Hello everyone, Welcome back to a brand new episode of the poker Go Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. I am joined by Tim Duckworth. It is Thursday, April eighteenth. We just wrapped up the twenty twenty four US Poker Open, so we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about generally the PGT that kind of like standings. But the first thing that we're going to get into today, the hot topic coming out of or the hot news I should say coming out of the poker Go office, is
the poker gosp streaming plan. So that's gonna be the first thing we're going to get into today. As always, please like and subscribe to this podcast. Wherever you are listening, Please leave a review if you would be so kind. If you want to get entered into the review contest, take a screenshot of that review, send it on into podcasts at PokerGO dot com.
We'll get you logged in to the virtual Raffle Generator thingy. We have to think of some raffle prizes for the summer we got we got to come with up with some good stuff, so let's try and put that together. This is kind of a out loud mental note to both you and I, Tim, So that's going to be on the dockets for the future. This episode of the Poker Gol Podcast is brought to you by storm x, our good friends over at storm x, the exclusive cryptocurrency partner of Poker g storm x
makes it easy to earn crypto cash back. All you've got to do head on over to storm x dot io, sign up, start shopping online, and if you shop from the various providers that they show on storm x dot io, you can start earning crypto cash back. Earning crypto doesn't have to be hard. With storm x, Earning crypto is easy. W SP streaming plans. I know we've been hard at work trying to put this together.
Tim has been, you know, probably chief among a lot of people trying to get this, get this all tidied up, fit the puzzle together, all that sort of stuff. So so let's get into it, because if people missed it, we did announce earlier this week our streaming plans. Now I call it the streaming plan. I don't I wouldn't really call it a schedule because it remains it's a schedule man, its schedule. It remains extremely fluid. Okay, extremely fluid. No, it's perfect. We aren't going
to flex at one point. The times they're locked in, days they're lucked in, they're definitely not youven. You even said it on our internal call that you guessed at the times. Okay, so yeah, they don't even give me that. They're perfect. They're perfect guesses. Don't even forgive me that, all right. So the the big headlining aspect of it all is that we are planning to do three hundred plus hours of live streaming this summer. We should come in at our largest summer ever. That's the goal there.
I have no idea what the actual number will come in at, but it should be well over three hundred. More than thirty different events from the twenty twenty four World Series of Poker will make it onto poker Go and be live streamed. Now that does, of course include the w s a p main event, and then there's a whole bunch of other events that are that are going to be live streamed. If you want to see the schedule quote
unquote flexible schedule, head on over to pokerg dot com. Now, head on over to pokerg dot com slash schedule to check it out to see what's being offered. I do. I do have to say it, even though Tim is joking over there, it's subject to chain. We don't like to change it, but stuff happens. The World Series of Poker is obviously an absolutely beast of a poker festival. Things happen, different people make final tables,
schedules change, change, et cetera. So just keep that in mind that you know, if you're penciled in on let's say June fourth to watch the one K Mystery Millions events, something happens and that's not on or for whatever reason, Daniel Legrondian fiel halp me to make the same final table with some other event, we swap it out. Just just be aware, Okay, so you know you can't really just don't get upset at us. We're doing We're doing our best. Yeah, we are doing our best. A
lot of I would say, a lot of internal debate. I wouldn't necessarily struggle bickering for sure. Yeah, I mean, listen, it's the schedules out there, the plans are out there. So three hundred plus hours hours of live streaming thirty plus different events, I think on the schedule that we have, there's thirty five events. I think that's what I counted, but I could be off by it. One. It's kind of underwhelming though when you say thirty events, why, Like it's not because obviously the main event
is what is it eighteen days or something. I'm said, it's just when you say thirty events, I don't know, I feel like so underwhelmed by that. Well, listen, this is kind of what I actually we're just streaming every day. This is kind of what I want to get into. Okay, I mean, yeah, the first thing that I want to ask you, you know, I know you're big on this stuff, but like, what are you most looking forward to now? Now? I want I'm asking you, Tim Duckworth, the poker fan, like, what are you
most looking forward to? You see this announcement, you go to poker gro dot com, slash schedule, you see everything that's laid out there. What is like? Okay, this is cool. I'm into this. As a poker fan, I'm always going to be interested in probably things we haven't seen before. I'm the WSOP, so things that stand out pretty immediately for me. There would be say the Big O Championship, new event we've also got
the no Lemon hold in PLO double Ward Bompard Tournament. That's a new event for this here, something obviously never been on the WSP and never been on Poker Go. So from a poker fan, you know, I kind of want to see these new events, but I also want to see you know, my heroes playing, right or I want to see stuff that's interesting.
