Table 1 Podcast

Mike Holtz thought “Napster” was just a guy in his World of Warcraft group.

It was the guy who created Napster.

They’d been playing together for years. Mike had no idea.

At 17, he was traveling to gaming tournaments with him—with his mom’s permission. Poker was something they played between dungeon raids.

Then the gaming circuit lost its funding.

What followed wasn’t exactly a straight line to the WSOP.

Selling weed. Thirty days in jail. A hotel front-desk job. Then an invitation to a $300 home game with the wealthiest business owners in town.

His boss warned him: these guys were sharks.

Mike won about $1,100.

They invited him back.

He says he won every Tuesday for a year. The poker money was beating the paycheck, and his biggest worry was that they’d stop inviting him.

Vegas proved a little less cooperative.

There were cash-game struggles, a marriage breakdown, and a return to World of Warcraft during COVID. One of his Twitch regulars turned out to be David Williams. Somehow, gaming kept bringing him back to poker.

By 2021, he was chasing WSOP.com Player of the Year.

The guy who used to sleep beside his computer to grind Warcraft rankings had found another leaderboard.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, two-time WSOP bracelet winner and PokerNews Podcast co-host Mike Holtz joins Art Parmann and Justin Young for the stories behind the results:

• ♠️ The family secret that led to a private investigator—and a brother living 30 minutes away
• ♥️ Thirty days in jail, where he already knew half the people inside
• ♦️ Talking the final table into an $11,650-per-person chop with seven big blinds… then busting two hands later
• ♣️ The fake tournament-package story he told his boss to get to Vegas
• ♠️ Turning the online tournament grind into two WSOP.com Player of the Year titles
• ♥️ Why he says his online bracelet was harder to win than his live one
• ♦️ A WSOP rail chant he had to shut down before heads-up
• ♣️ Joining PokerNews, interviewing Maurice Hawkins, and the bracelet-ceremony “apology”

About that apology.

Mike got onstage and said he wanted to apologize to Maurice Hawkins.

“For absolutely nothing.”

Then dropped the mic.

We also get into the two-monitor kitchen-table setup, taking naps with 12 players left, and the coaching videos he keeps winning too much—and procrastinating too hard—to finish.

Probably not the preparation routine you’ll find in a poker textbook.

👇 Drop a comment:
What’s the strangest thing that led you to poker?

Mike’s Links

X: https://x.com/MikeHoltzPoker
IG: https://instagram.com/MikeHoltzPoker

T1 Links

Play with us at Phenom Poker:
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1

Play with us at Table 1:
https://table1.vegas

Justin’s Poker Coaching Series:
Learn to Crush Live Poker — https://pokercoaching.com/table1

Follow T1:

X — https://x.com/table1vegas
IG — https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Phil Hellmuth wanted bracelet No. 18.

Darren Rabinowitz wanted him to call it off on the turn.

He was dying to say, “If you call, it’s all over, baby.” Instead, he kept his mouth shut and let Phil make the decision.

Darren got the bracelet.

Not bad for a guy whose plan was to spend one month in Vegas, then move back in with his parents and find a job.

That was in 2012.

His girlfriend had dumped him. She lived in the apartment next door. She already had a new boyfriend. And his job at Bank of America wasn’t giving him much reason to stick around.

So he quit, found a free room in a UNLV fraternity house, and started grinding single-table satellites.

The move back to Seattle never happened.

Eventually, he upgraded to a $600-a-month apartment with scorpions and cockroaches. Found friends who were better at poker. Got backed. Made the Aussie Millions final table. Spent years figuring out how to keep doing this for a living.

