Additional reporting by Jeremy Geist.
Jon Rand, better known as Slow Poker, has steadily built a reputation over the past few years as one of the funniest poker content creators.
With a focus on comedy, rather than poker strategy or vlogging from the tables, Slow Poker has built a dedicated online following. He doesn’t claim to have the answers to poker's biggest questions but has carved out a well-deserved place among those who can make us laugh when it comes to the game, using his position in the poker world to make sharp observations that speak so clearly to so many of us.
But while Slow Poker stakes no claim to poker greatness, there’s one recent development that belies his ‘recreational’ status: he just chopped the BetMGM $1,600 tourney at the Aria for $80,000.
While his comic timing is always impeccable, ours isn’t bad either: we joined Slow Poker for an in-depth chat shortly before his win.
Therefore, while we can’t shed any light on his tactics, play, handling of the final table dynamics, or negotiations around the chop, we can delve a little deeper into his backstory and how he ended up as one of poker’s funniest court jesters.
'I was obsessed with it' - the birth of Slow Poker
First, an admission: Jon Rand is not a long-time student of the game.
“My life had nothing to do with poker at all until 2016,” he tells PokerOrg’s Jeremy Geist. “I played 5-card draw a few times as a kid, and that's the extent of it. I probably saw Moneymaker out of the corner of my eye in college, or maybe after, but didn't really know what was going on.”
His adult introduction to poker would only come in 2016, when a move to a new state brought with it new neighbors, who extended an invitation to the local nickel-and-dime poker game. “It was a $20 buy-in and I walked out with, like, $45, so I was hooked. I just loved the game, and I immediately gravitated toward it.”
As a poker comic who didn’t really play poker until nine years ago, it comes as little surprise that Rand’s previous experience was concentrated on the comic side of the equation.
“My whole career had been in theater. I had kind of early, frankly unexpected, success as a writer, as a playwright, and then that became my career. I founded a publishing and licensing company in the theatrical space and grew that in Manhattan for over a decade, and then when that was acquired, I was just a full-time writer for a long time.”
So what changed in the world of Jon Rand to bring about his pivot to poker content creation? It would be the same thing that changed the world for the rest of us.
The crossroads
“I don’t know if you heard of it, but there was this massive global pandemic that happened. I found myself in a weird spot because, as someone whose entire income is reliant on live stage performance entertainment, I thought maybe if this virus was forever, my career was over.”
Rand approached the crossroads in his career with positive intent. If he couldn’t do what he’d always done, what would he do? Like a fresh-faced college graduate deciding on a new career path, he stopped to consider everything he enjoyed and what professional goals they could help him achieve.
“I sat down with a piece of paper and thought, ‘Okay, what are all my passions?’ And so I wrote stuff down: I love comedy writing, that's what I do, I write comedic plays. I was getting into video editing because of COVID actually — I would send video celebrations to family and friends when they couldn't have a birthday celebration or something. And then, I love poker, this new passion of mine. I was obsessed with it — I just thought the game was incredible.”
Rand had started watching poker vloggers such as Brad Owen (below) and Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau and figured with his trio of special interests — comedy, video editing and poker — he might try his hand at something similar.
A few short pilot episodes later, and still trying to find his voice in poker content, Rand had a revelation. He explains: “It dawned on me from the middle of nowhere, ‘Oh wait a second, I'm an idiot!’ It should be about poker, but comedy should be the thrust of it, because that's what I do better than these people. They play better poker than I do, but I can write comedy better than they can, so let me play to my strengths. And so I started Slow Poker, which is kind of poker meets stand-up comedy meets meme culture.”
'I'm better at comedy than poker'
The rest, as they say, is history. Actually, scratch that — Rand is just getting started. He’s a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board, a poker streamer, a YouTuber with close to 10,000 subs, he was the Runner in the first two Runner Runner contests on PokerOrg, and — as of shortly after this interview — a live tournament winner.
Though as he confesses to us, any tournament results are unlikely to stem from away-from-the-table study.
“I've not studied tournaments one lick,” he explains. “I've watched enough videos and final tables and live streams and stuff, so I know it's a different beast.
“I have cashed quite a few tournaments in the last few tries. Presumably with study those numbers would go up. I'm older and it takes a lot out of me. I've debated adult diapers because I cannot sit that long without taking a leak.”
Another factor in his burgeoning tournament career is a partnership with BetMGM.
“They asked me to show up at a tournament series at the Borgata Winter Poker Open in January, and the people were great. They just sent me out there and let me do my thing. I don't mind having to create within a narrow window of limitations, but they just let me be me."
“So I've been basically doing a tournament a month with them since January, and it’s been awesome. They've been expanding their online markets and their tournament offerings, and I have nothing but glowing reviews for them.”
For Rand, all that tournament practice is obviously starting to pay off — to the tune of at least $80,000. It’s great to see, especially given the pride he takes in his work, not just as a comedian and performer but as a player with real love for poker.
“I want to be really good at the game,” says Rand. “I don't know if I have the genetic makeup to be one of the greats. I watch these incredible players and the moves they make or the calls they make, and I just think I don't have that in me… I think it's pretty clear to any really good poker player that I'm better at comedy than poker.
“But I love it so much, and I want to get incrementally better. I want to be somewhere above ‘above average.’”
You can follow Slow Poker on X and YouTube, and you can get live updates on the Aria Summer Classic, including the upcoming $3,500 BetMGM Poker Championship that boasts a $3,000,000 guarantee right here on PokerOrg.
