By this point in the year in 2023, Bin Weng seemed to have a strong grasp on WPT Season XXI Player of the Year honors, following his back-to-back WPT Main Tour final table appearances and his victory in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship event. But by the time the tour had rolled through Florida and arrived at the 2023 edition of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, several players had a chance to overtake Weng with one tournament to go. Weng held on, joining the ranks of Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Faraz Jaka, Bertrand Grospellier, J.C. Tran and more than a dozen others in achieving WPT Player of the Year honors. With the second half of WPT Season XXII set to kick off in a matter of weeks in Australia, the winner of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – in this case Josh Reichard – is once again in the driver’s seat in the WPT POY race heading into the fall. But the race this time around is far tighter and the competition’s more compelling. There are six main tour stops to come – in Gold Coast, Australia; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Jacksonville, Florida; Jeju, South Korea; Hollywood, Florida and finally Las Vegas. The current WPT POY leaderboard also features several WPT Prime champions, and in the matter of a close race remaining Prime Championship events in Liechtenstein, England, Montreal and Paris could well make the difference when all is said and done. Ahead of this upcoming race to the finish line, the current WPT Season XXII Player of the Year leaderboard stacks up as follows. 1. Josh Reichard 1,350 points Josh Reichard started racking up significant live tournament wins in late 2013, flexing his aptitude with MSPT, Heartland Poker Tour and WSOP Circuit titles. Most notably, Reichard racked up a once-time record 15 WSOP Circuit rings over the course of that decade. The one thing missing on Reichard’s record was a major title. He came tantalizingly close with a second-place finish in the $1,000 Mini Main Event at the 2023 World Series of Poker, along with a variety of other notable final table close calls. That all changed over April and May as Reichard first made the final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, and then one month later in Las Vegas topped a talent-laden final table to finally break through as a WPT champion. Reichard’s current lead is also thanks in part to a cash on WPT Voyage, with his run in the WPT Prime Voyage Championship tacking a few extra points that puts Reichard ever-so-slightly ahead of the current No. 2 player on the leaderboard. 2. Dan Stavila 1,300 points Dan Stavila had one of the most surreal weeks a poker player could have in Montreal back in May. He made the televised final table of WPT Prime Montreal, immediately hopped into the WPT Montreal Championship Event and then navigated his way to that final table as well. As if playing at televised final tables on back-to-back nights wasn’t a wild enough experience, on the second night Stavila was three-handed for the WPT Montreal Championship when a storm blew through Montreal and knocked out the power. Once play resumed, Stavila finished second. When added to his fourth place WPT Prime Montreal finish, Stavila is within a hair’s breadth of the WPT POY lead. One more run in any of the remaining events on the schedule could push him to the top, and with a return to Montreal for WPT Playground set for October, there’s every reason to believe Stavila could try to capture the magic there one more time. T-3. David Dongwoo Ko 1,150 points David Dongwoo Ko also managed to cash in both WPT Prime Montreal and the WPT Montreal Championship Event in May, and while his WPT Prime result was for just over a min-cash, his victory at Playground Poker Club have him well-positioned for a run at WPT Player of the Year should he so choose. The last year has represented a major step forward for Ko, with three WSOP Circuit rings and, just this week, a significant side event victory at EPT Barcelona. Ko’s pair of results in Montreal represent his first results under the WPT banner, but it feels safe to imagine quite a few more to come. T-3. Eric Afriat 1,150 points Eric Afriat’s name is already in a few different places in the WPT record books. He’s a three-time member of the WPT Champions club, tied for second all-time. In May, Afriat locked up a spot at his eighth career WPT Main Tour final table at the WPT Choctaw Championship, now tied for third-most all-time in that regard. With four overall cashes in Championship Events in 2024 alone, Afriat has positioned himself to make a run at yet another major milestone in his WPT career with one of his best shots at WPT Player of the Year honors. 5. James Mackey 1,100 points When it comes to Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, no player has managed more WPT success at the venue than James Mackey. He first broke through in Season XV, taking down his first WPT Choctaw title in 2016. In 2022, Mackey returned to the WPT Choctaw final table for the second time, finishing sixth. Then, in May, Mackey locked down his third career final table at the venue. A few weeks later, when the final table resumed in Las Vegas, Mackey defeated Afriat heads-up to become just the second player in WPT history to win the same event twice, joining two-time WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open champion Brian Altman in that regard. 