's yes, on the business side, it's more revenue for them, I get it. But on the player side, it's bigger fields, bigger prize pools, bigger payouts, you know, all that sort of stuff. Do you know if you can do this at any like Caesar's Venue or is it just Paris Horseshoe or.
I believe it's just Paris. And that's what I was thinking about the other day with Caesars opening the Poke Room, planning Hollywood opening the Poke Room, definitely makes sense for this to be part of the Caesars family of properties here in Las Vegas and essentially why not all across
the country. You know, if you're in Tunica, Mississippi or whatever else is the Caesars and you're coming here, maybe I don't want to bring fifty k cash, but maybe I just want to deposit it on my wsp AT while home travel, you know, either I'm driving or flying without that cash and without that burden of having to watch that money and then go stop playing WSOP events. So that's one thing I'd probably suggest for future use.
Obviously there's going to be some finance and accounting issues there, but property to property, it's, as we've been told a little, a little easier for that kind of stuff.
All right, Well, it sounds like everything went well with you. I've not done it yet.
You need to do it, do it quickly, real quick. Did you see that like thread about the credit cards that I chimed in on yesterday?
No, but let me let me say that I heard on the Gamble Up podcast with Adam Schwartz and David od b Baker that one of their mutual friends, Terrence Chan, who lives in Canada, did the whole plus thing, and I believe deposited or registered or whatever with a credit card, and there was no fee.
Yeah, so that's the thing. Right now, they're saying there's no fees, which is you know, it's promoted that way on the website. It's hard to believe that there would be no three percent vge like there has been in previous years, but a lot of players are taking advantage of it. Poker dot Org's Terrence Reid was one of them, and it started a thread. You know, Steph Chung who plays out PGT events, basically like what is the gto
you know, credit card to use here? And people A couple of people are responding, and I kind of chimed in, knowing, you know, a little bit about financing credit cards, like it's not just the credit card you use, you got to think of like new credit cards, sign up bonuses. And she's like, any suggestions, best I can find is two percent cash back. So I obviously did not spend that much time doing this. I quickly looked. I went
to AMX because they have the most craziest ones. Basically, you can get thirty five percent rake back, right, and let me explain. Let's say she a PLO player.
Let's say she let me before you say anything, this is not financial I want to make sure that we're not getting in any trouble. This is not financial advice. And I also want to make it clear that the guy talking is the guy with the Australian accent, not the guy with the American accents. Have you blame the boat? Okay, let's go.
Okay, she's going to buy into the ten K PLO Championship. That's ten thousand dollars if you open up the new Amex Platinum Card. Six hundred and ninety five dollars fee. Sounds extravagant, sounds like a lot. I know, I get it, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay for twelve months. Now, if you spend eight thousand dollars in the first there's like a certain amount of period. You'll
obviously do that. With the ten K you receive an upgraded one hundred and seventy five thousand Amex membership points, which, depending how you redeem them, is value between seventeen hundred and like thirty five hundred dollars. So let's just say you redeem them as efficient as possible. We're getting thirty five hundred dollars back. Now, let's take off the seven
hundred dollar fee. Okay, now we're down to twenty eight hundred, but you get a two hundred dollar hotel credit, a two hundred dollars airline credit, a two hundred and forty dollars digital entertainment credit, one hundred and fifty dollars Walmart credit, two hundred dollars zuper cash. You also get the one X points, which is not as good some other cards, but look at all the other sign up bonuses, so
basically it equates to thirty five percent ish rakeback. Now conditions apply as always, I didn't read any of the conditions. Some of these new sign up bonuses are like you have to hit certain categ like spend in each category you know, or spend a minimum in each category. So maybe she needs to go buy a pack of gum at the Shell service station and then you know, buy a Starbucks coffee. But in a nutshell, you could potentially
get thirty five percent rake back on one tournament. Who knows if it will work out, but hey, there is ways to gain a little bit out there until the fee. The three percent fees are at it. But if you use a normal credit card, like you know, you and me have an out wallet we're probably getting three percent or five percent cash back. Anyway.
I heard them say on the gamble of podcast that there was no fee, and immediately I was like, Okay, well, I'm buying into the main event this year on my credit card because I get points, right. I mean, it's not as exorbitant as as the bonus that you were mentioning, But still, like, why if it's no credit card fee, if that is truly true, then why would I not
do that. I'll just take the ten k cash that I have and snap pay off my like literally as soon as it hits the statement, I will just pay off that that part of it, and then you know, I get those those bonus points or bonus dollars or whatever it may be. So I don't know why, like,
literally everyone wouldn't be taking advantage of that. Now. Of course, if you're if you're prone to possibly letting credit card bills getting out of control and you don't attack them right away and all that sort of stuff, like, yes, don't do it, just do the cash route. I get it.
I also thought that, you know, kind of because because I started thinking of the same thing that you were thinking of, I didn't see that thread but you know, I was kind of still thinking, like, well, this is obviously an advantage point for a lot of people to to be able to get additional bonuses, dollars, points, whatever it may be. You know, why doesn't doubs be plus?
Just build that in like if you if you put them enough money on or you start playing enough tournaments or whatever it is, you kind of build up like points and then you can, you know, eventually you can turn those points into I don't know, a tournament entry, or you can turn you know, turn them into a food voucher or whatever it may be. Now, it doesn't have to be anything you know, as crazy as like
you know, initial credit card offers are. But you could do some sort of small kickback for the players, right and just again just to really entice people to to use the app and to use it more often. You know, that could be That could be a good thing.
I mean, you could do something also with the Seasons credit card. You know, I'm looking at that sign on page right now. You get ten thousand world credits, five thousand tier credits if you spend five K, and then you get upgraded to Platinum, some other bonuses. But you could have it built into a Caesar's credit card, so you get people signing up there and basically get them to give the benefits to the WSP PLUS players that
use that credit card to sign up. So you could really make this like a whole all encompassing project with how you get money on there and really make it benefits plus and their players.