So we've put events on the schedule that gives us the best chance to get the big names at the final table, but we've also done a bunch of you know, day one, day two, day three day like pre final table coverage that can you know, be a bit more interesting, a bit more dynamic from the viewing standpoint, but also just coming off the USBO, it's something that the players have been a big fan of too, so kind of I think that's that's kind of what I'm looking forward to on both kind
of spectrums as a poker fan. Yeah, for me, it's the day one coverage that we're doing outside of the domin eventin event is kind of a separate, you know, bucket within in this big giant stream plans. Plans are to stream from Day one a all the way to there is a champion crown in the WSP main events, so you'll get daily streaming there, but outside of that, you know, the focus has always really been Final Table,
so I'm excited to see that we were able to push through. Looks like we're going to get three days at least right now, the plan is three days of the one hundred k High Roller, so from day one till the end, which is cool, two days of the two hundred and fifty k Super high Roller, so day two coverage will be available, and then what from day two on of the fifty k PPC is planned as well, So I'm excited to see that that early day coverage, you know, like
you mentioned, coming off of US Poker Open, where we did additional day one coverage for the first time ever for a series like that. It was very well received, both on the audience side and on the player side, So that's something that I hope we can lean into a bit more. I'm excited to see that we are offering some of that for the twenty twenty four WSP. I wish we would be doing a little bit more of it,
but you know, I'll take what i can get at this point. So that's the biggest thing for me. Other than that, I mean, nothing like jumps off the page. I mean, I mean, I'll be honest, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know. It sounds like you're a hater. No, I'm not a hater. I mean, listen, we're going to talk about The next question that I have on this rundown is what are some things that are maybe missing? And we can certainly go
into that. It's not that I'm hating on it. It's just that like I'm just kind of used to it by now, right, Like it's not like there's nothing that I'm very happy that we are able to do a little bit more every year. I think that that is like the biggest win personally, Like you just try and do a little bit more every single year. Now. I would love to just come out and be like, yeah,
we're live stream I mean eighty events. I mean, I get it, Like there's obviously a lot of stuff that we can't control in that regard or we don't make decisions on whatever. That said, like it's it's good. It's like it's kind of like I view, you know, the w SIP schedule, Like as long as it's not a disaster, then it's probably just a win, like if that makes sense, you know, like it's just
you kind of know what you're gonna get every single year. It's funny because you know, everyone is always asking us, Like once they announced the WSIP schedule, then everyone's always asking us, where's the streaming schedule? Where's the streaming schedule? I mean, why does it matter? I guess is like kind of my first question to a lot of people, Like, I don't
understand why it matters. You know, it's like, you know, you know kind of what you kind of you you should know if you're a viewer and you're you know, paying attention, which I think a lot of the people that are asking that question are. I mean, you you know the
floor pretty much. I mean, give or take a little bit, right, I mean, so, why why do you, like, are you like scheduling out what you're going to be doing on June seventeenth if you're going to be watching I don't know, the Double Board Bomb Part tournament like that
sort of stuff. You know, I just think that I think it's I think it's that people put to you know, the series comes out, sorry, the schedule comes out, you start putting together your little package of events and then you know, I'm looking here, Oh, I'm going to play the eight hundred deep Stack on you know, June fourth, and then we release our schedule and you see, oh, the eight hundred deep Stacks one
of the final tables. Now, obviously, you know, making the file table is an easy thing, but it gives you that little little extra like carrot that hey, I'm going to if I make this file table, I can be on TV. I think a lot of amateurs, like you know, not the pros, not the high roller players we're accustomed to, they
think like that. They see the events that they're playing, is they look we're also streaming, and there's that little like, oh, there's a chance like I could play for a bracelet and play for a bracelet on TV, and that's still pretty cool for the for those people out there. Yeah, I think I disagree with that idea, but whatever, But you you're withered all. No, I'm just saying, like the people that are asking that question, I don't think are probably coming out to play poker in the summer.
I just think that's my point that they're coming out for a couple of times I don't think that they're coming out for any of those events. I think the large majority of the people that are that are doing that, that are asking like where's the schedule, where's the schedule? Are never showing up with the World Series of Poker. They're they're strictly viewers. No, I'm not not knocking them. I'm just saying they're strictly viewers and they just want
this our schedule to come out, which is which is fine. I just it's just it's not that it's a bad thing. I'm not trying to sound like it's a bad thing, and I understand that I'm fully trying. I'm fully sounding like a hater. I'm not trying to hate, but I'm sounding like what I get it. But I'm just saying, it's just interesting to me that like it's like, where's the schedule, where's your where's your schedule?
Where's your schedule? Type of thing, And it's like it doesn't really matter if we announce it on April sixteenth or if we announce it on you know, May twenty sixth. What's the difference type of thing? Well, for the public, yes, internally, amadins it a lot, but yeah, could, honestly just we could just release this schedule ready May thirtieth, WSP twenty twenty four racelet event day one, like we technically, you're right, we don't need to list the events, we don't need to list times.
We just show that, Hey, we're streaming every day. Come back a day day before or even on the day, and you'll find out what we're doing. But this is a you know, it just kind of helps people discuss. It helps people like plan, it helps us obviously logistically wise figure out our stuff. I think those discussions are only they only result negatively. That's why I am always team like, don't put events on a team team vague. Yeah, like just say like we're streaming, like you know,
WSP on this day. This is like you know, like you said, May thirtieth, day one day, two days, like you et cetera. Like, don't put stuff out there because the only thing I've never once like read a comment on social media or it's an article from the media or whatever about the schedule, the streaming schedule I'm talking about that says Oh it's cool they're doing this. It's always like, oh, they missed this, Oh they're not doing this. Oh this isn't this didn't make the cut.
Oh poker Go is leaving this out. It's always negative, it's never positive. Maybe, but you know, is that that terrible that we're in the news cycle. Well, no, all news is good news. But I'm just saying exactly yeah, but the news is still the news. If you just come out and you say, we're streaming every single day, but is it? Will they say something? This is let down. They don't organize that. That Aussie bloke at poker Go, what's he what's he doing?
Can't even give us a schedule anyway? Three hundred plus hours of live streaming three forty one and exactly to be exactly three forty one? Got a guess, No, that's what it is. I'm gonna just stop Final tables. Sorry, we're over. I'm going to extend final tables, make sure we hit three forty one thirty plus some different events, including of course the World Series of Poker main events. I mean, listen, what are some of
the things you think we're missing from the schedule. Well, apart from saying more events, that's that's that's a bit of a you know, cup out, that's the answer. Look, look I'm gonna just throw WSPN on the bus here. If if certain events were just in a day early. Hold on, hold on, I need I need a sed hold on, I need it on record. This is Tim Duckworth speaking. You can tell by the accent, okay, Like I mean, because I feel like you throw them. You throw more people under the bus than I do. But I
always get in trouble for some reason. Okay, I just want that to point it out here. I had Tim Duckworth of Las Vegas, Nevada are saying that if the schedule was a little different, you know, like what I mean is that certain events started a day earlier, day later, like little changes, we could have some different final tables that I think would be
really good. Like, you know, one thing are missing. We're missing the seniors event because you know, it overlaps like the fifty K I think it is, So you know, moving that a day earlier, day later means we could have done the seniors. So there's just little things like that where we're missing some really cool events. Where there's like there's some days with four awesome final tables on and that's that's kind of a bit of a letdown. Personally looking at this. You know, I'm a mixed game Homer.
