She Was Spain’s #1 Poker Player…Then PokerStars Dropped Her. Ana Marquez Shares Her Story

Limon's boss caught him playing online poker at work. He told him to choose: the job or the cards. Then Limon showed him how much he'd been winning. The boss changed his mind. Now Limon could play in his office—as long as he taught him how. Unfortunately, the boss turned out to be a world-class tilt monkey. The keyboards didn't stand a chance. Abe “Limon” joins Art Parmann and Justin Young for the story of a kid from Oregon who hustled baseball cards at Monopoly, discovered card counting through Mensa, and eventually decided he wanted a cut of the poker business—not just the pots. He was making the calls. Filling the seats. Buying the drinks. Getting PLO games off the ground. The casino was collecting the rake. So he asked for half. They offered 40%. He says he would've happily taken 20%. That deal leads us into the business behind the games: hosting, casino politics, ownership at Live at the Bike, and why getting pushed out didn't mean the checks stopped coming. And after all of it, Limon says he made millions, kept the money, and walked away when the job stopped being fun. His explanation: “I'm too rich for this.” In this episode: ♠️ Becoming the house: Limon explains the table-stakes catch with an example of a $50,000 royal flush and a banker with only $10,000 in front of him. ♥️ The 40% rake deal—and what happened when the casino owner noticed how much the PLO host was getting paid. ♦️ Limon's side of the Live at the Bike split: Ryan Feldman, Doug Polk, a change in the business model, and getting paid for another year before the buyout. ♣️ The Main Event bet that lets you pick 100 top players—and why Limon says he's never lost it. We also get into: Talking his way into university without submitting an application first. A 100% rakeback account at Ultimate Bet, being cheated, and the refund he says never came. Why he blames bigger stakes and nonstop bomb pots for driving his regulars away. His WPT call-in show, where the people he talks about can call to argue back. Why he misses the old gambling scene—and thinks modern poker feels like a cubicle job. 👇 Drop a comment: Has poker gotten better—or have we just gotten better at making it boring? Follow the show for more stories from the people who've lived it. Preferably before Limon gets us banned. Show Notes 00:27 — Meet Limon + “Country Club Ready” 02:50 — Where the Name Limon Came From 06:12 — Oregon Roots + Hustling Baseball Cards 11:27 — Talking His Way Into University 15:29 — Mensa, Card Counting + Getting Paid to Solve Puzzles 17:05 — Being Cheap Without Being Miserable 20:47 — Bookmaking, Credit + Keeping Customers in Action 26:46 — Getting Paid When Gamblers Owe You Money 30:01 — Card Counting Bans + A Career in Finance 33:50 — Becoming the House + The Royal Flush Catch 41:46 — Playing Poker at Work + Teaching the Boss 46:02 — Ultimate Bet, 100% Rakeback + The Missing Refund 49:08 — Getting Crushed in PLO + Wanting a Cut of the Rake 53:12 — Negotiating the 40% Rake Deal 59:27 — Live at the Bike + Hosts Losing in Their Own Games 1:05:34 — Early Poker Streams + The Money Behind the Table 1:10:58 — Bart, Ownership + Building Live at the Bike 1:13:24 — Ryan Feldman, Doug Polk + The Buyout 1:19:51 — Moving to Commerce + Protecting the Game 1:26:09 — Bigger Stakes, Bomb Pots + Losing the Regulars 1:32:08 — “I'm Too Rich for This” + Walking Away 1:33:09 — The WPT Call-In Show 1:34:51 — The 100-Player Main Event Bet 1:39:52 — Golf Hustles + What Happened to Gambling? T1 Links What is Table 1? Find out here 👇 https://table1.vegas Follow us: X — https://x.com/table1vegas IG — https://instagram.com/table1vegas #Limon #Poker #Table1Podcast

Owen Messere quit university twice. His parents were happier the second time. The first time, he was studying maths at a campus he hadn't realized he'd signed up for. He discovered the mistake while booking his train. Seven and a half hours from London. Surprise. An acid trip, a long conversation with a mate, and a decision: he was going home. He tried again. Philosophy at Warwick. Better friends. A degree he actually enjoyed. Then he won a £10 poker tournament. Soon, Owen was spending around 70 hours a week playing and studying. Christmas revision became hours poring over poker simulations. His parents had never seen him work that hard at anything. Leaving university again suddenly made more sense to them than staying. This was the same kid who learned chess at three, played for England's junior team by eleven, and retired at fourteen. Now he'd found a game he couldn't leave alone. He filled notebooks with bluffs. Rented a server to run simulations. Spent months chasing answers to hands that didn't make sense. Then he studied heads-up so hard that, when he started taking on the regulars, some reported him for using real-time assistance. His explanation: he'd studied. He thought it was fun. In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Owen “Pr0digy” Messere joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the full ride: ♠️ BTC Demon wins about $1.3 million off him at $1,000/$2,000 heads-up — while Owen scrambles to sell action. ♥️ A roughly $150K tournament win funds bigger cash-game