Then came the summer he knocked Daniel Negreanu out of the Main Event and beat Hellmuth heads-up for his second WSOP bracelet.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Darren joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the whole ride:

♠️ Three teenage grinders, two computer chairs, and a race to avoid the milk crate
♥️ Flunking freshman year, fraternity poker, and leaving the bank job
♦️ How a Lock Poker satellite introduced him to the backer who changed his career
♣️ The Aussie Millions final table where he was too intimidated to ask for a chop
♠️ Backing deals, makeup, and what better poker friends actually teach you
♥️ The WSOP.com grind, “Avocado Toast,” and his very active block button
♦️ Winning at Planet Hollywood while his empty seat cashed at Wynn
♣️ Saving Justin from blinding out of a tournament he forgot to show up for
♠️ The cameras, the rail, and the heads-up battle to deny Hellmuth No. 18

And after what he calls the coolest moment of his poker life?

He showed up for a $1,600 tournament the next day.

“I play poker. Like, that’s what I do.”

👇 Drop a comment:
Who would you most want to beat heads-up for a WSOP bracelet?

Show Notes
00:00 — Intro + Darren Rabinowitz
02:46 — Seattle Roots & Family
08:34 — Finding Online Poker
14:18 — College, Banking & Leaving Arizona
21:43 — First Vegas Summer & Early Bankroll
31:13 — Poker Friends & Aussie Millions
39:19 — Backing Deals & Life on the Circuit
44:36 — The Online Grind & COVID
54:37 — Golf & Returning to Live Poker
59:23 — Two Tournaments, Two Casinos
1:07:49 — The WSOP Summer & The Last $5K
1:13:23 — Final-Table Pressure
1:17:10 — Heads-Up Against Phil Hellmuth
1:19:35 — Winning the Bracelet & What’s Next

Darren’s Links
X: https://x.com/DarrenRabbi
IG: https://instagram.com/DarrenRabbi

T1 Links

Play with us at Phenom Poker (200% deposit bonus!):
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1

Play with us at Table 1:
https://table1.vegas

Justin’s Poker Coaching Series:
Learn to Crush Live Poker — https://pokercoaching.com/table1

Follow T1:
X — https://x.com/table1vegas
IG — https://instagram.com/table1vegas

What is Table 1 Vegas? Learn more here:
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Noah Schwartz had a $125K Wall Street job offer waiting.

Then one Sunday changed the math.

He wired $1,000 through Western Union, sat down in a PokerStars $1K, and about 12 hours later had $580,000.

So yeah.

Morgan Stanley got told to kick rocks.

But Noah’s story starts way before the score.

Miami Beach.
Baseball.
A lefty arm that was supposed to be his future.
His dad getting sick.
An elbow injury.
An air mattress on a childhood friend’s floor.
A security guard job where another guard would clock him in while Noah hid in the back room and played online poker.

Then poker opened every door.

And also kicked him through a few walls.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Noah Schwartz joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the full ride:

• ♠️ Growing up in Miami and thinking baseball was the plan
• ♥️ Losing his dad young and having to grow up fast
• ♦️ Tearing up his elbow and finding poker at the exact wrong/right time
• ♣️ Playing Madden and Monopoly for real money
• ♠️ Paying a security guard to clock him in while he played online
• ♥️ Wiring $1K to PokerStars with only a few grand to his name
• ♦️ Turning that into $580K in one night
• ♣️ Saying no to Wall Street after the biggest score of his life
• ♠️ Winning $394K at Borgata and taking it home in cash
• ♥️ Getting stopped by TSA with a bag full of money
• ♦️ Flying Spirit with $400K stuffed in the overhead bin
• ♣️ Buying a Range Rover in cash
• ♠️ Playing the $1M Big One for One Drop
• ♥️ The aces hand that still hurts
• ♦️ The second One Drop run that sent him straight to the dice table
• ♣️ High-stakes craps, Antonio stories, prop bets, and poker-life chaos
• ♠️ Why money alone never fixed what he thought it would
• ♥️ Fatherhood, investing, philanthropy, and what matters now

We also get into:

• the early online poker boom
• PartyPoker and PokerStars nostalgia
• why poker players need early run-good
• bankroll management before anyone knew what bankroll management was
• WPT life when the fields were single-entry and massive
• One Drop pressure
• the difference between poker bad beats and real-life bad beats
• Real American Freestyle
• and why Noah would rather build memories with his kids than chase every tournament on the calendar.