Definitely again not financial advice.
Not financial advice.
You're on research of course, figure out your own.
If you need an AMEX referral code, please use No, I don't have one of it.
But if you need a Tesla refer a code, you can use. Moving on Poker, GOSP streaming plans are out. We have officially rolled out the red carpet for this summer's WSOP coverage, and you know it's it's I would say, it's probably what you expected, but it's also kind of like similar to at least last year. There's going to be daily Wall the Wall live streams starting May thirty, first daily broadcasts of the WISPY main event from Day one A all the way till the final hand is
dealt on July sixteenth. There's a whole bunch of different bracelet events that are front and center some of the biggest that are on the schedule are going to be front and center on the Poker gro streaming schedule once again, a very big push from our team here. You know, it's really the only place that you can get this level of coverage for one poker series. So it is going to be split up, you know, between poker Go
the platform and then the Poker Goro YouTube channel. So the best way to get one hundred percent of everything is obviously become a Poker Grow subscriber. Yes, and I'll hit on that a little bit more in a second. So the headlining thing is a daily coverage of the Waspmion event in July second, I believe it is, second
through the sixteenth. There's also going to be more than two dozen additional bracelet events that are going to be highlighted, including the fifty k PPC, which at least right now, of course, all this comes with, you know, subject to change, because bazillion things change every single day at the World Series of Poker, but fifty k PPC we're planning multiple
days of coverage once again. We're also planning multiple days of coverage for the two hundred and fifty k Super high Roller we got one hundred thousand dollars high Roller on the schedule. You got the new twenty five k Nolan Hold Them Slash Plo half and half high Roller that's on there. We got the twenty five k heads Up, we got the Ladies Championship, Mystery Millions, Monster Stack, Millionmaker Colossus. So so pretty much everything it is, it is weighted
towards Nolamit hold Them. You know, I know that there has been some pushback out there from a select handful of people about that specifically, and I guess I don't care about the pushback. I mean, listen, no one does more mixed game coverage than poker go in a calendar year. No one. It's not even remotely close. We know that the mixed game tournaments at the DO RESIP are an absolute logistical nightmare from a streaming perspective, just because it's
they take too long. They go to you know, additional days like it's just a lot. Okay, of course, we'll try and work them in where we can. One of the best things that we do, in my opinion, is the multiple day coverage of the fifty k PPC. You know, you don't just get the final table you're likely going to get days three, four, and then five, so that's really good. And then you know, if big names make things, things can change around and we'll do what we can.
And then also listen the masses, like the Nolamitt hold them exactly. We see the numbers, like, what what do you want us to say? I mean, I feel like every year we get yelled at about not doing mix game coverage, Yet we see the numbers and I'm like, well, you guys don't feel I feel like you're not showing up to the streams because the numbers aren't on par with the other stuff. So let's just just want to
get that little little rant out of the way. I mentioned poker Goro and the poker Goro YouTube channel, so I would certainly say, you know, subscribe to poker Grow and then subscribe to the YouTube channel. One of those things is paid. One of those things is free for the paid one use promo code doubysit B twenty five. When you sign up for a poker Grow annual subscription, or if you're a monthly or quarterly subscriber currently, you can upgrade to an annual subscription because that promo code
doubysity twenty five will get you twenty dollars off. Okay, so it takes the price down from ninety nine ninety nine a year to seventy nine ninety nine a year, and you're going to get entered into the Poker Grow Annual Subscriber Dream See giveaway, which is going to give an opportunity to win a seat in the PGT million dollars Chance Pionship. It comes with hotel, it comes with the travel credit as well. So that's pretty freaking awesome
if you ask me. So, you know, it's a perfect time to uh, to get in there to become a PROP subscriber. Always the w CP is that's uh, that's seventy nine ninety nine if you use the discount code, is a whopping six dollars and sixty seven cents a month, so basically the price of one coffee. Come on, guys, let's go all right. Thoughts on the streaming schedule, sir, I know you're the you're the puzzle person. You. Yeah, you put this thing together. It's a it's a giant puzzle, is really what it is.
Yeah, it's you know, obviously relying on where WSP puts their events. Some events with just handcuff we can't show and some were kind of have to show. And we know what we you know, we we know we want to do the fifty k. We know we want to do the two fifty and then we kind of feel in the pieces around that and it is very no limit, hold them heavy. But I think that's fine. I think
it's a decent you know schedule. We have those six days of non final table coverage, which is always I think very popular for both the players and also the
fans at home. So you know, we're doing day two coverage of the twenty five K hi Roller, fifty K high Roller, one hundred K high Roller, and two fifty K high Roller, so you know, you want to come see the best in the world battle it out on day two in of the money and then towards the final table you got to come to Poker Go and then obviously like you touched on day three and four of the PPC before the final table. So there's all that, and then we have some new events on that we
haven't done before. We have the twenty five K half and half you mentioned, you know, we're doing the one K Battle of Ages they're both new events for this year, and for the first time, we're doing the the three K nine game mat mix a little you know, a little lead into the PPC, and then we also have the Seniors high Roller which also which could be a fantastic event. I'm looking forward to that one. So yeah, some new events, some classic ones. It's gonna be a great summer.
I still care believe they don't call it the Mini PPC. I just can't believe it.
I know.
So it's touch a layer, it is it really is for an operation that loves the gimmicks. Yeah, you know, this is just it's the layup of all layers.
Yeah.
I just don't get it.
And I think we you know, along with these you know, marquee events, these these high roller events, we've also got ones where we're going to see people turn you know, three hundred dollars, one thousand dollars, five hundred dollars into millions potentially. We have that one K Mystery Millions, we have the one point five k million maker, we have the fifteen hundred months to stack. We have that three
hundred gladiators of pokers. So you're not going to get unlikely to see the day on the grandos and feel helmeless at that table. But it's gonna be great. There's gonna be big, a big first prize, a bunch of probably amateur poker players at that at those final tables, but it's going to be I think those streams are always the best ones to watch in my opinion.
