How I Handle $200K Poker Swings | Rampage Poker DSH #1411

Summary

Digital Social Hour: How I Handle $200K Poker Swings | Rampage Poker DSH #1411

Released on June 21, 2025

Introduction

In the latest episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly sits down with Ethan, also known in the poker world as Rampage Poker. The conversation delves into Ethan's intense poker routines, his strategies for managing significant financial swings, and the challenges of balancing a professional poker career with content creation. Throughout the episode, Ethan offers candid insights into the highs and lows of tournament play, his approach to mental resilience, and his aspirations within the poker and digital content landscapes.

A Grueling Poker Schedule

Ethan discusses the demanding schedule that comes with being a professional tournament poker player, especially during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) season. Playing 10 to 12 hours a day over a six-week period requires immense dedication and stamina.

"It's the summertime is like the most busy for poker players and tournament players because there's just always something to play and then if you want to win and do well, then you have to... hopefully you last the whole day." (00:34)

Handling Losses and Financial Swings

Ethan recounts a particularly challenging day at the Aria, where he faced a series of losses, rebuying six times and not winning any pots, highlighting the volatile nature of tournament poker.

"Yesterday was probably one of the worst days I had in poker. I fired so many bullets. I just kept rebuying and rebuying... I bought in six times." (00:56)

Despite these setbacks, Ethan maintains a positive outlook, emphasizing the importance of persistence and the potential for one significant win to offset numerous losses.

"It takes one. Yeah. It's hard to win, but it's just about showing up every day and just trying to just be there." (01:57)

Tournament Strategies and Experiences

Ethan shares his approach to tournament buy-ins, discussing a unique prop bet where his buy-ins are doubled, effectively allowing others to bet on his performance.

"Everything that I've bought in is doubled. So I allowed people to fade me who think I'm bad at poker. So I actually have more action on myself." (02:12)

He reflects on past experiences, such as playing high-stakes tournaments like the $25,000 buy-in events, and the emotional toll they can take.

"Last year I played the 25k, I was on the bubble and... it was the most anxiety I've ever felt in my life." (03:09)

Balancing Poker with Content Creation

Ethan elaborates on his dual role as a poker player and a content creator, highlighting the challenges of dedicating time to both endeavors. He discusses the importance of vlogging his tournaments and the impact of content on his poker career.

"I'm investing a lot more into trying to put more effort into the videos... I'm trying to split my time as efficiently as possible with both, and something has to give." (27:56)

Ethan expresses a desire to expand his content strategy by exploring shorts and other digital media formats to reach a broader audience.

"I want to like put more time and effort into the videos, experiment with like shorts and stuff, which is a huge opportunity that I've been ignoring for the past few years." (28:15)

Emotional Control and Tilt Management

The conversation touches on the psychological aspects of poker, particularly dealing with tilt and maintaining emotional control during high-stakes play. Ethan admits that emotional regulation is an area he's actively working on.

"I don't think I've ever been known to have good emotional control, but I'm working on it." (39:25)

He shares personal strategies, such as taking extended breaks to decompress and managing his mental state to stay focused during tournaments.

"I took a break for like 45 minutes, called some people, said happy Father's Day and stuff like that. But long break." (39:43)

Future Aspirations and Goals

Ethan outlines his ambitions within the poker world, expressing a strong desire to participate in elite tournaments like the Triton series, which he considers the pinnacle of poker competition.

"I need a Triton tournament. I would consider Triton to be like, at the top of the industry history with how the events are run, the buy-ins, the prize pools." (33:56)

He also discusses his aspirations related to content creation, aiming to build a robust media team to enhance his digital presence.

"I'm in this process now trying to like, hire a media team or internally at least, and slowly build it out." (27:43)

Conclusion

Ethan's candid discussion on Digital Social Hour offers a transparent look into the life of a professional poker player navigating the turbulent waters of high-stakes tournaments and the demanding world of digital content creation. His resilience in the face of financial swings, dedication to continual improvement, and strategic approach to balancing multiple career paths provide valuable insights for aspiring poker professionals and content creators alike.

Notable Quotes:

• "It takes one. Yeah. It's hard to win, but it's just about showing up every day and just trying to just be there." (01:57)
• "Everything that I've bought in is doubled. So I allowed people to fade me who think I'm bad at poker." (02:12)
• "I think I'm... I have to be down. I've lost so many big pots versus him." (16:30)
• "The gap between like the best player in the world and like a bottom tier player, I guess we'll say is, is shrinking for sure." (18:45)
• "I need a Triton tournament. I would consider Triton to be like, at the top of the industry history." (33:56)

Key Takeaways:

• Persistence Pays Off: Despite facing significant losses, Ethan emphasizes the importance of persistence in tournament poker, highlighting the potential for one big win to make up for multiple losses.

• Balancing Dual Careers: Managing a career in professional poker alongside content creation presents challenges, but Ethan is actively seeking strategies to optimize his time and efforts in both areas.

• Emotional Resilience: Maintaining emotional control is crucial in high-stakes environments. Ethan acknowledges his ongoing journey toward better emotional regulation to enhance his poker performance.

• Aiming for Excellence: Ethan's goal to participate in elite tournaments like Triton reflects his ambition to compete at the highest levels and solidify his standing in the poker community.

Final Thoughts

Ethan's insights offer a window into the complexities of professional poker and the dedication required to excel both at the table and in the digital realm. His experiences underscore the importance of mental fortitude, strategic planning, and adaptability in achieving long-term success.

Transcript

[Ethan]

Been super upset about something he would be upset during the game about, I don't know, losing a lot of money or whatever it was. So I caught him in, I guess for me, the most opportune moments because he was not himself. Airball's, I think, a very good player. People ragged him a lot, but I, I think he's very solid when he's not tilted. He's not tilted when he wants to play well and try. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Okay, guys, got Ethan here, AKA Rampage poker. Busy time of year for you, so thanks for making the time to. Come on, man.

[Ethan]

Yeah, happy. Happy to be here.

[Unknown]

Yeah. You're playing 10 to 12 hours a day this week.

[Ethan]

It's been really long with WSOP stuff going on. Yeah, the summer time is like the most busy for poker players and tournament players because there's just always something to play and then if you want to win and do well, then you have to. Well, hopefully you last the whole day.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

And you start again the next day and then the next day and then there's always something. The fire. So it's been busy.

