The Lock-In 97 - Kat Arnsby

This week, the lads are locked in with poker player, marketeer and Party-Gammon, Kat Arnsby! After briefly discussing Kat’s imminent departure from Kindred, the trio dig up a controversial story from the end of 2024, namely Bonomo getting threatened with WSOP Super Main Event disqualification for wearing a keffiyeh. Kat highlights the hypocrisy of the WSOP who days earlier had run a tournament for the widows and orphans of fallen IDF soldiers. Barny Boatman’s heartfelt statement and generous auctioning of his first WSOP bracelet is also given some consideration. The conversation then turns to the Global Poker Awards with everyone weighing in on some of the most nominated people. The promise of a more full breakdown of each and every category is made for the next episode (which by the way will be from the Unibet Deepstack Open Barcelona). The discussion turns to the issue of poker-bots, specifically in-house poker bots as David plays a clip from the Sigma Panel at which both he and Kat spoke late last year. From that leaping off point, Dara weighs in with his strong take that liquidity bits of this nature would be terrible for the game. Kat defends her position that they can be a positive thing so long as sites are transparent. Nobody changes anyone else’s mind but the debate is held in good spirits and certainly provides both perspectives of a complicated issue. Before closing the curtain on a lively episode, David plugs the upcoming Dublin Poker Festival, for which Unibet Poker is running qualifiers - €50 satellites into both the €570 European Deepstacks and the €350 ACOP.