This one is a poker story.

But it’s also a life story.

A baseball dream ended.
A poker career appeared.
A Wall Street path vanished.
And somehow, a kid sleeping on a friend’s floor ended up playing million-dollar buy-ins.

👇 Drop a comment:
What would you do if you turned $2K into $580K in one night?

Show Notes

00:00 — Intro + Noah Schwartz
01:38 — Miami, Baseball & Growing Up Competitive
06:30 — Madden, Monopoly & Early Gambling
08:08 — Baseball Ends + Poker Begins
09:17 — Security Guard Shift Hustle
10:27 — Credit Cards, PartyPoker & The Early Grind
11:32 — The $580K PokerStars Score
17:13 — Firing $1K With Almost Nothing Left
19:12 — Final Table Chaos + Heads-Up Comeback
22:08 — $394K At Borgata + Cash Through TSA
24:00 — First Vegas Shot + Getting Fired
27:37 — Turning Poker Into A Career
32:10 — Cash Games, PLO & The Tour
34:48 — Raising Money For The $1M One Drop
37:19 — Aces In The Biggest Spot
42:19 — The Second One Drop Dream
43:20 — Nines, Queens & The $6M Swing
46:48 — Bustout → Dice Table
48:48 — Kids, Balance & Life After Full-Time Poker
52:46 — Investing, RAF & What Comes Next
55:42 — Mindset, Philanthropy & Real Bad Beats
58:45 — Prop Bets, PCA & Antonio Stories
1:00:51 — The Aria Craps Roll
1:15:00 — Future Plans + Family
1:18:08 — Noah’s Links + Outro

Noah’s Links

X:
https://x.com/noahjschwartz

IG:
https://www.instagram.com/noahschwartz

T1 Links

Phenom Poker:
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1

Play with us in Vegas:
https://table1.vegas

Justin's Poker Coaching series:
Learn to Crush Live Poker - https://pokercoaching.com/table1

Follow us:

X - https://x.com/table1vegas
IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Ana Marquez once sold a fake Chanel purse for $400.

Why?

Because she needed a bankroll.

Back in business.

25NL, here she comes.

That is a pretty perfect Ana Marquez origin story.

Ana grew up in Málaga, Spain, came to America for school, studied history and economics at American University, and somehow ended up writing her thesis on poker.

Not playing poker.

Writing about poker.

Then she found the underground Maryland games.

Then Borgata.

Then online poker.

Then the Maryland crew.

Then PCA.

Then Black Friday.

Then PokerStars.

Then 888.

Then ACR.

Then Triton.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, her dad found a stash of cash and thought something terrible was going on.

Ana had to explain bankroll management.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Ana joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to tell the full story:

• ♠️ Growing up in Spain and being too competitive for family game night
• ♥️ Learning five-card draw from her mom with chickpeas
• ♦️ Almost getting caught tagging graffiti while her dad took pictures
• ♣️ Moving to Washington D.C. for school
• ♠️ Studying World War I, World War II, diplomacy, and military strategy
• ♥️ Discovering poker through friends in college
• ♦️ Sitting behind a friend for 13 hours at Borgata
• ♣️ Playing underground Maryland games with the crew that would become poker legends
• ♠️ Writing her thesis on how tournament poker changed society’s view of the game
• ♥️ Her dad finding her poker cash and assuming the worst
• ♦️ Selling a fake Chanel purse to reload for 25NL
• ♣️ Her first huge live run at PCA
• ♠️ Winning big online right before Black Friday
• ♥️ Somehow dodging disaster because her dad told her to get the money off the computer
• ♦️ Becoming a PokerStars Team Pro
• ♣️ Getting dropped even while ranked #1 in Spain
• ♠️ Winning the Hollywood Poker Open
• ♥️ Why she likes being completely alone during deep tournament runs
• ♦️ Taking a health break at the worst possible time
• ♣️ Falling behind during the solver boom
• ♠️ Rebuilding during quarantine
• ♥️ Returning to cash games
• ♦️ Private games in Dubai
• ♣️ ACR, Triton, Jeju “poker jail,” and what she is chasing now

This is one of those poker stories that does not feel planned.