[Unknown]

So do you take time off before starts to just mentally prepare or how does that work?

[Ethan]

Yeah, I took, I took a month off from poker for playing live, basically, which was nice. And that like, kind of prepared me for the next. The, the full six week grind of playing every single day. But yeah, I'm definitely like, yesterday was probably one of the worst days I had in poker.

[Unknown]

Damn.

[Ethan]

I fired so many bullets. I just kept rebuying and rebuying and rebuying, which is kind of standard and normal for the tournament, like play style and variance of it all. But to have it all consolidated in like one tournament feel. Feels bad. I bought in six times. Jeez. At the aria and I was there for like four hours or something. So it was constant death in the tournament and then reborn again. And then. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Were you running bad or what happened?

[Ethan]

Oh, I wasn't running good, that was for sure. I actually didn't win a pot that all six bullets is what I remember.

[Unknown]

Yeah, same.

[Ethan]

Yeah, that felt bad. But it's, it's part of like kind of the normal tournament experience and what we sign up for. So, you know, I'm happy that I get the opportunity to play poker for a living and compete in a card game. I love playing, so how bad can it really be?

[Unknown]

Yeah, all it takes is one good deep run, right, to offset that.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it takes one. Yeah. It's hard to win, but it's just about showing up every day and Just trying to just be there.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Showing up is like half the battle.

[Unknown]

What buy in range is like your optimal range for these tournaments.

[Ethan]

You'd say I'm somewhere. I mean this summer I've played anywhere between like, yeah, $800 buy ins to like 10ks and then 25k, sometimes a stretch. But I have this like very different prop bet. This specific summer for the next six weeks is that everything that I've bought in is doubled. So I allowed people to fade me who think I'm bad at poker. So I actually have more action on myself. So like Yesterday was a 1600 buying at Aria because I have outside action not with the casino but with other people, like booking it. Essentially I have another sixteen hundred dollars on top.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ethan]

Against others.

[Unknown]

So they're betting on you to lose? How does that work?

[Ethan]

Yeah, they're betting me to lose. So essentially my profit and loss at the end of the summer, whatever that is, plus or minus, will just be doubled.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ethan]

So I, I have, Yeah, I have 95%. So I'm just going to round up and just say I have pretty much the whole thing. So.

[Unknown]

Yeah, totally. Crap. I do that every World Series. Or is that just a one time thing?

[Ethan]

I did it last summer so I had like 78%. And then I really wanted to do it again this summer and experimented. I tweeted, asked people who thought I was bad at poker, tried to just get more action on myself, which is fun because now everything's doubled. So that's kind of why I didn't want to play the 25k. Because that would have been 50k.

[Unknown]

Yeah, that would have been a big one.

[Ethan]

Last year. Last year I, I played the 25k, I was on the bubble and I was all in and my heart was beating out of my. It was the most anxiety I've ever felt in my life.

[Unknown]

That's interesting to see someone like you still have those emotions.

[Ethan]

Yeah, something about tournaments, man, they're, they're a lot of fun, they're competitive and the, the life in the tournament is like very fleeting. So you can just be out at any moment and then if that my opponent called, then I'm just like a 50, 50 of whether I'm in the tournament or not. And that was the, that's where all the anxiety came from.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I guess you're always on edge because you, you've invested so much time too into the tournament.

[Ethan]

Exactly. Yeah. When you're on the bubble, which is like 11, like let's say 12% of the field pay you've already knocked out like 88% of the field. Now you want to at least have a chance to double your money and then have a chance to win first place.

[Unknown]

Yeah. So did you make money last World Series? Were you profitable?

[Ethan]

I made money, yeah. That was good. I made two final tables. So all the money in tournament poker is all at the final table and at really all the money's in first and second place. I didn't win anything, but I made enough money at the final table. Aware I was able to offset all of the tournament buy ins.

[Unknown]

Nice. Yeah. Tournaments seem to be your. Your bread and butter, right?

[Ethan]

It's fun. Yeah, it's. It's the format that I continually keep showing up at and spend the most time doing for one reason or other. I like the idea of competition in tournament poker. Feels like the perfect competitive arena environment compared to playing cash games.

[Unknown]

I always thought it was interesting how certain players are so much better. Tournaments versus cash games.

[Ethan]

You? Yeah, I mean, it's just how much time you spend like.

[Unknown]

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[Ethan]

Studying the game and learning about it and just how many hours you spend on the table. Yeah, but if you keep showing up, then they'll eventually get results.

[Unknown]

Absolutely. Yeah. Like Hellmuth is one of them where he'll dominate tournaments.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

And then I've seen him lose a lot in cash games.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it seems like he, I mean, yeah, he's just a tournament guy. He's like the guy for tournaments. Right.

[Unknown]

It's a different style. Right. You're playing way slower paced.

[Ethan]

A different style, more all ins, a lot more leaning on variance and luck. For the most part. I feel like we're in cash. You can kind of grind and fold away for forever really, if you wanted to.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

And wait for good hands. But here you're kind of forced in the action to some degree because the blinds keep going up and then you lose chips. So yeah, you're forced to play hands.

[Unknown]

Who do you got winning the 250k high roll? Are you got any predictions for that one?

[Ethan]

I. I mean, Martin Cabral's chip leading. It's hard to like say. I don't know who's actually in the field, but yeah, it's hard to bet against the chip leader at the moment right now.

[Unknown]

Yeah, he's in chip lead by a lot too.

[Ethan]

He's kind of good at that. He's good at talking his way into the opponent, doing whatever he wants.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Have you played against him before?

[Ethan]

I've played against, yeah, I'd say I've played against them on the bubble of a like $1,500 buy in. He's also an insane person. He'll play. I've seen him grind like the $800 buy ins and now the biggest buy in the $250,000. And I was on the bubble right next to him and he was doing his thing and it was, it's good content. It's good content for the audience. Being next to him and being part of it is sometimes a lot, but it's a good change of pace. It's good for poker at least.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Has he ever gotten in your head or has anyone ever gotten in your head like that?

