Poker Stories: Matt Berkey

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.

Wolfgang is a relative newcomer to the poker world, but that hasn't stopped him from finding a huge audience with his short-form vlogs. The Chicago native and Texas resident has a background in video production and editing which he has used leapfrog other top content creators to become one of the most watched poker players on the planet.

The 29-year-old has seen a meteoric rise over the last year and recently became the first poker vlogger ever to reach one million subscribers on YouTube. He has racked up hundreds of millions of views overall while passing industry giants such as Brad Owen, Doug Polk, and even Daniel Negreanu, all while playing low-stakes cash games.  

Highlights from this interview include joining the seven-figure club, completely missing the poker boom, Ukrainian dancing and German lessons, christian school degenerates, streaking Nutella butts, giving the algorithm what it wants, creating new players, Pokemon vs. fossils, making teachers go viral, red-card pantsing and game-winning headers, sweating a million dollar buy-in, smoothies with McDreamy, and why Justin Beiber fired him from a commercial shoot.

Jeff Sluzinski, a content creator and pro better known to his viewers as Jeff Boski, was one of the pioneer poker vloggers on YouTube. In the last six years, the ACR Poker ambassador has built a sizable audience, posting more than 600 videos and racking up millions of views.

Originally from Michigan, Boski has been a professional poker player for the better part of the last two decades, having discovered the game during the early 2000's boom. He gambled on his future, moving to Las Vegas with just $10,000 in his bankroll, and he hasn't looked back since. Boski is currently having one of his best years ever, picking up wins both live and online, while also holding his own against some of the best high roller players in the game today.

Highlights from this interview include dealing with oil patterns and too much torque, striking out in calculus, talking people out of their money, upsetting the boss' daughter, turning around a $1,000 per day loss, how dog videos turned into a poker vlog, talking his way into an online poker sponsorship, having his own tournament on ACR, winning his way to Vietnam, playing Triton high rollers, Spock honesty, being a strip club affiliate, visualizing a Magic: The Gathering championship, Lil Dicky So Hard, ziplining backwards in Costa Rica, and enjoying the simulation in harmony.

It took less than four years for Jesse Lonis to climb from $200 tournaments to competing in high rollers with the best players in the world. The New York native kickstarted his career with a World Poker Tour final table in 2021 at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open and then followed it up with a deep run in the WSOP main event, taking 25th place overall. In 2022, the former construction worker won a bracelet in the WSOP Online series, and nearly added a second that summer while also making two final tables at the WPT World Championship series.

But the 28-year-old has put together his best year in 2023. In January he finished third in the $25,000 high roller at the Hard Rock in South Florida for $260,000 and then added another $370,000 with a win at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. This summer, he made a last-minute decision to play in the $50,000 pot-limit Omaha championship and broke through for his second bracelet and a massive payday of $2.3 million. He now has $6 million in career earnings.

Highlights from this interview include new births, being the Longfellow Deeds of his hometown, watching grandma play Full Tilt, working construction "like a dog in a cage," following in Gilly's footsteps, a long and brutal stay at Circus Circus, being an old school player, ging broke and coming back, where he keeps the bracelets, jumping into a $50k event, big sports bets, J-Lo, CCR, and bird presentations.

Daniel Weinman topped the biggest World Series of Poker main event field in history, outlasting more than 10,000 entrants. Incredibly, he almost didn't play in the event and had to be convinced by friends, including six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb, to fly back from his native Atlanta, Georgia for the tournament.

It was Weinman's second career bracelet, having won his first in 2022 on the way to finishing second in the WSOP Player of the Year race. And despite winning a first-place prize of $12.1 million, Weinman was back at his day job the next week, working as a software engineer for RF Poker, a company that facilitates the operation and security of poker livestreams.

Although he focused on cash games for much of his career, Weinman also has a WSOP Circuit ring, and two World Poker Tour titles. In 2017 he won the Borgata Winter Open and followed that up a few months later with a season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions victory.

Highlights from this interview include sweating the Wall Street trader game as a kid, playing 24 tables at once, getting robbed at a home game, too much Chinese poker, winning a WPT with his back against the wall, taking a 9-to-5 'poker' job after winning his first bracelet, livestream integrity, how he got talked into the main event, how a two-outer saved more than just his tournament, the reluctant acceptance of added attention, getting his face on a trading card, plans for the bracelet, broken putters, getting fired from the movie theater for beating his manager, golfing with professional athletes and Trump, and how he started his bankroll by being one of the best guitar hero players in the world.

Shaun Deeb was just 16 when he fell in love with poker, hosting tournaments at his home in New York. It wasn't long before he was focusing more on cards than school, and Deeb found himself quickly rising the ranks among the best online players in the world, reaching no. 1 in 2009.

In the live arena, Deeb has done most of his damage at the World Series of Poker. Not only is he in an elite group of just 22 players with at least six bracelets, but he is consistently one of the best performers each summer in the WSOP Player of the Year race. In fact since 2015, Deeb has finished in sixth place or better six times! In total, he has racked up more than $13.5 million in live tournament earnings during his career, to go along with millions more won online.

Deeb finished in second place in this summer's WSOP POY race, but also has four other wins in 2023, putting him in the top 20 of the year-long POY race as well. The 37-year-old has done it while also working on a weight-loss prop bet with Bill Perkins that will earn him a seven-figure payout if he can get down to 17 percent body fat by next summer's series.  