It feels like someone kept following the next weird door.

A thesis became a bankroll.

A fake purse became a reload.

A hidden cash stash became a family meeting.

And somehow, all of it became a poker career.

👇 Drop a comment:
What is the strangest thing you’ve ever sold to get back in action?

Show Notes

00:00 — Intro + Ana Marquez
01:37 — Growing Up In Spain
05:20 — Good Grades, Bad Student
06:04 — Graffiti, Family & Moving To America
12:13 — American University + The Poker Thesis
13:28 — Discovering Poker
16:30 — Borgata + Underground Maryland Games
19:41 — Dad Finds The Cash
21:22 — The Fake Chanel Bankroll Reload
22:29 — Early Online Poker Grind
30:27 — PCA Breakthrough Run
34:03 — Black Friday Changes Everything
37:25 — PokerStars Team Pro Era
39:35 — Getting Dropped While Ranked #1 In Spain
43:44 — Hollywood Poker Open + Live Tournament Life
49:03 — Why She Plays Best Alone
55:31 — Health Breaks, Solvers & Falling Behind
1:01:37 — Quarantine Rebuild
1:06:39 — Back To Cash Games
1:12:04 — ACR, Dubai & Private Games
1:19:41 — Triton, Jeju & What’s Next

Ana’s Links

Website:
https://anamarquezpoker.com

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/anamarquezpoker

T1 Links

Play with us in Vegas:
https://table1.vegas

Card Player Magazine:
https://table1.vegas/cardplayer

Follow us:

X - https://x.com/table1vegas
IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Garrett Adelstein doesn’t have hobbies.

He has obsessions.

Poker.
Money.
Chess.
Fitness.
Survivor.
Writing.

Whatever it is, Garrett doesn’t dabble.

He disappears into it.

That obsession made him one of the most feared cash-game players in the world.

It also nearly broke him.

Everyone knows Jack-Four.

Everyone has an opinion.

But this episode is not just about one hand.

It’s about the kind of person who could grind his way from Tucson home games to nosebleed LA cash, build a reputation as poker’s golden boy, become one of the most watched players in the livestream era, and then watch public perception flip almost overnight.

It’s about the cost of being all-in on everything.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Garrett joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the full ride:

• ♠️ Growing up in Tucson with money always on his mind
• ♥️ Being obsessed with achievement, school, chess, and winning
• ♦️ Staring at a law school personal statement at 2 a.m. and realizing he couldn’t do it
• ♣️ Finding poker and getting completely consumed by it
• ♠️ Running up a massive online bankroll, then losing almost everything
• ♥️ Rebuilding from zero with brutal self-imposed rules
• ♦️ Black Friday and the shift from online poker to live cash
• ♣️ Moving to LA and grinding the legendary Commerce games
• ♠️ The rise of Live at the Bike and stream poker fame
• ♥️ The Jack-Four hand, the tweet, the backlash, and what he wishes he handled differently
• ♦️ Why he has barely played poker since
• ♣️ Spending four years and 60 hours a week writing Beneath the Cards
• ♠️ The Bellagio degen story: drunk flips, Alan Keating, a $500K swing, and a trash bag full of cash
• ♥️ How EDC and electronic music became one of the most important things in his life

We also get into:

• why Garrett says he was already “1.9 feet out the poker door”
• how public games became private-game warfare
• why poker fame can be dangerous
• what therapy changed for him
• why money did not solve what he thought it would
• what the poker world gets wrong about him
• and why writing the book became the new obsession.

This one is not just a Jack-Four episode.

It’s a Garrett episode.

The hand is part of the story.

But obsession is the story.

👇 Drop a comment:
Can obsession make you great without eventually costing you something?

