Table 1 Podcast

John Borenstein wasn’t supposed to make it in poker.
He got kicked out of three high schools.
Finished with a GED.
And spent his teenage years running around New Jersey doing things that definitely weren’t part of any career plan.
Then one night… he ended up in a stolen van.
And that’s not even the craziest part.
Before he ever played a real tournament, he satellited into a $22 online event…
Overslept…
Woke up late…
And won it for $27,000.
In his parents’ basement.
From there?
He didn’t go pro the normal way.
He opened an underground poker club.
At 18.
We’re talking:
Armed robberies
Methhead regulars
Partners stealing rent money
Getting held at gunpoint
…and somehow…
that turned into a six-figure tournament career.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, John joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to tell one of the wildest poker stories you’ll hear.
Getting expelled from multiple high schools
The stolen van story that got him kicked out
Winning $27K as a teenager by accident
Running underground poker games at 18
Getting robbed at gunpoint in a home game
Losing everything… then winning it back in 24 hours
The Colossus run with 22,000 players
Why he hates modern poker
This one is chaos, comedy, and somehow still a success story.
Show Notes
00:00 — Getting kicked out of school
Three high schools → GED with honors
3:44 — First poker games + early suspensions
Running games in empty classrooms
5:07 — The stolen van story
Car theft → crash → expulsion
12:52 — First big online score ($27K)
Satellite → overslept → wins anyway
16:46 — Starting an underground poker club
Turning winnings into a business at 18
22:29 — Armed robbery at the game
Held at gunpoint in a home game
27:29 — Quits poker → Amazon job
Trying to go “normal”
29:47 — Wins $40K → quits job immediately
Back to poker full-time
36:01 — PCA trip + early tournament success
First big live scores
42:24 — WSOP Colossus final table run
22,000-player field → first major result
47:30 — Why he hates modern poker
Solver era vs old-school instincts
52:59 — The Tinder story begins
Peggy Sue enters the chat…
1:09:17 — $50K blackjack punt → comeback
Loses everything… wins it back next day
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Table 1 Podcast
The Table 1 Podcast is poker’s living room.
We bring you the stories behind the biggest personalities in poker — the wins, the losses, and everything that happens away from the felt.
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Justin Saliba had $30,000.
Sitting on the couch.
Watching TV with his dad.
By the end of the day…
$0.
Not one hand.
Not one bad beat.
Just kept firing… until it was all gone.
“I had over 30K… and I hit zero.”
That moment could’ve been the end.
Instead… it was the start.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Justin Saliba joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to break down one of the most volatile, honest, and fascinating paths in poker.
From growing up in Ohio playing neighborhood games…
to chasing a professional soccer career…
to moving to Vegas with six months to “make millions”…
…and eventually becoming a $10M+ tournament crusher.
Along the way, we get into:
Losing his entire bankroll early in his career
Why he HATED his first Vegas grind
The coaching deal that saved his poker career
Being accused of cheating — and how he responded
Recording his entire session… then winning a bracelet
Going on a heater that changed everything
The mindset shift that took him to the highest stakes
This one is raw, honest, and a perfect look at what it actually takes to survive (and win) in high-stakes poker.
Show Notes
(AI generated from the transcript. Please excuse any AI slop.)
0:38 — Intro + motivation to chase events
Flying across the world when the “feeling” is there
6:12 — Growing up in Ohio + poker origin story
Learning poker from his older brother during the Moneymaker boom
10:03 — College life + soccer career path
Chasing pro soccer before poker becomes real
23:27 — Post-college limbo → poker focus
Living at home, trying to figure life out
25:20 — $30K → $0 bankroll collapse
The swing that changed everything
27:26 — Calling Jonathan Little
Internship → coaching → rebuilding from zero
32:28 — Moving to Vegas (with 6-month plan)
“I’ll make millions and come back”
37:47 — The Vegas reality check
Grinding Bellagio cash… and hating it
48:03 — COVID poker boom
Online games explode + first big tournament score
50:40 — Mexico grind with Rampage / high-stakes push
Trying to break into tournament world
57:45 — First major live FT + brutal lesson
Brock Wilson story on the bubble
1:07:14 — Cheating accusations
High-stakes pros questioning him
1:07:46 — Recording everything → winning bracelet
The ultimate “prove it” moment
1:13:15 — Heater + high-stakes breakthrough
Winning trip after trip
1:21:24 — Triton final table + validation
Proving he belongs at the highest level
1:27:15 — Life now + future goals
Balancing motivation, poker, and life
Justin's Links
PokerCoaching.com
X - @justin_saliba
Table 1 Links
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Matt Stout learned to count with five-card draw.
Not math class.
Not flash cards.
Poker.
His older sister taught him the game when he was four years old — which feels either wholesome or deeply irresponsible depending on how you look at it.
Either way, it stuck.
By high school he was selling weed, playing hockey, and doing just enough in school to stay on the team. By college he’d found poker, gotten busted with a quarter pound, quit hockey, and fallen headfirst into the game.
Then everything sped up.
A paperwork mistake knocked him out of school.
He took what he had left to Atlantic City.
Ran it from about $4K to $50K in a matter of months.
Got staked by Sheets & Backs.
And suddenly the kid from Bayonne was battling high-stakes tournaments against some of the biggest names in poker.
That alone would’ve been enough story for one episode.
But Matt’s story gets weirder.
Because somewhere along the way, the poker pro became one of the most important charity poker operators in the country.
What started as a $10 college fundraiser became the Charity Series of Poker — raising millions for nonprofits and working with organizations like St. Jude and the Vegas Golden Knights.
And yes… we also get into how he met Katie Morgan. Because of course we do.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Matt joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk about:
Learning poker as a kid
Getting busted and finding poker at the right time
Turning $4K into $50K
Getting staked by Sheets & Backs
Building the Charity Series of Poker
Meeting Katie Morgan
This one is funny, chaotic, and a reminder that poker careers rarely go where you think they will.
Sometimes the dream job doesn’t exist yet.
You just build it yourself.
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Show Notes
3:47 — Learns poker at age 4
13:58 — College bust leads to poker
27:24 — $4K to $50K heater
52:30 — Charity Series of Poker begins
58:27 — The Negreanu text that changed things
1:13:05 — Meeting Katie Morgan
Art: @artparmann |
Your Perfect Poker Assistant: AskCharlotte.ai/poker

