Abby Merk: The $3,500 Loss That Almost Made Me Quit Poker | DSH #1589

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Diet Coke. You know that moment when you just need to hit pause and refresh? An ice-cold Diet Coke isn't just a break.

Speaker 1 It's your chance to catch your breath and savor a moment that's all about you. Always refreshing, still the same great taste.

Speaker 2 Diet Coke, make time for you time.

Speaker 3 Hello, friends. Guess who? That's right.
It is I, the replacer.

Speaker 3 Once again, I've been called on so you can play the new Call of Duty Black Ops 7 with three expansive modes, 18 multiplayer maps, and the tastiest zombie gameplay you've ever freaking seen.

Speaker 5 Call of Duty Black Ops 7 available now.

Speaker 4 Rated M for mature.

Speaker 1 People don't believe me, which is insane. Like, I'll literally post, like, every week I do, I do like a how much did I win or lose this week?

Speaker 1 And people will be like, liar, this girl is not, it's not possible. She has an OnlyFans.
This is her parents' money.

Speaker 1 And I was like, Not only do I post like truthful results, but I also post story times of how it happened every single day. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And at a certain point, like, you would think that if my following gets big enough, people would just be like, No, she's lying. I played with her.

Speaker 1 Like, if I was actually lying about it, someone would call me out, right?

Speaker 1 And no one's calling me out. Like, it makes no sense.

Speaker 2 All right, guys, we got Abby here. Caught her right before she left Vegas.
Yep. A little bit of a tilt right now, huh? Yeah.

Speaker 1 One might say that. You know, at a certain point, I feel like poker gets a little bit, uh, can get a little bit old.
So I'm changing up the scenery. I'm going to Borgata to play in the

Speaker 1 Summer Poker Open there. So I'm really excited.
I got to switch it up a little bit, though. Nice.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Yeah. How's the gambling until I make X-Series going?

Speaker 1 Oof, good, but it's tough. I mean, I think, truthfully, I think the thing that people underestimate the most about that is because the

Speaker 1 difficult part is not cash games. Like, anybody can book a win in a cash game.
That's kind of what makes poker so good is that anyone can do it. But the tournaments add up.

Speaker 1 Like, it is really hard to run deep in a tournament. And, like, truthfully, those tournaments, they're expensive.
Right.

Speaker 2 Yeah, there's only the top 10, 15% cash, right?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, yeah. So, it was kind of brutal because, like, at the beginning of my series, I was playing a mix of like cash and tournaments, but I was really trying to hit it big.

Speaker 1 Like, I was not trying to make 10K. I was trying to make like 100K, but realistically try to make like 10K or something like that.

Speaker 1 And then long story short, I was buying into these like $1,100 tournaments like all by myself.

Speaker 1 And I realized very quickly that that strategy was going to have to change if I wanted any chance of making 10K because

Speaker 1 1,100 adds up a lot.

Speaker 2 You're rebuying as soon as you bought some.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I wonder why, because I know some really good cash game players. They just suck at tournaments.

Speaker 1 No, for sure. It's a very different game.

Speaker 1 And truthfully, I think in cash, it's very different different because you're normally deep stack so a lot of these like cash game pros if they come into tournaments they'll do well in like the first couple levels but when things start to get like shorter and like the blinds go up and things like that they really struggle so i feel like you know whereas on the opposite i'm like a short stack legend right

Speaker 1 and i'm like what am i doing with 600 bigs so um yeah to each their own different strengths that's why you got to respect guys like hellmuth i know he's controversial but like he crushes it at tournaments for sure can't deny the goat he he's actually very interesting too because Helmuth, like say what you want about like his persona and stuff, but like Helmuth did something that nobody did at the time.

Speaker 1 He created a brand for himself and then he also like identified a niche that wasn't really being tapped into. And it was truthfully like...

Speaker 1 the most genius thing he could do. Like he basically said, no one's winning bracelets.
I'm going to win the most bracelets. And he went out and did it.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Exactly. So like, you know, props to the guy.
Can't say a bad thing about him.

Speaker 2 This World Series might be the most drama I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 It's insane, truly. I agree.

Speaker 4 This episode is brought to you by Pacifico.

Speaker 6 Here's a story you've probably never heard. Legend has it, decades ago, a couple surfers went down to Mexico in search of epic swells, but they found something unexpected instead.

Speaker 4 It was still crisp, lively, and smooth, but it had nothing to do with waves.

