Dead Money w/ Dan Arfin

With the Bellagio offering double comp rates between 2 and 10 AM, thus putting me just a few hours away from having enough comp dollars to go get the brunch buffet in the morning, I showed up just to fulfill the time I needed at 1/3. Never particularly shockingly during these ungodly hours, when I showed up, it was slow moving, chaotic, and drunken. But the young woman on my right appeared coheren...

Since I haven't played a lot since the end of June, this current downswing feels a hell of a lot longer than it's actually been. For example, playing 200 hours over 6 months will not feel anywhere close to the same if it was only 2 months. Of course, losing is part of why I'm playing so little of late anyway. It's dejecting, and who the hell wants to play poker when you're just...

The Wynn was the last major strip poker room to fall and has recently implemented the double board PLO bomb pots on every dealer change. Most people are down to play, but I am not. Much to the chagrin of one obnoxious reg. And then there was that dealer taking not getting tipped quite personally by short pitching the cards on the next hand...beautiful... Recap this week's hand history highligh...

This a special edition podcast of Dead Money. No poker this time, strictly about baseball. As a bloodhound fan for decades, I have been screaming my head off for years praying for the day that Major League Baseball EVER wakes up and stops letting fans sit right on top of both the outfield fences, and along the rails going down the left and right field lines. They are in a prime position to interfe...

It's a rare golden opportunity when you get to play with a guy that doesn't fold pre flop ever. You start to get spoiled by it and want to start demanding someone do this every day. But nothing is free. And nothing is ever easy in poker. Adjusting to someone playing this way is also going to be a bit difficult just by virtue of the fact you're so rarely in this situation. And if you do...

Bizarre sleep patterns led to an early morning arrival at the Wynn, followed by an all morning disaster requiring swift resilience to try and fight out of the hole all afternoon. All sorts of argumentative characters were on hand. And they were all fellow New Yorkers...

In the midst of what has been a recent brutal run, I decide to close out year 6 since my return to poker with a mere few hours of 1/3. I was met with one of the most vicious roller coasters of a session I've ever had in terms of big blinds. But that wasn't enough. Along the way, I had to listen to Forrest Gump level analysis of hands, and was even questioned by a spectator as to what I was doing w...

Played an impulsive session Monday afternoon when the Wynn 2/5 was surprisingly busy. These are the hand history highlights as the struggle continues. That doesn't necessarily mean I lost money...but my goodness...no matter how many years you've been playing, you really wonder sometimes just what the hell does it take to go a couple days, or god forbid even a couple HOURS without the deck...

I'm really running out of steam here. I wanna be out there, but fuck me if I'm simply not feeling like I've just had enough. This has happened before. Who knows if I will have to sit out for a long time or not. I don't want to. But I can barely even get out of the house right now. So I hit on that for a bit, and jump around to a few old stories along with attending a GA meeting...b...

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It's not 9/11 anymore, but I share a little bit about what it was like for me, when I was 16. Then I think some more about how good it is to be a poker player since you can take hours off whenever you want. And then we hit some hand histories from a late Saturday afternoon into the evening. Was a short session with a lot of uncomfortable spots, but quite a bit of faith was restored as well. Yo...

Been running bad for what feels like a hell of a lot longer than it's actually been. And my play has been not helping one bit in far too many spots. I'm getting depressed and burnt out again. And go figure that the saddest sappiest sounding episode I've ever record comes when I finally hit the century mark milestone. I'm searching for a solution. I can't stand the fucking DB PL...

I've been trying to get myself back from a long break post WSOP, except getting hours in are proving to be quite difficult because the games are either terrible or I have been getting murdered left and right in the sickest ways when they're great. And on top of it, I also seem to be fucking up at a way higher frequency than I can ever remember. So I am just the nut low of all nut lows ever...

Firstly, go check out my interview on The Poker Zoo Persuadeo Dean Martin podcast. I spoke with Chris Murray for close to an hour and had a blast talking to him. He is a great host. Secondly, I'm back in at the Wynn 2/5 and picking up right where I left off from my most recent session which was running like total dogshit. I also can't tell if I'm playing pretty good or if I am playing...

Still on something of a rehab assignment, I played another session of 1/3. Usually I play only an hour or two of it at the most. This time I went for close to 4 and a half hours split between two casinos, and actually came across some pretty tough spots. But the highlight of it all was the rage I felt towards a table that felt like a slow moving Internet game.

I'd never been interviewed before on another poker podcast for any reason. But I have been now. Chris Murray brought me on, and that show will be published over the next few days. I'll certainly make an announcement about it in my next episode, but keep an eye out for it in the meantime. Also, as I've been struggling to recover my poker mojo, I finally got off my ass and played a few s...

I don't have a lot to talk about this week since I still refuse to play. So I just make fun of nits for a little while, then realize the importance of variance, and also dig up some old hand histories from the archives to discuss what can happen when you actually pay attention to the hands people show and the things they say.

In one of wildest final hands in WSOP Main Event history, I go over a little bit about the action that put Lucas Jumalon into the poker history books, plus some analysis of hands I played recently. Lately, I haven't really been feeling the poker itch. I've been wanting to feel the itch, but you don't scratch parts of your body unless they're itching. If you do, you're weird. Or...

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 thi...

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...

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...

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...

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.