6. Landon Tice 1,050 points Landon Tice has drawn significant attention thus far in 2024 for a variety of reasons. Most of the attention he got early on in the year was in regard to his summer bet against Jeremy Becker, in which 100% of their tournament action was cross-booked. Neither ultimately put up a major score during that time period, though Becker did manage to claw back a decent amount of his losses with a better summer. Tice may well have used up all of his “run good” before a single card was dealt at the 2024 WSOP. He made the final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April, and then in May got heads-up with Reichard for the title. While a first major live title simply wasn’t in the cards that night, Tice’s first major televised final table was an experience to remember, and perhaps a launchpad to even greater things as the WPT roars back into action in the second half of its schedule. T-7. Lorenz Schollhorn 1,000 points The first wild card on the WPT Season XXII leaderboard is Lorenz Schollhorn. The Swiss-born player rolled into WPT Prime Gold Coast in April and took the tournament by storm, ultimately emerging from a 1,395-entry field to win $267,998. All but one of Schollhorn’s other recorded live cashes on The Hendon Mob have come in the great game of Pot Limit Omaha. But with a WPT World Championship seat bake into his WPT Prime Gold Coast victory, Schollhorn will have at least one more chance to prove he can dominate in a two-card format as well. T-7. Jereld Sam 1,000 points Jereld Sam is a recent addition to the top 10 of the WPT Season XXII POY race, courtesy of his victory in the WPT Prime Taiwan Championship in August. His $250,699 payday is far and away the largest live result of his career, and he’ll have a chance to top it in December with his buy-in to the WPT World Championship already taken care of. Sam will be in search of his first ever cash on U.S. soil, and all but one of his recorded live tournament results to date have come in tournaments held in a variety of Asian countries. T-9. Rutger Hennen 900 points Back in March, Rutger Hennen was one of the first players to put his stamp on this edition of the WPT POY race when he won the WPT Prime Amsterdam Championship for $228,354. To that point in his career, Hennen had only recorded results in live events in his home country of Netherlands, but he’s since posted results at both the 2024 Irish Poker Open and in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event; in the latter, Hennen put together another deep run, finishing 31st. Hennen will have a chance to add an American flag (or a few) to his Hendon Mob profile when he plays in the WPT World Championship in December. T-9. Tudor Purice 900 points Like Sam, Tudor Purice infused himself into the WPT Player of the Year race in August. Purice, who is from Romania, traveled to Cyprus to capture his WPT Prime title, taking home a $183,270 prize including his own seat to the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. The win in Cyprus was the largest of Purice’s career, topping a victory in Bucharest in 2017 and a deep run in the 2013 EPT London Main Event. 11-20: Jesse Lonis, Andres Vasquez, Kosei Oguri, Gregory De Faria, Yakiv Syzghanov, Jikai Zhang, Priamo Carta, Fabian Guma, Florent Remi, Konstantin Held

Three years ago, Niall Farrell was scrolling through Facebook when a notification popped up on his phone. A man named Greg Clark had made a comment on one of his posts, hoping to talk to Farrell when he traveled to Las Vegas that coming fall for the rescheduled 2021 World Series of Poker. Farrell, the No. 1 Scottish player in all-time poker tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob, has managed to amass a considerable list of titles over the course of his poker career, including poker’s triple crown via a WPT Main Tour title at WPT Caribbean in Season XV, a WSOP bracelet in Europe in a 2017 25,000 High Roller, and the 2015 EPT Malta Main Event. He also has millions in online tournament earnings, including a 2014 Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event victory and multiple PokerStars SCOOP titles. But what Clark had to offer was an opportunity very few poker players are afforded – the spotlight of a documentary feature that would air on a major television network in Scotland. “I ended up speaking on the phone to him, and he was telling me that he makes documentaries,” said Farrell. “He recently had one released for the BBC called Real Kashmir FC, which is about an ex-Scottish footballer who was coaching out in Kashmir in India. It had done really well. It won lots of awards and a BAFTA Scotland. So I watched that, it was really good, we got talking and it kind of just went from there.” Clark flew out to