Speaker 6 It was Pacifico, a delicious Mexican lager. It's like it was brewed to be discovered.
Pacifico, find your own way.

Speaker 4 21 Plus Discover responsibly, Pacifico Clara beer, imported by Crown Import, Chicago, Illinois.

Speaker 7 This episode is brought to you by Netflix.

Speaker 7 From the creator of Homeland, Claire Danes and Matthew Reese star in the new Netflix series, The Beast in Me, as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

Speaker 7 The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt, justice, and doubt. You will not want to miss this.
The Beast in Me is now playing only on Netflix.

Speaker 2 Thought Cabrel would be the top, and then this Kasoof guy just flew right past me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's insane. Kasoof is like the guy, like your uncle at, um,

Speaker 1 he's like your uncle at like a family dinner where you're like, please stop talking, and he just won't. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, you could beg the guy, and he just like, he's just infinite, yappa, yappa, yappa, you know what I mean? But truthfully, I don't really know. Like, a lot of these poker players are

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 like egotistical, I think, like sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. You have to be self-centered.
Like poker is a zero-sum game, right?

Speaker 1 So at the end of the day, when you win, it means that someone else is like not winning. And in that case, what Kassuf did was he basically identified that and then played to that.

Speaker 1 So he's going to make, he's like, well, I'm going to take that.

Speaker 1 dynamic and like amplify it. I think it's going to be like one of those things where I'm going to get in your head and I'm going to play all of the other elements that

Speaker 1 you aren't expecting. Right.
So also say what you want. Poker loves a character.
The viewers speak for himself. Like PokerGo, record numbers.

Speaker 2 I was rooting for him to make the final table. I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 1 Ooh, I was not.

Speaker 2 I know it's a hot take, but I love the drama. I love Cabrel.
I watch Cabrel play. Yeah.
I know you probably hate playing with guys like that, but as a viewer, because I don't play.

Speaker 2 Yes, you have a different perspective. I think it makes good entertainment.

Speaker 1 I totally agree with that for what it's worth from like a viewer perspective.

Speaker 1 But at the same time, I think especially in the main event, like with Kassoof in particular, like he was delaying the game. He was like getting into all these antics.

Speaker 1 when the stakes were the highest that they possibly could have been.

Speaker 1 And like to me, I have a lot of empathy for the people that were at the same table with him in the sense that like, if this was like the biggest score of your life or like the deepest run of your life and you're sitting there playing for the most money you've ever played for, like some of these guys before this, their biggest cash was 10K.

Speaker 1 They're now fighting to get between 250K and the next pay jump is $300,000. Like that is insane, right? And like, truthfully, a lot of the game of poker is mental.

Speaker 1 And so if he's like attacking that and he's stalling and he's causing disruptions to the game in that way, I do have a lot of empathy for those players because truthfully, it's like, you know, yeah, he's good for poker.

Speaker 1 He's good for the viewership. Undeniably, poker loves a villain, you know?

Speaker 1 But at the same time, like these people are also equally deserving to a respectable game of poker and I feel like they were robbed of that

Speaker 2 I could agree with that too. How did you think the World Series treated it with all the penalties and I think he's not allowed to play anymore, right?

Speaker 1 I don't remember who said this on Twitter, but I thought someone had like a really good take that I agreed with.

Speaker 1 I think that the biggest issue that I had with the whole thing was the fact that on day six, they basically were like, haha, like Kasoof, so funny, like this guy. Come on now, watch your tongue.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Like mind your mouth.

Speaker 1 And then on day seven, they came in and they went like ape shit on the guy like they legitimately were like say one word and you're disqualified Whoa, what a switch up. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So I do think and also like I do think that the WSOP I don't I think that they need to be taking from like a business perspective a player first mindset and unfortunately that does include kasuf you know what I mean and so or fortunately depending on who you ask but um i i think like the reason why i'm why i'm saying this is because i think if they would have just said something on like twitter or they had pulled him aside before the match and said, hey, just letting you know, like we had a meeting last night and we're going no bullshit today.

Speaker 1 Like seriously, not a single word. I think the whole situation changes.

Speaker 1 But when you kind of like surprise and there's a lot of like ambiguity to the rules, I think that this is where he actually has a bit of a point there, you know, which is not something that the WSOP, I think, would want.

