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Meet John Andress.

Grew up outside Philly. Played lacrosse at Penn State. Obsessed over Counter-Strike.

Accidentally turned a Puerto Rico casino trip into an $8k “beer money” bankroll.

By senior year of college? $150k in his poker account.

Six months later? Nearly dusted it. Then hit for $60k at PCA and never looked back.

John has lived the full poker arc: Black Friday moves to Toronto, huge scores in Europe (including tilting Luke Schwartz in Prague), New York DJ lifestyle, Bay Area private games… and now? He’s running A5 Labs, a 200-person tech team building AI that hunts bots and collusion across online poker.

This episode is funny, wild, and brutally honest. It’s about how obsession becomes opportunity, how every poker player eventually faces the “what’s next” moment, and how John turned his into a career shaping the entire industry.

Show Notes

• 00:00 – Early Life & Penn State
• 07:22 – Counter Strike
• 10:19 – Finding Poker
• 15:49 – Making Poker Friends
• 19:23 – Life as a Poker Pro
• 24:35 – The Luke Schwartz Story
• 26:47 – Moving Across The Country
• 31:12 – Getting Into The Poker Security Industry
• 40:25 – How The Anti-Cheating Software Works
• 49:11 – Does John Still Care About Poker?
• 53:51 – Growing the Company
• 58:58 – Family Life + Poker + Business
• 1:04:35 – Golf?
• 1:10:34 – The Future! (And That Pesky Card Showing Feature)

John's Links

• https://x.com/johnea6
• https://a5labs.co/

Table 1 Links

• What is Table 1? https://table1.vegas
• 200% Deposit Bonus at Phenom Poker: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1

Art's Links

• https://x.com/artparmann
• SlotMaps — Beat Slots (seriously): https://slotmaps.com
• PokerHQ — Run your home game like a pro: https://pokerhq.io

Justin's Links

• https://x.com/justinyoung07
• Play poker with Justin on Phenom: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=JYPoker