Would have loved to see in the Badougie on the schedule, but we aren't, or we all know I'm probably going to be the only one to watch it. But yeah, that's my grip is more schedule based, and it's it's look, the WSP added more bracelet events is here. It's hard to configure ninety nine bracelet events in what is it, fifty one days or something. It's not an easy task. So I get it like it's never going to be perfect. So yeah, I mean it is probably never going to
be perfect. I mean, I think the biggest ask, at least for me, is like that we try to get perfect in terms of what we're offering from the extreaming schedule. I would have liked to see the main event final tables on the weekend. I know you're kind of anti that, but I think that would be cool, like Saturday Sunday or the final tables for the main event. I think that would have been like to build off that on Saturday and Sunday in the middle of the summer. No one, what
do you mean? People don't watch stuff and people in the summer in America are on lakes and shit, man, no people aren't around TVs. So what we should just move the WSP to September. No, but I'm saying, like you, I'm just saying Saturday and Sunday I don't think are good viewing days. No they're not. But I'm saying me personally, Yeah, you think I would have liked to have them Saturday Sunday. I'm not saying that's correct, you know, But like I think, what are we on
Tuesday? Wednesday? So it's a little it's just maybe we should do Thursday Friday. Whatever you think the best viewing days are is what we should put the final table on. Yeah, I'm not sure. Tuesday. I think. I'm not sure how good Tuesday Wednesday is versus Saturday Monday, or Friday Saturday or Thursday Friday. I'm not sure also how much that matters. But yeah, I mean I wish that. I mean, ultimately, I always wish that we could do more, you know, I mean you saw what
I put together then it got chopped chopped in half. We we you know, we did one hundred and twenty bracelet events and there's only ninety nine on the schedule. You just added twenty one I was I was in there. So yeah. So the one thing that I think that we're missing, which I wish that we could do, but I also understand that it's extremely tricky, is that I wish we could cover more things. I wish we would
cover more events during the time. We also cover the World Ties Booker main event, which it's just that there's so much going on at that time. But I also understand that like the wspre main event is the super Bowl, right, so you can't you can't obviously take eyeballs and resources off of that.
That has to be like the number one product. But I also think that in the goal of telling the story of the WSP, essentially not covering anything outside of that for two weeks is something that I wish we could do better at, and I don't exactly know how to do that. I mean, obviously the easiest suggestion would be, well you just have two streams and you do like this final table over here while you're doing you know, day two of the main event. Well, if they're going up against each other,
do you really want that? So can you stagger them in any sort of way? So it's just it's tricky, but I do wish that, like during that time, we could cover more than just the WSP main event, because I think there's there's an appetite there. There's kind of two appetites. One, there's an appetite for people to I think watch like final tables versus watch like Day one d Right. While there are a lot of people that like early coverage in tournaments, there are people that also like, you
know, the end coverage in tournaments. And then I also think there's people who they like to double dip. They'll fire up two streams at one you know, look, put one on mute, or have one with the audio on that sort of thing. So that's kind of they put both on mute. If Jeff platts on the coll no, Jeff Jeffson, can I can I throw a stat at you real quick as you're talking about this particular man. Ninety nine we have ninety nine bracelet events. The main event is event
eighty one. I believe let's wind that clock back ten years, just ten years, you know, no, that far we had sixty five bracelet events. What event number? Do you think the main event was sixty five? It was exactly so like you know, the last ten years, maybe even five years, there's been a really strong shift to putting these events post World Series so that people do stick around. And that does make it hard from
a streaming aspect, because you know, you and me agree. There's a couple of final tables late in the day, late in the game that are like they're going to be good, They're going to be so sexy for TV, and it's like, Okay, do we want to take this fifty KPLO final table against day seven of the main It's it's you know, like I
can understand the yes arguments and I can understand the no arguments. It's just a hot spot for us to kind of you know, be in production wise and also to try and satisfy how subscribers and all the WSP fans out there. No, for sure, I mean I get it. I think ultimately at the end of the day, I think we put together a pretty good schedule overall, or a pretty good plan overall. I do think it's I
think it's most important. I think the number one thing that we need to achieve from as the as the streaming company for the World Series of Poker is that you absolutely positively have to stream every day. That that is like my number one thing. I don't care what it is. You have to do it like that. That's shit. You can't that. The times of the days of taking days off are just you can't. No more like it, No more dark days. That just can't happen. So so yeah, that's
like the big thing. You know, you need to you need to showcase the World Series of Poker. It runs for you know, fifty days, whatever, fifty one, whatever it is. We start our streaming on May thirtieth, and we go every single day. You never told us what your favorite event was just to watch you mean to watch? That wasn't a question like, no, what's your favorite event of the streaming schedule so far? The locked in streaming schedule, anything that stands out to you? No,
I mean the main event? Do you what do you want me to say? Come on, why are you going to be so boring? Spice it up a bit. This is like when you ask people like what's their favorite poker hand? I usually say aces. I means yeah, I mean that's why you got ask them what six diamonds? Second favorite hand? I mean I don't, I don't know. I mean all these events like seem pretty good. I mean, all right, okay, let me let me.
I don't like the Big O and double board bomp Out. Not that I don't like them, I mean I just I'm not not as into those games, so I just you know, they're kind of they're more filler content for me. Then they're actually like you know, I'm gonna be like, yeah, I need to watch this type of thing. Got it? Okay, here's the new question ready, excluding the main event. If you could only do commentary on one tournament on ask streaming schedule, which would you choose?
Uh, Day one of the ten K six Max interesting? Even though when I was streaming that interesting. I mean that's the Goats play that. That's the Goat tournament. Yeah, I mean it's on day one when everyone's super deep four and five and six betting everyone. Let's go that. That's the
one I want to That's a tournament I want to watch. I mean, also, I really like the I love the Gladiators tournaments, like I all these like all the sub and it's funny because listen, I used to be a guy that was like, you know, it's silly to do all these low buy embracelet events like you know, back in my Poker News's changed, back of my Poker News podcast days. I mean, listen, there's yeah, I mean it's it's just it's a different time. The BASIP seems like
it's a different company. They got different goals all that sort of stuff. So you know, I've come around now like just essentially one like from from a streaming content company aspect, like highlighting the everyman poker player I think is awesome, which that's what you get in the three hund dollars Gladiators. You get you know, random guy from Iowa, you know, random guy from Utah. Like you get just like regular people like myself, like regular poker
people that like poker. They come to play. They found an affordable buy and they can win a crap ton of money doing it. They just got through probably twenty thousand people, let's go. That's awesome. Also, like I just I like it from like a viewer perspective because it's more relatable, you know, like, yeah, I listen, I love the super high buy and stuff, the elite players because I really try and like study them
and learn and all that sort of stuff. That said, I also like the wackiness, the unorthodox play, the you know of the the smaller buying stuff, because it's more like it's more what you kind of see when you go out there in the world and play poker. Like you go around town here in Vegas, you play some six hundred dollars, some five hundred dollars, you play the South Point Night, the et cetera. Like you get
this type of like the Gladiators of poker style of play. You know, you're not getting the two hundred and fifty k super high roller style of play, you know. So it's just it's it's more relatable, you know, being like, yeah, like this is what I would do in that spot facing like the most random min four bat from this guy who hasn't played a
hand in three hours, like you know, stuff like that. It's just it's it's funny, but in a very entertaining way, and it's it's it's fun to see people living out their dream under the relatable aspect that hey, that could be me, because I mean I play at fair amount of poker, and yes I've played some bigger buy ins, but like I'll probably never in my life play a twenty five K or a fifty k or whatever.
