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reviews

Poker Podcasts Guide 2023

Estimated read time 3,600 min read

You may not know much about the poker podcasts you don’t listen to. Nearly all available guidance to the market is click-bait. Google’s and Spotify’s overwhelmed algorithms promote long-dead pods while burying some of the best. That’s okay, though: if you were to repeat my research, you’d realize most poker podcasts are simply duplicative, recycling the same guests, same questions, and same subjects. Yet that’s good news, […]

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podcast

PZ 86: Richie Brodie

Estimated read time 46 min read

Vegas is home to more than just gaming, it is home to the history of those games and to those who created that history. Richie Brodie, lifelong “poker bum,” has played with all the greats, from Doyle and his “southern” crew, to the Mayfair’s Erik Seidel, to California’s rising 1990’s NL scene with Bobby Hoff and Barry Greenstein (along with an apparently more reluctant Dan Harrington). Today […]

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podcast

PZ 85: Gerard Moves On

Estimated read time 68 min read

Picture late 2019. Britain was finally Brexiting, Trump was somehow still presidenting, and general protests for a more liberal, freer society were happening all over the world- remember Hong Kong? Remember life before mask and vaccine discourse?  That’s when I last talked with Gerard S., aspiring pro and studied player who had worked with a number of noted pros and organizations, including Fausto Valdez and Solve For […]

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Notes from the Cage

Conflict Resolution, Part III

Estimated read time 407 min read

I have retraced my steps in the windstorm. Sand and garbage blow down through the funnel of the Strip from its miserable northern mouth. The palms tremble and kick like the underskirts of its old chorus girls. Ugly sixteenth notes pip from wind on metal; invisible drums scratch rustle and thunder. Everyone struggling around me is a tourist: even the sun crusted families of the dry south, […]

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reviews

All Vlogs Revealed: Dreams

Estimated read time 1,255 min read

The poker dream, they call it, although no one is quite sure what they mean by “dream” anymore. Contests of intelligence for prizes? An insecure and unsteady wage? Retirement at twenty-nine? Endless scams and bullshit personalities? An easy way to make a hard living? What does it mean to you? For me it was about being outside the normal industries and careers, ones I wouldn’t accept. One […]

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podcast

PZ 84: SDJen to Vegas Grinder

Estimated read time 33 min read

Swirling beneath the never explicit politics of the poker scheme is the treatment of so-called “recreational” player. A lot of condescending, hypocritical stuff is said every day, on every platform, by every talking head about this source of all poker income. Occasionally, however, that tension is resolved when one decides to stop donating and start taking his own, or in this case, her own. Jen Gianera is […]

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guest post

Jambasket’s Main Event

Estimated read time 424 min read

Guest post today from JamBasket, with illustrations by Julie It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally time to head to Vegas for the WSOP Main Event! As you may recall, I won a seat into this event via a freeroll back in December. I’ve played a few tourneys since then, but really haven’t put in any serious effort towards improving at tournaments. I’ve played many […]

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Culture

The Boy Who Cried Structure

Estimated read time 43 min read

A Tourney Boy tended to his Stack in a grubby tournament not far from his village. Soon he found life in the tourney very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was chat with his Tourney Bros or play on his phone. One day as he sat watching his Stack and the tournament, and thinking of what he should do if the payouts were not quite […]

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podcast

PZ 83: Limon’s Back, For Now

Estimated read time 71 min read

Few are able to get themselves banned from social media sites like Abe Limon, guru of west coast live poker and advantage gambling. Our last pod with Abe was a little rough on the ears, so we make up for it this time with good conversation ranging from his online arguments, why the WSOP is not meaningful for poker, his take on abortion, and even to a […]

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Culture

The Future Belongs to Us

Estimated read time 143 min read

I sometimes drive home with the Lounge Lizard, just off his shift at Bazaar. Maybe we’ll find one last drink in dark west Vegas or need to hit a convenience store for the vaporizer cartridge (we addicts never think ahead), but more often stop for fast food at a particular joint on Rainbow. The Lizard will yell his order through an illuminated menu obelisk before we arrive […]