33-Year-Old WSOP Main Event Runner-Up Talks Poker Retirement

Poker Stories is a long-form audio podcast series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Jay Farber is best known for finishing runner-up to Ryan Riess in the 2013 World Series of Poker main event, where he earned $5.2 million. Farber was a relative unknown in the poker world at the time, but had made a name for himself in Las Vegas as a nightclub promoter and VIP host, which led to some high-profile people on his rail including Ben Lamb, Shaun Deeb, and Dan Bilzerian.

Now five years later and considered retired, the Santa Barbara, California-native is coming off of another solid summer. In late June, he took third in a a $1,500 bounty event at the WSOP for $121,000, and in July, he finished fifth in the Card Player Poker Tour Venetian main event for another $134,000.

Highlights from this interview include the joys of retirement, growing up in a pool hall, gambling as a child, sneaking into casinos, going from bouncer to club promoter, playing for rent money, partying for a living, finding clients at the poker table, knowing your table image, running like god in the main event, finding ways to spend a seven-figure score, not watching himself on TV, losing six figures in a blackjack session, the politics of high-stakes games, losing $250k+ pots to Rick Salomon, getting Chino’d by Chino, how to eat a lot of McDonald’s, and why the octopus will take over the earth.

You can check out the entirety of the interview in the audio player at the top of the page or download it directly to your device to play on the go from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Source: cardplayer.com

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