Right, never ever, But I will sure as hell be able to play a three hundred dollars tournament or a six hundred dollars tournament or an eight hundred dollars tournament or you know those sorts of things. So I can be like, you have that relatable aspect of like I could possibly be there, and then this is how I would maybe act in this situation. Maybe I'm not acting super gto super high roller, you know level stuff in this tournament because
I got to be more exploitative. But it's just a more relatable thing. And it's fun to see that, and you get some different characters and they got to come from all these different backgrounds and you know, all that sort of stuff. So I really like that aspect of things. You got anything else on the schedule. We've talked a long time about it, No,
I think you coveted. Just remember, yeah, it is always object to change, regardless of how how much I want to preach that it's locked in, and our subject to change is just more of the fact that if this event gets a twenty five percent increase in players, then yeah, we may have to move a final table or something. But yeah, Hopefully we don't see too many changes, and hopefully we get the big names at all these final tables and we can have a pretty good streaming series for twenty twenty four.
Yeah. I mean we're about five and a half weeks out of the World Series of Poker now six weeks out. Whatever it is, SOBSIP is certainly going to be top of mind. We'll probably be hitting on it in one way, shape or form on this podcast every single week, so expect a bit more of it as we go forward. I do have to mention gotta be a company man for a second, but there is a promo currently running now that we have the schedule out there. You can save twenty dollars
on your first year of a new annual subscription. Use the promo code w SOOP twenty four when you sign up to Poker Grow. That's good for new customers who want to pick up an annual. It's also good for monthly and quarterly subscribers who want to upgrade to an annual. So that would cost you. Then with that twenty dollars off, send me seventy nine to ninety nine for the year, which is I think right around six or seven bucks a
month. So I mean, that's very very good, uh bargain. I you know, I know I say that as the you know, the company person on this podcast, but I really do believe that it's it's well worth it with all the value that you can get from watching all this stuff that's on there. All right. Moving on US Poker Open, aram Zobian is the twenty twenty four US Poker Open champion. Zobian cashed four times, six hundred and sixteen PGT points, almost two hundred points ahead of anyone else on
the leaderboard. Stephen Chidwick finished in second place. Zobian one event number six, fifteen thousand dollars buy and Nolan would hold them for two hundred sixty four
thousand dollars after he made a deal heads up. He had a first, a second, a third, and a sixth across the eight event series, so he cashed in half of the events, finished finished on the podium in three of his four cashes, and then in the twenty five K finale he took sixth place Zobeian cash for a total of six hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. So good on Aram Zobian. The performance allowed him to climb up up over a thousand points PGT points for the entire season, moved him into third
place. So yeah, he I mean, he showed out extremely well. Aram is a very very good player. Made the WSB Main Event final table went twenty and eighteen seventeen sixteen, so something like that pre pandemic, I guess if you want to classify it as that. But was then he was twenty eighteen, then he was Would he gets sixth or seventh or something for like one point six million or something, I can't remember one point eight what
place did he get? Sixth six? Yeah, yeah, he was, I mean a total unknown, I'll say back then, and now he's enjoying a bit more success, a bit more time in the spotlight, you know, playing on these streams, that sort of stuff. So, you know, good for Aramazobian In a way, it's like it's kind of Jeremy Osmas esque. Jeremy Osmas played poker for a while, but was you know,
always just like a quiet grinder that no one knew about. Then he makes the ws Main Event final table, and then you know, eventually starts playing high rollers, has success there and goes on to have what is you know, still a very very good career, but like it was that main event that allowed for that jumping off point. I guess to play a lot bigger buy and stuff, and you don't. I mean, you don't see a lot lot of guys like make the WSP Main Event final table and then just
like start getting into more and more high rollers. Like I feel like a lot of WSITY Main Event final tablests just don't play a lot of high rollers. I mean, maybe they're just they don't care about Maybe they have too much money now, but that's part of it, and they're just like I
don't need to play as much poker. Why should I, you know, spend ten K, fifteen K, twenty five K, fifty K, one hunter k whatever it is on on buyings when I have millions of dollars in the bank now and I can just kind of chill and play more recreationally and have fun and be set up for life. Part of it is maybe they
just are fearful the competition, right, I mean, who knows. I mean the ws main Event, even though it is a big buy in ten thousand dollars, I mean it's a different type of tournament than coming out and playing you know, the us PO Grope when or playing a Triton Poker Series or whatever it may be. Like these, you know, these are like the best players in the world playing in you know, these types of tournaments that the PGT and others like it offer. So maybe there's just that kind
of unwillingness to want to get into that arena. I don't know, but but it is good to see Aramzobian, you know, come out play a lot of these events. He's always a regular in the series that we do on the PGT and then ultimately come out on top here with a US Poker Open victory. Just running through the event winners eight events at this year's US Poker Open, Eric Sidel won the opener five thousand dollars. Nolan held him
Event four one hundred and forty five thousand dollars. Jesse Lonis won the second event. Dan Smith won the third event. David Coleman a lot of success this year on the PGT. He won event number four, Matthew Wantman won event number five. He denied Daniel mcgranu a title there. Aramzobian, as I mentioned, he won the event number six. Eric Afriat won event number seven, and then Steven Chidwick won the twenty five K finale Chidwick one four
twenty nine thousand dollars in that event. Let me ask you kind of your initial thoughts on I guess a Ramzobian on the series the winners, et cetera, and then we'll get into some other stuff about the USPL. Yeah, pretty deserving winner. Results spoke one, you know, first, a second, and a third heading into the twenty five K finale before he finished sixth. So yeah, that's all I have to earn him. Really, been
playing our events since the start of the PGT very consistent. You know, normally sticks to just the tens, but you know, the last year or so he's been branching out, running a little better. And now he has a was it one hundred and seven pound Golden Eagle trophy to take home fifty three pounds. It's actually a pretty like there. We did a photo shoot with him and he's said, oh man, this is heavy, Like how
am I supposed to take this home? And like what was funny was the night before he used like a bunch of his gift cards and he ordered like twenty coconuts from lemongrass, like unopened, but he left him there overnight because you know, they finished at three am. So he had a bag full of twenty coconuts you know that probably weighed twenty five thirty pounds. He had this, you know, one hundred and eighty seven pound Golden Eagle trophy.
