When all else fails, you’ve got to call in the “Dawg” to save the day.
Barstool Sports sent two of its personalities out to Las Vegas for the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event — Adam “Smitty” Smith and Ben “Mintzy” Mintz — and both were eliminated on Day 1 in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.
Dan Katz, aka “Big Cat,” one of the oldest school Barstool content creators wasn’t about to let the media company he represents go out like that. The “Pardon My Take” podcast co-host called an audible on Saturday, and he sent the poker player to Las Vegas he hopes will be the company’s savior.
One Last Hope for Barstool Sports
With Smitty and Mintzy making abrupt exits from poker’s Super Bowl, Big Cat needed a Plan B. He called upon the “Dawg” — Nate Dawg (Eric “Barstool Nate” Nathan) — to head out west last minute as a last ditch effort for Barstool Sports to earn a cash in the Main Event.
“So, basically I wasn’t going to play the Main. I was at peace with it. Smitty and Mintzy both busted on Day 1, and Big Cat, he needed a sweat,” Nathan told PokerNews.
Big Cat had a piece of Mintz in the Main Event, an investment that didn’t provide any sort of return. And he wanted one more opportunity to get a piece of the action.
Nathan typically enters the Main Event, and he’d already been to Las Vegas this summer to compete in a couple of bracelet events. But he wasn’t planning to return for the world championship event due to, as he explained in a video, having most of his funds tied up in investments. Big Cat called him up and offered to stake him for a portion of the $10,000 buy-in, an offer he simply couldn’t refuse.
The former Cracking Aces poker podcast host booked a flight for Sunday, and he arrived to town around 7 p.m. He quickly headed to Horseshoe Las Vegas to register for Day 2d, which starts at noon on Monday, the last opportunity to enter.
The last hope for Barstool Sports earning a cash in the Main Event is Nate. That in mind, does he feel any pressure heading into Day 2d?
“Yeah, a lot of pressure,” Nathan said. “You don’t want to look like a f*****g idiot, flying out here, being here for six hours and then flying home. There’s no worse feeling in the world than busting the Main Event.”
Barstool Nate has never cashed in the Main Event, but he did run up a big stack on Day 3 in 2022, before he infamously semi-bluffed it off with a four-high flush draw (and a small pair).
“Yeah, that was a bad one. That was the last level of Day 1. I also once had a Day 2 chip lead and didn’t cash that. I punted that whole stack on Day 3. Yeah, I’m really good at getting big stacks and getting rid of them. I think I’m 0 for 6. (One year), I bagged like 200k on Day 1 and was out by dinner break on Day 2,” Barstool Nate said.
Maybe this will finally be the year he reaches the money, a performance that would certainly make Big Cat — and boss Dave Portnoy — proud.
“I would love to get my first Main Event cash,” Nate says. “I haven’t cashed in a tournament in what feels like a decade. If there’s one to get, it would be this one.”
It’s all up to Nate — and the cards — to make Big Cat (and Josh Arieh, who also bought action) satisfied, and some money. He’s trying a different strategy this time around by beginning on Day 2 with fewer big blinds than in year’s past. Fewer chips to punt? We’re kidding, Nate (kind of).