Yeah, I love I love those ones, you know, I mean I love it all, don't get me wrong. But you know, the the massive ROI tournaments, the small buying, huge score, massive fields, you know where you get the complete unknowns that the guys that are really chasing their dreams, Like that's that's really what it's about for me. So so yeah, incredible stuff. I mean, I'm looking forward to it. Of course, it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm going to be as glued to it as possible as
you and I always are. And yeah, I can't wait, absolutely cannot wait. So become a prot Grow subscriber today and tell them we sent you, because then it looks good on us. All right, first gold bracelet of twenty twenty five has actually already been awarded. Did you know that I did? Of course you did. I was I was joking it goes to a guy who started the final table near the bottom of the ship counts in the event. And the event was the Doubyssip Tournament of
Champions and it's Kevin Lee, a Canadian player. He qualified via the WYSSIP circuit. He ran it up over at Commerce Casino and won the TOC for in even two hundred thousand dollars. This is a million dollar free roll. I think there's around eleven hundred or twelve hundred possible players that can play in it. I think that's what
I heard or saw or whatever. But ultimately four hundred and eighty five entries played in it, So I guess pretty decent value if you're one of the players that actually made the trek to La to Commerce Casino to play.
So yeah, Kevin Lee two hundred k up top. He defeated Sean Rice in second place, Don Don Don Chiaglo, third place, Danny Seppiel we all know him, fourth place, Kara pet Galassian the fifth place, Maxwell Young's Yang Zoo seventh, Kevin Lemmer eighth, and then Scott Stewart WPT World Championship winner. Scott Stewart finished in ninth place. You know a lot of those names there you probably don't recognize, but that's
you know, this event is really about. I would say it's mostly about like the WSB circuit grinders, you know. So a lot of these guys don't get the biggest shine in the spotlight, but this is kind of an opportunity for them to do so. At the final table, Lee entered as one of the short sacks. He ultimately doubled through Galistean. I think it was king nine versus a eight. He had a king on the turn. I
was reading the updates over at poker dot org. Hit a king on the turn despite Galstian floppingion eight, and then ended up doubling from there. Seemed to kind of be the turning point for him. He went on to eliminate a bunch of players, he gets heads up with Sean Rice, He's able to close it out. He did mention afterwards that he felt that it was a real blessing for him to be there. This was a streamed event on where was it on the Bally's stream channel
on YouTube? I can't remember exactly, but it was stream so if you want to check it out, you can go check it out for sure. And yeah, it ultimately the first bracelet of the twenty twenty five DOBASIP season, which you know sets the tone for everything that is to come. Again, we are a week out from the WASP. Kevin Lee won this a couple of days ago out at Commerce, So I'm gonna throw things to you, sir. Where do you think the TOC stands in terms of prestige?
You know, is it a real bracelet event in your eyes? I know there's a conversation about that. You know, is it just basically a free roll with a glorified trophy? Should it give away a bracelet?
Like?
What are your overall thoughts on this event?
It's definitely a bracelet. I mean they're going to give bracelets out to this fit like to events in Pennsylvania,
then this is definitely a bracelet. Has a lost some prestige, I guess compared to what it used to be, Yes, But as you mentioned, it's mainly circuit players from all around the country, all around the world, So this is probably pretty cool event to be a part up and something that they, you know, strive to qualify for throughout their season, just like we talk about the PGT Championship. It's the same kind of concept. We know our players
really want to make and qualify for that. And I would assume the four hundred and eighty five entrants have played this, we're all like excited to play and you know, firstly qualify and then and then head down to commerce to play. So I think there's still some prestige. It's no, it's not the same as it used to be, even when it was at you know, at the end of the World Series in Vegas. But I still think there's
nothing wrong with it. I think it serves its purpose, which is rewarding mainly the circuit grinders out there.
Yeah, I mean, listen, if they want to give out a bracelet for this one, go for it, you know. And then I would also say that if they say the bracelet counts, then it counts. Let's just get that out of the way. That's just the nature of the beast. I do think it's it's somewhat of a gimmicky type of bracelet that to attach it to this. I do enjoy the fact that the circuit grinders get this as as kind of that that treasure at the end of the rainbow, like that they can go for, they can play,
you know, they can compete in all that sort of stuff. Ultimately, I just think it should be at the divisipy. I mean, that's my my next question to you is, you know, do you like that it's held at Commerce? Does it help or hurt it?
Like?
What are your thoughts there?
I mean, the one option is getting down at nine to eight or seven, whatever number you want, and then doing doing the delay and finishing it at the World Series on May first, the May nine, or the May seven. I'm just saying it's in Vegas, not too but you know, obviously they have a partnership with Combas Casino. They're trying to make that the concluding season ending stop, and it does make sense to have the TOC there, whether you know, we really like it or not.
Okay, So my question to you is, I guess I have a couple of questions. One, why do you need the TOC to be part of this season ending stop? Can't you obviously if there's some sort of financial aspect between the two partners, which they're likely is I feel like you can still achieve that by just having a w SP circuit stop, Like you don't need the Tournament of Champions there. Yeah, but then I would think.
Players want go to commerce to play the other events.
I mean, okay, but like you're still Commerce always draws very well. It's la like it's gonna draw very well if you put together a good schedule events, you have a decent guarantee, Like ultimately, I think it's gonna draw. I don't think getting you know, twenty five people from Vegas to you know, Chrek out there, like the Jeremy Becker's of the world, really is going to affect their bottom line all that much. I just I just don't think so.