meet Farrell in the closing weeks of the 2021 WSOP, and after getting a feel for each other and some preliminary footage the pair agreed to move forward with the project, which would eventually come to be titled The Four Rules of the Poker Kings.” A documentary crew followed Farrell across four tournament stops in 2022 – EPT Prague in March, EPT Monte Carlo and UKIPT Dublin in May, and ending at the 2022 WSOP. “We were just trying to get as much footage as possible, so basically any time I went to play poker, Greg would travel with me,” said Farrell. “The main reason being, it’s poker is very unpredictable. When we first started filming, he had a kind of outline where he said, ‘Well, ideally what would happen is the hero’s journey. You have a bit of adversity, then you overcome it, then you win and you’re successful.’ “I had to tell him, because he was coming cold to poker, I can’t guarantee you I’m gonna win anything. I could go a whole year, and the ‘hero’s journey’ is just he starts off losing, and he loses more for the rest of the year. But we actually got very, very fortunate – a couple of close calls, and then we got an actual tournament win, which was incredibly fortunate for the doc.” Farrell’s win at the UKIPT Dublin Main Event serves as a high point for the documentary. Along the way, Farrell also managed to final table a high roller at EPT Prague and made a deep run to the final two tables of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. The documentary served as something of a time capsule for both Farrell and the poker world itself, as more venues opened up post-COVID and Farrell got back to more regularly traveling the tournament circuit. It shined a light on a particularly challenging window for Farrell, as it represented the first time Farrell left his partner and their then-two-year-old son behind after getting to spend the vast majority of that time enjoying the privilege of being a father. “It’s interesting looking back at it now because, with COVID and my son being born, the decisions were kind of made for me,” said Farrell. “Having a new arrival in the family, it seemed like a good time to take the benefit of the good fortune I had up to that point, where I’m able to take a year or two off here and just be a dad and all this kind of stuff. “It’s quite interesting to see me getting back into the swing of things as well,” said Farrell. “Another reason why it was kind of really fortunate that we got the poker footage that we did, because I think coming back after a fairly lengthy layoff, it’s quite likely you would just bust a bunch of tournaments in your return, normally. I was fairly comfortable and seemed to be doing quite good getting back in the swing of things. Some bad habits still remained, like being in sulk for 30 minutes after busting a tournament in my incredibly fortunate and privileged life.” While the documentary is clearly geared toward those outside of the poker bubble, there are quite a few highlights along the way for poker enthusiasts and outsiders alike. There’s a moment in which Farrell pulls out a plastic grocery shopping bag full of cash ahead of entering a high roller, a fair number of adult beverages consumed alongside Farrell’s signature style of banter, and a moment in particular that stands out for Farrell simply because of a jarring visual. “One of my favorite ones was in Prague, where I’m talking at a little cafe,” said Farrell. “We did an introspective kind of moment, but that was actually on St. Patrick’s Day, and Greg had told me we probably wouldn’t be filming that day. So I’d been in a bar and got my face painted, so I’m actually just sat there, and there’s just no context or any explanation for it in the doc, where there’s just bits where I have green face paint on and just no explanation as to why that’s happened. So a lot of people on Twitter are asking about that. “Also, my mom says I swear too much,” Farrell said. “And she’s right, I do curse far too much.” Farrell isn’t the only featured player in the documentary, either. Longtime Scottish pro David Docherty, who attended a number of the same events as Farrell along the way, talks about his longtime hunt for a signature victory in his career. Amongst the closing credits is a scene of Docherty’s long-awaited win in the 2023 Irish Poker Open Main Event for $398,780. “I’d only known my part, so when the kind of ‘Cool Runnings’ bit at the end, where it says how everyone gets on and David won the Irish Open, I thought that was really cool,” said Farrell. “It was a really uplifting end to the doc as well.” There were several delays over the course of production, leading to the lengthy period between filming and its release earlier this month by BBC Scotland. But one of the unintended side effects of the delay has been a strong reminder for Farrell as to his biggest motivating factor for continued success in poker – a throughline in the documentary that carries forth to the present day. “Seeing my son at two years old, I forgot how unbearably cute he was at that age,” said Farrell. “He got his looks from his mom, for sure.”