Show Notes

00:00 — Obsession: Poker, Survivor, School & The Book
06:55 — Childhood, Money & Tucson
09:24 — First Jobs, Umpiring & Restaurants
17:07 — School, Arizona & The “Respectable” Path
19:41 — Law School Personal Statement Meltdown
21:17 — Telling His Parents He Was Choosing Poker
25:04 — Chess, Games & Early Poker Obsession
28:00 — Online Poker + Two Plus Two
31:03 — Almost A Million… Then Going Broke
36:47 — Rock Bottom + The List That Rebuilt Him
40:19 — Black Friday Changes Everything
42:40 — Moving To LA & Commerce Cash Games
47:11 — Cutthroat Game Selection + Poker Politics
52:40 — Live At The Bike Begins
56:29 — Why People Loved Watching Garrett Play
1:00:38 — The Jack-Four Conversation
1:03:23 — From Loved To Public Enemy Overnight
1:03:56 — The Tweet He Wishes He Could Take Back
1:09:05 — Five-ish Poker Sessions In Four Years
1:11:43 — Writing, Coaching & Working Harder Than Ever
1:13:26 — Selling A Poker Memoir Outside Poker
1:16:21 — Bellagio Degen Story Begins
1:18:01 — Down Huge → Winning $600K In Flips
1:19:24 — The 2,000 Big Blind Pot
1:20:31 — EDC Changes Everything
1:23:13 — The $300K Trash Bag
1:25:00 — Garrett’s Links + Outro

Garrett’s Links

Website / Socials / Book:
https://garrettadelstein.com

Book — Beneath the Cards:
https://a.co/d/0bkquERr

Upswing Poker Course:
https://upswingpoker.com/garrett-adelstein-course-waitlist

T1 Links

Play with us!
https://table1.vegas

Follow us:

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Andy Stacks built his name in the biggest cash games in LA.

Then he decided to become a tournament fish.

Which sounds insane.

Because before the vlogs…
before the GG deal…
before Live at the Bike turned him into one of the most recognizable cash-game players in poker…

Andy was just another kid who found poker at the perfect time.

Born in Taiwan.
Raised in the Bay Area.
Back to Taiwan as a teenager.
Then LA.

A friend showed him the Moneymaker boom on a giant old CRT TV, taught him the game, and Andy started playing $5 home games.

Then came the casinos.

One/two limit.
Then no-limit.
Then 5/10.
Then 10/20.

Way too fast.

He had jobs. He had a graphic design path. He had a normal life somewhere in there.

But poker got loud.

Eventually, he quit with a bankroll that probably should not have been enough, played no-cap 10/20 at Commerce with $10K on the table, and at one point was down to his last two bullets.

Then came the LA private games.

Spreadsheets of every game in town.
Wild west home games.
One game getting raided while he was up $10K.
The Bike.
The streams.
The ego.
The nosebleeds.
The money.
The pressure.
The weird poker fame that came from everyone being able to see your cards.

And now?

He’s starting over.

Not because he has to.

Because he wants to.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Andy Stacks joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the whole ride:

• ♠️ Growing up between Taiwan, the Bay Area, and LA
• ♥️ Finding poker during the Moneymaker boom
• ♦️ Sneaking into poker rooms before he was old enough
• ♣️ Majoring in art and working as a graphic designer
• ♠️ Jumping stakes way too fast
• ♥️ Quitting his job with a very questionable bankroll
• ♦️ Playing no-cap 10/20 with two bullets left
• ♣️ Grinding every LA casino and private game he could find
• ♠️ Getting raided mid-hand while up $10K
• ♥️ Battling the toughest Bellagio cash games during the WSOP
• ♦️ Becoming a Live at the Bike staple
• ♣️ Playing massive streamed cash games on his own dime
• ♠️ COVID timing, GG, Taiwan, and Game of Gold
• ♥️ Leaving high-stakes cash to start over in tournaments
• ♦️ Building the Andy Stacks Poker vlog

We also get into:

• why private games matter
• why the best pros stay private
• what stream poker did to high-stakes cash
• how ego can wreck a bankroll
• why tournament poker feels like heartbreak
• why cash-game players struggle with short stacks
• and why Andy is willing to look bad in public while learning something new.