I think the biggest issue they really have is the announcement of this event. World Series came out in what was it, late February. Here's the schedule, you know how people act, okay and book here are the events I play. I need one hundred and twenty five thousand. I'm going
to fly out this date, come back this date. When you delay the announcement of this which was you know that happened in the last two years, and it's significantly earlier, you know than the World Series, pretty much nearly two weeks earlier, people aren't going to travel the BRACEI of winners from Europe or from South America or even people here in the United States on the East Coast or
down in Florida wherever it is. Do they really want to come to LA fly back or do they want to come to LA and then find accommodation for a week and start the World Series. So a little bit more harmony in the announcements would go a long way. Or essentially, you know, there's no reason why you couldn't play this this weekend, so it's literally on the doorstep of the WSP so that you know you can get everyone coming in for the weekend playing this World Series
starts on Tuesday. I think you mentioned there was what six hundred people that didn't play this event that qualified. That would probably go a long way to getting some percentage of those six hundred to participate in the TOC, because in a perfect world, they want everyone playing, just like for our PGT Championship, we want everyone playing. But things come off with people, so you have to do what you can to try and make that happen.
Yeah, I mean I understand. On one hand, you know, you get a fresh audience, change of venue. I personally love Commerce. I think it's iconic with a lot of courts and everything. I just you know, I like it. I like the grungy aspect of it all. You know, like I don't know, I just I always have it was. It's a lot of it is just nostalgia. You know. It was such a big venue on the poker scene, you know, be it paired with the WPTL Poker Classic for so long. You know, it was like, oh my gosh,
this is commerce. Not only does it have this massive World Poker Tour tournament that you know when we were kind of all getting into poker, was you know, forefront of all like TV and all that sort of stuff, but also like it was home to some of these big crazy cash games and all that sort of stuff. So I just I like that aspect of it, right.
You know. Obviously there's a financial element at play here, probably with with you know, Caesar Slash w c AP and and Commerce, so you have that aspect, But I still think you can check many of those boxes by just having like a robust, essentially season ending WSIP circuit stop at Commerce and then just keep the TOC in Vegas and then I guess a quick aside here, the whole season ending thing is also a little bit silly because you have an event going on in Southern Indiana
at the same time. So I don't even understand. You have the Commerce WSIP circuit event from May eighth to May twenty fourth, but then you have a Caesar Southern Indiana one from May eighth to nineteen, So I don't I don't understand how that really works out, like and why you would ever do that, Like I would, I would blow something up at Commerce right, Like, listen, this is the this is the season ending event and the
marketing pitch. If you're worried about for example, you know you said maybe they're worried about getting those players to travel out there, Well how about just positioning it is this is your final chance to qualify for the TOC That's the pitch. You know, maybe you slap maybe every you know, every circuit event has what a sixteen hundred dollars buying, Maybe this one's twenty five hunt you know for the end, and yeah, you can have some other
events on the schedule too. I think Commerce and that market that region can certainly handle a very robust schedule. Slap a little bit of a bigger guarantee on it, like you could go twenty five one hundred and five million guarantee. I think you could hit with that for sure in La Let's go, I think that that could certainly work, So do something like that. I think having it in Vegas is just you get more shine, more
spotlight on the event. I think the idea of like essentially winning a trip to Vegas like in a way, I know you ultimately still have to travel there and whatever, but like, there is only a small group of the community that wins the exclusive right to play in this tournament, So why not do that in Vegas, which then ultimately like you get some of those people to fire more stuff in Vegas at the doubasp. So I think I think it just feels disconnected to me, you know, I
would rather kind of all be in Vegas. Like, you know, I didn't really see too much coverage of this, you know, it took wasop dot com didn't have a winter story up for a day or two, like poker dot Org was the only one that had a winter story up
about the Kevin Lee winning it. You know. It's also to me it seems a little bit weird that you have the TOC, but then the Tournament of Champions or sorry, you have the TOC and then the regular main event at Commerce finishes out, It's like, I don't, I don't kind of understand. I mean, like you can throw out the idea of a season ending event, but is it really ending the season because I don't is it not?
Is it?
I don't. I don't know. It's kind of just confusing and disconnected to me. So I would I would move it to Vegas. I would make kind of a celebration of the whole thing, you know, do it up really big, you know, make sure that it was streamed out of Vegas, because I think that, you know, you would want to make it so that those people get their quote unquote fifteen minutes in the spotlight that make the final table.
So I would try and do all those sorts of things versus just kind of in a way, ushering it off over here in La at Commerce. I also do think if it is in Vegas, you're going to get more people in it, right, you know, like you said, people people might be like, Okay, I'm going to Vegas for six weeks. Now I got to make this trip to LA I mean, okay, I'll pass on that and I'll just I'll just go to Vegas, like I would be curious to know how many of those people there
are there are out there. So so yeah, those are our thoughts on the TOC and congratulations to Kevin Lee, first bracelet winner of twenty twenty five. All right, speaking of bracelets, did you know that Sean Deeb gives away all of his bracelets?
Did you know that I knew he gave away bracelets. I didn't know he had given away all his bracelets.
Yeah, I did not know until there was an article that dropped recently on pokernews dot com. Chad Holloway, a friend of ours, did the article. He spoke with Sean Deeb and yeah, Sean deep is a six time DISSIP Gold bracelet winner. The twenty twenty five DOASIP is right around the corner, so you know he's one of the favorites of course to add to his tally, And he chatted with Chad and you know, of poker News to explain why he's given away every single bracelet that he's won.