Nick Seward is on the move. Both literally, as he packs up his current Las Vegas apartment preparing to upgrade into a new place, and figuratively. Thats because when it comes to the game of poker perhaps no player in the game is seeing their star rise faster than Seward. Seward, the 24-year-old poker pro hailing from just outside of Washington D.C., is enjoying a red-hot sun run that includes a six-figure score in the 2023 Wynn Summer Classic, his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet this summer, as well as two victories and a third final table at the 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. Its part of an accumulation of more than $1.5 million in tournament earnings – all since recording his first live tournament cash less than two years ago in October 2022. Its a fast and fortunate start to a poker career, one that had its seeds planted nearly a decade ago. Poker wasnt anything more than a hobby, but I just remember playing initially and I was immediately in love with the game, Seward said. Ive always enjoyed strategic games and poker really spoke to me in that regard. Seward says he got his start at age 14, playing small-stakes cash games for fun with his high school friends. Over the next few years, he started taking the game more seriously, eventually finding his way to online poker. By his senior year in high school hed had some decent success but any serious thoughts about poker took a backseat as college was on the horizon. While attending Ohio State University, studying finance, poker began to take more of a hold. He was two years into getting his degree when COVID-19 arrived, and Seward spent a lot more time honing his skills by playing online. He came to the realization that when he was finished with college, he wanted to give playing poker professionally a real shot. In fact, he nearly dropped out to start his poker journey early but stuck it out at the urging of his friends, got is degree, and then, essentially, moved straight to Las Vegas to get started. I was working loosely on trying to become a better player, but it was really more just playing when I wasnt hanging out with my friends, he said. The summer before I moved to Las Vegas, I was likeI should probably try to get good at this game and so I spent a lot of time off-the-table and then moved to Vegas and have been doing the same since. While his college friends were incredibly supportive of him diving into pokers deep end, not everyone was on board. My dad was very against me pursuing . Its not something thats very common in my family at all, with regards to non-conventional career paths, Seward said. But yeah, my dad was very against it initially and I went through the whole process of trying to get him on board. It was one of those things where I realized I was just going to have to make a choice. That was September 2022. Less than a month later, Seward was in Vegas and nearly immediately booked his first win taking down a $400 Venetian Deepstack event for $27,000 – his first live recorded tournament score in one of his first-ever live tournaments. For Seward, an East Coast native, Sin City was a culture shock. But thinking streets ahead, he created a soft landing spot for himself by laying the groundwork ahead of time. In terms of poker, Seward was a lone wolf while in college, but one can tell from his humble, affable nature that hes also the kind of guy whos likely good at making friends. So, without any previous connections, he cold reached out to Matt Berkey, co-founder of Solve For Why and lead voice of the Only Friends podcast. Seward offered to help in any way he could and while there was no formal position available, the Only Friends team took to Seward and he quickly became friendly with another guy who knew a lot about moving to Las Vegas to take a shot, Landon Tice. From there Seward found a way to continue to expand his new poker circle. Landon was one of my first friends in Vegas and from there, obviously I met more people, he said. I would say that my biggest role models in poker and people who have been very, very helpful to the progression of my career thus far are David Coleman, Sam Laskowitz, and Landon. We work together pretty intently and theyve helped me a ton. Sewards a grinder, both live and online, but also very big on taking days away from the felt to spend time in the lab, studying the game. I kind of live and breathe , 95% of my time is spent either playing or studying or doing something poker-related. And with that dedication, the results have come. He notched 41 live results in 2023 including a final table appearance in the 2023 $3,500 Wynn Summer Classic for a $320,631 score. He followed that up this summer with a gold bracelet performance in the $3,000 WSOP NLHE Six Handed, fading a tough field for a new career-high score of $516,135. Its a victory he called very surreal. From the moment that I knew what a bracelet was, I knew I wanted one at some point in my life, he said. To win my first one two years into his career was so special and it was pretty hard to grasp that concept that I had won in that moment. When asked about his success coming out of the 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in Florida, where he took home two trophies in back-to-back days, and whether he thought it was built on a backbone of studying or riding a wave of confidence due to results Seward was candid about what he feels has been the motivation behind his recent success. Im actually somebody that struggles with self-doubt quite a bit. Its one of those things where I think its a product of that I sort of have always had a perfectionist mentalityand that has pros and cons to it. Im really hard on myself when I make mistakes at the table, but I think that has improved as Ive spent more time studying. So I would say a big thing, especially in any series, is I want to feel prepared and the way I feel prepared is by putting in the maximum amount of time off the table. Then translating that on the table, I think that the biggest thing is I just want to focus on execution because its one thing to sit there and spend hours upon hours learning something, but if you cant properly implement that at the table, its somewhat useless. So thats been a big focal point and as long as I can do both of those things, I think thats where the confidence stems from. Seward says his father has warmed up to his sons decision to make poker a career and sure, obviously it helps to have results. Those results are bringing Seward the kind of attention in the Las Vegas poker scene akin to his peers Tice and Jeremy Becker. For Seward, while its nice right now, hes hoping that its just the start of something big. My mindset has kind of always been the same within poker. I mean obviously money is nice, but that is just the last motive that I have for staying in the game, he said My ultimate goal is to succeed at the highest level of the game. Triton, PokerGO Tour, and all of the higher stake stuff – succeeding in that arena. And that obviously takes a very, very long time. But that’s my ultimate goal. And at the end of the day, I want to, above all else, I just want to be as good as I can be. And when I’m all done, I want to look back and say confidently that I gave it my all. And if that feeling is succeeding in that arena, then great. But yeah, at the end of the day, I really want to give it my all and try to succeed at the highest level. That’s the biggest thing for me.

