Poker Stories: Wolfgang

Dylan Weisman spent the pandemic "in the lab," pouring over numbers that few had ever bothered to look at before when it came to the game of PLO. While solvers had been in use for years by high-stakes pros for no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha had been largely ignored, and Weisman saw an opportunity.  The work has paid off in a big way, with more than $6 million in recorded earnings since the summer of 2021. Of that, $4.4 million has come in some form of Omaha, putting him at no. 2 on the PLO all-time money list behind only Finland's Eelis Parssinen. The 32-year-old has earned wins at the PokerGO Cup, PGT Kickoff Series, U.S. Poker Open, PGT PLO Series, and PGT Mixed Game Series, as well as two World Series of Poker bracelets. In March, he chopped the Triton Montenegro $100,000 PLO high roller for nearly $2 million.  As a result of his stellar year on the circuit, which includes five titles and 14 final tables, the California native now sits just outside the top 10 in the Card Player Player of the Year race.  Highlights from this interview include cards with grandma, robotics academy, Dr. GTO can play the harmonica, being the youngest product of Moneymaker boom and gambling at 13, jobs for former poker players, $15 an hour after busting his roll, gravitating to Galfond, a model of business intelligence, teaching in Vietnam, burning out in Chicago leads to candles in Los Angeles, this seat is not open, six-figure buy-ins, ranking PLO players, keeping strategy secrets, the difference between your first and second bracelet, how long solvers actually take, heads-up vs. Blez for $200k, a bad beat that sent him to the ground, almost dying in a garage, and a hoodie that you can execute well inside of.

22 Nov 20241h 35min

Scott Seiver called his shot in 2024, making it known that he intended to win World Series of Poker Player of the Year honors. After 17 cashes, nearly $1.5 million in earnings, and three bracelets, he accomplished his goal and will have a banner hanging at the Horseshoe/Paris for future generations of poker players to see.  With seven bracelets overall, Seiver now ranks seventh all time and is tied with such greats as Billy Baxter, John Hennigan, and Daniel Negreanu. Despite his focus on high-stakes cash games, the 39-year-old Ivy League grad has still managed to rack up more than $27 million in tournament earnings, including numerous high roller wins and a World Poker Tour title.Highlights from this interview include a first-time full-summer grind, abandoning his chips, playing regs vs. unknowns, being recognized by his peers, good enough at Omaha, low-stakes razz over high-stakes hold'em, $2,000 movie tickets, a prestigious deuce, last of the old school, the hall of fame, 10-2 with Doyle Brunson, and dad's D'Brickashaw disbelief.

31 Aug 20241h

Matt Savage was Tournament Director for the World Series of Poker during the poker boom, and has since spent more than a decade as the Executive Tour Director for the World Poker Tour. But the perennial Poker Hall of Fame nominee is also a co-founder of the Tournament Director's Association, which helped to standardize poker tournament rules.Every two years, poker room representatives from around the world come to Las Vegas for the TDA Summit, where they discuss the biggest issues facing the game and any needed rules changes or amendments.  This year's summit was held at the PokerGO studio at Aria, and featured a number of topics including the big blind ante, masks and wearable tech, random card theory, and just how late tournament registration should be open.  You can watch the full 13-hour replay of this year's summit on YouTube.

24 Jul 202446min

Victoria Livschitz jumped head first into the shark-infested waters of the high roller scene in late 2021, having spent her pandemic lockdown studying all she could about the game. While others may have been intimidated by the talent at the very top of the pyramid, in an environment with very few women, Livschitz had already seen it all before, having found success with a number of different business ventures in male-dominated industries.  The Ukraine-born former chess champion emigrated to the United States following the fall of the Iron Curtain, landing in Cleveland. She worked odd jobs to finish school, including opening a chess academy, before landing in the automotive industry, doing research for Ford and General Motors. She then served as the principal architect for SunGrid, working on the world's first public cloud-based system, and later founded Grid Dynamics, a technology provider for many major Fortune 500 companies. After her company went public, Livschitz "retired," starting a food company to support her passion for hiking, RightOnTrek.  But after finding quick success in the poker high roller world, Livschitz is already climbing the women's all-time money list rankings, having already cashed for $1.8 million. Livschitz has four wins already, including an event at the 2023 EPT Paris festival and this year's Texas Poker Open, and recently managed to cash in four consecutive tournaments at the PokerGO Tour U.S. Poker Open.  Not content to just play the game at a high level, Livschitz has also partnered with high-stakes pros Andrew 'LuckyChewy' Lichtenberger and Nick Schulman to create the training tool OctopiPoker, and also donates her time to Pocket Queens, an organization dedicated to the advancement of women in poker.Highlights from this interview include a bad beat from Daniel Negreanu, the Hellmuth rite of passage, check mating, a one-way flight to Cleveland, playing 27 people at once, the shock of smiling, automotive research and neural networks, starting a tech company and going public, hiking 1,000 miles every year, danger in Peru, COVID coping, why entrepreneurship is the real gamble, befriending the high rollers, fixing poker tools, the lack of data for women in poker, don't say ladies, the no sleep superpower, the dry cleaning spy, the artistry of the game, 12-hour study sessions, and a prediction for 2026.