I mean, I was kind of shocked. I read the story and I thought it was also kind of cool. You know, he's given him away to family, to close friends. Most recently, I think he gave the one away in the honor of his really good friend and the late Theyer Rasmussen. You know, his bracelet recipients include his grandma, wife, dad, uncle,
friend battling cancer. All this was was in the story, of course, the one that he gave in honor of the late theyer Rasmussen went to Thayer's family and then it actually turns out that I believe Thayer's mom wanted like everyone to have it, so they broke it down. Basically, they had like a jeweler to break it down, I guess, and then everyone kind of got to take different pieces. I think it was ultimately nine pieces where we're given out to the different family members, so that was kind
of cool. He only plans to keep a bracelet if it's the w Spey main event or the fifty k PPC calls those ones the only ones that matter enough, so we'll see if ultimately that happens. You know, if anyone's got a shot to win one of those two tournaments, I would say Sean Deeves, you know, right there as
one of the favorites. And then he also mentioned that, you know, should he win another bracelet, it's likely that his kids are next in line, but because he has multiple kids, he's gonna need to win multiple bracelets in a year, so there's no kind of rivalry going on. Do you think giving away bracelets like deep does do you like? Do you think that makes the win more meaningful? Does it possibly diminish the result or the bracelet?
Like?
What do you think about this sort of representation?
I think it makes it more meaningful or diminishes it at all. It's an individual kind of choice. Some people like trophy, some people don't. You know, we hear so many stories about bracelet winners losing their bracelet or putting it in a safety positive safety to posit bux and forgetting about it or giving it to you know, their dad. You know. Then you've got players like Nigrano that have him all displayed in his office. Right, So I think each to their own, do whatever you want. You can
care about him as much as you want. You know, you'll always remember that you want, right, It's always etched in, etched in WSP history, so it's not going anywhere. And I'm guessing that for all these people he gave it to, it kind of means probably more to them than it does to to Sean.
I think it probably just depends on your relationship with the game ultimately. I think I think it also gives a little bit of a look into Sean Dieve as a person, as a character, you know, meaning that he obviously cares about his relationships. I think he's got you know, strong ties to family, to friends, and they're all rooted in his foundation here. So I don't think that you know, gifting bracelets away like this cheapens it in any sort of way. It just simply repurposes the value with things.
It's it's not necessarily that this bracelet, which is ultimately the trophy in this space, that's not really the win. It's just a symbol of the accomplishment. So I think that, you know, building off of that, it probably adds to the meeting, right. You know, most players probably win and they toss a bracelet in a drawer or in the little box that it comes with and stick it in
their desk or whatever it may be. Yeah, some people display it, of course, but deeb is taking the approach that he's trying to use it to connect people and in a way it has more impact than simply showing it off in a trophy case or a display case that maybe you and your immediate family are the only ones that see, because you know, how often are really people coming over to your house to check out everything
and whatever. I think it only in terms of like possibly downplaying it, like some people might say, oh, well, he's why would you give away a bracelet, Like isn't that the ultimate prize in poker and whatever? I mean, I guess if you need it for some sort of like external validation, right, Like, probably the people that need the external validation the most. It might be the ones who actually wear the bracelets, like in the tournaments, you know, like, oh, why you got that on? So you get asked me
about it and I could talk about my accomplishment, like right. So, I mean, Sean Deep's done enough. I think it's you don't need to say anything about his career. He doesn't need the bracelet, He doesn't need that sort of jewelry to prove anything. He is who he is. He's one
of the absolute best in the world. So I think it's just kind of a kind of a cool thing overall, where it ultimately kind of humanizes him, probably not so much so to like you and I, because we kind of know him, but like to the just I guess the common poker fan that might read this story and see it, because it's kind of hard to have a level of connection with someone you see that's so large
within an industry. You know, he's this big iconic poker player, and it shows that he's again kind of rooted in family and friendships and he values stuff beyond the game, which I think you and I can say, yeah, this is part of Sean Deep's character because we know him more so than just seeing him on the screen, and it's it's certainly something to said that should be said about being remembered, you know, for how you want and what you did kind of in the week of that
that win and that triumph and who you are off the table versus just you know, I guess collecting accolades and showing them off. So so yeah, I mean shout out to Sean Deep for that. Now, he said he would keep the main event, which is obviously an insane bracelet. They say it's value to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the fifty k PPC, which I think, I think the vid DKPPC is more of a regular bracelet, right, it's not. Yeah, I think so special? Do you agree with?
Those are the ones that you would hold on.
To, that hold on everything. I mean unless someone offers me money for the south Point, not the coin. But hey, like I said, it's his choice. You know, if he's going to select those two, maybe those two a pretty good ones. Maybe if he wins the tenth, that's a good one. In Cape. Yeah, I got no problems with that. I didn't give him mine away.
Yeah, I mean the main event one. The main event one's like so kind of It's interesting to me because on one side of it, you know, you like you obviously want to keep that because it's it's absolutely incredible. Right on the other side of things, I could strongly make the case that I don't need a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars trophy. I mean, what like that just seems wild to me.
Me right, Like if it's really twenty and fifty k, that's insane.
Like if you if you could, I mean, obviously there's there's always those things where it's like this is valued at X versus like if you actually tried to sell it, could you get X? You know, Now, let's say you could let's say those things were say X equals x. In this case, for sure it's not X equals y. So if you could sell it for two hundred and fifty K, I mean it would be hard not to, right, I mean, like.
What the real question is what percentage of myself that I have in the main event?
Yeah, well even who cares? Even if you even if you have half of yourself? Right you win ten million, you get half, you get five million after taxes, that's three million.
I might see.
Yeah, you could think it's a lot of frigging money.
I would have to sell it then. I think like you.
Would almost be like, hey, you go to a jeweler and you spend like you spend like twenty five K on a replica. Yeah right, but and then you sell it for two fifty you know, you pocket the difference, like it just I don't know, it just seems crazy that it's it's that it's worth so much.
The problem is you can't secretly sell it. Like you know, let's say you have a diamond ring or diamond earrings. You can sell that no one cares, but like these are all unique things that the info would get out. And sure, but.