Speaker 2 It seems like they're just going to implement something next year, right? Yeah. There's a lot of talk about it.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the thing is, is too, like,

Speaker 1 even the tournament director rules are a little bit ambiguous when it comes to like um disrupting the game or like game flow and how how the etiquette uh rules can be enforced so i do think that like there is space for like um the influencers in the industry think like matt savage right um to take control of that like

Speaker 1 narrative and like change it you know what i mean did you feel like that 10 second clock he had was kind of harsh i did i truly think that like especially when your opponent i think there was an example that i saw circulating where long story short he had gotten to the river and he had rivered the nut straight but the board had paired as well and his opponent bet two x pot on the river and it's a very polarizing spot like your opponent is literally saying i have like nothing nothing or i have a boat right and that's literally it and he had 10 seconds to basically go with his gut And he ended up like being forced to fold his hand because the 10 second time clock ran out.

Speaker 1 Like it does feel as though there are certain situations where 10 seconds seconds is simply too quick.

Speaker 1 But on the other hand, unfortunately, it's not like they just randomly were like, here's 10 seconds. Like clearly the guy has respectfully deserved this.
You know what I mean? So

Speaker 1 yeah, kind of brutal, but.

Speaker 2 Who's the most annoying player you've played against?

Speaker 1 Oh man. I don't think I've played with a lot of like annoying people from like a social perspective because I love the social, social aspect of the game.

Speaker 1 Like truly, I do not consider myself like a super pro. Like I consider myself a content creator that like loves poker

Speaker 1 But at the same time like I think that there are things that people do that like Tilt the shit out of me like come on like poker is gonna be fun and like at a certain at a certain point like we can all smile We can all laugh We all have to feel like super grateful for the fact that we can play this poker game for a living, right?

Speaker 1 So like when people take themselves a little bit too seriously I think that annoys me But it's also like I do understand that they are trying to win just as much as I'm trying to win So like I think that there's like I have a lot of respect for them at the same time.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 see that. Yeah.
The final table's today, right? Yes. So this will come out after, but let's do some predictions for fun.
So who do you think is going to win the final table?

Speaker 1 Okay. So hot take here.
I do not think it's going to be Michael Mazraaki. I think there's a lot of people that are on his court.

Speaker 1 I don't think that he cares enough about the money to fully respect, if you will, the ICM implications of the final table.

Speaker 1 I think that could work really for him or really against him for what it's worth because he might take spots that are like ultra aggressive because he thinks that there's a chance to capitalize on that dynamic.

Speaker 1 But I gotta go, Leo. She's an amazing poker player.
She's had deep runs before. She's familiar with the pressure.

Speaker 1 And truthfully, it doesn't seem like the dynamic of like having the weight of woman on your back at all is getting to her.

Speaker 1 And so truly, I think if she can show up and play her game, I think she's going to take it down for sure. She's been doing well.

Speaker 2 I saw her knock out like four people

Speaker 1 a couple days ago. Yes.
And honestly, like truthfully, Final Tables in particular, a lot of it comes down to like getting there when you need to get there, holding when you're all in, right?

Speaker 1 Like things like that, especially when it comes to laddering up and with these like very, very, very, very steep pay jumps. So I think that, you know, I mean, Little Lady Luck never hurt anybody.

Speaker 1 So hopefully she can take it down. That's my goal.

Speaker 2 How many final tables have you made in tournaments?

Speaker 1 Oof, that's a tough question because truthfully, I don't. make a lot of final tables.
I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 1 Maybe like three or four lifetime, but I only have two lifetime wins. So I'm going for a third.

Speaker 2 Oh, so you won two out of the three.

Speaker 1 Um, in terms of final tables, yes, actually.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So when you get there, you're nice.

Speaker 1 I try, but also, like, this is going to sound a little bit whaley, but I'm also kind of a Michael Mizraki in the sense where I'm like looking to take spots that I think are advantageous. Right.
Um,

Speaker 1 so like

Speaker 1 whether or not that helps or hurts me

Speaker 5 depends on who I'm up against.

Speaker 1 A little bit, yeah. But also,

Speaker 1 yeah. I mean, I'm always looking for the win, but if a spot feels right, it feels right.
And I'm not going to shy away from that, to be honest. Nice.

Speaker 2 Did you make money right away when you started playing?

Speaker 1 Hell no. I sucked at poker when I started.
Oh my gosh, I was so bad. I remember the first time I sat down to play poker.
I legitimately like ran this ridiculous bluff.