This one is not just a cash-game story.

It’s about getting good at one thing…

then having the guts to be a beginner again.

👇 Drop a comment:
Would you rather be a cash-game crusher or chase tournament glory?

Andy’s Links

YouTube: Andy Stacks Poker

T1 Links

Phenom Poker:
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1

Play with us in Vegas:
https://table1.vegas

Card Player Magazine:
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```

She was rated 1400 for years.In a family of champions.Her father, a chess champion. Her brother, 2200 and climbing. And Jennifer,stuck — while people talked behind her back about why the kid in the family ofgeniuses couldn't play.Then, at 14, it clicked.1400 to 2200 inside two years. One of the youngest female masters in thecountry. Two US championships.And in the middle of that run, she won a beautiful game against a much strongerplayer — and found a note waiting on her board the next round."Jennifer, it is not nice to cheat with help from friends."She won that one anyway. She was on a roll.In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Jennifer Shahade joins Art Parmann andJustin Young for the whole ride:♠️ The mother who was the first female full professor of chemistry at Drexel —and ran a sports book on the side♥️ The overnight Greyhound she took alone at 16 to win a title, and the trophyshe left in the luggage compartment♦️ Why chess players go broke at poker, and what money means in a game thatdoesn't have any♣️ Blowing up her own career to name a grandmaster — and coming out the otherside as an ambassador for US ChessWe also get into:- Teaching her son chess, and the day he told her to stop letting him win- Winning a national championship and oversleeping the live TV interview- Push/shove ranges at the WSOP before anyone played that way ("they just hated me")- Chess boxing, and why the Team USA tryouts were three days ago in Vegas- Her NAPT third-place run, and why being friendly at the table makes youmonstrously strong- Writing Thinking Sideways — and catching herself feeling the exact cognitivebias she wrote aboutThis isn't a strategy episode.It's about what it costs to be the first one to say something — and what ittakes to keep playing after.👇 Drop a comment:Is calling someone out publicly ever the right first move, or always the last resort?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Show Notes00:00 — Intro + How To Say Shahade 02:18 — Philly, Chess Family & Her Bookie Mom 05:37 — Growing Up Around Chess 09:08 — Greyhound Bus To A Junior Title 10:31 — Process, Pressure & Teaching Her Son 14:41 — Judit Polgar, Kasparov & Chess Drama 18:07 — Cheating Accusations In Chess 22:05 — NYU, New York Chess & National Titles 26:01 — Poker Enters The Picture 30:22 — Online vs. Live: Pattern Recognition vs. Thinking 33:44 — Chess Tells, Poker Tells & A Rivalry Story 35:19 — First WSOP Ladies Event 41:10 — Sunday Million, EPTs & The Poker Travel Bug 42:51 — Thinking Sideways + Recent Poker Heater 45:44 — Black Friday & The Shift To Live Poker 48:38 — PokerStars, Women’s Initiatives & Isle of Man 52:26 — Chess vs. Poker: Bluffing, Money & Tilt 55:26 — Ladies Events + Building Women’s Poker 1:00:00 — NAPT Final Table Run 1:03:06 — The Grid Podcast 1:05:21 — WSOP Summer Plans + Mixed Games 1:07:31 — Whistleblowing, Risk & Support From Poker 1:12:45 — Socials, Substack & Thinking Sideways --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jennifer's Links:https://JenniferShahade.comhttps://x.com/JenShahadehttps://www.instagram.com/JenShahade--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 1 Links:https://table1.vegashttps://x.com/table1vegashttps://instagram.com/table1vegas

Ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars.

That's what the conversion said.

Michael Gagliano had never had a six-figure score.

Every friend he had did.

He'd been playing for years — good enough that everyone knew the name, never quite good enough to break through.

Then he gets fifth in a WPT in Prague.

Aces into queens.

Paid out in euros.

He's standing in the payout line. Plugs the number into XE.com.

$99,998.

Two dollars.

That's the story of most of his career.

Always close.

Never the guy.