[Ethan]

He, he, he, he got me, he got me in my head because I was more focused on what he was saying than. And I forgot how big the pot was. I remember I was playing some pot versus him, like a small pot, but I usually just do the math of like counting out how many chips are in the middle and. And then I was playing this hand where there's like maybe five big blinds in the pot. Not, not very big at all. But I just couldn't do the math because he just kept talking non stop and he's very loud and he's funny, entertaining. So I just kind of lost it.

[Unknown]

Damn. So it worked.

[Ethan]

I ended up just folding. I was like, I, I actually, I think I had like a normal fold, but I was just like, I don't even want to deal with this anymore. Just move on.

[Unknown]

That's what he wants though, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, he's great at that. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Double dank.

[Ethan]

That's his skill.

[Unknown]

They gave him a time clock this.

[Ethan]

Year, I heard, like individual, personal time clock. Yeah. Maybe for the bigger events because he just takes a lot of time with his antics and stuff.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

So from like a poker playing experience, I definitely understand how players are annoyed at it because it just disrupts the flow of the game and makes things a lot slower. And he takes all the advantage of obviously the, of the social side. But then from an entertainment standpoint as an audience, like, it's just, it's, it's perfect for poker. Really?

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

I'm a fan.

[Unknown]

I know he has a lot of hate, but he's like the Nick Kyrgos. If you watch tennis. He's like the Nick. Here goes a poker.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

A little controversial.

[Ethan]

Yeah, he has a lot of clips. Both of them have a lot of like, controversial clips, but are at the most part very, very entertaining to watch.

[Unknown]

I'm a fan. Like, I also like chess and I normally you can't talk shit during chess, but there's this one guy, Hans Niemann, who's just like talking.

[Ethan]

Oh, he does the talking shit.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

That's cool.

[Unknown]

Yeah. And I like that. I think more, more sports should have that.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Talking ability.

[Ethan]

I mean, it's such a cool skill, especially in chess. It's so much mental. So to be able to throw someone off their game, like just to break their train of thought is. Is such a huge win.

[Unknown]

Exactly. You play any chess?

[Ethan]

No, I wish. I'm really bad.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I've never.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I'm really bad at chess.

[Unknown]

You still play any video games? I saw you say on another show you used to play a lot of video games.

[Ethan]

Yeah, not I haven't in a while, but I'll hop in on Cod or Fortnite whenever. Just to go back to the OG games. Yeah, like OG fort whenever that's out, that's always a lot of good fun to go back to. Like the nostalgia of just grinding with friends.

[Unknown]

I still play Fortnite.

[Ethan]

It's a good time.

[Unknown]

I'm a sweat.

[Ethan]

You're a sweat?

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Build or no build?

[Unknown]

No build. Okay. Now those build games, those kids are too much.

[Ethan]

Yeah. They've advanced like insane level.

[Unknown]

I can't keep up. Dude. Those kids are freaks.

[Ethan]

I remember I bought a scuff just for build and I was just trying to like compete and.

[Unknown]

Oh, you play on controller? Yeah.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Ethan]

I'm a. I'm on PC but I'm on controller because I never learned how to do the most in keyboard.

[Unknown]

Interesting.

[Ethan]

And I was too lazy to go through this learning process of being really, really bad and having a miserable time to invest into like maybe getting better. But yeah, I'm a controller.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I feel like mouse and keyboard is, is the way to go.

[Ethan]

Of course. Yeah. It's not even close. Yeah, I, I like seeing like whenever I'm team scrolling, I like seeing some of these clips when they train on with the mouse and keyboard. I forget like what the. The software is called, but you just like train your intuition and.

[Unknown]

And I've seen those.

[Ethan]

Yeah. Just click, click, click, click, click and it's insane. It's insane.

[Unknown]

Dude, that's nuts. Wow. Are you playing any high roller events this world Series? Are you. You taking it with the.

[Ethan]

Well, everything is passed from the high roller standpoint. It was all last week. Oh no, I haven't. It was like. It's kind of wild that they scheduled the events in this way where they have all the 25s 50s, 102 50s. And then after the 250 like the. My friends that are playing it, they're going to go back to the grind in like the 3Ks.

[Unknown]

Damn.

[Ethan]

So it's, it's a huge drop off of buying level. But yeah, I think this 250, that's happening right now is the last high roller and then the rest would be like normal events.

[Unknown]

Wow. So that's the highest one. I thought there was like a 500 and a million or something.

[Ethan]

No, sometimes like WPT has like this million like one drop or something. That happens from time to time, but that's not during the summer.

[Unknown]

Have you ever played in that one?

[Ethan]

I was trying to sell action two years ago, I think just to gauge and see if I could play because I think from a content perspective would have been perfect.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

But it never ended up working. I mean a million's a lot. So the highest buy in tournament I've played is just a 25K.

[Unknown]

Oh, okay.

[Ethan]

And then I remember I was, I registered for a 50k buy in in December of 2023 and I was going to like max late reg which is entering at the last possible moment before registration ends. And then I was in line just like waiting for my seat card and then I saw like 10 other people standing around me and it's all these crushers. It's just like Seth Davies, Adrian Mateus who Love Ponakovs, everyone. Yeah. And I just looked around and I just knew I didn't belong to it. So I just unregged actually. First time I ever did. Smart move. Yeah, I think it was a, it was a sharp move. Yeah. For sure.

[Unknown]

There's levels and those guys are just next level, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, yeah. And 50K is like just a normal whatever buy in for them.

[Unknown]

I feel like that's a pocket change for those guys.

[Ethan]

I'm just like losing my mind and.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Do you play different on stream? Because I know you want to get these clips right when you're playing in these crazy big hands.

[Ethan]

Yeah. On stream. Very different because those are usually cash games. So I think the strategy between tournaments and cash are very different. So. And then on top of it like for content and playing in essentially like a private game, there's a lot more gamble and I'm not really trying to win as much.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Because I know people will hate on you. Like you're playing weird on the stream or whatever. But I, I know as a content creator you're going for these clips too.

[Ethan]

For the clips. Yeah. That's how it's always been with cash games. But with tournaments it's like a completely different thing where I can just be solely focused on trying to win and do my best. Sometimes my best. Is it like that great because I'm not super studied but yeah, I mean that's the cool part about tournaments is that I don't need to like, feel forced to give action, gain more, do these things. I just want to do what's best for me.

