This Friday, Garrett Adelstein will play poker for the first time in a year.
PokerOrg reached out to him to get the lowdown on his disappearance from the high stakes arena and return to the spotlight this Friday.
What are you most excited about for this game on Friday?
I’m looking forward to just getting out there and battling. Believe it or not, the last time I played poker was my two return games almost a year ago to the day. Zero. I’m sure I will be supremely rusty.
What have you been up to besides poker?
I’ve been consumed with a couple of other big projects over that time, but I will always love poker, especially on stream. I’m sure it’s going to be a great time.
Do you still enjoy watching poker?
I essentially see zero poker hands outside of coaching clients that want to go over ones they played on stream.
Against my better judgment, I still check my Twitter/X regularly, so I stay abridged on the latest gossip, cheating, or sexual assault scandal that almost everyone seems to forget about after a couple of days.
You're going to battle with Phil Laak on Friday. Have you guys played together before?
Hell ya! Phil and I are buddies with a long history of playing against one another in Commerce Casino’s public games and massive private casino games. He’s always been one of my favorite guys to chop it up with on and off the felt. He and Jen are great people.
You also have Masato in the game, a very well-known Japanese player and vlogger. He brings a lot of positive energy and excitement to the game.
I’ve heard he's a great player and a great guy, but I’ve never played with Masato. I'm looking forward to getting to know him a bit. Poker is gigantic in Japan, so maybe I can put him on a poster or two in front of his massive fan following.
You’ve had another project in the works that is very exciting. You will be expanding your family soon. Congratulations!
It’s wild, Craig. My life for the past couple of years shares little resemblance to my former one. Everything has changed, from how I spend my time to where my priorities lie, down to my identity.
Although I love this new existence, part of my therapeutic work during this period has been coming to terms with letting go of my former life.
You know, the guy who dedicated everything to poker and showed up on your screens a couple of times a week and otherwise traveled the world, childless, with his wife. That guy had a hell of a gig, too. There’s a season for it all.
Your role as a father has been a huge life change for you.
At 20 months old, my daughter is the light of my life. Every day, she tells me another ten new words, climbs up an even more advanced section at the playground, and gives me an even bigger cuddle before bed. I had little idea if becoming a dad would be a good decision; I just knew I couldn’t live without finding out.
What an incredible journey.
It has been. Being a father has exceeded every expectation, so much so that my wife and I quickly took another at-bat. She’s due in two months. Shit is about to get crazy in all the best ways. I’m going to have a son!
Last question. Do you still have the itch to play?
I often have an itch to play. Poker has given me so much, and I remain intellectually fascinated by its intricacies. It’s just been tough squeezing it in recently.
PokerOrg also tracked down OG showrunner and video gamer Wayne 'D22-soso' Chiang to find out how hard it was to get Garrett back on the high-stakes streets and peer into the day-to-day life of a game runner.
How did you finally get Garrett Adelstein back on Bally Live Poker’s stream? Why did it take so long?
A lot of it is player availability. As I said on the Chasing Poker Greatness podcast recently, it’s about who is willing to put large sums of money on the table and then play each other. Luckily, we made it happen just before Christmas of 2024.
When Bally announced the Live at the Commerce stream last spring, it was planned to make it Garrett’s home court. Is that correct?
That was the plan, as Garrett didn’t want to travel far from LA. It almost happened a few times in 2024 but fell apart due to players being unavailable at the last second due to unforeseen circumstances. We never stopped trying. High-stakes game running is incredibly tough!
Do you hope to get Garrett as a regular at the stream?
Sure thing! It’s my priority to get him into the big nosebleed games first, and then there are some niche smaller games that might interest him.
What does Garrett bring to a stream that most players don't?
Garrett is the promise of covering the table and playing live deep stacked NLH, a complex blend of art and science versus online poker, which is more science with a sprinkle of art.
Trying to find the next Garrett is like asking one to cure cancer. He is likely one of a kind as he rose the ranks from micro-stakes. Garrett was a community member on two-plus-two forums and a training site coach long before he even stepped foot on stream.
What do you love about watching Garrett play poker?
Watching Garrett over the years, I have learned skills I lacked in my game and realized I have overrated my ability in specific fields.
On the off chance that he is to create a course for a training site once again, I would be confident that much of the material in there you couldn’t find anywhere else and is also a fraction of what he actually knows about poker. If such a course existed, just take my money.
You can watch this Friday’s high-stakes cash stream on Bally Live Poker on YouTube, as well as the Bally Live App and ballylive.com.