Speaker 1 It was so stupid looking back, obviously. And I remember getting up from the table and like busting, obviously.
I was like, whatever, some dumb hand. And I get up from the table.

Speaker 1 I'm walking to the rebuy session. And this was like a $20 tournament, by the way, at the time.
This is nothing like crazy. And the guy who I had just like busted to comes and follows me.

Speaker 1 And he goes, just so you know, that was like, that like really didn't make sense. Like that was a really bad play.
I was like, oh, thank you so much. Like, rebuy, you know what I mean? Like chips.

Speaker 1 I don't know. It was, it was ridiculous.

Speaker 2 You had to rub it in.

Speaker 5 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 And that didn't stop you from wanting to keep playing.

Speaker 1 Hell no, that motivated me. I was like, get me back in there.
You know what I mean? I, I gotta, I can't let that slide. Put me at the same table.
I'm gonna get those chips back.

Speaker 2 When did you feel like you really started getting good? Did you have a mentor or like someone else?

Speaker 1 I did, yeah. There's been like a couple people like lifetime that have really gotten me to think about the game differently.
One of them is Joe McKeon. He's actually a main event champ.

Speaker 1 So it was really cool to see him on my side analyzing my hands. He's

Speaker 1 a bit blunt when it comes to, you know, feedback.

Speaker 2 A lot of the poker guys are, to be honest.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but it's to the point where I'm like, damn, I think I might need, it caused like an awakening me.

Speaker 1 I was like, whoa, I'm like really bad at poker, truthfully, because he would literally, I would send in these hand histories and he would respond and he'd be like, just so you know, you suck.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, you suck, right? And I'm like, oh, awesome. You know what I mean? But yeah, he's like a funny one that comes to mind.

Speaker 2 Some people learn that way and some people are like, yeah, I'm never talking to that guy again.

Speaker 1 Exactly, exactly. No, he's funny.
I think truly he has the best intentions at heart. But like at the same time,

Speaker 1 communication styles, I think, are pretty different.

Speaker 5 But I don't know.

Speaker 1 It works out. It like jolted me into getting better.
I was like, damn, I suck. Like, I got to reconsider.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So kind of worked out.

Speaker 2 But who's who have you been the most starstruck with playing wise?

Speaker 1 Steven Chidwick, not close.

Speaker 1 Steven Chidwick is like my idol. He is unbelievably talented.
He has

Speaker 1 such a passion for the game and like a respect for the players around him, no matter what stakes he's playing.

Speaker 1 Funny enough, I ended up playing against him in the main event last year and sorry, two years ago, but we played together on day three, which is so unlucky. There's like 8,000 people left at the time.

Speaker 1 I'm like, really? I have the number one player in the world. Awesome.
Like perfect.

Speaker 1 But he,

Speaker 1 even though he was playing against people that genuinely probably haven't played higher than like a 1500, you know what I mean? Like most of my table was like complete beginners.

Speaker 1 He maintained a respect for everybody and played his game versus everybody in like the most,

Speaker 1 you know, cutthroat, undoubtedly. But

Speaker 1 yeah, he's just a crusher. Like I just have a lot of respect for him, truly.
Respect.

Speaker 2 What's the deepest you've made in the main?

Speaker 1 You know, I made day three and then I busted an hour before the money, which sucked.

Speaker 1 That would have been a sick cache. That's when they were doing 2x caches in the main too.
This year they kind of messed it up with the 1.5x. I was not very happy about it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they put out a rule actually, like, I want to say two years ago, I want to say, I could be wrong about that, but two years ago where they basically said, We at WSOP are going to guarantee a 2x min cash to all of our tournaments.

Speaker 1 And then this year, they did it for almost every single other tournament except for the main event. It seemed to be because they wanted the final table payouts to be the same.

Speaker 1 But I don't know. Like, I can't speak for them, obviously.
But that would really suck to like min cash and expect to make 20K.

Speaker 1 And then get told, oh, sorry, you're only making 15.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's a big difference.

Speaker 5 You know what I mean? 5K. Yeah, huge.

Speaker 1 Especially for recreational players.

Speaker 2 Yeah, four days of poker. Yeah.

Speaker 5 That's a long time.

Speaker 2 For sure.

Speaker 5 12 hours a day, right?

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, easily. Sometimes more.

Speaker 2 What's your recovery process? Do you just knock out as soon as you get home?

Speaker 1 Oh, my recovery process is horrendous. I'm like a freak about like content because again, like I'm a content creator as well.
So like I, I don't really recover in the same ways as other people.