He's like, how am I supposed to take this home? And I'm like, you just gotta do the farmer carry and walk up back to your car. So we have a photo of him walking that out, which is pretty funny. So Ramzobian is obviously the headliner winning the twenty twenty four US poke Er Open. He joins David Peters, Steven Chidwick, Sean Winter, Martin Zemani. I believe that's it right, as US Poke gre Open champions David Peters did win it twice, went back to back twenty eight nineteen, excuse
me, twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one. There was no USPO on twenty twenty due to the pandemic. But I have written down here some page two headlines. I mean, obviously the headliner is Aramzobian, right, but the page two headlines things that I have written down that that stuck out to me that I think, you know, you could like you could do like a secondary like story on or secondary you know, news headline on Steven Chidwick is
back. You know, he's had a pretty quiet PGT for Steven Chidwick's standards so far. Don't think we saw him at the Kickoff, had a very lackluster poker gro cup. Did we see him at mixed games in PLO? We did? He barely did anything. I think he played a couple of the paylo events. Yeah, so he hasn't done much on the PGT this season, but now he seems like he's back to being Steven Chidwick. He won that twenty five K finale he's got, He had four cashes overall,
he finished second to Aramzovian on the leader board. So it seems like Steven Chidwick is kind of just starting to heat up to be back to the Stephen Childwick that we know. Interestingly that I was going through some of the US Poker Open stats, Chidwick now leads all time USPO. So going back to twenty eighteen, he lea he's in money one at the USPO. He leads in cashes. He is nineteen, which I believe is three more than anyone else carry Kats is second with sixteen, and then he's also tied for the
lead for titles, so he's those three categories. Steven Chidwick is at the top of all three of them. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, so another headline here. Daniel mcgrano continues as hot. Twenty twenty four, he had two cases. Notably, he got second to Matthew Wantman in event number five. Mcgrowney took one hundred and fifty one eight hundred dollars for that second place finish. So mcgron, you's still hot here in twenty twenty four. Eric
Sidell still doing it. That's another little subheader here. He won event number one, he got third in event number five. That that event was Matthew Waman first, Mgarany second, Sidel third. So Eric Sidell been around forever, an absolute legend of Poker Hall of Famer, now a ten time bracelet winner after winning his tenth bracelet down in the Bahamas for the WSP Paradise. He's still doing it. Won that that five k opener here at the US
Roger Johnson cashed five times. He cashed all five of the first five events in the eight events series. Victoria Liftschitz also cashed five times, so you know, crazy runs from both of those players, Johnson and Liftshits. And then David Coleman back on top of the PGT leaderboard, mentioned that he won an event. He won event number four ten thousand dollars. Nolan would hold them for just over two hundred thousand dollars there, So David Coleman back up
on top of the PGT leaderboard. After the PLO series, it was Dylan Wiseman who had taken the top spot from David Coleman, but now David Coleman has come back and he is back up on top. So those are kind of my page two headlines from the USPO. Do you have anything to add anything that stuck out to you that you think is kind of headline worthy but obviously not overtaking around zobim Be in the series Champ you touched on it earlier. Something that we did on the Poker Got Side is we debuted our day
one coverage. Remco and I were doing commentary. We called ourselves the Bonus Boys because we were calling this bonus coverage. So first time we did this across a major series like this, where you know we did the final tables. Not really, that's not that true. Why is it not true? We used we did early action of the pokemas Is back in twenty nineteen or something, well whatever. It was called an early action, not bonus coverage, but that predates me, so it doesn't matter. Did we really do
that? I can't remember, Yeah, whatever, but it was. I believe it might have been no, no graphics. Actually, why would it be, no, Yeah, this is slightly better anyway, would it be? Because who knows? The final tables would wrap up and then you know, there'd be an hour or two break or whatever it would be, and then we'd fire up a feature table from whatever. The day one of the
next tournament was running. We took that down to as close to the bubble as we were allowed by the Aria Poker staff, and then you know, those players finished up for the day. We finished up usually around what ten thirty or eleven, something like that, and the next day people would come back pretty rave reviews from the audience and the players. You know, everyone seemed to be loving it. I loved it being in the commentary with because
it was a bit of a different feel, you know. I liked it because one you get to see early to middle tournament stage play and approaching the bubble, not just like you know, your run of the mill twenty to thirty big blind final table stuff, which we see all the time, not only on the PGT, but like that's the majority of tournament livestream coverage,
right is, It's largely final table stuff. That said, you know, this was this was great to see the early stuff and see how some of the top tournament players in the world maneuver at different stacked depths and mostly much deeper stacked depths, and then as things get closer to the bubble, how the tournament kind of shakes out and people adjust their play and whatnot. So that was very cool. The players themselves seemed way more laid back, chatty,
outgoing, you know, not just like hyper focus. Okay, this is the final table. There's five people left. Got to worry about this pay jump. This guy's got four big blinds, this guy's got twenty seven. I'm over here with eighteen. What's my range? What's my shoving range? Should I be three bet jamming this? You know, like all the hyper focused final table stuff like this was kind of like much more in a way, kind of like a home game, which is kind of the feel
from the studio most times. I mean, we see it all the time, right because we're in there, but we didn't show it to the public, and this was the first time that we did that. I mean, how do you think it went or what are you hearing from the players? Most importantly, I think from the players, they definitely enjoyed it. They got to see a different side of things that we normally do content wise, and yeah, you touched on it. They were much more relaxed, much
more jovial up on the feature table, and it was just different. It was different poker. It was fun. Even the players were trying to get involved, like, oh, what table are you going to choose? Like next, I think you should choose this one and then you know, or no, maybe you shoul choose our one, et cetera. So they enjoyed it that. You know, we also had players come back and tell us, you know, they would bust and go home watch the bonus coverage if
