It's been quite a year for one of poker’s most popular and entertaining podcasts, The Chip Race. It picked up its third award for best podcast at the Global Poker Awards in February and is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special episode featuring Scott Seiver on Sunday.
In an interview with Craig Tapscott (watch in full above), the two hosts, David Lappin and Dara O'Kearney, admit they didn't believe they'd still be hosting the podcast in 2025 after it was almost axed early on.
“We made those first seven shows and hoped that Paddy Power might sponsor us,” shares Lappin. “They were the big Irish brand at the time. But the day the first season ended, we found out Paddy Power no longer cared about poker. It was over a year before Unibet decided to sponsor us.”
Fast friends
Lappin and O'Kearney met and bonded over their love for poker, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“I think in the early days, we quickly discovered that we had a good synergy,” confesses O’Kearney. “But David basically had no friends. He was a very abrasive character. Everybody hated him. He tended to get into fights quite a lot.”
“That last part is true,” interjects Lappin with a smile.
“My main function as a friend was to sort of take the rough edges off,” shares O’Kearney. “I would also advise him not to pick a fight with certain dangerous people. I’d warn him that one guy at his table was a former head of the IRA, another was a gangster, or another was a high-ranking member of organized crime. My vital mission at that point was to keep him out of trouble.”
At the end of the day, the luck of the Irish was on David’s side. He would survive the rough-and-tumble gambling houses of Ireland (with a little help from a friend) and when the idea to host an Irish poker show came about, it seemed tailor-made for them.
The Chip Race is born
During the summer of 2015, a friend approached Lappin and asked if he was interested in doing a podcast.
“A friend of mine was working for a company that did different podcasts that were sports adjacent,” shares Lappin. “One of the things they wanted to do was a poker podcast.”
“Did you even know what a podcast was then?” asks O’Kearney.
“Not really,” chuckles Lappin. “But they liked the idea of having a show shining the spotlight on poker in Ireland. I brought along Dara, and we conjured up this idea of a variety show that would hit different parts of the industry.”
“Ten years later, we’re downloaded in 74 countries, and even our least popular episode will still get 17,000 listens,” continues Lappin. “That’s a huge number. That's half a stadium. We have so many people from all over the world listening. We are so proud of that."
What to expect from the 10th anniversary show
Watch the full interview at the top of this article to hear David and Dara share their favorite moments from The Chip Race and a sneak preview of what they're planning for the special show tomorrow, including...
- The ups and downs of viewership in the first season
- David’s ‘brilliant’ idea to create a hostile interview for clicks
- Dara’s favorite guest over the last ten years
- Special guest Scott Seiver
- GPI award winner for 2024 Photo of the Year, Danny Maxwell, finally appears as a guest
You can listen to the 10th anniversary episode of The Chip Race on Spotify, Apple, and SoundCloud from 7am UTC on Sunday, March 16th. Want more? Check out the full, uncut version of our interview on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.
You can also watch the latest episode of PokerOrg’s The Interview with the man who started the ka-boom heard around the poker world, Chris Moneymaker.
