Only Friends Poker Podcast

The poker news show from @berkey11 & friends. LIVE Mon–Thu 11am PT on YouTube. Poker drama, scandals, high stakes hands and hot takes.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

We are so back!

11 AM PT · Monday, Nov 9

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Berkey: players who blindly memorized solver outputs since 2017 got feasted on, and anyone letting AI think for them is headed for the same fate. Agree?

🔴 LIVE now: https://t.co/XrYXqazQgV

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Matt Berkey says poker will never get another Moneymaker boom and the industry needs to stop chasing new players. Is he right, or is the poker dream just changing shape?

🔴 LIVE now: https://t.co/XrYXqazQgV

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Craig Mason wins his first @WPT title, $358,800 from 510 entries. The final table ended on a deal.

Allen Kessler called the payouts "whacked." WPT replied: "we know Final Tables aren't really your thing" 👀

Deals at a WPT final table. Your call?
https://t.co/Djw6jMIGS8

[Allen Kessler @AllenKessler]

Sorry @wpt @VenetianPoker @VenetianTD @SavagePoker

But those payouts are whacked ....

(I guess wpt backed off its no deal policy)

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Matt Berkey's theory: rising online rake isn't about cheaters. It's operators clawing money back from top winners like Marinelli. Is the poker dream getting capped?

🔴 LIVE now: https://t.co/XrYXqazQgV

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

We're live 🔴

https://t.co/Er01wTWNDk

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

🔴 LIVE today at 11 AM PT

Cutting through the AI noise with Andrew Barber

w/ @berkey11 @LandonTice + @conrads411 @abarber1 calling in

https://t.co/Er01wTWNDk

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

🔴 LIVE today at 11 AM PT

Cutting through the AI noise with Andrew Barber

w/ @berkey11 @LandonTice + @conrads411 @abarber1 calling in

https://t.co/Er01wTWNDk

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

A 22 year old won the Main this summer. A 26 year old just took $450K in his first ever @tritonpoker event.

Online? Like I said last night, there's no dream left to sell there.

Did the dream die, or did it just move live?

[Matt Berkey @berkey11]

From my perspective, which tbf is a bit of an outsider's pov, I think the markets have just matured everywhere outside of the US, likely due to having a 15 year runway of both regulated and unregulated sites. The US is both a less mature market as well as a much wealthier market, liquidity wise. But the cost of doing business here is high given the risks of shutdown. Couple that with the short lived app boom which helped drain the ecosystem and you end up with recs just doing other stuff or playing live.

Optically there's also no dream left to sell via online (at least not to business men and weekend warriors). They used to play for fame, glory, or escape from their 9-5 with hopes of making it big. Now they are just fighting against scripts, bots, and shady digital platforms where its tough to not get got by the site, the players, or the payment processors.

That's just my 2 cents though. Acquisition has always been a hurdle post black Friday.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #720: https://t.co/IyAJ41jgxx

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Matt Berkey on the equity dispute, the lawsuit, and the 18 months it took to get Only Friends back.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Podcast feeds are back up 🎧

Every new Only Friends episode now lands on Spotify (full video) and Apple Podcasts, plus every other app, right after the live show. The back catalog is there too.

Spotify: https://t.co/wFbNxOlQVI
Apple: https://t.co/O4hi6FJ4a8

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Lot of questions regarding audio only. Bear with us, we'll have the podcast feeds all back up in the next day or so.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/KjdVcA6D2T

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

A5 Labs' John Andres says the MeshAgent hack case should have been detected much earlier, pointing to win-rate outliers and player reports that sites received.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/iiBXOgEapn

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

A5's John Andres walks through how the alleged super user went undetected for two years and why sites should have caught him sooner.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/AHW5V9tQgQ

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/waqsxuot8s

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

John says the Stacks style rake is basically the same as having five pros at your table. Nick Howard says the games are soft enough to justify it.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/fcqSAd5o5s

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Tang says a pure GTO bot is exploitable in the real game and he'll show how. I've said for years that it would not do well in Bobby's room.

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

Full episode, Only Friends #721: https://t.co/HxuOCAW6R2

[Only Friends Poker Podcast @OnlyFriends_Pod]

John says both the ACR and QQPK cases were crushing bots, and the QQPK report was detectable with basic stats. His words on how it should have been caught.