they want to watch any of the Final Table stuff. You know, they they I think these guys that play, you know, the PGT events regularly, they know they know all the Final Table stuff. They know the Rangers, they know the ICM place. But it's like, I think there's more interesting playing a lot during the final tables. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think they're just more interested in seeing the varying styles of play when the average is you know, ffty big lines as opposed to you know, twenty five or fifteen whatever it might be, and they can learn I think they can learn a little bit more that actually helps them get to the final table. You know, they can learn more from players, build their notes when
it matters most actually getting to the final table. So I have a question down here, what is one thing you would do to make the USPO better. You're giving current launch. You can do whatever you want, one thing and one thing only. What are you doing, I mean to make the USPO better as in the series, I think it's more about getting more people
playing the event. A couple of players float to the ideas of million dollar guarantees on the ten ks, you know, that would help expand the field size, get more players, get some new players, also more satellites, that would help get some fresh blood in there. You could technically say that doing more five k's would make the series better because you'd get a lot of new faces making the money and potentially parlaying that into the bigger buyings From the
content aspect. I think we just need to do more with the bonus coverage. I think we can take this down to the final you know, Final seven, final six. There's a lot more staffing on our part. It's a more staffing on arius part. It's it's going to be late nights for you and Remico on commentary. I don't think I think it would make our content more dynamic, more interesting. Maybe it's something we only do for a certain series, like maybe we build a certain series around a streaming aspect more
than a poker playing aspect. But yeah, I think we can definitely do a bit more as we start looking you know, to the latter end of this season and also you know, next season. I would I want a two starting flight opening event that this is what I want, Like, can you make this happen? You're you're the commissioner, but I'm just worried about how what are you playing down to? Like what do you I I want to do like a a five k opener, two or three starting flights,
like like just a multi day event to kick off the series. Like I think with a guarantee by the way, like this is all like one package at the front of a series, just because I feel like that's more what people in the let's say two K to five K price point would would be willing to play. You know, Like I understand we can't come out like or I just don't think that it would ever be okay that we could be
like let's do a three million dollar guarantee. I mean, obviously that would be great, but trying to be kind of realistic here, but like, what why couldn't you do just like a one point five million dollar guarantee or something something that's extremely doable to hit right, but can can draw a good amount of people and then hopefully you get them to parlay into like the rest of the series, or at least start playing, you know, some of
the ten k's after they have some success. Like I think that would be a great way to kick off the US Poker Open. I think it would catch on and spread like wildfire in terms of like how popular it would be. So that's what I really think. That's like the evolution we need to have with these majors. So yeah, I mean, at least as far as I'm concerned, I definitely want to keep trying to push that initiative overall. But like what I mean, you sound concerned. Why are you concerned?
What do you mean? Play down to play down to whatever? Have have it be the day two and then a day three. I just don't know if the the appetite the player pool is big enough of that in our events. I think there's still a bit of a a public viewpoint that the studio is a private place used to play and they're not welcome obviously once you know, people step in there and play, they're like, oh, this place is great, you know, discounted rake. I don't understand how that's
like forgotten to be a thing. The studio is a public it was. It was brought up during this series, I understand. But like the US poke rope in is a tournament series, you know, and it's it's never really like mentioned in the headlines. It's obviously mentioned like later on, or it's in the structure sheet or whatever that like it's played at the Poker Gro Studio, but like it's never like the US poke up and at the Poker
Gro Studio, the US poke up in inside the poker gro studio. So like when when the US poke up in itself is being promoted, like people just I don't understand why people can't think that the US poke rope and can be played by anyone like I, you know, I don't like It's not like I see like the win millions, Oh my god, Like I can't play that. I'm not a millionaire. Like no, I just say, like, oh, okay, let me look at the schedule, what are the buyings? Can I play? Okay? Cool, I'm gonna go play.
Like I don't know why people think it probably goes to when I was launched and it just had a initial, an initial bad rap or bad viewpoint, and it's you just have to slowly convince people that this is not the case, that it is an open venue. And the more the merrier. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't fully understand that side of things. But but yeah, I mean listen, if you did a one point five million dollar guaranteed five k opener, you only three hundred entries. I
mean, I think we can get that. Come on, why can't we maybe why can't we? We can do it? People want to play in the studio. Let's go let's make it happen. That would be my one change before we move on to the general PGT leaderboard. I got to say that I think I won the fantasy by the way, it's it's it's it's I'm calling. I need I need to bring in a judge, a jury to make a decision on this result, because I don't think it's fair.
Why don't you think that Alex Foxon took five events off to get surgery. I didn't know he was getting surgery, So I would like to cancel the bet that series. You're already messing up your argument. Okay, your argument is this, and I listened back to the last podcast earlier today. You never picked a third person. I didn't need it. I have the Foxes.
Well, yeah, the Foxes scored a combined thirty five points. I scored five because my team was goat and Jeremy Osmina's Jeremy Osmas did nothing at the USBRO Grog, David Coleman won an event, and I should get to pick I should get to pick a third person right now. Well, you would have never picked a Ramzobian, So go ahead, you can have yeah, and you still would be like, yeah, yeah, I would have said lose, But come on, Alex, why gift to go get surgery?
