A really random observation just to give context to his character etc.

Is Ryan successful in his own right from poker? As in a known winning player at high stakes? Or otherwise wealthy from other known sources? I say this because I saw him play on the stream a while back wearing a very expensive watch on stream, which in itself isn't such a big deal but I thought it strange considering I don't really know anything about him and it's a very flash watch to be wearing.

The watch in question is a not something you see every day either and not something as common as Rip was wearing (his horrible white fake Richard Mille), it was a Rolex 'Masterpiece' - https://www.chrono24.co.uk/rolex/mas...id18564396.htm as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Z0mpIQ9Ns

Does someone who runs a live stream for a living (and isn't a high-stakes winning pro or is he?) wear this type of watch, does the stream make a fortune i.e is there public records of how much it has made? Is it public knowledge what he got bought out for in LATB? I realise this is a dumb observation and just gossip rubbish but again you don't see this particular watch very often and the title of the thread is 'What Do We Know About Rayn Feldman' so maybe it will enlighten some people as to how he has so much money etc.

People in LA wear these often

My instinct is that Ryan is a straight as a die person and I partly base this on the fact that he comes from a creative background.

Creative people are usually unbuyable and incorruptible.

However, a caveat is that in my experience 80% of poker players (and he is a poker player as we know) are dishonest people in the field of poker. (and sometimes outside of it too)

Of that 80%, perhaps half of them are dishonest people anyway, so before they ever played poker, and the other half have become dishonest after taking up poker, either through greed,
opportunism or desperation.

They don't actually. I buy & sell high-end watches as a hobby, this is not really your run-of-the-mill diamond Rolex. It's an interesting choice to wear. Just an observation and nothing of any meaning, just wanted to know if he's successful.

We don’t let anyone in production have their phones or any electronics during the show. We take everything away prior to the show and put them in lockers by a security guard and they can’t use them until after the show is done being filmed. This has always been the case since day 1. Same for everyone at the table.

What about Wayne and JJ on Latb? What about Cary Katz on poker go? In the end, I believe it’s all about trust. If players trust the people running it, they’ll play. If they don’t, they won’t.

Sounds like you just really like my watch lol. Thanks for noticing. It’s the only watch I own. It was a gift for myself a few years ago after I did very well playing poker during the pandemic.

Whataboutism is a very weak, and essentially invalid, form of defence.

And there is no trust anymore.

Only desperate players will play based on trust, everyone else will want to know that they are safe from cheating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

"President abc starved 10 million of his own population to death with the policies that he used."
,
"Yes but what about President xyz who starved 100 million of his own population to death with the policies that he used."

I've been pretty positive about you ITT but you are on NVG and NVG will corner you if you engage with us and are either cagey, or are selective with the truth.

I appreciate that you are in a very difficult spot with the whole situation that has happened and developed over the past few days, and it may be even more difficult if your own personal standards are not matched by others also involved. In such a situation there is no perfect solution, however, in my opinion the best thing is to always stick to your own personal principles and never to compromise them, even if doing so may hurt yourself in the short term.

When you look back a month, 3 months or a year on, on such a decision, one that maintains your own personal principles and standards, but that has cost or hurt yourself, you will be 100% happy that you did the right thing.

Find someone who wants to run a stream and also doesn’t want to play poker. It’s not easy.

Feel free to go start your own stream and never play on it.


Also, unless you’re an investor or a player, then it’s a non issue to you or anyone else who isn’t one of those.

There is a steady amount of players willing to play who don’t care if one or more of the owners play.


Your point would only be valid if people were refusing to play or watch because someone was playing. Then they would have a decision to make.


It’s only unacceptable if people don’t play or tune in.

I do actually Ryan, and it's rare to see someone wearing this model.

Automatically a tool then. ESPN is nothing but donks

This is whataboutism and doesn't maKe any sense to me from a standpoint of security at a high stakes game.

What difference does it make what someone else does? This is your stream.

Also Ryan ... do you care to comment about the multiple people that have said they have been in your control room that are not employees? People such as Nic A for example? Or employees such as DGAF that have been in the control room and that play on stream?

I am have trouble understanding why you can't admit things and say 'yeah we f'd up' rather than coming up with these excuses all of the time or lying about it such as with Nic A being in the control room.

It really dampens any credibility that you have at this point. I am not sure how you cannot see this.

https://youtu.be/oRA4xp2pXew?t=8973

At the linked timestamp on his Joey Ingram interview Nik Airball says:

"So Ryan and Nick aren't able to make loans at the Hustler since they are the game runners and given that I always have a lot of extra chips on me and me and Ryan are friends he's often asked me to loan chips for him which I've always done..."

Nik then goes on to explain how he's exchanging hundreds of thousands of dollars in Hustler chips each month, according to him often at your request.

Do you contest these statements? If you don't contest his statements, have you ever ran this arrangement through a lawyer?

I wonder that as well. For Ryan being so good at creating these amazing shows and lineups, Nick just purely brings it down. Talks like an a-hole, nit in the game, known for scamming money in the realtor world, I just don't get it.

Holy **** that watch is so trashy and feminine.

Just get a gold day date and be done with it.

Its funny that for all the ways HCL could improve the integrity of their game/stream, having Nick V not play in the games anymore is COMPLETELY OFF THE TABLE. Don't want to take away Nick's bum hunting side hustle 🙄. Removing conflicting interests is a step too far.

Just lol @ Ryan and Nick's priorities. I agree with many in the poker community that HCL appears to be a well-run professional stream, but behind the scenes its just a mess of a production ran by mostly narcissists. Whatever the outcome is for the investigation and HCL as a whole, don't forget it's mostly self inflicted and well deserved.

I can’t believe Ryan Feldman Is making excuses for tons of people having live access to the hole cards (we take their phones bro) that don’t need to have access to that information.

What he should be saying is yeah we ****ed up we’re fixing the problems with our security. Dude it’s not that hard just get some advice and deal with it. Otherwise it’s sketchy as f.

Any idea how the economic model of poker streams work? For HCL specifically, does anyone have any idea how the HCL live stream generates profit?

they sell advertisements/sponsorships on the poker felt that is played on. and these are revolving deals that change by the week or month

they get revenue from youtube views ads (185k subscribers) and all their videos get 6 figure views.

they sell merch/gear/clothes


and the potential of future partnerships/deals

Would HCL opening up their books be a reasonable expectation in regards to the ongoing investigation?

@Ryan, please can you confirm that pokergfx was not set up to have a delay of hole cards to the control room? These employees were seeing the hole cards in real time, as the hands were being played?

It’s been confirmed that they don’t have a delay from the cards to the control room. It’s pretty much just a bunch of people who don’t need to have card information that have it. I mean the Sound guy? How the hell is he in the room where the cards are being shown? ****ing sketchy.

It could easily be solved if they delay the feed to the control room and get ALL PEOPLE who don’t need to see cards out of the room obviously. They don’t want to admit that they’re doing it wrong Because it opens up another can o worms

https://twitter.com/vpiplag/status/1579775968751030272