That's one of those after the pod stories.

So he, he, he said to me after a few, maybe a year or two of me on my own, he said to me, do you want to get staked again? I'm doing business with Ali.

And if you want to get staked, I could talk to him and potentially you guys could work something out.

I was doing pretty well at the time, but I thought to myself, like, this is the best player in the world.

The opportunity to get coached by him and like learn and be put into these good situations is really like the potential is really there to become a great player.

that didn't really pan out the the coaching never really took place that for various reasons i mean this is kind of before everything hit hit the fan with him but uh he had other things going on he was playing super high stakes his stable became less of a priority for him to manage and he kind of like let it kind of die out a little bit everyone just gotten a lot of makeup and uh I mean, through our own fault and through his, so it didn't end up working out well, but it was an opportunity that, um, I had for a few years.

Yeah.

So how was the run? Like, uh, did you bag a good amount on day one or was it,

As somebody who, who plays, uh, about Vegas, all the different locations, all the time, uh, Darren, I'm just curious of your take of, like how do you feel the summer went? Not from a playing perspective for yourself, but just, like in a more general sense of the state of poker in Vegas this summer.

Yeah, I mean, I think numbers were down.

Um, they were probably propped up by the day two, uh, you know, bust and reenter stuff at the World Series.

But you saw, you know, the Wynn had a big overlay at the beginning of summer.

Um, there were a few other overlays throughout the summer at other venues.

Um, I think that operators are getting a little too greedy with...

N- not greedy, they're getting too ambitious with some of their guarantees, and they're stretching out tournaments too long.

Do you think that, uh, is right, that is fair? Or do you think that there should be some other system or process in place?

As somebody who, who plays, uh, about Vegas, all the different locations, all the time, uh, Darren, I'm just curious of your take of, like, how do you feel the summer went? Not from a playing perspective for yourself, but just, like, in a more general sense of the state of poker in Vegas this summer.

Yeah, I mean, I think numbers were down.

Um, they were probably propped up by the day two, uh, you know, bust and re-enter stuff at the World Series.

But you saw, you know, the Win had a big overlay at the beginning of summer.

Um, there were a few other overlays throughout the summer at other venues.

Um, I think that operators are getting a little too greedy with...

N- not greedy, they're getting too ambitious with some of their guarantees, and they're stretching out tournaments too long.

Do you think that, uh, is right, that is fair? Or do you think that there should be some other system or process in place?