Table 1 Podcast

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
Come play at Table 1
Play with the T1 community online

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.
Play with us in Vegas:
table1.vegas
Play online with the Table 1 community:
Phenom Poker
Learn more about CSOP:
charityseriesofpoker.org
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
Come Play at Table 1: https://table1.vegas
Play with the T1 Community online: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1
Follow us:
X: https://x.com/table1vegas
IG: https://instagram.com/table1vegas

Play Poker With the Table 1 Community
New players on Phenom Poker can get a 200% deposit bonus up to $2,000.
Sign up here:
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1
OR… come play with us in Las Vegas at Table 1
https://table1.vegas
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.
Come Play Poker With Us
If you're in Las Vegas and want to play in our Table 1 private game at ARIA, you can request a seat here:
https://table1.vegas
Play Online With Us
Join us on Phenom Poker and get a deposit bonus:
• Up to 200% bonus on your first deposit (up to $2,000)
• Use our link to sign up
• Deposit using USDT
Link: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1
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.

Play Poker With the Table 1 Community
New players on Phenom Poker can get a 200% deposit bonus up to $2,000.
Sign up here:
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1
OR… come play with us in Las Vegas at Table 1
https://table1.vegas
Taylor Caby didn’t set out to change poker.
He set out to get a job.
Finance degree.
University of Illinois.
Do well in school → get hired → make money.
That was the plan.
Poker was just something on the side.
A few home games.
$20 buy-ins.
Messing around with friends.
Then online poker showed up.
And the first problem?
He couldn’t even deposit.
He asked his dad to use the credit card.
Dad said yes.
Mom said no.
So for six months… he played freerolls.
Grinding for pennies.
Eventually he figured it out and loaded about $30–$35 online.
That was the bankroll.
Six months later?
He wins a tournament for $3,000.
By the end of the year:
He’s made $50,000 playing online poker.
In college.
And within another year…
He’s playing some of the biggest games on the internet.
Then something bigger happened.
He realized something nobody else had figured out yet:
People weren’t losing because they were unlucky.
They were losing because they didn’t understand the game.
So he started recording how he played.
Not as a business.
Just something to put on a resume.
That became CardRunners.
The first real poker training site.
And almost overnight…
Players got better.
Games got tougher.
And suddenly…
People started saying he was ruining poker.
From there:
♠️ Built one of the most influential poker businesses ever
♥️ Played high-stakes online against the best in the world
♦️ Partnered with Full Tilt during the poker boom
♣️ Watched it all collapse on Black Friday
And here’s the part most people miss:
He saw it coming.
The whole thing, in his words, “felt like a mirage.”
Then he did something most poker players never do.
He walked away.
Built a DFS company.
Lost money.
Went back to gambling.
Then built another business…
Establish The Run.
Same idea as CardRunners.
Different game.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Taylor joins Art Parmann and Justin Young to break down:
♠️ Turning $35 into $50K (and beyond)
♠️ The early days of online poker (and how soft it was)
♠️ Building CardRunners from a dorm room
♠️ Why players said he “ruined the game”
♠️ The truth about Black Friday
♠️ Starting (and losing money on) a DFS company
♠️ What he learned about business vs poker
♠️ How Establish The Run was built
If you want to understand how poker evolved from chaos… to strategy… and what it actually takes to build an edge twice… this episode is a must-listen.
Show Notes:
0:33 — Intro & early poker impact
2:00 — Childhood & early competitive mindset
5:30 — Discovering poker in high school
10:00 — College & finance path
15:00 — First online poker experience
17:00 — Grinding $5 sit-n-gos
22:00 — First big tournament win
23:00 — $50K in college
25:00 — Moving into high stakes
28:00 — Heads-up battles & rivalries
31:00 — Origin of CardRunners
34:00 — Building the business
38:00 — First big success (and shutdown scare)
40:00 — Scaling CardRunners
47:00 — Transition into business focus
50:00 — Attempting to sell to Full Tilt
53:00 — Black Friday impact
55:00 — Pivot to DFS (DraftDay)
59:00 — Why DFS failed
1:03:00 — Playing DFS professionally
1:05:00 — Starting Establish The Run
1:12:00 — Business today
1:20:00 — Closing thoughts
Connect with Taylor Caby
Twitter / X: https://x.com/TaylorCaby
Come Play Poker With Us
If you're in Las Vegas and want to play in our Table 1 private game at ARIA, you can request a seat here:
https://table1.vegas
Play Online With Us
Join us on Phenom Poker and get a deposit bonus:
• Up to 200% bonus on your first deposit (up to $2,000)
• Use our link to sign up
• Deposit using USDT
Link: https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1