He was a hockey goalie who quit one day because video games were more interesting. He wanted to be a sound engineer until his mom talked him out of it. He lasted one semester at UMass, played pool ten hours a day, read Bringing Down the House, and practiced counting cards alone in his room.

Except he wasn't 21 yet.

And you can't count cards online.

So he found poker instead.

Then he was a nit.

A real one.

He'd put $50 online, run it to $300, and withdraw it.

Over and over.

Never building anything.

He became a special ed teacher. Worked 7 to 3:15, raced home, and late-regged whatever was starting at 3:30.

He had $1,200 to his name and spent $800 of it on a camera he couldn't afford.

His now-wife told him it was the worst decision he'd ever made.

The next day he had his biggest score ever.

In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Michael “Gags” Gagliano joins Art Parmann and Justin Young — recorded in the strange dead air a few days before the WSOP Main Event final table:

• ♠️ The AIM message from Mark Herm that changed everything: “empty your accounts, I'll send you money next week”
• ♥️ Why his mom was convinced getting backed meant the mob was going to break his kneecaps
• ♦️ The bracelet he won completely by accident — he'd busted, he hates turbos, and his arm slipped on the space bar
• ♣️ Losing $1,500 a day live in Vegas and printing money online every night because every good player was out at the clubs
• ♠️ The Parx story: an hour drive, 45 minutes at the table, kings into quad jacks, and he has never gone back
• ♥️ Day 4 of the Main — 14 big blinds, stuck in a parking garage, certain it was over. Day 5 — he bagged 5.3 million and didn't lose a single pot.

We also get into:

• Whether online bracelets “count” — and why beating 2,500 people should mean something
• The classiest thing an opponent has ever said to him, the night he won his first bracelet
• Two weeks of waiting for a final table, and why the November Nine was torture
• Black Friday, six months of Starcraft, and moving to Canada in six weeks to keep playing
• The month his daughter was born and New Jersey regulated online poker
• Being one of the first poker streamers on Twitch — and getting banned for it
• Solvers, PIO, and the coach who told him they were the future when he thought they were stupid
• A calendar app that turned the hardest table of the tournament into the most fun one

This isn't a strategy episode.

It's about being good for twenty years before anybody calls you great.

👇 Drop a comment:
Do online bracelets count the same? He beat 2,500 people in a mystery bounty. Someone else beat 140 in a 10K. Who earned it more?

Show Notes

00:00 — Do Online Bracelets Count?
01:51 — Two Weeks Of Waiting Before The Final Table
07:28 — New Jersey, Hockey, And Smash 64
11:11 — First Card Nights, Moneymaker, And One Bad Semester
18:46 — The $50 Nit Cycle And Falling For MTTs
22:07 — The Camera He Couldn't Afford
23:58 — Teaching Special Ed And Racing Home To Play
27:04 — Mark Herm, AIM, And Mom Thinking It Was The Mob
33:33 — First Trip To Vegas, First WSOP Cash
38:30 — Black Friday, Starcraft, And Moving To Canada
41:37 — $99,998
45:24 — A Baby, A House, And New Jersey Going Online