[Unknown]

Are you vlogging your. Your tournaments?

[Ethan]

Yeah. Yeah. You're vlogging everything.

[Unknown]

I feel like that's the new era of poker content, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. There's so much more eyeballs and investment of time and content into the space. Like, there's a lot more people making videos from short form, long form, all of it. So it's good for the space.

[Unknown]

There seems to be a lot of interest. Like, Alan Keating's first vlog got like, how many views? It was crazy.

[Ethan]

500, I think. I looked at it recently for a.

[Unknown]

First videos and crushed. Yeah, Very impressive.

[Ethan]

Have you had a mod before?

[Unknown]

No. I'd love to. He's very interesting person.

[Ethan]

He would be. Yeah. It'd be cool to like pick his brain and see what he's doing. He's invested a lot of time and resources into the vlogs and content. So I'm really curious, like, for someone that's as successful as he is, what, like the motivation is to build this personal brand and stuff.

[Unknown]

I wonder if he planned that from the start because he was always like a mysterious guy. Like, how did this guy get money? Like, he's playing million dollar hands.

[Ethan]

Right.

[Unknown]

And then he started the blog later.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

At least he's like, I hope you.

Guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with algorithm. Thank you.

[Ethan]

Blind playing million dollar hands too. So I mean that his cards and he's just playing massive pots. It's amazing.

[Unknown]

What's your most memorable hand with him?

[Ethan]

I haven't played with him.

[Unknown]

Oh, you haven't?

[Ethan]

No, I haven't had a chance to play with him yet. Damn.

[Unknown]

I've heard some crazy stories with him.

[Ethan]

I. I believe it, seen it all else there at least. But yeah.

[Unknown]

You've played with airball though, right?

[Ethan]

I've played with airball.

[Unknown]

Did you say you're up or down against him? Heads up.

[Ethan]

I'm up for sure.

[Unknown]

Oh, nice.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I've gotten the best of him in, in a lot of big spots, so my history with them has been good. I will say though, the last pot that we played against him, he stacked me for a hundred thousand dollar pot, so. But we've played insanely much bigger pots. And like the thing, the thing is with airball, like, I got super lucky because for one reason or another. There was a span like two years ago where I would play with him. I played with him for like, five times straight or something on Hustler.

[Unknown]

Just.

[Ethan]

I don't play that much, and he's there all the time. But every time I showed up, he would be. Somehow, Max tilted this session. He'd either come in super upset about something, he would be upset during the game about, I don't know, losing a lot of money or whatever it was. So I caught him in, I guess, for me, the most opportune moments because he was not himself. Airball's, I think, a very good player. People ragged him a lot, but I think he's very solid when he's not tilted. He's not tilted when he wants to play well and try. Yeah, he's certainly very solid.

[Unknown]

Are you up or down against Mariano? Heads up.

[Ethan]

I think I'm. I mean, I have to be down. I've lost so many big pots versus him.

[Unknown]

I've seen a lot of those putts.

[Ethan]

Yeah, he. He runs pretty good.

[Unknown]

You think he's running good or you think he's better than you?

[Ethan]

He's better than me, for sure, but he's also run pretty well. He's. I. I also respect, like, him, his poker ability, and he's also a close friend of mine, so, yeah, if I'm going to lose to someone, at least it's going to be him. But there's one pot that I'll. That will always, like, burn a hole in my head. We played like, a $200,000 potential. It was my aces versus ace, king, pre flop. We just chop.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ethan]

It's just a chop. Just a normal standard chop.

[Unknown]

Somehow the odds of that are, what, like, 2% higher?

[Ethan]

Oh, higher for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I don't know what the percentage is, but it's higher than 2. Lower than 18, for sure.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Ethan]

Somewhere between 2 and 15, I think.

[Unknown]

Do you know the percentages, like, off the top of your head? For most. For the most part. With the most common hands?

[Ethan]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Most of them are like flips, right? Like Ace King versus Jack 10. I think, like, ace king's like a. I don't know, 60 or something.

[Unknown]

Yes. Enough to have some people literally memorize those. And it's, like, insane to me. But you'll know the exact odds of winning.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it's good to know. I'm not super informed about this, to be honest.

[Unknown]

You more play off the.

[Ethan]

I don't know, like, ace size better than Jack 10 and then. But sometimes. But Jack 10 can still win a lot of the time because it's, you know, there's no pairs and stuff.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah, I know. People study the solvers like nonstop these days, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, yeah, that would be smart to do.

[Unknown]

Do you spend a lot of time on that or.

[Ethan]

No, I, I should spend some time or more time with it for sure. But my time's been focused with like videos and content and trying to do new things.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

But yeah, I think I should probably study way more than I can actually play like some of the high roller events. I can be well more equipped to compete at that level.

[Unknown]

I mean it's interesting because I just had Patrick on. He doesn't really use solvers. I've had Bryn Kenny on who's like number one in winnings. He doesn't use solvers.

[Ethan]

Hellmuth Brynn is up so much money. It's so important.

[Unknown]

It's nuts though. So like some people are still crushing it without them. So.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I mean it all like I don't have the experience intuition that they have. Right. I think like they've been in the game for more years than I've been alive almost, I feel like. And they've just built up this feel intuition and just like normal like social cues that they understand that I just don't have the experience with.

[Unknown]

Yeah. They were also saying everyone has access to such good information now, so people are learning how to play quicker.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

And the skill level has gone up.

[Ethan]

A lot for sure. Yeah. Yeah. The gap between like the best player in the world and like a bottom tier player, I guess we'll say is, is shrinking for sure.

[Unknown]

Yeah. So it's harder to find like good games I guess, right?

[Ethan]

I guess, yeah. It depends on who you know. Yeah. Or the tournaments. Right. Like what I love about tournaments is that it's all public, there's no private game, there's no politics aspect to it. So you just show up. Here's their buy in.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Ethan]

Compete.

[Unknown]

When you make it to a final table, are you studying film on your opponents at that point? No, not say you don't have time, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, it depends, right. Like usually if you make a final table, if it's an in person event, then you have like the night to prepare, but the night like so for these like 10 hours of time that you have before it restarts again, you have to fit in some sleep, personal routine, get your like mind mentally good to play and then maybe you have like handful of hours, 2, 3 hours. Depends on how much you want to sacrifice sleep to prep for it. And usually the prepping would just be about, for me at least, is understanding, like, random situations that may come up. Like, oh, this guy might be like the chip leader and he's going to be way too aggressive. Well, how do I respond to this?