Speaker 1 A lot of my recovery actually looks like journaling, which I turn into like shorts and stuff like that. So a lot of what I do is like reflection on the day and then I'll take like those notes

Speaker 1 and then I'll like turn it into like a story that I can tell for my social media like the next day.

Speaker 1 So that's kind of that's a big one for me. But also like truly, I think that the biggest thing that poker players mess up on is balance, like lifestyle balance and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 Like we have a really, really difficult time relaxing when there's always going to be like another good game and like there's always going to be a sick tournament with a crazy guarantee or whatever.

Speaker 1 But like truthfully, I really prioritize like hanging out with my friends.

Speaker 1 I prioritize getting good meals, sitting down, like, you know, enjoying myself in Las Vegas because I truly think you'll go crazy if you don't. And like a lot of people just don't find that balance.

Speaker 1 So it's kind of sick, actually, if you think about it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because you guys have a crazy lifestyle. Like you're traveling all over the world, not just the country.
The tournaments are like in Asia, they're in the islands. It's impressive.

Speaker 1 Yeah, fun fact. I was actually only home in my like home base

Speaker 1 city for 14% of the year last year. And it was for holidays and birthdays.

Speaker 2 Holy crap. So you're on the road your whole life.

Speaker 1 Yeah, 24-7. That's insane.
People are like, where do you live? I was like, I don't know. Thanks for asking.
I really don't. Wow.
Like, there's no home base.

Speaker 1 I go home to do laundry nomad then yeah exactly

Speaker 1 which places stand out to you your oh my favorite one of my favorites is um

Speaker 1 it's DC but I go to MGM National Harbor like I'm staying there when I go that's like one of my favorite places to play and to like relax I think they have like the perfect um

Speaker 1 they have kind of like a like a homey feel dc is just very like historic and like you know there's a lot to do there so i enjoy the fact that you're like close to a city um and also the games are sick this is crazy but DC is like insane for poker because it's literally the like Bermuda triangle of richness.

Speaker 1 I'm not even joking. There's like the politicians up north, there's the doctors out east, and then there's the lawyers out west.
So it's like kind of insane, but yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 I mean, obviously it's the best place to do.

Speaker 2 Those are the perfect professions to make.

Speaker 5 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 And they all love playing high stakes.

Speaker 1 Exactly, exactly. I'm like, what's Trump doing tonight?

Speaker 5 I don't want to play with him.

Speaker 5 I wonder if he plays.

Speaker 2 That'd be nuts.

Speaker 1 He has to, right? Like, surely? I think so. Like, I feel like all of those politicians probably play.

Speaker 1 I think the only person I do not see playing is like, I don't know, like Candace Owens or like whatever. But it's like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 I just couldn't see her dealing with like any type of shit at the poker table. So I feel like she'd be, I don't know.

Speaker 2 Speaking of politics, a big, beautiful bill. I heard with the poker community, they hate that bill.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think it's going to change the way.
I think it's going to change the majority for the high stakes players.

Speaker 1 Because truthfully, what I expect to happen is that those games are going to essentially become private and like completely lose traction on the media side.

Speaker 1 Like you can't buy into, you know, $5 million worth of tournaments and be expected to pay $5 million worth of,

Speaker 1 like, you know, prorated rate of $5 million worth of taxes if you lose. $5 million.
Like that would be insane.

Speaker 1 So truthfully, what I think is going to happen is I would love to see how like Triton or these like high-stakes stops will like adjust to that.

Speaker 1 But i don't know we'll see i don't think it'll change anything about the cash scene i think to be honest the majority of people just won't report their winnings like all the recreational players you know what i mean why would you if it's cash exactly that's what i'm saying like for me i'm obviously going to because i'm playing too much and i track all my stuff on my instagram like i'd be an idiot not to but at the same time it's like these recreational players have no incentive to so i don't think it'll change that much about low-stakes poker to be honest yeah but are you up or down on the year up nice yeah people don't believe me which is insane like i'll literally post like every week I do, I do like a, how much did I win or lose this week?

Speaker 1 And people will be like, liar, this girl is not, it's not possible. She has an OnlyFans.
This is her parents' money.

Speaker 1 And I was like, not only do I post like truthful results, but I also post story times of how it happened every single day. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 And at a certain point, like you would think that if my following gets big enough, people would just be like,

Speaker 1 No, she's lying. I played with her.
Like if I was actually lying about it, someone would call me out, right?