He could have just gone another another week with the ton peck. You know, doesn't matter. As for the season long PGT leaderboard, David Coleman is backup on top. As I mentioned, he had some success at the US Poker Open, which included winning in event he's now He now has four victories on the PGT this season. He's up to twelve hundred and fifty nine points. Coleman has four wins, nine cashes, nine hundred and fifty four
thousand dollars in winnings. Dylan Wiseman is second on the leaderboard eleven hundred and twenty six points. He's got three wins, ten cashes, and he's the only player over one million dollars in winnings on the PGT this season. He's got one million, one hundred and fifty five thousand. Then it's a ram Zobian, the US Poker Open champion, who's up to one thousand and forty eight points. He's got one victory, eight cashes, nine hundred and seventeen
thousand dollars in winnings. Fourth place belongs to player everyone knows. Daniel Legrond new eight hundred and ninety six points, one win, eleven cases, which leads the way for every PGT player, and seven hundred and seventy six thousand dollars in winnings, and then running out the top five is Sammy Cippola, who was the PGTPLO Series champion. He still has seven hundred and forty nine points, two wins, four cashes, seven hundred and seven hundred and seventy
six thousand dollars in winnings. But Steven Chidwick's coming up quick. So Steven Chidwick's coming up quick. He's now in sixth place after doing very well at the USPO. Jesse Lonis is moving up nicely. He's up to eighth place. Kristen Foxon has kind of fallen down or slid down. I mean, she still has six hundred and seventy eight points, she has one win, she's got five cashes. She's currently in seventh place, but she was up
to what second place behind David Coleman. You know, since the PGT Kickoff Series hasn't done a ton, she's been out there, she's been bad ling. He's been playing a lot. But she hasn't put up the results. That said, it's obviously a very long season, so I would expect her to, you know, get back into form, you know, climb back up the leader boarder, you know, do what she needs to just stay
in the top ten or whatever, et cetera. Jonathan Little won the Poker ro Cup but hasn't done much since, still sitting, you know, on five hundred and ninety one points. He's got two wins, five cashes, seven hundred and seventy one thousand dollars in winnings. He made one final table at the USPO. I think that's it. So yeah, gonna be an interesting season. I'm kind of surprised with where. I'm surprised with where two
people are. One is Jeremy Osmas. He hasn't really done much. I mean, he has eight cashes, five hundred and or sorry, four hundred and eleven thousand dollars in prize money one. But I'm getting the sense that his year is starting out like negron News year was last year on the PGT where it was like a lot of smaller caches but void of like the big wins of the top three finishes, where where obviously the big prize money is where obviously a lot of the points are because the points are tied to the
prize money. He does have eight cases, you know, so that's you know up there. You know, that's like in what that's in the top five or six in terms of number of cases that he's had. But yeah, I feel like Jeremy Osmas is lost here. He had twenty cashes, zero wins. Yeah, but how many points he I thought he did? He had some final tables and stuff in there. Yeah, he had, you know or something something like that. He just he just just get a
victory being a while No, that's that's what I'm saying. Like he I mean, he's obviously been playing a lot on the PGT this year, but you know, he's just he hasn't really like pushed through, you know, like he has when Steven should kind of started out that way. But you
know, and but now Steven Chidwick's kind of rounding into form. So it's probably just a matter of time before before Jeremy Osmas rounds into form and then somebody else that I'm just surprised with is Andrew Lucky Chewie Lichtenberger because I feel like I see him every single day, Like every time we have a Nolan Hole tournament, I feel like he's there. I also know how good he is, right, so I'm just like kind of surprised that he only has
three cashes for three hundred nine thousand dollars on the PGT this season. I mean, seems kind of shocking to me. Yeah, I feel like he needs to he needs to go on up to pipoker and uh like getting the lab. But there was like a betting market, you know, is lucky you we're gonna finish in the top forty. I would like snap say yes, like yes, has to be the favorite. Now well he's in fifty second place. Like I don't know, I feel like he's just it's not
it's not clicking, it's not working, he's not getting the results. But whatever it may be, you know, it's just it's just interesting to me that that's how things are are kind of shaken out there. So but obviously, you know, long season, we haven't even hit the World Series of Poker stuff. There's what twenty eight PGT qualifying events as part of the wispy schedule, so a lot to be had there. There's also, of course, you know, fifteen Aria High rollers nine plo what six no them to
hold them. So you know, there's there's still a lot of tame Aria high close enough, a lot of stuff that that still needs to be you know, fleshed out over the course of the season. But but yeah, those are kind of just my thoughts on the PGT leaderboard and of course running down that top five there. Do you have any thoughts on the leaderboard, like anything that sticks out to you, like my Osmas and Lichtenberger things. No, not really, I think you touched on a lot of this stuff.
Obviously, we have to remember that David Coleman picked up a lot of points during the kickoff where that was you know, double points. Same with Weiseman. He scored a title during kickoff, so he got double points for that. And obviously these those two in particular, huge starts of the year were only you know, four months in. They have eleven hundred and twenty six points and thirteen hundred points respectively, which you know puts them basically nearly
a lock for the PGT championship. So I think that kickoff definitely helped, you know, kind of push them to play more, which saw you know, Weisman playing a lot more no limit hold them. We saw Coleman jumping in the PLO series. So you know, if we take a review of what we did this year, I think the Kickoff was a great way to kick off the season, you know, with the double points. I have a working thought on the Kickoff. How many events was it? By the
way, five it was? It was four or five? Four five ks and one ten K. So I think it needs a PLO and I think it needs a mixed game event in there, because I think it's only fair to those players to offer an event that is also double points. It just might be hard to get the K five K a game and a five K poo they're double points. Yeah, we could do that, and I think like and you could probably Yeah, I would. I would do that. I think they would. They would draw, all right. I mean that.
I don't think they're going to be gang puzzlers or anything like that, but I think it's just a little bit more fair to the like PGT, PLO and uh, mixed game players you know, who really just focus on that stuff. You know, I'm not talking about like the mcgrowney's, the Osma's, is the Shulman's, you know, the guys that play everything no matter what. But yeah, I think that would be fair going forward.
