I would never speak ill of poker whales

Sounds like Nik is even worse than everyone thought.

LOLOL. Polk's videos are being viewed at an all time high.


He can pretty much only benefit from anything his name is even associated with at this point. Even mentioning him in a bad way on social media helps him get clicks. People that hate him will go watch his videos just to hate him, curse at screen, or type something in comments. Meanwhile he gets clicks.

Who's ahead after this weekends session?

I hope Berkey will look back on this and realize he lost some value not streaming it.


I understand he didn't want to give a moron a platform. But one way or another, the moron was getting a platform. You might as well cash in on it the best you can.



For example, sure, he may not like Doug.......but I bet he could have gotten his flights and lodging paid back and forth every weekend to the lodge and cut a deal to have some advertising of his solve for why on the stream.

Doug can talk all he wants about solve for why, but he's smart enough to make that deal. Pay the flights and lodging + advertising and get this HU matched on his stream. He was offering 100k to the winner anyway.....so he would have made this deal.


And he would have gotten to talk **** about Doug being only in it for the clicks/money after.

It's not the same because Berkey was a favourite against Airball but would be an underdog against a HU specialist like Polk, so the potential for brand damage is greater.

He means to have the match vs airball streamed from the lodge. Berkey isn't going to play vs Doug

FWIW I'm not sure if it would be that beneficial for Berkey to play against Airball on stream as he could get his play turn apart from people seeing all his hole cards

Berkey would have been an idiot to play on stream at the lodge.

100k for the winner so his ev is what 60k?

Which is less than a buy in for this game.

Are you flying to Texas every weekend for 5-7 times (who knows with all these breaks) for half a buy in at whatever stake you play ? Then add in the fact him and Polk hate each other and it's an easy no.

He's getting plenty of exposure this way,doesnt have to play for Doug and doesn't get his hole cards exposed.

I think he's right that exposed hole cards hurt him overall. He's the better player so Nick has more to gain from it. Nick apparently also has access to much better HU coaching than Berkey does.


There's also zero potential for brand damage by paying Doug and getting torched bc Berkey isn't an idiot and isn't going to play Doug who he knows would crush him heads up. Berkey fully admits Polk is way better than him at HU and he isn't one of these egotistical goons puffing his chest out saying he's some HU crusher.

I misread that then.

He would have made more in the marketing than the 60k. And my suggestion was that get his flights and lodging paid for every weekend. So except for the semi short plane ride, its almost no ionconvenience as he can telework anything over that 3 days each week.


And if you think he's getting much exposure on this, compared to what he would get on a stream, you've lost it. People are barely talking about it on twitter now because it's just some half ass updates via friends of one of the players.



This is why channels like Doug's flourish. He doesn't steer away from something because they hate each other. He uses the hate and drama to push people to the stream or channel and people eat it up.

Berkey would do well do take pointers. Not streaming this was huge life -EV for him.



And yes, Berkey should NOT play Doug HU. He should just use Doug in the exact same way Doug is using him.


Hell, they could have streamed half of it at Lodge and half at poker go or figured out a way to do it from Solve 4 Why.


Take advantage of all of us morons who feed on the drama and get paid.

You have a good point or three,have to admit that. Maybe it was indeed a big mistake from Berkey not streaming this.

Berkey made it clear he hates Airball and doesn't want to give him a platform.

I know he did that,follows his podcast on a regular basis. Even so,it might be a mistake not swallowing a camel or two and agree to stream it regardless.

Lol@ the flights and lodging as though that's relevant.


He feels and imo he's right that the ev gained from his equity of Doug's offer,plus revenue from steaming it is worth less than giving up his hole card info.

Then factor in the fact he doesn't feel like going to Texas and hates Doug and that's more reasons not to.

What you're definitely right about is it Berkey wanted to make more money he could do things more like Doug. Doug has zero ethics. The Jnandez thing really exposed what his business practices are about, the whole coinflex debacle, the way he uses clickbait etc.


A lot of things people have said about Berkey are true- he uses big words often incorrectly, his table talk can be kind of boring, there are definitely players way more fundamentally sound than him etc.

But he's won at poker for 15+ years,the last decade or so in high stakes playing an unconventional style that is far from optimal in a vacuum that's the reason he gets into these games in the first place. In all of this time nobody can say he scammed them for anything which is rare in poker. Meanwhile while anyone would say Doug is a better poker player he continues to be exposed as a scumbag.

Even if you think he's wrong and could have made more money having this streamed at the Lodge, he's not willing to sell out and play for Doug which I respect.

Agree with all of this.... great post

berkey>polk at business and life

What’s the point of having FU money if you never say FU. If Berkey’s financial situation matches his desired lifestyle then the extra ev isn’t worth going into business with Doug or giving Nick a bigger platform.

The fact that he didn't do something like this makes me respect Berkey more. Of course, DP would make some deal, the guy only gives a single F about $$. Berkey not doing it even tho it financially makes sense just cause DP has been such a dick to him is a baller move IMO.

Yea not everyone wants to whore themselves out for an extra buck.

As has been pointed out numerous times it is higher EV for Berkey to play Nik without hole cards being available for Nik to have a team to analysis. Berkey is in a huge EV spot to play Nik for 100 hours in what is effectively a private game

That's a good point. But I'm sure there were a few reasons why Berkey opted not to do a stream.

In Russia we have a sport called Chess boxing. The games plays 2 minutes of chess followed by 2 minutes of boxing. It’s very fun to watch as players get worse at chess after getting hit in the head and generally the players playing chess can’t box to save their life.

I think we should create a game of heads-up boxing. 5 minutes of heads up followed by 2 minutes of boxing.

Why increase the minutes? Because generally poker is played slower.

I think Berkey would slap Airball around and maybe teach him a thing or two. Both on the felt and in the ring.

Like this idea a lot but should be hourly or more even. A game of classical chess takes what 30min-hour? These HU cash challenges are tens or hundreds of hours.