Speaker 1 And no one's calling me out. Like it makes no sense

Speaker 1 But up on the ear.

Speaker 2 So I'm grateful for that to be fair a lot of the poker content creators lose money for sure for sure a lot of money.

Speaker 5 Yeah

Speaker 2 they're probably just assuming you're like a losing player.

Speaker 1 Hey, fair enough. I'd rather that than the opposite.
If you want to sit down with me and play and like think I'm the worst player ever, it's genuinely better for me.

Speaker 1 So I'll never correct that mindset. Truthfully, it makes a lot more sense for me to think that for them to think that I'm bad.

Speaker 2 I also feel like guys play easier on girls overall, right?

Speaker 1 It's very polarizing i feel like that's a bit of like a um a misconception i think as like a whole i think that there's two types of guys at the poker table there's the types of guys that never fold um and like they they just cannot be bluffed by a woman they just have to see it like they just want me to show them and then there's the type of guy that thinks that i'm never bluffing and they truly think that like i can only be betting for value and i can never be bluffing i don't have it within me to to take an aggressive route right so like i think that you know and also i mean to to their defense there's also, of course, the pros, but I'm talking about like the stereotypes.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Um, but I think that like identifying which type of player you're playing against as a whole is like, can only be a good thing.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Just makes me a lot of money.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 2 Must be nice having that skill of just making money whenever you feel like it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's definitely can't.

Speaker 1 But I don't know. You can also lose a lot of money in a very short amount of time, which is a bit of a foreign feeling for me, you know?

Speaker 2 What's the biggest loss you've had?

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh, this one was brutal.

Speaker 1 I actually, okay, so this was when I was like first starting to get into poker and I booked this like unbelievably disproportionate loss to like what I was willing to like lose into my bankroll at the time.

Speaker 1 Truthfully now in my sessions, I kind of cap my losses to like 1.5 K 2 K like per session. If I think the game is good and I'm just like not, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, and I'm willing to put in that much money. Like I am willing to lose that in a day.
However, there was this one day, I think it was like around 2022 or something. So this is a couple years ago.

Speaker 1 And I'm playing, I basically went, played in person, got

Speaker 1 demolished, like I got cooked.

Speaker 1 I think I ended up losing like 3.5K like in person in like a 2.5 game, which like wasn't that crazy, like all things considered, but it was just like the type of game that we were playing was very much just like all in, all in, all in.

Speaker 1 Like there was straddle, straddle, strategy. It was like a huge game, right? So I lose like 3.5K.
And truthfully, I probably would have bought in more, but I didn't have the cash on me.

Speaker 1 So I'm like, you know what? This is a sign. I'm going to leave.
Like, I'm going to leave. I go back home.

Speaker 1 And at this moment, like one of my friends texts me, she's like, online tournament's running, like online cash games. They're popping off.

Speaker 1 Like, you got to play the text of the most, you know, degenerate thing ever. Like, you're probably used to it.
But the, um,

Speaker 1 but yeah, so I get home and then I hop online and I lose like an additional 2.5 K online. Damn.
And I, yeah. And I literally, I'm just sitting there and I'm like,

Speaker 1 my bank roll was like 10K at the time, too. Like I had like no bank roll.
Like even me playing 2.5 was stupid.

Speaker 1 So to lose like two-thirds of my bankroll in like literally like six hours was

Speaker 1 I had to take a few days off after that.

Speaker 2 It was pretty brutal. 60% of your bankroll.

Speaker 1 Geez. Yeah, it's brutal.
I was like back to 50 cent dollar I go. Like I can't no more 2.5.

Speaker 2 What's your favorite stakes now?

Speaker 1 2.5.

Speaker 1 I think. Yeah.
Cause truthfully, I think that like 510 and above gets a lot of regs.

Speaker 1 And I don't think that like, to be honest, I think that, especially when you're in Vegas and the games are so good here, but it's like you can go play Aria 2.5 and buy in for $1,500

Speaker 1 or you can go play 510 and buy in for like 5k. But the 2.5

Speaker 1 are all of the like recreational like visitors and stuff that are like coming to just kind of like splash around, have a good time.

Speaker 1 And then 510 is a lot of the pros that like live in Vegas and like need to play higher stakes to pay their bills.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I would rather book a 1K win in the 2.5 game than like a 3K win in a 510 game because I don't think that the 3K win in the 510 game is coming nearly as frequently as the 2.5 game.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. So 2.5, I think, is the sweet spot for me right now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I heard the comp out here is nuts.