Justin: @justinyoung07

Nikki Limo had millions of views...and was still waitressing.
That’s the reality of early YouTube.
In this episode, Nikki Limo breaks down what it actually looked like to “make it” online before creators got paid — and how she navigated the weird gap between fame and money.
From sketch comedy dominance to poker, commentary, and building a second career from scratch...this is a story about reinvention in public.
But the real insight?
Most people wait for permission.
She just kept answering the call.
What you’ll learn:
What early YouTube fame actually paid (spoiler: nothing)
The “famous but broke” phase nobody talks about
How creators survived the Adpocalypse shift
Why she pivoted into poker + commentary
Building a brand across multiple careers
Show Notes
00:00 — Childhood + early life setup
Growing up “pretty alone” + young parents → origin story baseline
34:19 — The “famous but broke” paradox
Millions of views...still waitressing
Recognized by fans while serving tables
35:12 — TotallySketch era (peak exposure, no money)
YouTube fame ≠ income (early creator economy reality)
36:50 — The Adpocalypse shift (industry flip moment)
Audience goes from “sellout” → “get your bag”
1:23:02 — Poker crossover + Aceholes origin
From comedy → poker content + variety show concept
1:24:26 — Commentary career begins
WSOP → WPT → Bally’s Big Bet Poker lead commentator
1:33:42 — Philosophy: “answer the call”
Most people get the call...few act on it
1:34:05 — Where to follow Nikki
YouTube: @nikki
IG: https://instagram.com/NikkiLimo
X: https://x.com/NikkiLimo
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Joe McKeehen didn’t set out to become a poker player.
He was just a normal kid from Philly.
Played baseball.
Played basketball.
Wasn’t particularly great at either.
Then poker showed up.
Not with a big deposit.
Not with a secret bankroll.
He built it from nothing.
Freerolls.
Forums.
Random people staking him online.
No grand master plan.
Just clicking buttons and trying to win money.
At one point, he was over six figures in makeup playing tournaments with a backer.
Still young. Still learning. Still in college.
Then things started to turn.
He won a major score his senior year of college — about $175,000.
Enough to pay off loans. Enough to believe this might actually work.
Then came the summer that changed everything.
He had basically bricked the WSOP.
No momentum.
No heater.
Just another grind.
Then the Main Event started.
Joe says he doesn’t remember much from Day 1 — except leaving to go to the bathroom.
By Day 3, he had all the chips.
The cards came.
People got scared.
Everything just worked.
Then came the moment everyone remembers.
Daniel Negreanu. Cameras everywhere. The whole poker world rooting for the story.
They got it in.
It was a flip.
And Joe won.
From there, he ran over the final tables and won the WSOP Main Event.
But the story didn’t end there.
After the win, people started gunning for him. Pots got bigger. Expectations got louder.
And tournament poker kept doing what tournament poker does:
You can lose for months.
Then the sun shines on you again.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Joe joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to talk about:
♠️ Starting from freerolls and getting staked online
♠️ Being six figures in makeup early in his career
♠️ Winning $175K while still in college
♠️ The WSOP Main Event run — and what he actually remembers
♠️ Busting Daniel Negreanu with the whole world watching
♠️ Why tournament poker is mostly about surviving variance
♠️ Life after winning the Main Event
♠️ Why he still approaches poker the same way today
If you want to hear what it really feels like to win the biggest tournament in poker — and how random, brutal, and absurd the path can be — this episode is a must-listen.
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Table 1 Podcast
The Table 1 Podcast is poker’s living room.
We bring you the stories behind the biggest personalities in poker — the wins, the losses, and everything that happens away from the felt.
Subscribe for new episodes every week.