That's my only real take there. I I do really like a wishless item of me and and I don't know, hopefully producer rich Ryan is actually listening, because I think he might like idea or he'll tell me I'm stupid one of the other. I want an end season tournament like I want, like, you know, right before the w s AP in May, like the top thirty two players get invited to a heads up tournament where they can buy in, and you know, this is my idea. I already pitched this
idea. Don't know your idea. This is definitely my idea. We have for sure talked about I know that, but I'm pretty sure I'm the originator of this. No, it was it was one v thirty two or one v sixteen whatever we decided. If sixteen didn't want to play, seventeenth came in, so the bracket was set. It was worth like bonus points. You know, you got points just for playing with my idea, one hundred
percent my idea. No, it was definitely not your idea. It was my idea that I think you then fleshed out, you know what I mean, made made perfect. I mean I took it from like you know, European soccer leagues who have like the the season kind of cups or tournaments or whatever. Like. But yeah, like you know, if you if you start out like the first you know, four months essentially the first half in a way of the PGT, and you're and you're performing really well, then
you get a special invite to this tournament. I think probably top sixteen is is maybe best, just because if it's thirty two, then then thirty two people can like get in there and get bonus points and like kind of really separate themselves from people on the outside. But if it's if it's just select for the top sixteen, it motivates people maybe to push early on. There are some bonus points up for grabs, but I wouldn't make it crazy with
the bonus points. There would be a buying element towards it. You know, it's you have, like you have the option if you want to buy in or if you don't, and if you buy in gray, if you don't, as you said, you know, you kind of roll to the next place and then yeah, you know, one place sixteen. You know, two pays for everyone outside of the top forty. No, the out of the way you should you should be rewarded for doing well in the early portion. And it's like a made for TV heads up event, very very
simple. It would only take a couple of days to do. I don't know. I think it could be cool. Maybe it's one of those ideas that might just be cool in my mind and would never actually work. I have no idea. That could also certainly be the case. I have a lot of wacky ideas like that. But yeah, but yeah, all right, that's enough for the PGT talk. I do want to touch on this Robert Khon bet because you know, we talked about it on the Pod an episode or two ago, where he was getting a he was going to do
a thirty day water fast. He could drink water, coffee, he could have electrolyte, salt, vitamins for thirty days. That's it. No food, nothing else to drink. He bet against Sean Deeve. He was getting twenty to one on three thousand dollars, so he stood to win sixty thousand
dollars. Robert Cohon let Sewn dee buy out for twenty five k. Saw a video on social media from Coon talking about his decision to accept the buyouts, you know, kind of saying that, and if I remember correctly, you know he wants to do the weight loss thing the right way, so, you know, getting pushed by Deeb and Deeb's wife Ashley, you know, they were fine, you know, settling at twenty five thousand dollars, giving Robert Koon that money and then you know, offering I guess their services
are offering, you know, to help Robert Koon kind of get on the right path instead of doing like this thirty day waterfast where if he comes off it, you know, who knows where he's going to be at health wise, who knows what if he's just going to fall back into his behavior that that might have got him to where he didn't want to be, whatever it
may be. So it sounds like, you know, Sean Deeb is gonna work with Robert Koon, give access to his trainer, his nutritionness, whatever it may be, to help him kind of really get on the right path. Obviously, Sean Deeve, with that bet with Bill Perkins, has made a big push towards getting a lot healthier. So he's now gonna you know, I guess kind of bring Robert koon On, you know, under his wing, so to speak, and to help him along that way. So
I'm just an update on that. That prop bet is that Robert Kuhn did accept the buyout from Sean Deep for twenty five thousand dollars, So you know, I think he was seventeen days into when he when he accepted the buyout, So as far as I'm concerned, like there was no way he was going to lose it once you get to that point, I think, you know, Robert Cuon also said the same sort of thing. But but yeah, so that's the update there. We got Texas Poker Open coming up.
I know you're going to be getting on a plane. When are you going down there? Tuesday? Tuesday. So we're doing what coverage every day, live coverage, both live reporting and live streaming, and the live streaming will be handled by Champions Club Texas, but Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks will be
in the commentary booth. The streams themselves will be available. They're actually going to be available for free on poker Go and the Poker Go YouTube channel, so you guys can watch them that way, streaming every single day of the Texas Poker Open main event. That main event, of course, has a thirty three dollars buying two million dollar guarantee, and then there's a bunch of
high rollers that happen after the main event that will also be covering. Tim's going to be there on site providing a bunch of live reporting coverage, so you know, Texas Poker Open will be front of mine. Hopefully for a lot of you guys out there who are following along with everything that's done here on at Poker Goro and the PGT. Maybe we'll be able to check in with you. I'm not going, so we'll have to just check in with you at some point, do a podcast halfway through or something like that.
Maybe when the main event wraps up, whatever it may be. I think that would be cool to do. So, Yeah, are you staying right at Champions Yeah, we're else signing that. Wow, they just they just give you guys the best life. Huh yeah on real. All right, that's going to wrap it up here on the Poker Girl Podcast. Hopefully we'll talk in a week or so. Tim will be coming to us from Texas. Hopefully that's the plan. I'm still here in Las Vegas. Oh, another thing I need to put on the map. So I put on our
mental notes that we need to do. Figure out prizes for the summer for whatever podcast stuff. You and I got to figure out the hat situation. That's another thing. And then we get a plan. Like our next takeover tournament. We did the South Point. We wanted to the South Point again. Do we want to go somewhere else? Maybe we go to the wind you know, maybe we take over an Aria Toney take over a Yeah,
yeah, they have the will We love the South Point? I know we love the south We always talk about it, you know, because we always play there. They're going to release their streaming schedule soon. They would definitely want to come on the podcast. Be ready for that. The area of people, Ryan and Paul, they want to come on the podcast. They want to talk about the bed MGM Championship and the Arias Summer Classic. But let's see when that comes out and it's official. Maybe they have an event
that uh is it? No, no, it's not. But like then maybe they started. Man, what are they waiting for? Who knows? We're giving them too much work. Probably hasn't it hasn't pretty much either way. We could just take over to daily. We could just take over the daily on the you know, the the twenty eighth or something at the area.
Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm in. Obviously has to be before, you know, a couple of days before the w s P starts, because once starts, you know, we are we're not We're not leaving that place. Probably gonna sleep there. So so yeah, so just putting that out there, mental note, you and I. We got to figure out the next takeover tournaments. Definitely want to get Jeff and Brent back out there playing. We'll see who we can get out there. We should.
We gotta get morey got you gotta get Maury. Come on, I mean, how can we not? All right, So that's gonna do it for us. On this episode of the Poker Girl Podcast. My name is Donnie Peters. His name is Tim Duckworth, and we'll talk to you guys soon. Peace Express