On Saturday night, Poker Weekly with Nick Schulman returned to the radio waves on SiriusXM.
In the wake of a strong debut, host Nick Schulman settled back into the booth for the second episode of a six-week trial run on the platform. Following up on Nick Wright's appearance as the show's first-ever guest was always going to be a tall task, but Jason Koon stepped up to the plate – or, more accurately, the microphone – to take a swing at it.
Koon, as he tends to do, delivered. After Schulman's brief but informative recap of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Koon took center stage.
During his time on the air, the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2026 nominee covered ground that included his tumultuous upbringing in West Virginia, fighting in "silly redneck boxing tournaments", and playing nosebleed cash games all across Asia.
Schulman also came prepared with questions regarding three specific hands that Koon had played – eager to hear his thoughts on each.
Later, Taylor von Kriegenbergh joined via telephone from Latvia and the trio discussed a well-tread topic of discussion in the poker community: face coverings at the table.
'A tough line to draw'
Schulman broached the subject, using a social media post from Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow as a jump-off point.
In this particular post, Matusow had taken aim at a player covering the bottom half of their face with a hooded sweatshirt – describing it as a "face diaper" and labeling the act "embarrassing."
Schulman opened the discussion to his guests and initial reactions were, while not as adamant, mostly in agreement with Matusow's point.
"I personally like being able to see people's faces," Koon said. "It's just kind of a tough line to draw. I think you need to be empathetic to people. I think playing crazy slow and being in the full coverup isn't good for poker, but at the same time if somebody's comfy in a hoodie I think let them show up and play."
With a mostly cash game background, von Kriegenbergh had a different outlook on the matter.
"You can't do that. You can't wear headphones to the games we play with friends. You can't wear hoodies and hide your face," he explained. "If I were to do it and that was my M.O., I would just get made of fun by my friends all the time. And if these people were my friends I would make fun of them all the time for hiding their face. It's really pathetic."
In the closing seconds, Schulman shared a teaser of sorts for next week's episode.
With Ali Nejad alongside him, the duo will take a look ahead at the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table and speak with chip leader Lucas Jumalon.