shots. More than half his bankroll disappears before he gets help. ♦️ The Doug Polk challenge: nearly $200K up on day one, almost all of it gone on day two, and a nine-high call he thought was a flush. ♣️ Around $600K in profit at the Cash Game World Championships — followed by another championship run that comes down to a river decision with minutes left. We also get into: Turning chess into a drinking game without trusting your teammate. Why studying solvers made poker stranger and more interesting. Learning that high-stakes regulars aren't all unbeatable. Why Owen thinks the winning hand should always be shown. A $50K Rolex and some very concerned players in Barcelona. Going from student to partner at Guerrilla Poker, and why getting better can mean getting less action. It's a story about finding the work you want to do even when nobody's making you do it. 👇 Drop a comment: Would you have backed Owen's decision to quit university for poker — or told him to finish the degree? Show Notes 00:29 — Intro + The $1.3M BTC Demon Session 07:37 — London Roots + England's Junior Chess Team 20:23 — Rugby, ADHD + The Wrong University Campus 27:12 — Dropping Out + Finding a Different Path 30:56 — The First Poker Win 35:54 — Early Wins + The Reality Check 40:09 — Getting Obsessed with Solvers 49:19 — Going Pro + His Parents' Support 53:55 — Heads-Up, a $150K Score + Moving Up 59:59 — Guerrilla Poker + Learning to Exploit 1:04:24 — Reported as a Bot + Taking Over the Lobbies 1:08:11 — The Doug Polk Challenge 1:15:20 — The Cash Game Championships 1:19:11 — A $600K Win + A Last-Minute Near Miss 1:23:10 — Why Tournaments Drive Him Crazy 1:26:53 — Coaching, Streaming + What's Next Owen's Links: X: https://x.com/OwenMessere Twitch: https://twitch.tv/pr0diiigy Guerrilla Poker: https://guerrilla-poker.com/ T1 Links What is Table 1? Find out here 👇 https://table1.vegas Follow us: X - https://x.com/table1vegas IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Sean McCormack started dealing poker at a dog track. Somehow, he ended up dancing with J.Lo at her house. We may have picked the wrong side of the table. This week, “The Poker Boss” joins Art and Justin for the story of a guy who wanted to play poker for a living—and found a different way to make it in Vegas. He leaves Florida with about $1,000 and two suitcases. His first table dealing at Bellagio? Bobby’s Room. $4,000/$8,000. Doyle Brunson. Chip Reese. Pretty much everybody whose picture is on the wall. No pressure, kid. Doyle has to put a hand on his arm and tell him to slow down. Years later, Bobby Baldwin is asking him to run ARIA’s poker room. We get into how that happened, why the reserved-game arguments got so ugly, and what Alan Keating understood about people that a lot of poker pros missed. There’s also a Devilfish story involving a suspicious “$10,000” cash bundle, a car coming through the casino lobby, and Kevin Hart taking over a call to Sean’s wife. And before we let him go, we get into hidden cameras, game integrity, and why Sean says the way dealers pitch cards needs to change. Turns out, the guy dealing the cards sometimes leaves with the best stories. Tell us in the comments: What’s the most ridiculous place poker has taken you? Like the episode? Follow Table 1 on Spotify. We’ve got more people with questionable career plans and excellent stories coming your way. SHOW NOTES 0:00 Intro 0:34 Meet The Poker Boss 1:32 Growing Up in Massachusetts 13:34 Computers, Basketball & the Move to Florida 18:33 Catching the Poker Bug 23:26 Casino Boats & the Dog-Track Audition 28:37 Taking the Show on the Road: The WPT 33:19 A Car Comes Through the Casino Lobby 38:40 Devilfish’s “$10,000” Surprise 41:32 $1,000, Two Suitcases & a Midnight Departure 47:41 First Table at Bellagio: Bobby’s Room 50:24 From Dealer to the Rules Guy 57:50 The Call From Bobby Baldwin 59:53 Reserved Games & the Backlash 1:09:07 What Alan Keating Figured Out 1:13:23 Behind the PokerGO Deal 1:17:37 Kevin Hart Hijacks a Phone Call 1:20:50 Poker at Ben & J.Lo’s House 1:27:32 Hidden Cameras & Changing the Deal 1:33:27 Bellagio’s Slide-Pitch Plan 1:38:08 Shufflers, Home Games & Game Integrity 1:42:36 Where to Find The Poker Boss PLAY WITH US IN VEGAS Come for the poker. Leave with a story. table1.vegas SUPPORT THE SHOW Safe Travels Bag — use code TABLE1 at checkout. Justin’s How to Crush Live Cash Games course Phenom Poker — use code TABLE1. SEAN’S LINKS @ThePokerBoss on X TABLE 1 LINKS Table 1 on X Table 1 on Instagram #Table1Podcast #Poker #DoyleBrunson