Speaker 1 It is, truly. People are like, how are are you staying in like these hotels i'm like

Speaker 1 do you know how much money i like get these casinos like it's kind of ridiculous do you play other games a few yeah i'm not very good at like the no one's good at the other games let's be honest but like you know i love uth i've recently gotten into craps but sports betting is like my my oh yeah they'll comp you if you're a big sports better yeah yeah i used to fly my friend out from jersey yeah there you go

Speaker 2 so much they would fly him out and give him free runes and everything exactly it's the best way to do it you know what i mean yeah but poker is like the most skill, right? Like

Speaker 5 person comes close.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Even when I'm sports betting, like truly, everything that I do is like for fun.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like besides poker, you know, like everything that I do is genuinely just because I don't think I have an edge sports betting.

Speaker 1 How am I supposed to know if like the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl by seven or by 48 points? You know what I mean? Like I don't know. I don't find edge there.

Speaker 1 But like all of the other things. like poker, for example, that's where the skill really lies.

Speaker 1 The difference between your recreational player and like a semi-competent player in Vegas is leaps and bounds farther away than people think it is. So there's a lot of money to be made here for real.

Speaker 5 Nice.

Speaker 2 In your opinion, best hotel in Vegas.

Speaker 1 Fedara, not close. Wow, quite close.
Yeah, not close. They have, like, it's right on the strip.
You can get to everything. There's, um, there's a tram right outside.

Speaker 1 So you can literally like hop down the strip, very close. You get

Speaker 1 a kitchenette in your room. There's like a Starbucks in the lobby that never has anybody there.
And you can walk inside to Cosmo or Bellagio for like the best food on the strip.

Speaker 1 So like not close, best place to stay for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You're the first person that said that hotel.

Speaker 1 They're dumb actually. Because sorry, but like the comfort that you feel there and also that it's very high tech.
You know what I mean? Like they have buttons to like raise the blinds every morning.

Speaker 1 I feel like a, I feel like a, I don't know, I feel like a whale haunting.

Speaker 5 It is a good area, yeah. You're also next to Aria too.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Super close.
You can go to Din Tai Feng.

Speaker 5 the best, which is pretty good. Javier's.

Speaker 2 Javier's is my favorite Mexican.

Speaker 1 Yes. Lemongrass, like you can't miss.
You can't miss for real.

Speaker 2 That'll be my next vacation.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you have to do it for sure. You have to do it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Definitely.

Speaker 2 Well, what's next for you? You're going driving to AC, you said, Austin?

Speaker 1 Yes. So I'm driving to Austin and then I'm flying to Atlantic City.
We have the Borgata Poker Open in,

Speaker 1 or sorry, the Summer Poker Open at the Borgata. That's going to be a fun one.
I'm really excited because I'm buying into like a really high stakes

Speaker 1 for me,

Speaker 1 really high stakes heads up match, which I'm really excited about. It's like a 2K heads up match.
And I've never bet more than like $100 on my heads up matches before.

Speaker 1 So like, I'm really excited about that one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then like next up is the, they have the

Speaker 1 Potomac poker open in DC. So I get to go hang out with all my whales in Washington.
Can't wait to see you guys.

Speaker 2 Can't wait to make money off you guys.

Speaker 1 I'm like the Bermuda Triangle of Richness. It's going to be great.
They're like, wow, this girl sucks.

Speaker 2 But well, we'll link your YouTube. And thanks for coming on.
That was good. Sounds good.
Thanks for having me. Yeah.
Check her out, guys. See you next time.

Speaker 2 Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm.

Speaker 2 It helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot.
Thank you guys for supporting. And here's the episode.

Speaker 9 Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way.

Speaker 8 You wanna sell those wheels? You wanna get a CarMax instant offer so fast

Speaker 8 to think about it. Or like a month.
Wanna keep tabs on that instant offer.

Speaker 9 With OfferWatch.

Speaker 8 Wanna have CarMax pick it up from your driveway.

Speaker 9 So, wanna drive? Carmax.

Speaker 2 Pickup not available everywhere.

Speaker 9 Restrictions and fee may apply. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft.

Speaker 9 But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US-based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back.

Speaker 9 Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock.
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast.

Speaker 9 Terms Apply.