HCL SCANDAL! Nik Airball Talks Garrett Adelstein

Timestamps below. Use coupon code nikairball for 25% off any purchase at Upswing Poker (expires March 31) 0:00 Intro 2:22 Nik Airball joins 2:58 Garrett being "banned" 13:27 Garrett's game selection 20:16 Garrett's player rating system 26:55 Garrett's tweets 34:54 Nik's heads-up challenge 39:00 The Robbi incident 43:58 Garrett + LATB? 46:13 Mariano, How to play on streamed games 1:00:03 Why off-stream games play bigger 1:04:57 More on the Robbi incident 1:17:26 Will Garrett ever play on HCL again? 1:24:35 Doug rants about Nik vs Matt Berkey match 1:27:20 Outro (Upswing Promo)

Nik is dramatically better spoken and more intelligent than I expected in an interview setting.

I can't lie, I really like Airball after this interview. thanks for the content Doug, great to have you back

I think Doug struck a nice balance between letting Nik speak freely and pushing back where he had genuine disagreement or saw more nuance. I appreciate an interviewer like Doug that doesn’t let and interviewee streamroll the convo with reckless abandon.

Great interview Doug and Nick. Very calm, truthful and genuine. No fronting. Keep it up

Wow, crazy to see Nik in his true form. I'm glad we did this interview!

Doug Polk regular poker content is back and is amazing

Great work on the interview Doug. Great to have you back. Nik seems like a pretty nice guy tho. Really genuine and willing to call people out on their bs.

Geez. 😊Much respect to NikAirball. Such a ‘vibrant’ personality on the table. Thanks Doug for airing this cast.

Gained a lot of respect for Nik after this interview. My discernment tells me he’s being truthful.

Nik comes across surprisingly cogent and articulate in a non-poker setting. Obviously a super smart dude.

I am a big Garrett fan. His high-pressure play was fun to watch. He was the big name that would draw viewers. So, for sure, the stream would have wanted him. But once he left, I thought the game got even better. And now, Hustler doesn't need the drama and cost of bringing him back.

Yes! The interviews are back, Doug is an amazing interviewer

Unexpected face turn from Airball. Thought he came across as a decent guy. I don't see the game selection stuff from Garrett as being problematic, although it starts to get a little dodgy if he's essentially dictating (or being allowed to dictate) who gets to play, and he certainly doesn't get to complain if the end result is that there's no lineup available for him. Nik is totally on the money about pros needing to make the games fun for recs though, and if Garrett's been acting in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable, that's super uncool for everyone involved.

I really hope you get your podcasts going again. Would love Garrett to come on after this also. Love the content!

A lesson for me in not judging the man from watching him play poker. Much respect to Nik. Great interview Doug

That was way more entertaining than expected. Great to see Doug coming back with great regular content!

Great content Doug,….again!!!!! Keep it up, loving this!

Nice interview! This really got me to see Nik quite differently. I had really only seen him playing on streams at Hustler and the Lodge. It's clear when he's in the game he's got a persona he likes to be. This interview showed a different side of him.

Doug you've been killing it lately with these videos. Keep up the awesome stuff!