Dead Money w/ Dan Arfin

Long time friend and veteran poker pro Mike Zulker returns to the Dead Money studios for his third visit. Here we begin with discussing some of the highlights from his 2026 WSOP.

But Mike has come a long way in his career., mostly through cash games. Through many ups and downs, he now finds himself as one of the co-game runners for the Must Be Nice (MBN) high limit game at the Aria.

Throughout this show, Mike goes over some tough hand histories, and talks about the importance of how everyone needs to be treated at a game of this magnitude. We also touch on what to watch out for when staking other players, and things to not get caught up in when playing with friends.

A recent subscriber asked that I go over my poker career and what happened en route to each of the stakes I played. Seeing as I don't exactly get overrun with questions and/or comments, I devoted most of this episode to answering this question.

But before I get into that, I left Las Vegas for a few days as the 2026 WSOP was winding down, and I dropped in for a brief 2/5 session at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. I enjoyed the igloo oops I mean poker room. Even if it was, hands down, the most frigid poker room I've ever been in. Brutal.

So the 2026 WSOP is finally winding down. You know that when you show up on a Saturday and it takes hours just to get a third 2/5 game going. It was a rather brutal day--the kind that takes something from you that's a hell of a lot more valuable than money has ever been.

I haven't bought into a tournament in 13 years, and it's about as quality a decision as I've ever made. But, I did back myself to play in the main event in both 2012 and 2013. The outcomes were none too boring to say the least. So here are the highlights from each main event, starting with what my mindset was throughout each tournament, and going over key hands....and you'll have a hard time believing what you're hearing. You'll understand why by the end.

As expected, it's been a wild scene at the cash games in the World Series of Poker. So here are some of the highlights from the wonky hands that have gone down playing 2/5 at the Wynn.

It's been a good WSOP so far in Las Vegas. The cash games have seen a ton of soft play. Tonight started with having to aggressively put other nitty players in their place for chastising the game for playing the same way he essentially was. Then you got guys agreeing to straddle and coming up with reasons why they shouldn't have to do it so they can get a free round out of it. Then you got dealers paying absolutely no attention as to what the hell is going on. Then you got young cocky WSOP douche bags coming in and clicking buttons. And other randoms looking to call down with any pair. Wass something of a street fight as overnight games are most prone to turn into. Well, I tried. But it was a rough night.

I need to backtrack to some of the recent tales been told and make sure everybody's savvy. Also recapping the previous week's behavioral quirks and impatient arrogance vomited on me and my fellow competitors. And also, yet again, running into a familiar face that doesn't enjoy having time called on her.

Angle shooters in poker are the dirtiest pieces of shit in all of competition. Some pitcher throwing a 100 MPH fastball at a batter's head pales in comparison to some grimy miscreant trying to lure you into revealing information about your hand by putting forth some conniving tacky little maneuver because they don't have the balls or the brains to even try to win any other way.....but I finally shot one myself anyway. Only for good reason, actually.

I'd been wanting to talk to this dealer from lately as well. She got SO upset about something I said during her down recently. Well, it's been weird seeing her since. So I knew I had to at least TRY and talk to her....and try I did...

I've dealt a little bit of poker. When I got tired of playing for about 3 and a half years, in that time I dealt the WSOP in 2018 and 2019, and dealt a winter series at the Bellagio in between. Dealing poker pays pretty good and is relatively fun, but is about as thankless as a job can get. And you HAVE to be okay with that.

I like two things. Well, it's more than two. But I'll just name two of them. One is dealers who tend to keep quiet and just focus on the job. The second is I like being a smartass. But if the dealer is competent and can do their job without slowing things down and distracting themselves so they can solicit for tips by selling their winning personality to players, I'm not gonna faint should they interact with the players a little bit.

Well, recently we had a dealer who wanted some conversation circulating at the table, and I surely obliged her in my way, which, turned out to not agree so terribly well with her.

But I did at least square things away with a player I had unfairly insulted just a few days earlier. And we hit on some recent hand history highlights as well.

Here are the wild hand history highlights from 5 winning sessions during the week of May 19-23. Two of which were in the six biggest wins I've ever had at 2-5. Yahtzee