[Unknown]

That makes sense.

[Ethan]

Not like individual, like, what are his tells and stuff like that. I've never been like a tells person.

[Unknown]

Really?

[Ethan]

Yeah. I have no idea how to read people.

[Unknown]

Whoa.

[Ethan]

Terrible. Am I. I think my, like, social skills overall are one of the worst parts of my game, for sure.

[Unknown]

That's so interesting to me because you think at your level you could pick up on some tells.

[Ethan]

Yeah, no.

[Unknown]

You've never had a. An obvious tell. Like someone.

[Ethan]

No, no. Someone told me recently for this summer, this is how basic and bad my tells are. My friend told me to start looking at the. When you're, like, about to act, you look at your left and then the opponent will sometimes, like, signal if he's folding or has a good hand or calling, whatever. So I just realized that six years in, so now I've realized that, yeah, like, a lot of people at the World Series, like, they'll look at their cars, they'll look like, super disinterested, and then they're ready to fold. Then you can, like, do whatever you want.

[Unknown]

Holy crap.

[Ethan]

Or if they look like they have a good hand, then now you've kind of know. But yeah, I. This is not a part that I'm well verse.

[Unknown]

I wonder if that's an attainable skill, like, if you can learn it.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Just need, like, the right mentor resources.

[Unknown]

You might have to hire Chance Corneth or Nijanu.

[Ethan]

I just might. Yeah. They're the best at it for sure.

[Unknown]

Chance said that's his whole game. Like, he was saying tells are a mate. Like, he doesn't use his phone at the table, which most people do these days. He's locked in the whole time looking for tells.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I think that's sharp. You definitely miss out on so many key information. You're just, like, glued to your phone, not paying attention.

[Unknown]

Meanwhile, you're vlogging, like.

[Ethan]

Yeah, exactly. Just in La La Land with my camera.

[Unknown]

I wonder if that distracts you from the game.

[Ethan]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. I'm not 100% locked in. The cool thing about playing on streams at Hustler and stuff is that they take away your phones. So it's a way different dynamic because no one has their phones. So you're just in tune with the game more making conversation, seeing what's going on?

[Unknown]

Are you up or down at Hustler right now?

[Ethan]

I'm surprisingly up.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Ethan]

I would not have guessed that. I'm up.

[Unknown]

Well done.

[Ethan]

I know I've lost a lot back. Yeah. I'm up like a million. If you can. There's like online sites that track results. According to those sites, I'm up like a million.

[Unknown]

Damn.

[Ethan]

And I lost a million. I'm down a million. So I was up 2, I guess.

[Unknown]

Holy crap.

[Ethan]

I need to find that million back.

[Unknown]

If you're swinging that much, that's a big jump.

[Ethan]

Yeah. The games are big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think like it's pretty easy to win like a hundred thousand on like a good session for how big the games are and how swingy they are. And you can obviously win way more and lose way more at the same time.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

So it's. They're big swings. I'm kind of getting tired of those swings. We're fire playing tournaments.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Because at least you're in for like a certain amount and it's not going to be at least you're not going to lose like a hundred thousand a day playing tournaments.

[Unknown]

What's your stress levels at right now?

[Ethan]

I don't know. Fine, I guess.

[Unknown]

Not too bad.

[Ethan]

Not too bad. Yeah. It can't be that bad. I'm just showing up and playing poker every day, so maybe a little stressed.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Not as bad as playing in like a $300,000 pot on hustler or something.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I just feel like poker pro has got to be one of the most up and down lifestyles.

[Ethan]

Yeah. Things can go really good, things can go really bad and then it can turn and then flick of a switch and you never really know when it's going to be your time, but you kind of just wait patiently. Like that's how tournaments are. Right. You just show up every day and you wait patiently and hope that this bullet is the one that you get super lucky in and win all your all ins.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Club WPT Gold. What's that about on your shirt?

[Ethan]

It's the America's newest online poker site. So it's under the sweepstakes model where 40 if you're in. If you're a resident of the 46 states in the US then you can play some online poker on club wptgolt.com and you can use Code Rampage to sign up. I've given away hundreds of thousands of dollars and they've got like this really cool promo going on right now called the Gold Rush. Ticket where they're hosting a million dollar free roll at the end of the summer. And on top of that, anyone with a ticket has a chance to win an extra million dollars if they win one of the marquee events. So someone this summer played in a $1,500 event and he won it with the ticket. First place paid $250,000, roughly.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ethan]

And then Club WBT Gold gave him an additional $1 million on top of it.

[Unknown]

Holy crap.

[Ethan]

Part of the promotion.

[Unknown]

That's insane.

[Ethan]

Which is kind of nuts. If you're playing heads up and you know that first place is 4, 4x the first place amount and then second and second place, you only get like $150,000. It's a huge swing, which is insane. Sweat.

[Unknown]

Wow. Shout out to them. That's awesome. You play a lot of heads up these days?

[Ethan]

Not a lot of heads up. I'd love to play more. It's a really fun format, but I haven't had much experience in it.

[Unknown]

It does look fun. It's like a mental game going on within the game, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah. That has a lot of like, reading and reading into your opponent and figuring out what they're doing and stuff. That's like a whole different arena, but that's fun. Yeah, I. I think the cool, interesting thing is, at least for me, I don't play much heads up.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

But when you play tournaments, you're playing heads up for the most amount of money, so it doesn't really correlate. Guys should be way better at heads up because the heads up matches are all that matters in tournament poker, really. Because you want to close it out and win.

[Unknown]

That makes sense. If you could play heads up against anyone, who would you pick?

[Ethan]

If I could play heads up against anyone, I would love to play against Mr.

[Unknown]

Beast. Oh, yeah.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

That'd be a good matchup.

[Ethan]

That would be fun. Yeah. Just to have that experience. And he's like, of the, like, idols of my life and inspired me to do content and be better and stuff.

[Unknown]

So really, that'd be great. Nice. He's going to be in Vegas for the next month.

[Ethan]

Oh, cool.