Also, what if, what if there's a chance, what if like what if okay, what if you could sell it? You throw it up on eBay two hundred and fifty k okay, you know, and it's obviously it's out there and everyone then knows your thing. Or what if you were able to go to a jeweler and hey, hey, would you basically buy the parts, like would you buy all the diamonds it melts it? Yeah? If you could dismantle it and take it apart, you can do that. You can melt down the gold, you can take the
diamonds or whatever. But they're only going to give you a hundred and fifty k.
I would do that instead.
And but then but with that, it's also like not known because it's only between you and the jeweler.
I would do that.
Yeah, yeah, I would create a replica and sell the real I mean personally, I mean, I just it's so much money. It's just insane to me.
It is so much money, Like it's just like.
What huh you know? I mean I understand that, Like I guess the idea behind it is like you don't need to sell it if you win ten million dollars. But we all know, no one has one hundred percent of themselves other than like twelve people in that tournament. So yeah, I just think it's I just think it's, uh,
it's definitely definitely crazy. I also thought it was a little bit I guess interesting that Deep didn't at least keep the first one, like you feel like the first one for sure, you know, like, that's okay, my first one, whatever it is, doesn't matter if it's freaking the fifteen raz tournament or you know whatever, it doesn't matter my first bracelet. Okay, I'm gonna keep that one. The other one's you know.
What I mean. Let we all know Sean's little cocky, so he probably once he won the first one, he's like, well, I'll get the next one a couple weeks probably, So here he got grandma, all right.
Moving on to another big name poker player, Alex Foxen. Kind of a bone to pick with Alex Foxen kind of a bone to pick with poker dot org. So they wrote an article that was titled ninety hours on stream question mark, Alex Foxen said the w S Spotlight needs limits. This is by Craig Tapscott. Now, Foxen is
an incredible player. I just took a little bit about this where I mean he's talking about his wife Kristen Fox and playing on THEWS main event stream for ninety hours last summer, which I'm not sure if I have more of an issue with the exaggeration on Fox's behalf, which I think is probably the least of my issue, versus the fact that poker dot Org just decided to run the clickbait title and not even fact check it. I think I have a bigger issue with that, Yeah,
because you could very easily fact check this. I mean, I don't think that she was on for ninety hours. I looked at the numbers and it was not anywhere close by the math that I saw.
So she was up there a lot, but it wasn't it wasn't ninety hours.
Oh, she was for sure up there a lot. I mean, I just want to keep it, you know, closer to the bone there and not just go too crazy about it. Now. I mean, you manage some of this stuff where some of it is random, right in terms of like what table you draw or whatever. It's so part of it is not only that it's random in terms of like let's say Chrissy's table was drawn Okay, that's one thing. The other thing is like what if there are just aren't any good tables and she's the only good table,
Like that's the other guess. I can see both sides of the argument in that sense where it's like, okay, one side is you got to put the big names up there, which Alex did did talk about in this article that he expects to, you know, have players that are the bigger names to receive more spotlight. The other side is, you know, well you can just create more stories. Well, I don't know if anyone's ever watched when we put up a table of relatively unknown people, but people basically
come out with pitchforks trying to kill us. Where's Daniel, Where's Ivy? Where's hell the Okay, okay, we get it, like we get we get it.
So yeah, the thing I have to say is that you know, when you're down in the final three tables in the main event, you're all under the spotlight. So let's just scrap Day eight and then scrap a majority of Day seven. From day really, from day one a onwards, we're always rotating tables. We're always trying to find a
big star to put up there. That people want to watch, you know, just picking a random table no one cares, and we want people watching, We want people enjoying the content and like you said, not complaining that their favorite players there. So we try and do a rotating table. Sometimes hey, that table will stay up for two levels
instead of one. And then as you get into the deeper parts of the tournaments, you know, day five, day six, day seven, there's less stars, right, you know, people have busted and the fact that Chrissy is definitely a poker star it and she was running deep, yes she did. She was up there a little bit more than you know, forridge shoe on an outer table. But it's kind of the you kind of have to accept that when you're a professional poker player, a sponsored poker player, that and
this is your livelihood. You are gonna, you know, get a little bit draw the short straw occasionally, but that normally means you are doing really well and winning a lot of money. So if you kind of think of it from that side of things.
Do you think there should be any sort of like cap. I mean, it probably couldn't be a hard cap, but you know, some sort of like soft app not really stuff more than I did.
Yeah, I mean, there's okay. Not all these tables were built around around Chrissy. Some were, some weren't. Some are chosen because of the the breaking order. So we'll honestly say, hey, this is the next table going up, and then when they do the when they break a table, Chrissy randomly gets that one. That's that's out of our control. We don't do the tape breaking. So yeah, there's a bit of randomness to how much he's up there. It's kind
of hard to put a cap. The only place we really do that is, you know, we touched on it. We're doing six you know, six streams of Day two content, like non final table content. During Bracelet events, those tables that I pick, we always rotate them out because the field is so big and we can nearly get everyone up there. Main event much different, much bigger, much harder to get every table up. So we try and do what we can to put on a good show for you guys at home.
Do you think that the average fan under rates the additional toll that playing on a streamed table puts on players?
Oh yeah, it's tough up there. Those lights are bright, the table's big, there's the decisions are magnified because you know, people are seeing your cards, seeing your bedsizes, So those two factors are very, very big, and I can understand that. Look, we've sat up there ourselves to do rehearsals or just to chat. It's you can feel. You can feel the lights, you can feel the heat, and that's and we're not even playing for millions of dollars. So I think it's
very underrated how tough it is up there. But like I said, we try and you know, make it equal for everyone and rotate as many people in and it's tough.
