Ep. 110: Nabil Edgtton Taught AJ Antonios Bridge in Three Months and They Won the Gold Coast

Lero: And a game like Bridge, there's teaching somebody to understand the game and understand it at a basic level. And then there's teaching somebody from scratch to understand it at a high level. And I think that's stupid. I have a screenshot of a challenge I played with AJ. He beat me 43 imps to zero in eight fours. Wow. And everybody was like, that can't be real. Like, were you trying? I was like, dude, I was trying. Like basically the goal would be to play for Australia next kind of thing. No, so like it would be like I'm not like we're not just gonna hang around and play random bridge games. We're just gonna you know if we do it or we do it properly. And I think if you really wanna learn bridge at a competitive level, you've just gotta nosedive in. Fine, you wanna lose five grand? Let's go lose five grand. Hi, my name's John McAllister. Welcome to another episode of the Setting Trick Podcast. Today we had some tech technical difficulties during the episode. So ⁓ it was it's a three-part conversation between myself, ⁓ Nabil Edgeton from Australia, and ⁓ AJ Antonios, who's a good friend of Nabil's and ⁓ a great poker player who learned bridge. ⁓ over three months with Nabil a couple years ago and then ended up playing in the ⁓ one of the most prestigious Australian championships with Nabil. And so about 18 minutes in, we lose ⁓ Nabil's audio and video. ⁓ he actually was here for the whole conversation, but the platform that we were recording it on didn't wasn't able to record the stuff. So ⁓ I decided to publish it anyway because it's a great conversation between me and AJ. And ⁓ I hope you enjoy and thanks for bearing with us. Thanks for listening all the way through till the end. And if you'd like to hear more from the Bill, we ⁓ interviewed him on episode twenty six of the Setting Trick Podcast, and you can find a link to that on our website, thesetting trick dot com or in the show notes. All right. I am ⁓ I am really enthused. ⁓ I haven't recorded a podcast in a while, but I'm fired up for this because this is this is a good one. ⁓ we've got ⁓ one of the best bridge players in the world, the Bill Edgton, who's a very good friend of mine, and his bridge proje, ⁓ AJ Antonios, who I didn't ask him if that was how he pronounced his name. That was great. That was classic nowadays. And AJ ⁓ played bridge for three months, won the Gold Coast Congress, and then retired summarily from the game. So I mean, like ⁓ and I and then I just I just read about the final of this match. ⁓ what a match. What a what a win you guys had. ⁓ you AJ play AJ played the ⁓ this is not a good this isn't starting well for me. I'm sorry. How are you doing great? Man, you've got high expectations of yourself. Anyway, I'm fired up to have you guys on here. Welcome to the Setting Trick Podcast. Thanks, Mecca. Thanks. Nice to be here. It's good to be here. I get to flame the bill for however many hours this goes for. It's gonna be fantastic. Ten, fifteen years of being used to it. You can't you can't get me. So so I'm just I'm just meeting AJ for the first time today. ⁓ just here right now. virtually. ⁓ although he's got a he's got a presence on Australian ⁓ television and YouTube. If if you like AJ, there's a lot of content out there that you can ⁓ you can watch more of him. but I'd heard about this I'd heard about this for a long time. ⁓ you know that Nabil taught you bridge. I think ⁓ I think you guys were living together at the time. Hmm. ⁓ Nabil is ⁓ Nabil's Nabil's a very passionate person. So when he wants to do something, he does it ten thousand percent. ⁓ and Nabil had a a really great plan to get me to play Bridge. First, he was like, Hey, it's COVID. We should move in together. We're best friends. Like, don't be alone. Why would you live by yourself during COVID? I was like, that's true. Like, it'll be fun living with Nabil. And then the second I got into the apartment, there was fucking chains on the wall. And he was like, we're learning bridge. And we're playing this for three months. And I was like, fuck with God, he trapped me. ⁓ it was COVID in Australia and in Australia you couldn't even drive around more than five kilometers outside of your radius. I was trapped. So he trapped me and he forced me to learn bridge and yeah, the i every day we got up and we trained, we trained and you know, Nabil as a teacher is ⁓ he's not a patient person. So ⁓ there was a lot of Wait, but I thought the I thought you won the Gold Coast in twenty twenty. ⁓ twenty nineteen was COVID. Twenty nineteen was COVID. Yeah, there's there's multiple different COVIDs and it's like there's a twenty nineteen COVID, then then there's a twenty one lock lockdown and Yeah. Yeah. During lockdown. Okay. A C D lockdown. ⁓ one of one of many. yeah, so we we did a lot of bridge study during that time. Bill's a great teacher. He's just not got a lot of patience, but he's a great teacher. I had high expectations of AJ. Yeah, AJ's basically been the best at every card game he's ever played. and yeah, when I when I thought I'd get him into bridge and he was keen, I had this expectation that he would I could just explain something to him once and he would just remember it and just carry that through forever. And somehow that wasn't the case. ⁓ I was like, yeah, I don't know. Like at times I'd be a little bit disappointed in him. Like he'd be like, Man, I've already explained this to you twice. Like you should get squat down, you know? It was so funny. So like and at this point I was like, Am I an idiot? Like have I lost my edge? And it was like, All right, we're gonna go to a local bridge tournament and and we're gonna play and I was like, ⁓ no man, like you keep calling me an idiot. I I don't get it, like whatever. It'll be fine. We're playing against like old ladies. It'll it'll be okay. I was like, okay. Yeah. ⁓ so we go to this bridge tournament and we're playing, and I I think I don't know if we won this one or we came close, and the whole time Nabil's like, AJ, you idiot, you screwed up again here, and you screwed up again here. And I don't know what scores we're getting. And at the end of that, I think we