Dead Money w/ Dan Arfin

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.

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 fi...

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 na...

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

Well the 2026 WSOP has come upon us, and everything has picked up right where it left off. I haven't played at the WSOP itself--there are much faster ways to kill yourself. Instead, the European pros are continuing to do what they always do which is take an eternity to fold to a small bet. You can also spit, and hit an incompetent floor person. And lest we forget, always be wary of the random...

You talking to me???

Fuck tournaments. This is why.

I haven't played much poker recently. I've been wanting to, but not quite feeling it. And when that happens, the only thing to do is just sit out and wait for the burning desire to return like it always has and always will. May tends to be the calm before the storm for Las Vegas poker anyway. The WSOP is upon us in just a couple more weeks. More guests will be to follow in future episodes...

Whether you play poker professionally, moderately seriously, or just for fun, we all recognize the game appeals to many people because of the social camaraderie. But if you're playing online a lot like Sank Desai, going from your secret poker cave back into the real world of play is not as seamless a change as one might envision. I've known Sank probably a good 7 years by now. We've ta...

I recap some of the key hand history highlights over 3 different sessions. We've got a few standard stories as always of people behaving so ineptly it makes your heart hurt, but this episode is mostly wild hand history analysis. Every once in a while you find yourself in a long overnight session that takes a piece of your being from you. Your very existence feels compromised afterward. Like yo...

The Bellagio 2/5 has been painfully capped at $500 for as long I've been living in Las Vegas which is well over 17 years. Recently the rake has gone up to a $6 max, so perhaps in conjunction with that they FINALLY raised the buy-in maximum to $1,000. We had all figured the Messiah would come before that ever happened, but we were wrong. I don't figure this to be a game I play in all the ti...

I haven't played too much most recently. But as I've come back to poke my head out some more, I'm now being sent to take a dive into the land of the downswing. Thankfully I only expect it to get so ugly--since it's not as if the player pool has shown even a remote sign of making any sort of improvement worth talking about and giving credit for. But here are some recent hand histori...

It's been an active couple of weeks. All kinds of provoking hands to talk about. Rather than make a 2-3 hour episode, I've broken them down into multiple shows. Here I recap the final highlight hands of what's gone on the last few weeks, including making both the royale with cheese, and one of the dumbest folds anyone can make. It's not often, if ever, that I feel like the same pla...

I've been falling behind on catching everybody up on the more interesting hands I've played the last few weeks. So in this episode, I recap some of them. The timelines are a bit scattered as I don't tell them all in the order they took place, but it isn't particularly important. The 2-5 pool in Las Vegas is as big a joke as it can be for the present day knowledge of the average pok...

I found myself in a little heads up match this week at a casino I don't play too much at. But doing so reminded me of an old story from a few years ago where I really wanted a piece of an opponent. who felt entitled to single me out. It's also been a wild couple weeks, so I recap some of the crazier spots I encountered, and finish up with some stories of people taking really aggressive sta...

Honorary guest and veteran Poker Pro Brent Jenkins makes his second appearance on the Dead Money podcast. Also check him out from Season 1, Episode 36 As the world we live in gets more and more dangerous and financially difficult to survive in seemingly by the day, it appears there are more and more people finding ways to cheat either on their own or colluding with others. Brent shared a rather ho...

Las Vegas cash games, particularly 2-5 No Limit are almost unbearable to sit in because of how the people behave. They never know when it's their turn because they're always distracted by a phone or an iPad. But then they bet when it isn't their turn. They give very little action, and are overall killjoys. But Matty has been around poker many years himself. And as a veteran, he recaps...

Only a few hand histories from this week. But it is important that someone named Doug and I speak about....comedy. We also recap a few thought provoking hands and an anecdote of a very disagreeable creature.

A wild week of 4 sessions. Many different twists, turns, ups, and downs, and all kinds of surprises. This week's hand analyses are essentially a double episode as we go through all of the action. We've got coolers and an array of tough spots. People who can't protect their hand, and people who don't realize I can hear every single thing they're saying about me.

We begin with a more typical recap of the goofy things that came out of player's mouths, often which were presented as gospel. And also going over this week's highlight hand histories, including a cold deck scenario that finally warmed my heart.

Some hand history analysis including a glorious cold deck, guys who refuse to speak English at the table, Squeaky having his way with whales, and regs who unknowingly show you their hand and still walk between the raindrops

A brief recap of my Super Bowl bets, an anecdote into the world of psychedelics, and another week's highlights of being unable to keep my mouth shut. I try to sit there and just be quiet. But when people insist upon announcing the most unnecessary or obvious or senseless things, how am I supposed to just sit there without saying anything? If I bottled everything up, the aggravation would build...