Niel Hopson

Husband, Father, Poker, MN Vikings, Tom Brady, and Sushi.

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

🐐

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Insane game. Spurs choked badly.

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Just fucking sad

[Bleacher Report @BleacherReport]

Spurs blowing out the Wolves in Game 6...

Minnesota's season is on the line 😳

[Declan Goff @DexsTweets]

It's looking like the Vikings will avoid Thanksgiving (Eve and Black Friday) and Christmas Eve/Day games. This puts me with no excuses for missing holiday obligations, and that's the real crime.

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

@ZachHalverson @Chris_Hawkey This place was so bad. Need to replace this with @raisingcanes asap! @CoryCove @MeatSauce1

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Let's go Minnesota!

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

@TimeTraveler524 2-100 at @NLCpoker right now

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

@TheLINQ Resort fees are still being added. May want to look into that. (I was signing up for Flamingo)

[NFL @NFL]

NFL partners with @TMRWSports, world-class investors and athletes to launch new professional Flag Football league.

[Kyler Murray @K1]

Skol.

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Yes, @andrewneeme should be in the @WSOP hall of fame. Make it happen @RealKidPoker

[Brad Owen @TheBradOwen]

I just need to vent a little bit otherwise I feel like I'm going to completely lose what I like about myself...

I'm up about a million lifetime in poker, but it's not that much over the course of 20+ years. I'm down $400k from the high point before the 2024 WSOP started. I've only had one complete losing year (last year), but I'm down $100k this year already and I feel like I'm losing my identity and a failure if I don't turn things around soon, especially if I'm not as open about it as I can be about the tough times.

I've done pretty much everything in poker except win a major title so I've torched money in mixed games trying to get better and learn/play with the best in small field large buy-in events. This is where the overwhelming majority of the $400k downswing has come from, and it's really not that many buy-ins when I'm playing high stakes events, but I need to talk about it somewhere since there are no vlogs of these sessions. I can always just quit and go back to cash where wins are consistent and easier, but it's enjoyable for me to push myself and I don't want to give up just yet even though it would certainly be better for my mental well-being.

I put an insane amount of pressure on myself to try to be the best dad, significant other, poker player, content creator, ambassador, etc. that I can be. It's tough to ever escape or take a break because I fear that if I turn off the machine, even for a short time, I might not be able to turn it on again. There aren't a ton of people who can relate to what I have going on - maybe just 2 or 3 partially and 1 of them WPT made what I consider to be a massive mistake by parting ways with, which leads to me feeling very isolated and just generally not having nearly as much fun as I used to in the poker world. I don't know how much time I have left in this space before I get too burnt out. Time with my family is what makes me the most happy and I don't get to be with them or be there for them quite as much as I would like. My health is deteriorating as well and I just can't keep up at the pace I've been at the last several years even though there are plenty of reasons to keep churning out videos as frequently as I can.

I'm incredibly fortunate to be in the situation I'm in. I love being on the WPT team - I don't agree with all of the decisions, but typically they do a lot of cool things for poker and I'm in the position to be able to lose $10ks and not have it affect my life at all. I'm living the dream and my 15 year old self wouldn't believe that I actually made it in the poker industry - I'm on the same f***ing team as Ivey!! Most days I'm super grateful and appreciative. Some days I just want to burn everything I've built down because I feel like a fraud and don't feel like I deserve any of it. None of what I do is that hard or that important and if I started making vlogs in the current climate, I'd likely get lost in the shuffle and wouldn't be nearly as successful.

I don't like where some things are headed. I hate YouTube shorts. I hate AI voiceovers. I hate that a lot of people are promoting the game in a way that I don't think is healthy for younger people to see because the approach is that they're content creators first trying to do the most exciting thing and not the most responsible thing. I'm contributing to that now, and it's easy for me to justify blasting off in certain spots to hopefully make an interesting video and achieve certain goals I had when I was a first fell in love with poker in the early 2000s (like winning a bracelet or WPT), but I guess this tweet is my attempt to try to make things slightly better.

It actually hurts me to see top level players like Jeremy Ausmus, Seth Davies, and even Chidwick to some extent, make poker content on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram. Nearly all of the poker content, especially from these guys is objectively good for poker, but vlogs used to be something that most top guys shit all over and now we're seeing them with stands and cameras at the table because the major poker companies don't give the best players ambassador roles anymore. I 100% benefit from it - I'm like win the lottery and get struck by lightning on the same day lucky. I just miss how things were back in the heyday and I'd like to see more opportunities for the guys I look up to in the industry - the guys who have actually accomplished a lot on the felt. Also, I hate that Kalshi sponsors the Lodge livestream and I think some gum company does as well that just has nothing to do with poker. It feels weird and even there we've strayed from what made that place special, but I'm optimistic we're going to right the ship. I wish I was there more to help make that happen.

One of the few things I'm proud of myself for recently is turning down the opportunity to promote the side gambling games that Gold offers, which would've made me a lot more money. If I didn't do that I would've felt like I've sold out completely. I have no issues promoting poker because I'm an example of someone who's been successful at it, whereas if people are betting/gambling in things they have no shot at winning in the long-run - I just can't be a part of it and don't want to promote it.

Let's see what else...

Andrew Neeme should be in the poker hall of fame for revolutionizing poker in two massive ways - meet up games and vlogging, which has inspired more poker players than almost everything in the last few decades.

WSOP needs to move its Bahamas event to January and stop giving out so many online bracelets.

I don't know how you guys don't dislike shameless promotions more.

I know that I should get a therapist and I will likely regret tweeting this

🔥🔥🔥

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

@AnthonyBarr Atlanta is horrible

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

LFG USA 🇺🇸

[Jono Barnes @JonoBarnes]

No seriously what did Bad Bunny do for people to be mad at?
He had fine women
He had a male and female gender wedding
He had the USA flag lead the way
He said God Bless America for goodness sake

If people still pretending to be mad at it, I’m sorry but..you might be racist 😅

[Logan Paul @LoganPaul]

I love my brother but I don’t agree with this

Puerto Ricans are Americans & I’m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

All current @ProFootballHOF members should boycott this Summer's ceremony just like @JimmyJohnson

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

The @ProFootballHOF is sadly now just a joke. #smh

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Finally

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

@PhilMackey @Vikings could have had Bo Nix... #smh

[Niel Hopson @Hopylicious]

Fire Kwesi