[Unknown]

Games too out here. Okay.

[Ethan]

I saw a tweet, like a rumor of the structure being built for it. So it's confirmed?

[Unknown]

Yeah, it's confirmed. So he was your inspiration for starting the YouTube though?

[Ethan]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's just someone I is starting the YouTube. Learning from him and just seeing like his journey and seeing how I can at least model some of his, like, success and deliver it into Poker would be.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I love that you stuck with the YouTube because I was seeing you on another show. You. You tried 10 different gaming channels before you did poker, but you still kept going.

[Ethan]

Yeah, yeah. I started. I made my first video when I was 12 years old, and then I've just been trying and failing random ideas and gaming channels and stuff along the way. And then I found poker and it all ended up at least working out for now.

[Unknown]

Yeah, good timing too, I feel like, because that was the second poker boom when you were starting the content, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, it seemed that way. Yeah. Yeah. When I first started my. My upload my first video, there was only like five creators at the time on YouTube. And I think, like, Brad Owen had like 40, 30, 000 subscribers.

[Unknown]

Holy crap. He's got a million now, right?

[Ethan]

He's got close to it. I think he's like 6, 700,000.

[Unknown]

Nice.

[Ethan]

So he's getting up there.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I like his videos.

[Ethan]

Yeah, they're great. And he crushes. And it's impressive how he's been so consistent for so many years too. Because my understanding of YouTube when I was a kid was that like, this life cycle as a creator was only like maybe five years or so, and then you kind of not either fall off or just get repetitive or something happens. But now I think with how the economy has changed, you can just be really sustainable for a very long time.

[Unknown]

That's a good point. The creators I watched growing up are all gone pretty much right other the Easter Beast. But I used to watch like Nigahika, Kev jumba. Right, the OGs.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I think like in the comedy sketch like genre that was pretty competitive and tough because we also weren't like, able to monetize any of it. Like, they started off as just a passion project. They were so big and didn't make any like, AdSense or ad revenue from it that entire time.

[Unknown]

Crazy. Think about how much money that would have been back in the day.

[Ethan]

Insane amount.

[Unknown]

Gosh.

[Ethan]

If YouTube built their infrastructure to like, pay creators back then. Yeah, they would be killing it.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Are you gonna change up the content or are you just gonna keep doing the vlogs and the games?

[Ethan]

I'm investing a lot more into trying to put more effort into the videos. Like, I'm in this process now trying to like, hire a media team or internally at least, and slowly build it out. So that's been taking a lot of my time with just like hiring, meeting new people, experimenting with this. Cause I have no idea how to hire and build A team organically. But yeah, I want to like put more time and effort into the videos, experiment with like shorts and stuff, which is a huge opportunity that I've been ignoring for the past few years. And you've been crushing on it.

[Unknown]

Yeah, we're like the opposite. You're on the long form. Crushing there.

[Ethan]

Yeah, Yeah. I always liked doing long form. That was natural to me. And then when shorts came out, I just like didn't have the bandwidth to do it. But now it just like seems silly now to just keep ignoring this massive opportunity.

[Unknown]

I think attention spans are dropping. I see shorts continuing to grow.

[Ethan]

That makes a lot of sense.

[Unknown]

Kind of doom scrolling myself, like two, three hours a day.

[Ethan]

But that's also like you're kind of doing productive doom scrolling. Right. At least you're seeing trends, understanding what's happening.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Market research, looking for guess. Yeah, I'm looking for what's trending.

[Ethan]

Right.

[Unknown]

Most people aren't doing that.

[Ethan]

Yeah. But it's always some. At least you can like tie into some sort of like productive use of time, I imagine.

[Unknown]

Yeah. At least I tell myself that. Who actually knows? I'm definitely frying my attention span doing it. You are. I mean, dude, I'm scrolling. If I'm not interested in two seconds, I'm scrolling.

[Ethan]

But now you understand the audience and how, how it works.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

So then you just like kind of use it for your stuff and how you make like good hook and then keep the retention longer.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I mean with you, you got probably 10 years of poker content. You could probably whip up a lot of good shorts.

[Ethan]

I know it's. Well, here's the thing with poker, right. Everything is like handheld, from an iPhone to the table. So there's no like personal brand along with it because it's just no, no face, no branding, no image or whatever. Just poker and playing. So there's not much like brand affinity that's people like steal. Not steal, but like copy or clip and repost and stuff. I don't know how to turn that into something that can help like the overall rampage.

[Unknown]

Interesting. So yeah, it's a first person point of view. So they don't see your face is what you're saying.

[Ethan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown]

And I see a lot of clips of your hands where you're not the person posting it.

[Ethan]

Oh yeah, that happens all the time. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So it's like, it makes a lot of sense for like IRL content. Your stuff, like you just have your brand here, your voice, your image, your.

[Unknown]

Face, everything everywhere on the mics on the tv.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it's perfect.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

But then with the like, at least the poker vlog stuff, it's really hard to scale this in a productive way.

[Unknown]

That's an interesting problem. What about a podcast? Would you start one of those?

[Ethan]

I like it. I love the idea of starting one. I've been playing with the idea for a while. Just starting up the infrastructure and building out like a new vertical. Seems really.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I would think of a unique concept for it rather than just two people talking. Maybe incorporate poker somehow or something.

[Ethan]

Yeah, just like dive deeper into the niche and go that route. Yeah, that would be the more like scalable way to distribute like shorts.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah, I don't run out of shorts. I have like 20 a day going up. Or not.

[Ethan]

Yeah, that's amazing. So 20 a day, bunch of different accounts and channels.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

So we have my page that posts like 3 to 6 and then we have like the Clippers. I don't know if you've heard of those, but they post on their pages.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I think the Clipper economy is like really, really interesting.

[Unknown]

It's super interesting.

[Ethan]

Like it's like. I don't know how new it is. I imagine like it's probably like mainstream.

[Unknown]

New, but it's been around for a couple years. Like it was more like if you know, you know, type of thing back then, but now everyone knows with wop and stuff, so.

[Ethan]

Okay. Yeah, that seems to be the service. I've seen that before where you just get like affiliate revenue and you also get to keep the like TikTok revenue that's generated on your.

