Poker Stories: Antonio Esfandiari

David Peters is only 30, but is already one of the most accomplished tournament players in poker history. The Toledo, Ohio native currently has $19.5 million in live cashes, which is good enough for no. 15 on the all-time tournament earnings list. Peters' poker resume is filled with high-profile wins, including a WSOP bracelet, an EPT title, many high roller events and the 2016 Card Player Player of the Year award. Highlights from this interview include the worst orbit of his career, blinding off in Australia, dealing with a down year, unavoidable high-equity spots, an appearance on SportsCenter, Katy Perry is not Lady Gaga, losing $30k playing Yahtzee, the benefits of soothing jungle sounds, another plug for the big-blind ante, never collecting a paycheck, refreshing the crypto page, and a dream phone call with Michael Jordan.

19 Feb 201847min

Eric Baldwin burst onto the live tournament scene in 2009, making 17 final tables en route to a World Series of Poker bracelet and the Card Player Player of the Year award. He followed up that campaign with the largest score of his career, earning seven figures for finishing runner-up to David Williams in the 2010 World Poker Tour Championship. In the years since, Baldwin has remained remarkably consistent despite cutting back on his travel schedule, notching a six-figure score nearly every year of his career. In 2017, Baldwin won both the Wynn Classic and Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza main event. To date, he has racked up nearly $5.5 million in live tournament earnings. Highlights from this interview include nicknames for 12-year-olds, majoring in baseball, winning a collegiate national title, having paralysis by analysis, multi-tabling to win POY, playing cash for the kids, staying motivated for the second million, running bad at swaps, calculating the beer EV of a craps game, haggling for a good deal on a six-figure car, poker commentary from T.J. Cloutier, scooping cream cheese in a truck, and a love for Paul Goldschmidt.

5 Feb 20181h 1min

Linda Johnson, dubbed "The First Lady of Poker" by Mike Sexton, is a real living legend of the game. Johnson has been playing poker for more than four decades, and along the way she won a WSOP bracelet, helped start the WPT, owned and operated Card Player Magazine, saw the world with Card Player Cruises, and helped found the Tournament Director's Association, serving on the board. Linda was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2011, becoming the second woman to join the exclusive club and Just last year, she was also given the inaugural WPT Honors Award. Highlights from this interview include going postal, a big life gamble, blowing off law school for poker, not being married to the president of poker, putting her foot down, defending the live one, making Men the Master lose his hat, being a jet-setter on the high seas, betting on grocery store totals, calling out assholes, final table hot flashes, and forgotten WSOP history.

22 Jan 201858min

Ankush Mandavia has been playing poker for the better part of the last decade, but it wasn't until a couple years after Black Friday that the online specialist made the successful transition to live tournaments. The 31-year-old has since become a regular in the high-stakes events, and has a third-place finish in the $100k buy-in PCA super high roller for almost $800k. The University of Georgia graduate also has a WSOP bracelet, having won the $5k turbo event a couple summers ago. He currently has $4.5 million in live-tournament earnings to go along with the millions more he won online. Highlights from this interview include eight trips to Jacksonville, getting weeded out, observing the yellow sub, running up big rolls online, five-minute nerves, gunning for buy-ins, getting even chops when short-stacked, being a low-tabler, swapping etiquette, scorpions and chicken broth, and the problem with day 1 tanking.

8 Jan 201849min

Matt Affleck might forever be known as the guy whose pocket aces were cracked by Jonathan Duhamel deep in the 2010 World Series of Poker main event, but in the years since, the Washington-native has established himself as a consistent force on the tournament circuit. Now 30, Affleck has racked up $3.8 million in combined live and online earnings. He has wins at the Borgata Winter Poker Open, Fall Pot of Gold, and Coco Poker Open. In 2016, he narrowly missed out on winning his first WSOP bracelet and this year, he had three six-figure scores, including a final table in the massive Colossus event and a win in the Wynn Fall Classic. Highlights from this interview include a high-stakes cafeteria table, celebrating a big win with cheap drinks, stacking classes to stack chips, getting poker sympathy from railbirds, the joy of being your own boss, going through poker withdrawal, chopping PLO pots with Sam Farha, a great year of poker opportunities, getting the best of it in swaps, listening to silence, dodging poker agents, being Ben Affleck's cousin at Jersey Mike's, and avoiding snakes and spiders.

25 Des 201752min

Nick Petrangelo is a poker pro from Massachusetts who broke out onto the high-stakes tournament scene back in 2015 with numerous final tables, including a second-place finish in the $100,000 buy-in Five Diamond World Poker Classic high roller for more than $1 million. Since then, the 31-year-old former hockey and golf standout has been a consistent force on the high roller circiuit, amassing $9.4 million in live tournament cashes. In 2017 alone, he finished second in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 high roller for $740,032, won the Aussie Millions $100,000 high roller for $665,734, and also took down the $25,000 PokerStars WCOOP high roller for another $624,676. Highlights from this interview include living in extremes, why high roller fish are better players than regular fish, being 'less chill' in a hockey game, why tournaments > cash games, not being dollar motivated, a six-figure slow roll, a short stint as a bank teller, wanting the farm in Vermont and table draw confidence.

11 Des 20171h 11min

Matt Berkey is a 35-year-old poker pro from Leechburg, Pennsylvania who has risen through the ranks to become a regular in both high-stakes tournaments and cash games. The former baseball standout has earned nearly $4 million in live tournaments, including a $1.1 million score for taking fifth in the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl. Berkey's most recent accomplishments include a third-place showing in the Little One For One Drop for $240,588 and a third-place finish in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for another $341,618. He's also spent a lot of time battling elite players in some of the biggest cash games in the world, and estimates that he's been involved in as many as 10 seven-figure pots during his career. Highlights from this interview include a one-stop-light town, being a responsible eight-year-old, betting the whole jar of pennies, shoveling snow on the diamond, why 25 is old, poker in a steakhouse, the why of risk, misreading hands with JRB and Rick Salomon, getting pity from Mrs. Galfond, going postal, getting royal flushed by Sippl, dates at Tropical Smoothie, and the $1.6 million session.

27 Nov 20171h 24min

Barry Greenstein is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and two-time World Poker Tour champion with more than $8.3 million in live tournament earnings, but the 62-year-old member of the Poker Hall of Fame is perhaps best known for his success in the high-stakes cash games during the poker boom. In fact, Greenstein was winning so much playing in the big games (he won $5 million during the 2003 WSOP alone) that he actually donated his tournament profits to various charities, earning himself the nickname "the Robin Hood of poker." Highlights from this interview include a neighborhood of ball players, the perils of not owning an alarm clock, being aggressive with his collegiate career, working a 9-to-5 for the kids, living a life of Gatsby, saying no to soft play in Vegas, a 15-minute break in 1985, turning down Bill Gates, selling out a math lecture, paying the IRS seven figures, heads-up matches with Negreanu, five seconds of faking it, Ivey doesn't even know to Google, listening to Seidel about swapping, playing the weekend, and the benefit of Matusow's annoying voice.

13 Nov 20171h 22min