Highlights from this interview include growing dreadlocks to lose body fat percentage, how WSOP main event champ Dan Weinman saved his summer, winning a circuit ring for his chicken fingers, 'retiring' after burn out, a team wafflecrush update, investing in a sub franchise over daily fantasy sports, letting Gus Hansen take his million dollar seat, being a 'foot-on-the-gas-type' player, slowrolling Mike Matusow, why Max Heinzelmann cost him Ben Lamb's money, not being afraid to speak his mind, passing his sparkly black crown to Ian Matakis, hating all music and refusing to dance, losing 5/6ths of a $200,000 pot, the biggest open face Chinese games, passing on the family restaurant business, 50-hour sessions, and undercooked chicken as a murder weapon.

Mike Gorodinsky is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, who is coming off a summer where he took down the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship for $422,747. The Russian-born pro, who was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, won his first bracelet back in 2013, taking down the $2,500 Omaha and stud eight-or-better mix event. But Gorodinsky's biggest score remains the $1,270,086 he pocketed for winning the 2015 $50,000 Poker Players Championship. 

Although the 37-year-old has the resume of a tournament pro, with more than $4.2 million in cashes and the title of 2015 WSOP Player of the Year, he is also a feared cash game player. The mixed-games master spent years competing in some of the biggest cash games spread in the world, battling it out with the best players in Bobby's Room in Las Vegas for stakes as high as $4,000-$8,000

Highlights from this episode include the move from St. Petersburg to St. Louis, eloping in Greece, drunk 1 a.m. online sessions, learning bankroll management the hard way, buying a car with all of his winnings, the online tournament that kept him in poker, a love for literature, an office in Tijuana, battling for high-stakes with Phil Ivey, million-dollar swings, the 'detriment' of having his own action, an 'unpleasant' loss to Phil Hellmuth, a weird history with the Poker Players Championship, giving away his bracelets, buy-in inflation, poker personalities, New Zealand restaurant games, fake beef with Doyle Brunson and the gift of the unlucky sweater.

Jose Ignacio "Nacho" Barbero was a top-ranked, world-traveling card player long before he ever found poker. The Argentinian discovered the game Magic: The Gathering as a teen, and he was soon leading the national team in global competitions.  

After six years as a Magic pro, Barbero made the switch to poker. He broke out in 2010, scoring two of his three Latin American Poker Tour victories along with a win in the EPT London high roller for nearly $900,000. In the years since, he has continued to put up consistent results, while also competing in some of the biggest cash games around.  

The last year has been incredibly profitable for Barbero on the felt. In the summer, he won his first gold WSOP bracelet and $587,000. Then in February, he finished fourth at the PokerStars Players Championship for a career-best $1.55 million. After a win and a runner-up showing at the Triton Vietnam series for $1.06 million, and a win in the PokerGO PLO series, Barbero now sits in first place in the 2023 Card Player Player of the Year race.

Highlights from this interview include soccer distractions, the collapse of the Argentinian economy, getting saved by Magic, living in France, having his own sports card, losing big his first online session, winning his first live tournament, getting a poker sponsorship, live reads, a crypto disaster, the comeback begins, a huge final table mistake, catching a very important flight, winning a $500,000 pot from a billionaire, teaching Pokemon, and losing a bitcoin at the UFC.

Stephen Song has been tearing up the tournament circuit for the last few years. The New York-born, Connecticut-raised Song was a childhood chess prodigy who found poker while in college, ultimately making a deal with his parents to turn pro. After winning a tournament for nearly $33,000, he was able to pay them back his tuition in full before hitting the road on his own.  

In the years since, Song has racked up more than $5.1 million in live cashes, which includes a World Series of Poker bracelet and three WSOP Circuit rings. In 2022, the 27-year-old cashed in a whopping 44 tournaments and won the World Poker Tour Prime Championship for $712,000 en route to being named the GPI Player of the Year.  

Highlights from this interview include living in London, nationally-ranked in chess, why school wasn't his thing, squash scholarships, penny-stakes poker with dad, puzzle pirates, winning back his college tuition, the 'glory days of poker' back in 2016, clearing make up for a deceased backer, winning live in front of mom and dad, getting through big fields, not being a dick swinger, never having a job, getting scolded for $1,000 on black, crushing tiger hidden dragon, self-driving cars, and why he won't 'update' his stack until the break.

Dr. Lara Eisenberg is not a professional poker player, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her results. She has already scored a WSOP Circuit ring, and a World Series of Poker bracelet, taking down the Ladies Championship in 2021. Then in December, she pocketed a career-high $481,500 for finishing runner-up in the WPT Prime Championship.  

The 54-year-old has found a lot of success for someone who only competes on the circuit part time. When she's not staring down the pros at the table, she is usually running her own radiology practice out of her home in Maryland, or enjoying her other hobby, competitive skydiving.

Highlights from this interview include being destined for medicine, why she chose not to be a surgeon, her time as a billiards hall hustler, jumping out of a plane on a blind date, landing in a Thailand driving range, becoming a world-record holder, being an early gamer, her time in WPT Bootcamp, FOMO about poker education, studying with apestyles, a profitable decision to late register, donating $30,000 of her winnings, looking for tells, hiking in the Pyrenees, Trinity costumes, the hat lady, and being confused for an astronaut.