[Unknown]

Yeah, yeah. There's multiple ways to structure it. The way I do it is I pay per million views. So like if a teenager just gets like 5 million views, he'll get 400 for every million views, which is 2,000 bucks.

[Ethan]

Right.

[Unknown]

And I pay out monthly and.

[Ethan]

But the accounts are owned by you?

[Unknown]

They own the accounts.

[Ethan]

They open the accounts. Yeah. So they get paid from you along with the ad.

[Unknown]

They keep the ad revenue. But I've heard of the model you're talking about too.

[Ethan]

Yeah, they. They earn both.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, I mean that's so much sensitive. It's.

[Unknown]

Yeah, the tick tock payouts are actually decent.

[Ethan]

I've heard of them. Yeah, I've seen them. Like the minute long ones, they out really well.

[Unknown]

I'm getting like, you know, a couple thousand a month. Nothing crazy, but Snapchat is, is the big money.

[Ethan]

Yeah, everyone told me about Snapchat too.

[Unknown]

You gotta get on There.

[Ethan]

I mean, poker has to be, like, censored in some way. No.

[Unknown]

Oh, I didn't even think about that.

[Ethan]

I've heard that they're really strict with poker because the audience is very younger.

[Unknown]

Oh, that's a good point. It might be a prohibited category on.

[Ethan]

Are you on Snapchat?

[Unknown]

I'm not. Okay. Yeah, Pod clips don't do well on snapshot.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it's really just like images.

[Unknown]

Images, not selfies. So you post 50 to 100 selfies a day?

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Crazy.

[Ethan]

My friend, like Tommy, you know, he just takes pictures of everything. And then I see his camera roll is just insane.

[Unknown]

Filled with him and Bryce all. They just be snapping it up. Man. I would do it for 100k a month for sure. I know.

[Ethan]

I mean, how. How hard could it be?

[Unknown]

I didn't even hate on that.

[Ethan]

Pretty sweet.

[Unknown]

Have you ever been offered money for.

[Ethan]

Your World Series of Poker bracelet that you won? I have not, no. Mine's an online one, so I think people don't care as much.

[Unknown]

Oh, those don't get the same respect as in person?

[Ethan]

No, I don't think so. I have looked it up on ebay, though, and they go for surprisingly way lower than you would expect.

[Unknown]

Really?

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

How much?

[Ethan]

Couple hundred bucks. That's it? Probably.

[Unknown]

I thought it would have been way more, like.

[Ethan]

Definitely not. No more than like 2000, I would imagine.

[Unknown]

Damn.

[Ethan]

From what I've seen, there are a lot.

[Unknown]

I guess there's a lot of tournaments.

[Ethan]

A lot of bracelets being given out now. Yeah, that's like one of the complaints that I think poker players have is just like diluting the brand and the bracelet equity and all of these things. Because I think, I guess back then, right, like, I mean, if you compare it to like 20 years ago, that used to be like 20 bracelets given out a year or something like that. And then now there's like a couple few hundred, probably interesting every single year, but that just shows, like, the growth of poker, which I think is pretty cool as an industry where people love showing up for these specific events and want to win that coveted prize.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Is there anything you still want to achieve in the game of poker? Like another bracelet, another title or anything?

[Ethan]

I need a Triton tournament.

[Unknown]

Triton tournament.

[Ethan]

I need one of those.

[Unknown]

Is that like the gold standard for poker right now, Triton?

[Ethan]

I think so, yeah. I would consider Triton to be like, at the top of the industry history with how the events are run, the buy ins, the prize pools. I mean, I went to Korea this past year And I only played, like, five events.

[Unknown]

The.

[Ethan]

The quote unquote, smaller events were the 15Ks up to a 30K. And all of them had, like, over a million dollars. My first. Totally outrageous. They, like, they completely crushed, so.

[Unknown]

And the level of play was way better than what you're used to there.

[Ethan]

Yeah, you. You definitely have all the top pros, for sure. Like, all the best players in the game are there, which makes it feel, obviously, a lot more prestigious as you're playing against the much tougher competition.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

But then the structures of it are pretty quick, though, so you have to win all ins and you're not playing that many big blinds deep.

[Unknown]

Oh, they're faster tournaments.

[Ethan]

Super fast. Yeah. Yeah.

[Unknown]

I wonder if that means more luck is involved.

[Ethan]

For sure. More luck is involved. More variance, essentially, and you have to be all in a lot more.

[Unknown]

Mm. That makes sense. Yeah. Cause we. When we play in the celebrity poker tournament, say, like, four hours, you're all in every two hands.

[Ethan]

I feel like it's. It's not as extreme as that, but it's pretty close to be fair.

[Unknown]

That makes sense. Do you have a coach? Do you have, like, someone that you bring to these events with you?

[Ethan]

Uh, no, I don't. I have friends that are very good, and then sometimes I'll bounce off ideas from them, but I don't have, like, a specific coach.

[Unknown]

No one on the rails.

[Ethan]

Yeah. I think more my time now is, like, obviously I play a lot of poker, but I also just spend a lot more time with content now and be more involved in that process.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

So I'm trying to split my time as efficiently as possible with both, and something has to give. So my poker, like, training and coaching and getting better and stuff is kind of falling off.

[Unknown]

That's an interesting dynamic. Yeah. Because if you want to go all in on content, it'll sacrifice your. Your game a little bit.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I. I think, like, if I had to, like, pick the perfect person to model my life after, it would be Bryson DeChambeau. He's crushing it on both ends, and I have no idea how that's possible.

[Unknown]

That's true. I don't know how he's doing that.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Because if I were to pursue something full time right now while doing the podcast, it just wouldn't work. I'm spending 80 hours a week on the podcast already. So if I were to do something else.

[Ethan]

Yeah. I mean, how do you allocate more time to be really good at something else? It just seems.

[Unknown]

Yeah. You're basically doing two full time Jobs.

[Ethan]

Right. And you have a team to help you, I imagine, with the pod and everything too.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Then you obviously still have to be.

[Unknown]

I still have to prep for the guests. I still have to do all the other stuff behind the scenes that people don't see.

[Ethan]

Yeah. There's so much to do from a pre production production standpoint. And then. Yeah, it's hard to be really good at both things.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I mean, you're playing 10 hours a day, you said. Is that weekends too or just three days every day? Wow. Yeah, 70 hours a week.