9 Mai 20241h 9min

Barny Boatman spent much of his youth traveling the world, living in numerous countries and working a variety of jobs that included factory worker, bartender, journalist, English teacher, computer programmer, board game inventer, and even movie reviewer. But it was in the poker world that he found his true calling.  The London-born player graduated from home games with his brother Ross to bigger games with fellow Brits Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani, forming what would later be known as 'The Hendon Mob.' Now a tournament database site, the Hendon mob would previously travel the tournament circuit together, and was featured prominently on England's 'Late Night Poker' television series shortly before the poker boom.  Boatman earned the respect of his peers in the states with three consecutive final tables at the World Series of Poker. There were plenty of close calls, but he finally nabbed gold in 2013 in a $1,500 no-limit event for $546,080. Boatman earned his second bracelet two years later in Germany, taking down a €550 pot-limit Omaha event at the WSOP Europe series. He's added another five WSOP final tables in the last couple of years, including a runner-up showing at the 2023 WSOP Europe €1,650 no-limit six-max event.  Most recently, he found the winner's circle at the 2024 EPT Paris series, pocketing a career best $1.4 million for taking down the €5,300 main event. As a result, the 68-year-old has become the oldest European Poker Tour champion in history, and is now a member of Team PokerStars as a brand ambassador.Highlights from this interview include what's in a name, the Archway game, getting expelled from school, channel cyberia and mystic monk, poker TV pioneer, the isle of man tournament with John Duthie, being a logo, accidentally creating a database, going broke on his first trip to Vegas, a regretable hand against Hasan Habib, a three-hour heads-up battle for a bracelet, dealing with insomnia, game ethics, charcoal portraits, the crooning punk, humor from Victoria Coren-Mitchell, four-day cash game sessions, and being mistaken for a dead guy.

23 Apr 20241h 18min

Alex Fitzgerald has been a poker professional for half of his life, turning to the game when he was just 18 years old. In the nearly two decades since, Fitzgearld has racked up millions in online winnings with final tables on the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour.  But unlike many other top players, he has also shared his knowledge, taking on students of all levels and steering them towards a better game. In fact, Fitzgerald has worked with more than a thousand players over the years, diagnosing their play, finding the leaks and plugging them so they can start winning fast.  Fitzgerald is also an author, writing The Myth Of Poker Talent, Exploitative Play In Live Poker, and The 100 Biggest Mistakes That Poker Players Make. Players looking for help can visit PokerHeadRush.com for Fitzgerald's free poker strategy newsletter and three training videos.Highlights from this interview include a not-so-deadliest catch, playing cards on the boat, why poker beat Arby's, being a poker doctor, writing books to get people fired up, talent vs. hard work, the moneyball of poker, humans being human, long-distance running, from death metal to rap battles, Christmas in Prague, and the 49-hour home game.

15 Mar 20241h 32min

David Sklansky is perhaps the most prolific poker writer ever, and an all-around authority on all things gambling. The author of titles such as The Theory of Poker, Small Stakes Hold'em, DUCY?, Geeking, Grifting, And Gambling, and the latest, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em: Help Them Give You Their Money, is one of the few authors to simultaneously hold three spots on Amazon's top 100 bestsellers list.  The 76-year-old is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, and also took down the Poker By The Book invitational event on the World Poker Tour. When he wasn't gambling for a living, whether it was on poker, sports, or blackjack, Sklansky worked as a casino advisor. Not only did he invent the foundation for Caribbean Stud, but the 'resident wizard' famously convinced Bob Stupak to build the Stratosphere tower on the Las Vegas Strip.  Highlights from this interview include being the black sheep in a family of geniuses, logic puzzles from dad, the Ivy League poker game, being an 'insufferable' math rebel, hi-lo split declare, putting pen to paper in 1976, poker theory back to Neumann and Nash, being a GTO deviant, getting barred as a blackjack player, taking advantage of bad casino math, scheming with Bob, changing the Las Vegas Strip skyline, getting a state senator elected but losing a fixed race for mayor, a $30 million caribbean stud loss, challenging Donald Trump to a $1 million board game, matching JK Rowling, signing autographs for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, owning two unique pieces of WSOP history, being the ultimate third wheel, the $1 million briefcase, Sklansky bucks vs. implied odds, avoiding a punch from Floyd Mayweather, and all five times he was held at gunpoint.

16 Jan 20241h 52min