Mike Holtz thought “Napster” was just a guy in his World of Warcraft group. It was the guy who created Napster. They’d been playing together for years. Mike had no idea. At 17, he was traveling to gaming tournaments with him—with his mom’s permission. Poker was something they played between dungeon raids. Then the gaming circuit lost its funding. What followed wasn’t exactly a straight line to the WSOP. Selling weed. Thirty days in jail. A hotel front-desk job. Then an invitation to a $300 home game with the wealthiest business owners in town. His boss warned him: these guys were sharks. Mike won about $1,100. They invited him back. He says he won every Tuesday for a year. The poker money was beating the paycheck, and his biggest worry was that they’d stop inviting him. Vegas proved a little less cooperative. There were cash-game struggles, a marriage breakdown, and a return to World of Warcraft during COVID. One of his Twitch regulars turned out to be David Williams. Somehow, gaming kept bringing him back to poker. By 2021, he was chasing WSOP.com Player of the Year. The guy who used to sleep beside his computer to grind Warcraft rankings had found another leaderboard. In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, two-time WSOP bracelet winner and PokerNews Podcast co-host Mike Holtz joins Art Parmann and Justin Young for the stories behind the results: ♠️ The family secret that led to a private investigator—and a brother living 30 minutes away ♥️ Thirty days in jail, where he already knew half the people inside ♦️ Talking the final table into an $11,650-per-person chop with seven big blinds… then busting two hands later ♣️ The fake tournament-package story he told his boss to get to Vegas ♠️ Turning the online tournament grind into two WSOP.com Player of the Year titles ♥️ Why he says his online bracelet was harder to win than his live one ♦️ A WSOP rail chant he had to shut down before heads-up ♣️ Joining PokerNews, interviewing Maurice Hawkins, and the bracelet-ceremony “apology” About that apology. Mike got onstage and said he wanted to apologize to Maurice Hawkins. “For absolutely nothing.” Then dropped the mic. We also get into the two-monitor kitchen-table setup, taking naps with 12 players left, and the coaching videos he keeps winning too much—and procrastinating too hard—to finish. Probably not the preparation routine you’ll find in a poker textbook. 👇 Drop a comment: What’s the strangest thing that led you to poker? Mike’s Links X: https://x.com/MikeHoltzPoker IG: https://instagram.com/MikeHoltzPoker T1 Links Play with us at Phenom Poker: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1 Play with us at Table 1: https://table1.vegas Justin’s Poker Coaching Series: Learn to Crush Live Poker — https://pokercoaching.com/table1 Follow T1: X — https://x.com/table1vegas IG — https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Phil Hellmuth wanted bracelet No. 18. Darren Rabinowitz wanted him to call it off on the turn. He was dying to say, “If you call, it’s all over, baby.” Instead, he kept his mouth shut and let Phil make the decision. Darren got the bracelet. Not bad for a guy whose plan was to spend one month in Vegas, then move back in with his parents and find a job. That was in 2012. His girlfriend had dumped him. She lived in the apartment next door. She already had a new boyfriend. And his job at Bank of America wasn’t giving him much reason to stick around. So he quit, found a free room in a UNLV fraternity house, and started grinding single-table satellites. The move back to Seattle never happened. Eventually, he upgraded to a $600-a-month apartment with scorpions and cockroaches. Found friends who were better at poker. Got backed. Made the Aussie Millions final table. Spent years figuring out how to keep doing this for a living. Then came the summer he knocked Daniel Negreanu out of the Main Event and beat Hellmuth heads-up for his second WSOP bracelet. In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Darren joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk through the whole ride: ♠️ Three teenage grinders, two computer chairs, and a race to avoid the milk crate ♥️ Flunking freshman year, fraternity poker, and leaving the bank job ♦️ How a Lock Poker satellite introduced him to the backer who changed his career ♣️ The Aussie Millions final table where he was too intimidated to ask for a chop ♠️ Backing deals, makeup, and what better poker friends actually teach you ♥️ The WSOP.com grind, “Avocado Toast,” and his very active block button ♦️ Winning at Planet Hollywood while his empty seat cashed at Wynn ♣️ Saving Justin from blinding out of a tournament he forgot to show up for ♠️ The cameras, the rail, and the heads-up battle to deny Hellmuth No. 18 And after what he calls the coolest moment of his poker life? He showed up for a $1,600 tournament the next day. “I play poker. Like, that’s what I do.” 👇 Drop a comment: Who would you most want to beat heads-up for a WSOP bracelet? Show Notes 00:00 — Intro + Darren Rabinowitz 02:46 — Seattle Roots & Family 08:34 — Finding Online Poker 14:18 — College, Banking & Leaving Arizona 21:43 — First Vegas Summer & Early Bankroll 31:13 — Poker Friends & Aussie Millions 39:19 — Backing Deals & Life on the Circuit 44:36 — The Online Grind & COVID 54:37 — Golf & Returning to Live Poker 59:23 — Two Tournaments, Two Casinos 1:07:49 — The WSOP Summer & The Last $5K 1:13:23 — Final-Table Pressure 1:17:10 — Heads-Up Against Phil Hellmuth 1:19:35 — Winning the Bracelet & What’s Next Darren’s Links X: https://x.com/DarrenRabbi IG: https://instagram.com/DarrenRabbi T1 Links Play with us at Phenom Poker (200% deposit bonus!): https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1 Play with us at Table 1: https://table1.vegas Justin’s Poker Coaching Series: Learn to Crush Live Poker — https://pokercoaching.com/table1 Follow T1: X — https://x.com/table1vegas IG — https://instagram.com/table1vegas