I'm probably gonna get scolded for what I'm about to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway because that's how I am. I feel like there's a better way to do the lights. I'm not a production guy. I don't know this. I'm probably gonna be told that I'm wrong, but I feel like it's twenty twenty five and so much of technology has gotten better in a lot of ways. Like I feel like there has to be some sort of softer light situation out there. Like I don't know, I just
I feel like it could happen. I have no idea. Maybe I'm completely wrong. I agree with you. Listen, I've you've been up there on that stage, not not necessarily playing, but doing rehearsal, sitting up there doing the podcast. You know, you and I just talking about whatever the heck we're talking about, and we're doing it there, and it is
hot under those lights. I will say that when I played on the WP World Championship live stream a couple of years ago, it was not that hot under those lights, So that could maybe that's a scale thing, because one's much bigger, ones much smaller.
I just you know, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there is a solution out there, you know, with better maybe the words not beat alliance, but less lighting maybe. But yeah, it's something that if I was, you know, if I went hopefully I'm playing the main event this year, if I go up there, you know, I know that's gonna there's going to be a bit of an adatoe. But it's also, hey, I get to play on a feature that that's kind of cool, so I ain't gonna complain.
But I also, I'm not a multi bracet winning professional procle player playing for millions, millions of dollars.
I get it, you know, part of it we can say, is it's kind of the price to pay for getting your spot in your time in the spotlight. You know. I also understand that it's it is a bit taxing. I personally don't like things at least at certain stages of the tournament where you know, people on streams can't have access to their phones. I don't personally like that. I've thrown a mindor fit about that in the past, but it is. It is what it is. So I just think that there are some some you know, sort
of disadvantages or whatnot. I also think that there's probably some advantages in terms of like a better player who's used to it can probably get an advantage over his table, you know, like the ws main events as the biggest example,
So that's an added benefit. So so yeah, now it was also in the article goal That's Foxin mentioned, you know, the whole like length of tournaments and days and that sort of stuff, which is kind of akin to what Phil Helmuth was saying when he came out with that whole thing about how he's not playing the WSC main event because it's too long. He can't do it, you know. So I guess to you are players like Helmuth, like Fox and that are coming out with that sort of
thought process. Are they right that the organizers are I guess, in a way being greedy, you know, like or is or is again? Is this just kind of the nature of things? You know, maybe it's not just necessarily greed, or it's just an unwillingness to change. I think the idea of the greed comes from that, Well, if you add an extra day, that's obviously more money for the organizer, right, you have to pay more dealers, you have to staff
more people, whatever. So like, is it is it then greedy to try and condense it as much as possible so you don't have to pay all those extra days? I mean, do you think that the WS main event should go in extra day out? I can't remember. I know we talked about the helmet thing. I don't remember if we specifically talked like about our thoughts of like should the main event be extended? Like you know, maybe we did and we said that, like the level should be shorter kind of earlier on.
Yeah, we talked about but I think that's so. Yeah, I wanted ninety minute levels until like registration ends or something that would cut off a few hours, and I think it would make the tournament, you know, much better. I think we three or four years ago we said it needs a day eight, and then we had that one year where the day seven went to six am. So then the next year they added the day eight.
And sometimes these poker players, I don't think they think about everything when it comes to hey, let's make the tournament like longer, like better structure. Well, when you do that, we need dealers longer, we need supervisors longer. That means I'm gonna have to charge you more rake, but then they'll complain about too much rake. So it's about finding
the middle ground. So you know, if we tell like if you're helme with on Fox and want more days, are they okay with instead of seven hundred raak eight fifty? You know, let's let's ask them that question first. I think some people think, hey, we can just add a few days, it doesn't matter, just like these like mixed game structures, which are you know, taking forever to get down to the money, but people still wanting to play for eighteen hours and then they're complaining about excessive rate.
So I don't think we're ever going to win with these poker players and that battle between length of time and fees.
Yeah, I think this event specifically, I mean, I've always really liked the endurance aspect of it. Yeah, you know, part of it is you have to be able to play really, really, really well for almost two weeks. And if you're going to win Poker's crowning event, the biggest, most prestigious event in the world, that should probably be some sort of factor in it, which I like. And you know, I'm sure there's plenty of disagreement there, but
you know, that's how I feel. I also think that something that people kind of overlook is that this event, more so than any other event, I think, is paramount in growing the game, just simply because it it is poker's biggest showcase and it's the event that ultimately everyone you know wants to eventually play. It's that bucket list item,
all that sort of stuff. And I think if you ultimately were to make the event in any sort of way better for the pros, it ultimately hurts the growth of poker because amateurs have less of a shot, recreational less of a shot, like, so, if you're making this chain to ultimately make it better for the pros then yeah, because I I think I think the amateur is, like I don't think that they necessarily care about the light length of it, like, you know, at least so much
so that it that it matters. But if you're gonna allow I mean, let's just use it, because we're we're on this topic. If you're gonna allow Alex Fox in more time to play his a game, recreational player is never gonna win. I it's not exactly so. And I mean that also goes to your point of like I've kind of think two hours is too long of levels for this thing. It's you know, having played it now a couple of times, sometimes I'm sitting there like, holy god,
this is taking forever. So so yeah, but I think there's obviously some sort of compromise there. Maybe you do the thing that you said, you know, it's it's shortened levels prior to registration closing. Then it goes to two hours, right,
you know something like that. I also, like, you know, to kind of play Devil's Advocate to myself, I like that this event is different than every other event in the world in terms of like level length and structure, Like it's just it really is the best of the best. I do like that. I just I just think that there's a line where you could possibly cross it that if you make it, if you make it too difficult for a recreational player or an amateur player to ever
win the event again, you know, are we ever? Are we just losing something in the big picture? Is my concern. Small concern, but but yeah, you know, like I'm sure the I'm sure top pros to be like, yeah, make it three weeks, three hour levels, you know, like like that's what we're gonna do. And like, yeah, over time, they're just gonna grind out all the good players like or all the all the bad players like, and they're just gonna all the money's gonna go to all the
good players. That's gonna happen, you know. But I think it's good to have a Chris Moneymaker esque run story whatever it may be, to get that. You know, nowadays we really do see eight to nine really really good players. Now they might not be big, big known or well known big names that make the foul table, but generally speaking, the people that make the found table are pretty good at poke, you know. So, so yeah, that's kind of the tricky aspect there, like does it ultimately hurt things
or not? Now, maybe it's it's something that I'm making bigger than it really is in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's worth considering, so I brought it up. So yeah, anything else from you?