Making a major final table of any kind is a milestone by any measure, and Patrick Tardif best known by his online moniker Egption enjoyed one of the biggest of his career on Sunday. The freshly minted WPT Global Ambassador got heads up for the WPT Summer Festival $3,500 Championship, and while Tardif ultimately finished second to pas1161br there was much to be celebrated. The $130,640 payout stands among the best cashes of Tardifs career, and he got to share the moment with upwards of 1,200 viewers on his Twitch channel, who followed along with him for the entirety of Day 2. With the ups and the downs, seeing chat explode whenever things go well, and seeing chat explode where things don’t, it’s always a unique experience, said Tardif. Especially when things go well. I’ve been somebody that’s always livestreamed throughout almost my entire full-time poker-playing career, its essentially all been documented. And it’s nice to be able to share the moment with anyone that’s been supporting me. Since launching his Twitch channel in 2016, Tardif has amassed a following of more than 54,600 followers who have collectively streamed over 2.28 million hours of his content. Hes represented several different online pker platforms over the years, and in May Tardif signed on to become the newest ambassador for WPT Global. One thing that happens when you’re when you’re a streamer and you play on multiple sites is there’s definitely a little bit more pressure to try to make that deep run on the site that you’re sponsored by, Tardif said. Any time we play a tournament on WPT Global, there’s a little bit of, a little bit of stress added to hoping that I win some all-ins or get some good cards, because then that means I get more screen time for the site, and I’m able to show off the product a lot more. It was the culmination of a truly successful WPT Sumer Festival on WPT Global for Tardif, who also finished 10th in the WPT500 event and, at the same time he was making his run in the $3,500 WPT Championship, took third in the $220 Summer Festival Championship for another $25,859. On a stream that lasted nearly nine hours, Tardif made the most of a chance to showcase the platform. I am playing on a poker site that is still in its infancy, on the rise, and because of that a lot of professional players have not adopted playing on WPT yet, said Tardif. Ive been enjoying the relatively softer games. This particular Sunday, everything seemed to be clicking. Not only did we have the run in the $3,500, but we had the well over 2000 player field, $200 tournament where we were very, very close to winning that one as well. When cards are going your way and things are going as well as they do, you feel pretty damn confident. I was able to put out one of my better performances and then finish with second. With this result, Tardif continued a trend of WPT Ambassadors making serious runs at a permanent spot on the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup. Fellow Ambassador Brad Owen, who also made a deep run on Sunday (finishing 31st), made the final table of the Season 21 WPT Gardens Championship as well as WPT Prime Montreal earlier this year. WPT Montreal was Tardifs first opportunity to represent the WPT brand, and his first time sporting a WPT Global patch. He took part in his first official meetup game at Playground Poker Club and also took part in all of the signature live tournament events on the schedule. There’s not very much that can rival a WPT event, especially the championship, and everything that comes along with it, said Tardif. Being able to be there for the return to Canada we hadnt had a WPT in Canada since 2020, and not in Montreal since 2018 – it was good to be there. Good to see Canadian poker reignite with WPT being there. Despite building up the majority of his following online as a streamer, Tardif is excited to step into the live arena as part of his new role as a WPT Global Ambassador. Over the last few years hes managed several significant live results, including a career-best $159,157 cash in a $2,500 side event during WPT Fallsview in 2020, and a 97th place finish in the 2023 WSOP Main Event. In the coming weeks, Tardif will make his first international appearance with WPT, and hes looking forward to stepping into an entirely unknown environment to him. Im heading to WPT Prime Liechtenstein, and Ill get to see what WPT is like is out in Europe, said Tardif. I’m really looking forward to exploring a part of Europe where Ive never been, and I’m expecting as good of an experience as I would any other WPT; if they run a live series, it’s going to be a good one. On Wednesday, WPTs return to Montreal was announced for October, which will be another chance for Tardif to play for a title closer to home. Theres also considerable excitement ahead for Tardifs first WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas as an Ambassador. But before he gets too wrapped up in the excitement of whats to come, Tardifs certainly enjoying the moment hes in right now, banking the kind of major online result that should set him up well for the rest of the year while checking all the boxes WPT Global had for him when they brought him on board. I’ve got a permanent memory that can eventually get dropped into a YouTube highlight and some Instagram clips, and I’ll be able to reflect upon this moment for the rest of my life, which is always cool.

In 2020, everyone had their own way of passing the time while they were stuck at home. Some people got deep into video games. Others learned how to bake homemade bread or grow out their gardens. TJ Jurkiewicz decided to take it as an opportunity to change career paths, walking away from a decade of playing poker professionally in pursuit of nutrition and fitness coaching. I had been burned out on poker since like 2018, when I moved to Vegas. I think this town just sucked the joy out of poker for me, said Jurkiewicz. During COVID, I saw an ad to get a certification to be a nutrition coach. And I thought that sounded pretty interesting. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. By July 2021, Jurkiewicz had all of his ducks in a row and officially launched All In Fitness Coaching. Even as poker had become a thing of his past, his experiences away from the table while fighting his way up the cash game ranks presented him with an opportunity and a steady client base in a familiar community. I had lived the poker player lifestyle from 2013 to 2020, a professional poker players lifestyle, said Jurkiewicz. When I first started playing poker professionally I put on a lot of weight, and I knew that the lifestyle was congruent with not being healthy. Then I got in shape while playing poker, so in figuring that out, I knew I had a path to help people the same way. In the lead-up to launching All In Fitness Coaching, Jurkiewicz got himself into the best shape of his life, a far cry from both his heaviest point as a poker player and weight maintenance issues dating back to his teenage years, during which he consistently struggled with maintaining a consistent regiment. Jurkiewicz solving his own longtime search for the key to a consistent diet and exercise plan led him to discover a handful of core pillars for Jurkiewicz to instill in the clients who would soon join him. I know we’re all very good at losing weight. We’re just absolutely horribly keeping it off, said Jurkiewicz. I knew I was doing it in a way that a lot of people could do it, too. I wasn’t just eating leftovers out of Tupperware and going to the gym seven days a week, things that I knew people wouldn’t want to do. Poker leads itself to a very unhealthy lifestyle, and I thought that I could connect with these people and show them a way that’s easier. Poker players looking to lose weight is not a new idea by any means. Weight loss prop bets pop up every year around the start of the summer, with Shaun Deeb representing the latest player to cash in big on getting smaller. By February of this year, he had already secured an $800,000 windfall when Bill Perkins bought out of their bet that he could get himself down to 17% body fat. And while Deeb in particular doesnt seem to be slowing down his weight loss journey, the type of motivation behind such bets is indicative of how many poker players prioritize short-term gains over a more sustainable overall lifestyle. There’s always a weight loss prop bet going on. There’s one with a giant group of people that happens before the WSOP every year, but the same people are in the same thing, weighing the same amount every single year. And that that pains me to see. Getting out of the cycle of yo-yo-ing weight isnt typically an easy task, and Jurkiewicz quickly learned that the same approach isnt going to work for every client. The adaptability skills Jurkiewicz developed in his time as a poker player have served him well as his client roster has grown and hes gained more experience and knowledge. It’s definitely evolved a ton since those early days, said Jurkiewicz. I think I made a mistake in the beginning, where I would throw too much at people too soon. I would say drink this much water, eat this much food, work out this much. And it wasn’t like I was asking a crazy amount of volume per metric that I was asking them to track, but I was asking them to track far too many metrics. Nowadays, in the first month that I work together with someone, I roll out things one by one, or start very basic in like four or five key areas, and then we just build on that. Instead of giving them everything all at once, now I sort of get people to that point over a period of time, getting to know them more and getting to know their existing lifestyle before we start working together more. In getting poker players on the right path in their health journeys, Jurkiewicz has tapped into a positivity that was sorely missing at the tail end of his full-time poker playing days. For the better part of a decade, Jurkiewicz chased the poker dream with ferocity. By his mid-20s Jurkiewicz was playing seriously, staked to play $2/$5 cash games in Maryland and ultimately working his way up to as high as $25/$50/$100. He moved to Las Vegas like so many other poker players, and despite being almost exclusively focused on cash games managed a significant tournament success. Despite being down to his last $700, and anticipating a return to playing on a stake, Jurkiewicz fired off most of what he had left and made a run to the final table of the $1,000 Tag Team event at the 2019 World Series of Poker. Jurkiewicz and Zachary Gruneberg ultimately finished fourth in that tournament, and despite that success, the afterglow simply wasnt enough to reignite his passion for the game. Despite the Vegas poker world sapping Jurkiewiczs remaining enthusiasm for the game, its also the city where he found his calling. Hes helped poker players like Jeff Platt and Matt Affleck achieve their health goals, and by proxy made an impact on the poker world that Jurkiewicz is truly proud of. There’s no better feeling for me, Jurkiewicz said. Coming from poker where, at the tail end of when I stopped playing, I was getting zero enjoyment, even when I was winning. There was no meaning behind what I was doing. And I’m not saying poker is a thankless, meaningless grind, even though it kind of is, some people do find ways to make it productive. I just wasn’t one of them. So to come from that I enter this position where I can help people directly with things that I struggled with directly, and really improve their lives, said Jurkiewicz. To have them thank me for improving their lives, You’ve added years to my life, like now I can play with my kids. Hearing those things, it really fuels me up and gives me a strong reason to get out of bed some days. I struggle with things, and one thing that I can always count on to be an anchor point is my clients that I know I’m doing a good job for them. Jurkiewicz is keenly aware that he has to consistently balance his professional ambitions with his own health and fitness goals. With his poker days largely fading into the background he been on the hunt for something else that can consistently fulfill his competitive urges, and he seems to have found an ideal outlet in Muay Thai. I’m 35 now, and that made me reflect on getting older, said Jurkiewicz. I realized that I wanted to be someone who aged more gracefully than others. I wanted to be in my 60s, still able to hike, still able to travel. And I’ve sort of taken the focus off of present-day me. Right now my goal is to be one of the most in-shape 40-year-olds I can be. Martial arts is my main outlet for exercise these days, I really fell in love with it. It’s much more enjoyable for me than traditional methods of cardio or training. I still lift weights, but it’s mostly for me, outdoor runs, martial arts, and lifting weights a few times a week now, and a lot of mobility work. Jurkiewicz currently attends five Muay Thai classes a week in Las Vegas at Xtreme Couture, and in an effort to continue to set lofty goals the same approach that brought him success early on in his poker career Jurkiewicz has booked himself an intensive month of training in Thailand at the Fairtex Training Camp. It’s great because it’s motivating me in the present day. I do not want to show up there out of shape, because as far as I know, the day starts with a 7 a.m. hourlong run, and then you train for two and a half hours, take a four-hour break and then you train again for two-and-a-half hours. Six hours of work, six days a week. I’m not far off the best shape of my life right now. That’s my goal, and then obviously coming out of that month, I’ll probably even take that up another level. So I’m excited to see what’s possible. By pushing his limits and continuing his own efforts in approaching health and wellness, Jurkiewicz will be setting another example of what can be achieved when his clients work with him to find their own best path forward. I’m going to struggle, Jurkiewicz said. But I want to go in there and get the most out of the experience.

The worlds greatest athletes have all gathered in Paris, France for the Summer Olympics and while poker isnt an Olympic sport – or maybe even a sport at all – WPT.com couldnt help but take the opportunity to imagine what it just might look like if some of the worlds best poker players were representing their country in Paris. In the true Olympic spirit, each countrys organizing committee was tasked with filling a five-person roster consisting of a specialist in each of the following: The five players would also be accompanied by a coach from their country. Each player would compete ONLY in their respective discipline, earning not only individual glory – medals available for each event – but also team points that lead to gold, silver, and bronze medals for the top-performing country. With that in mind, weve put together teams from Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, reat Britain, and the United States with insight from some of the top journalists in poker. Today, we present to you the 2024 United States of America Olympic Poker team with comments from PokerGO commentator and podcast co-host Donnie Peters. With over $46 million in live tournament earnings, two World Poker Tour titles, and 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, Phil Ivey is one of the most accomplished poker players in the game’s history. Hes also one of the most feared. Ivey has proven time and time again that on the biggest stages, when the stakes are at their highest, hes able to come through for the win. And plenty of that success has been in No Limit Holdem Tournaments. Team USA wouldnt be complete without the GOAT on the squad, and I can’t think of a better player to hang the country’s poker hat on – and yes, it can be a bucket hat. Phil Iveys biggest strength is his natural talent. No one is better than Ivey at reading his opponents and adjusting on the fly. He is an elite competitor,” said Donnie Peters. “If you were going to stake any poker player, that player is likely Ivey – it doesnt matter the location, the opponents, or the stakes. If Ivey had a weakness, it could be that he isn’t the most studied player when it comes to poker theory. That said, Ivey’s natural instincts and experience have always seemed to blow study out of the water. Ivey boasts 11 seven-figure scores, eight of which are in NLHE tournaments, including his current career-high cash of $3.58 million with his victory in the 2014 Aussie Millions $250K Poker Championship, a $1.5 million win in the 2008 WPT LAPC Championship, and his 7th place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $1.4 million among other. While Ivey may have competition in the discussion for who is the best all-time NLHE player in the world, hes got virtually none in the star power category. Hes in a category all by himself. Californias Dylan Weisman can do it all, but he is perhaps best known as a Pot Limit Omaha specialist and, in that regard, one of the best in the world at that variant. A look at his top three career scores showcases just that: a runner-up finish in the 2024 Triton Super High Roller PLO Main Event for $1.66 million, a victory in the PokerGO U.S. Poker Open $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for $416,000, and a 2024 World Series of Poker $1,500 win for $294,000 for one of his two WSOP bracelets in PLO. He has more than $6 million in career tournament earnings, with most of those cashes coming in PLO. Few players understand poker to the degree that Dylan Weisman understands Pot-Limit Omaha. It always seems as though Weisman knows where he is at in a PLO hand. Weismans biggest strength – and this is said with the biggest amount of love and respect – is that he is a supreme PLO nerd,” said Peters. “Hes the most studied, experienced PLO tournament player in the country, and his results speak for themselves. Another key strength of Weisman is that he seems to be devoid of emotions when he is playing, which is an incredible trait for any poker player to harness, especially a PLO player. Even though Garrett Adelstein doesnt appear on livestreamed cash games nearly as much as he used to, he still carries the reputation as being one of the nosebleed cash games biggest crushers in the modern era. A regular on the early episodes of Live At The Bike and subsequently Hustler Casino Live (until September of 2022) he has recorded more than $2.5 million in livestreamed earnings according to HighRoll Poker, sitting as the second biggest all-time winner on Live At The Bike and Hustler Casino Lives fifth highest earner. Garrett Adelstein has battled in the biggest games against tough lineups, making him a perfect fit for this role,” said Peters. “An important strength for Adelstein is that hes incredibly well-versed in live cash games, and that strength can pay big dividends here. If Adelstein has one weakness, everyone will point to the hand against Robbi Jade and the subsequent fallout. That could show an emotional or mental chink in Adelsteins armor, but its not something we have seen from Adelstein outside of this situation that would led itself to being a weakness Team USA is worried about. In December 2023, Adelstein returned from a self-imposed break and appeared on the WPT World Championship livestreamed cash games, picking up more than $250,000 in his return, just proving that even after taking time away from the table, he continues to be a cash-game force to be dealt with. One wouldnt even need the results from the 2024 World Series of Poker to be convinced that Scott Seiver is one of the worlds top talents when it comes to Mixed Games. But just in case you missed it, Seiver took a break from playing the biggest Mixed Game cash games this summer to show up and show out at the WSOP. He became just the sixth player in history to win three bracelets in a single summer series grabbing gold in the $10,000 Omaha8 Championship for $426K, the $1,500 Razz for $141K, and finally the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw for another $411K. The result – Scott Seiver took home 2024 WSOP Player of the Year honors. But more than that, with nearly $27 million in lifetime tournament earnings, Siever has continually proven that it doesnt matter the variant of poker – hes going to be a favorite. Scott Seiver has long battled at the highest stakes for mixed games. This recent summer, he proved that his prowess extends beyond cash games, if there ever was any doubt, by winning three gold bracelets at the WSOP. Seiver is as well-rounded of a poker player as they come, and he certainly wont shy away from the moment,” said Peters. “Further, Seiver always seems to be in tune with his opponents and the energy surrounding him, which may not be quantifiable but it matters. Cutting his teeth and building his bankroll in the heads-up NL streets of online poker shortly after the poker boom, Doug Polk has curated a career as a specialist in the HU4Rollz arena. On his tournament resume, hes the runner-up in the 2023 World Series of Poker $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $313,362. But the majority of Polks public heads-up accomplishments have taken place playing in livestreamed public cash games. Most notably Polk bested Daniel Negreanu in a grudge match of 25,000 heads-up hands online for more than $1.2 million. Polk has routinely taken on nearly anyone who has wanted to show up at his Lodge Card Club in Austin to battle heads up at high stakes where, according to HighRoll Poker, hes made a profit of $335,000. When it comes to heads-up poker experts, few are in the conversation. Doug Polk is undoubtedly in that conversation and could very well be the greatest heads-up No-Limit Holdem player of all time. It would be easy to point to Polks biggest weakness as being a slave to the sim but Polk is also a people person who can relate to an opponent and go beyond charts and theory when needed. Polk is an aggressive player who wont back down and you need that in heads-up play, said Peters. Great coaches are great leaders, with excellent communication skills, a wealth of knowledge and experience, the ability to adapt and relate, and shared respect. Jason Koon checks all of the boxes to be a great coach,” said Peters. It would be tough to find someone who has a better reputation in poker than Jason Koon. Both on and away from the felt. Koon is a nosebleed tournament specialist who has not only amassed more than $58 million in lifetime earnings, good for 4th on poker’s All-Time Money List, but also the respect of his competition and peers. Originally from West Virginia, Koon developed his poker talents from the early days of online poker and since has traveled the world accumulating 104 live scores of $100,000 or more. So, when it comes to the pressure of competition at the highest level, theres nothing in this game that he hasnt seen or done himself. “Hes been in the arena, knows what it takes to win, and has the respect of the players on the team. If Koon has a weakness, its that hes not as well-versed in mixed games as he is in the big-bet games. That deficiency can be minimized through Koons leadership qualities and general poker intelligence. stats courtesy of The Hendon Mob/GPI