[Ethan]

Every day. Yeah. 10 hours would be good. I mean the past. Yeah, the past couple of weeks I've been playing a lot. I've been doing this really annoying thing in tournaments where I play all the time, all the hours, and then I Min Cash, where it's nice to have results, but you don't make any money because all the money's in first place. So I would love to just like play 10 hours a day for each. For one specific tournament. Not instead of like playing like five different tournaments in a day or something like that.

[Unknown]

Oh, got it. Min Cash. I haven't heard of that. So do you get burnt out then? I'm sure by the end of this World Series you'll be like done playing for.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I'm tired.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Ethan]

I'm. I'm. I'm already tired. But it's like a cool opportunity to have and I mean, we've still got another month, right? We're in the early stages of the summer. Yeah. I think we're like two and a half weeks in and I'm tired.

[Unknown]

That's crazy. Yeah. There was a vile clip when Hellmuth came on. He said like the main events and endurance event now.

[Ethan]

Yeah. 100%. Which it's always been. Right. I'm too young into poker to know what it was like, like 10 years ago, but it's always been like a long day. Six, seven. Seven day long tournament.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

So I don't know why that would be different from now, I guess.

[Unknown]

Is there. There's way more players now and it's like 10 days now, right?

[Ethan]

It's like nine or nine days. I don't. I don't know how I. I've never even been close to playing that many days in a row, but yeah, it's a lot. I remember last year, made my first ever day four and I also skipped day one, so really I played three days and I was exhausted.

[Unknown]

Damn.

[Ethan]

Mainly the turnaround time is tough. The once again, like going back to just Having to go home, rest. You have like 10, 11 hours from when you bag to when you restart for the next day. Just not much time to like drive home.

[Unknown]

Not at all.

[Ethan]

Compress, relax, be a human being again after being at the poker table for 12 hours that day. Then sleep, recover, and then show back up again.

[Unknown]

I'm sure it's tough to even sleep because you're probably replaying some hands you lost too.

[Ethan]

Something like. Yeah, that's the decompression part. It takes a lot. Everyone's different. But for me maybe like you do some doom scrolling.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Spend like an hour home just to chill and do nothing. Like that's my decompression time. Shower, do all the things. Like it doesn't just have to be a human being after being at the casino for 12 hours a day.

[Unknown]

Yeah. No, I'm so hard on myself. Like I feel like for me, if I lost a big hand, I just couldn't get it out of my head. I'm like, what did I do wrong?

[Ethan]

Yeah. The more you play, the more you're able to let go of this because then there's just always a next hand to play and then you just try to refocus up for that. But yeah, if, if you don't play a lot of poker, and especially in such a huge event like the main event, I can see how you really like.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

Yourself after it. I mean, I. I do that all the time after I bust a tournament and stuff. Yeah, it's hard to like, it's just easy to be hard on yourself because now you're sitting out of the tournament you could have been in if you didn't make this mistake. Like what could have been. Right. All those scenarios.

[Unknown]

Yeah. There's a hundred different things you could have gone back and did different. I bet.

[Ethan]

Right.

[Unknown]

Do you still get tilted or do you feel like you have good emotional control at this point in your career?

[Ethan]

I don't think I've ever been known to have good emotional. But I'm working on it. You know, yesterday I did something really. So yesterday I fired six bullets in the Aria tournament. I did something I'm really proud of. I just took a break for like 45 minutes, called some people, said happy Father's Day and stuff like that. But long break.

[Unknown]

45 minutes.

[Ethan]

45 minute break to detail. And I still fired six bullets after the whole time. I still busted the tournament six times.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ethan]

So within this break, like during registration period, I was there for like four hours. I was really only playing for like three.

[Unknown]

Oh, God.

[Ethan]

And I died. I. I busted out six times.

[Unknown]

So you could just keep buying in. Like, there's no limit.

[Ethan]

Yeah. This one I like. I like having no. No limit. Interesting pain for me, at least. Or more chances to win.

[Unknown]

I feel like you play way more aggressive if that's the case. Right.

[Ethan]

You can. I don't change, like, the way I play based on that. Maybe subconsciously and definitely after, like the third or fourth bullet subconsciously, things start to kind of break down a little bit where you may be a little more gambly, do a little more splashy stuff. But for the most part, at least in my head, consciously, I like to think that I'm trying to use the same strategy.

[Unknown]

Are you playing sober? Completely sober?

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

No alcohol or anything?

[Ethan]

No alcohol.

[Unknown]

It messes you up, right?

[Ethan]

Yeah, for sure. It was just the recovery thing. When you're sitting there for so long, the whole summer is an endurance test in the marathon. So you just have to keep showing up every day and just try to be as well equipped to play.

[Unknown]

Negronu had an interesting take on this. So he said he plays his best with a little bit of alcohol.

[Ethan]

I can see that.

[Unknown]

Like, not to the point where you're drunk, but there's like an in between phase, I guess, where you're just playing nice and loose.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I can see that. You can. You feel a lot more comfortable and loose and you're not afraid to do what you think is correct versus when you're fully sober. Then maybe there's some apprehension of, like, pulling off a big bluff or something. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

[Unknown]

Yeah. So let me try it out.

[Ethan]

Yeah. Some of my biggest wins are when I was super drunk.

[Unknown]

Oh, really? Oh, that's super drunk.

[Ethan]

Super drunk. Little drunk somewhere in between those, I don't know, shots. Kind of just get carried away sometimes.

[Unknown]

So you're up when you're drunk, huh?

[Ethan]

Yeah. Yeah. I've also lost being drunk, but, yeah, I've definitely been up being drunk for sure. Interesting. When you play in Hustler and stuff, you know, there's always drinking involved and shots being passed around, so.

[Unknown]

Yeah, sometimes you pounding. Well, good luck the rest of the tournament, man. Anything else you want to close off with here? No.

[Ethan]

Thanks for having me, man.

[Unknown]

Yeah, thanks for coming on. Check out W. WPT Gold, right?

[Ethan]

WPT Gold, the newest online poker site in America. My personal favorite place to play. And I'm actually winning on the site. I can win. I feel like anyone.

[Unknown]

We'll end it there. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, yeah. Check them out, guys. See ya.