No, I'm just ready for the World Series?
Are you really?
Of course?
How ready? Scale one to ten?
We need to touch up the mallet a little bit on the side, make it a little short of.
God to the What are the what are the outfits going to be like this summer? Are we? Are we thinking cowboy themed? Are you? Are you doing something?
Okay? Two outfits planned? One it's for the twenty five K fifty days, I know, but I can wing the rest of it. Twenty five K fantasy. Just picture the most redneck you've ever seen me. That's for the twenty five K fantasy.
And I'm looking at the most redneck you have no shirt on the pot like all right now on my videos it's with a giant mustache. There has never been more of a red neck book.
And then and then I have a you know how I always have those Binnian's horseshoe w SP like satin yeah, jackets. Okay, I got a let's just say, a Cowboy version coming. It's getting a.
Little PGT version.
Yeah, I need I need to get a PGT one too, But come on, we'll start with the Cowboy one. We'll see how that fares. It's getting a little edit by a friend of mine, so yeah, that's kind of it. And then we'll just wing it. We'll do some we'll do some boots, and we'll figure it out. Not too not too wirried, just let the mullet flowed freely through the breeze of the horse Street.
I can't wait, and.
I don't want more surprise, but I can't really talk about in the pod. I mean a couple of people know. But when it happens, we'll talk a bit more about it.
Okay, I mean I have no idea what that is, but okay, Yes, we got the twenty five K Fantasy Draft coming up on Tuesday, a week from today, Tuesday, May twenty seventh, one pm, Vegas time. It's happening at the poker Gro studio. Poker Girl will be streaming it on poke Grol on the poker Gro YouTube channel, So if you want to tune into that sort of thing, please go ahead and do so. Tim is going to be the auctioneer. I will be in there with our team drafting. Am I am paired up with my good friend,
colleague of ours, longtime poker industry veteran, Mickey Doft. We are in there, Mickey and drafting. Yeah, he's here, he gets here, he gets here Sunday, he'll be here in the draft room. I have not put in more research. I've put in the most research I ever have. Oh wow, I've had. I've talked more with Mickey than I've talked with anyone else I've been paired with. So we are ready to go.
Now.
It's probably all going to fall apart like it always does, but we have a really good idea of what we want to do, how we want to do it. I've I've heard there could be three new teams in there, so so who knows. I feel like I hear that every year, so you know, I hope that it does happen.
I just want it to be like twenty five teams or like twelve teams, so that everybody's strategy and everybody's in preparation with numbers.
I was just throwing out, I don't want to ever be twelve.
No, I know, but like I want some variable to the normal, like nineteen twenty we have so that everyone's strategy and everyone's pricing is just doesn't.
Well I'll tell you this, ninety percent of the teams don't have a strategy, okay, is like that is number one. For example, Like Dan Fleischman is going to show up and he's gonna draft Phil Hallimuth and Phil Ivy and Michael mcsrocky, and he's gonna be done drafting his team in twenty seven minutes and then he's probably gonna leave.
He said he wanted to put two teams in lost.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, go ahead, do whatever you want, Like you want to pay an extra twenty five k, go nuts. So there's that. I I mean, the best thing that you that that could happen in terms of messing up people's strategies is if more teams showed up, you know, twenty five thirty like, because because then people would really need to be digging deep into into their lists.
And I mean, I don't think people have big enough lists as is, so I can only imagine what would happen if, you know, if you added seven ten twelve teams to the mix, you know how that would that would fare. I am kind of always surprised that more people there's not more growth in the league. I don't know. I mean, listen, I understand obviously, twenty five K is a massive price point for a fantasy league. I mean, you're talking to me, I get into it. But I
mean you can, like, I think there's enough. I think there's enough things like high stakes fantasy football leagues or whatever within the poker community that like, I would expect all those people to also play this. You know, maybe you pair up with a couple of people and you each put up five K or whatever it is, and you know, you do it that way and you get in there, right you send kind of send one person
a draft or or whatnot. I just I've always thought that, like the league should probably gain on average probably one point five entries per year. Yeah, you know, I just so, I don't know if it's just that people are just gun shy or what the deal is. I would say that if you're if you're out there and you're on the fence and for whatever reason, you're scared away. I mean, I'm not kidding when I believe that eighty percent of the people in that draft room have basically done zero preparation.
They like print out the last year's draft form and like, you know, show up like that's it. Yeah, so so yeah, so I think more people should should try and get in there, you know, one way or the other. You know again, team up with some friends, put it together. You know, many people are spending way more than twenty five k for an entire summer sweat. So so yeah, I would I would highly encourage people to hop on in there. It's a lot of fun and it's it's
great to track all summer long. So again, Tuesday, May twenty seventh, that'll be on Poker Girl and the Poker Go YouTube channel, so you guys can watch it. It'll be fun. You can see what sort of strategy Mickey and I have. Hopefully it comes to fruition. We don't have to go to plan B CD E and F and all that sort of crazy stuff. So let's go.
Let's freaking go. All right, that's gonna do it for us again, a couple more episodes that we're gonna hit, hopefully before the dubas actually gets here, and we'll be dropping those in the coming days. So it's dobasic be time, man, it's here. We're a week away, so get ready. It's gonna be a fun summer. It's gonna be big, it's gonna be great. Can't wait to uh be there be bringing you guys all the coverage as we always do here from Poker Go. So that's gonna do it for
us on this episode. My name is Donny Peters, his name is Tim Duckworth. We'll talk to you guys next time.
So yeah,