Poker was never the plan.Marc Goone wanted to rap.That was the dream.Music.Studios.Videos.A real shot at making it.Poker was just the thing on the side.Until life got louder.Selling weed.Getting robbed at gunpoint.Trying to figure out who he was.Moving to LA with $7,500.Taking poker seriously because, at some point, the “backup plan” starts looking a lot more real than the dream.Then everything changed.Marc went from music to poker…from low stakes to private games…from trying to make it as a player to building one of the most interesting poker education brands in the game.In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Marc joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the whole ride:♠️ Growing up in St. Louis ♥️ Chasing music before poker ♦️ Getting robbed at gunpoint ♣️ Moving to LA with $7,500 ♠️ Learning how private games really work ♥️ Why most people should NOT quit their job to play poker ♦️ The ceiling of private games ♣️ Building a staking stable ♠️ Why live poker is still deeply human ♥️ Why charts and solvers only get you so far ♦️ Building Hungry Horse into a real poker training business We also get into:- why the best pros stay private- why live poker is not “solved”- why private games might have saved poker- what most low-stakes players get wrong- how to actually get better at live cash- and why poker advice is usually way too clean for a game this messy.This one is not just a strategy episode.It’s a story about reinvention.The dream didn’t work out the way Marc thought it would.So he found another way out.And somehow, that way out became poker.👇 Drop a comment:Do you think private games are good or bad for poker?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------00:00 — Intro + Hungry Horse Poker03:33 — Grandpa, Utopia & First Poker10:27 — Moving to LA for Music11:39 — Robbed at Gunpoint13:24 — Moving to LA With $7.5K14:40 — “Don’t Quit Your Job”23:17 — Hitting the Private Game Ceiling25:54 — Staking Players & Building a Stable30:47 — Pivoting Into Hungry Horse47:20 — Why Private Games Matter1:05:41 — Live Poker Mistakes Pros Make1:09:41 — The Future of Hungry HorseMarc’s Links:Hungry Horse Poker:https://hungryhorsepoker.comX- https://x.com/marcgoone------------------------------------------------------------------------------------T1 LinksPlay with us:https://table1.vegasCard Player Magazine:https://table1.vegas/cardplayerFollow us:X - https://x.com/table1vegas IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Ben Heath was supposed to do something sensible.Finance.Teaching.Something with math.Something that made his parents feel normal.Instead, he played $3.50 sit-n-gos.A lot of them.Ben grew up in Brighton, England, playing chess, strategy games, and tiny family card games for one-cent coins. Then he went to Warwick, studied math, and started making a little money online during university.Not millions.Not nosebleeds.Just enough to avoid getting a job.Then one of his tutors casually mentioned that a few former students had gone into professional poker.That was all it took.Ben finished his degree, skipped the finance track, and gave himself two years to make poker work.From there, things got weird fast.He met Charlie Carrel through a university Skype group, went to Amsterdam with people he’d never met, moved to London, grinded Zoom cash, played live cash on weekends, went broke, ran it back, and started taking shots that were probably not approved by any financial advisor.At one point, he had around $100K to his name…then put a huge chunk of it into a €50K in Barcelona.It went badly.Then it went very, very well.Aussie Millions runner-up.A Wynn score he somehow left in the cage.A backpack full of cash walking back to the Rio.A SCOOP swap with Charlie that changed the year.A WSOP $50K bracelet.Triton.Super high rollers.$250Ks.$500Ks.And a runner-up finish for around $8 million.In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Ben joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk about the full ride:♠️ Growing up in Brighton and studying math♥️ Playing $3.50 180-mans for university spending money♦️ Why he skipped finance and chose poker♣️ Meeting Charlie Carrel and moving to London♠️ Going broke, rebuilding, and aggressive bankroll shots♥️ The Barcelona €50K shot that nearly wrecked him♦️ The Aussie Millions run that changed everything♣️ Winning the WSOP $50K bracelet♠️ The Sam Soverel time bank drama♥️ How he moved into the super high roller world♦️ Playing $500K buy-ins♣️ Coaching high-stakes players♠️ Why he barely plays the WSOP Main Event anymore♥️ Why Phenom Poker got his attentionWe also get into:- chess- Brighton hippies- volunteering in Fiji- getting stuck in Madrid during COVID- Triton invite politics- why some $50Ks are not like other $50Ks- backing, swapping, and selling action- and what it feels like to play a half-million-dollar buy-in.This one is a poker story about shot-taking, timing, discipline, and somehow staying calm while playing tournaments most humans would need a spreadsheet just to emotionally process.👇 Drop a comment:Would you ever fire half your net worth in one tournament?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ben’s Links:https://phenompoker.com/?r=BenHeathX - https://x.com/BenHeath48------------------------------------------------------------------------------------T1 LinksPlay with us in Vegas:https://table1.vegasCard Player Magazine:https://table1.vegas/cardplayerFollow us:X - https://x.com/table1vegas IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas