There's No Bigger Rush Than Being An Amateur Poker Player Going Deep In A Big Tournament

Yesterday's Cracking Aces was a special one for me. We were joined by the legend Johnny "Cakes" Auville, a man who I've been listening to on the radio for basically 2 decades now. He's a a co-host of the Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in DC and I started listening to that show in middle school. So for him to now be a fan of my show is pretty mind blowing to me. 

Cakes came on to talk poker, and while we usually have pros on as guests, it was refreshing to talk to another donk like me, and he just made a deep run in the Potomac Poker Open main event, with a bummer of a final hand that did him in:

What was cool about the episode is Cakes is just like me, a 1/3 grinder who loves playing tournaments. He went nose to nose with pros deep in the tournament and gave some awesome perspective on how he was feeling and what he learned along the way. If you're an aspiring poker player, this is a good episode for you. 

The goal of Cracking Aces was always to be for the common man, by the common man. I'm just another low stakes poker bum but my cohost Jake Toole is an elite player, so it is a great dynamic between the two of us. You will get better at poker by listening to Jake on the podcast, that's guaranteed.

And truly, there is no bigger rush than going deep in a poker tournament. It's the best. When you're building chip stacks and playing aggressively and running the table. You feel untouchable. You feel the table is scared of you. 3betting any two cards just because you can, it's like a superpower. I finished 529th in the Big 50 last year out of nearly 30,000 runners and it was one of the best experiences I've had playing poker. 

I hope to make another run in something soon because right now Cakes has the crown of the king of the bad poker players. A well deserved crown.

We also talk on the episode about the bad beat of the century

and our own personal bad beat stories.

Also, never forget:

As always, thanks to everyone who listens to the show. It's the best poker podcast out there so if you're interested in poker, definitely check it out and if you dig it, leave a 5 star review. We've had on tons of big guests, give advice on how to get better, talk about the biggest stories in the game, and much more.

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