got like some crazy score and I we came first or second or whatever. Playing against he's Well, you're a new face, like how long you've been playing for? I'm like, I've been playing for a week. They're like, no. how long have you been playing for? Like, you're really good. I'm like, no, I'm not. Anyway, and this this kept going for like months. And people would be like, you've been playing Bridge for. And I'm like, I don't know, three weeks. Like Nabil's coaching me. Like, I I don't know what I'm doing. ⁓ I figured out Nabil was just illusional. ⁓ and Bridge is actually really hard. ⁓ yeah, I thought I'd do well. Actually, how many years later did you say to me, AJ, I I'm so sorry about all that? I've been teaching people after you and it turns out you learn things really quickly. And I was like, Well I kind of got that just a little bit later on when people would tell me that I knew a lot. So yeah. It was really fun. Sorry, my connection just out there for a second. Okay, well, pretend you knew what I just said. What's your defense? My defense is that I expect too much from you. That's that's That's my I I hold you to a high standard and yeah. And also I did I just didn't realize. Basically what happened was after I taught AJ, I taught my ⁓ my partner Liv, who's very switched on, played card games her whole life, very good at games and all that. ⁓ and I also taught her mother. you guys yeah. I also taught her mother and I texted AJ and I was like, I'm so sorry. I literally did like I didn't realize And it's funny because I should know. So AJ's played these other card games, like, for example, Magic the Gathering. Right now he's playing ⁓ Grand Archive. He's always tried to get me into those games. And I've always been so ⁓ apprehensive to do it because I'm like, it's just it's a completely new thing to me. I'm gonna have to learn. Like, it's just like it's it's completely just a whole new language. And even though you played card games, you understand strategies, you have to learn a whole new language. And like AJ learnt the language and I was there thinking like, dude, it's just English, you know? Like, can't you speak English? Nabil, do you know I have a video of you learning Rune Terra? Like it's like a it rune terra is like this online card game. and Nabil, it was just one night. ⁓ and I was like, Nabil, you should play this card game. I'm about to get into this card game, it's really fun. We can learn it together. And I I got this little video of Nabil learning this card game, and he's just like, AJ, this is so stupid. I don't understand. ⁓ and then he like, He never played it again after that point. He tried for fifty He he was like clicking buttons on the phone, he's like, Don't get it, I'm out and he was just going through the tutorial on the phone. I was like, What? I'm learning. And then AJ did it in reverse and he was kinda like, Yeah. Guess that makes sense and it would come up the next time and I'd be like, AJ, why don't you fucking know it? I explained it to you once. ⁓ It was so fun. It was such a fun time. And honestly, like I joke about it a lot with people and I'm like, Nabil, you're such a shit teacher. But Nabil had a lot of patience. Like, I don't think I would have the patience to sit with somebody for three months and get them up to a level that's respectable to be able to play a really big bridge event. Like Nabil put in so many hours and it would have been so hard. Like Don't think we're if the goo's a bad teacher, I'm a worst teacher. Like, like I do things based on instinct a lot of the time. And like I think I can understand I can explain the logic, but when you're teaching someone, you need to explain it from their perspective, not your own perspective. Like you need to be able to break it down so their mind can understand. ⁓ it's not easy teaching. Like it's so hard. And a game like Bridge, there's teaching somebody to understand the game and understand it at a basic level. And then there's teaching somebody from scratch to understand it at a high level. And I think that's super difficult. And yeah, Nabil did great job. You know, he just he just, you know, he he did it as aggressively as he possibly could. And it was fun. I liked the challenge. Like the challenge is great. But now I get to make fun of him for it. So it's the thing I was at a nationals ⁓ I can't remember which one recently. And I was telling the guys about this story. And I have I showed them a photo and it's a photo that I I have in my favorites. I hold it dearly. Do you know how you can do robot challenges on BBO? You can challenge a friend to an eight port challenge. I have a screenshot of a challenge I played with AJ. He beat me 43 imps to zero in eight boats. Wow. And everybody was like, that can't be real. Like, were you trying? I was like, dude, I was trying. Like I wasn't like, maybe I didn't sit there and think for five minutes about a line or something. Yeah. But I was trying to, I was trying my best. And he just got me 43 to zero. ⁓ that was so funny. I remember I used to always what makes that. Yeah, it was it was that was great. That was so much fun. Man, I I I think bridges I love playing bridge. I really do. Like I played bridge with Nabil and his dad and his girlfriend and like whatever. It's just like once I think we went from such a competitive level to then Nabil was like, I don't need you as a bridge partner anymore, bro. I whibs. I was like okay. ⁓ and then I just never played again because like I I like I like being competitive and I like we'll run it back when we have time, but like But in forty years, bro, you never have time. That's true. Nah, I don't know. Give me ten. Give me ten. And I think like like we would have to if we continue bridge, we would have to do it sort of like not full time, but like we would have we'd have to become a partnership, we would have to play all the events like Like basically the goal would be to play for Australia next kind of thing, you know? So like it would be like I'm not like we're not just gonna hang around and play random bridge games. We just go, you know, we do it or we do it properly. And plus to be fair, it's a way funnier story that you won the Gold Coast after three months than retirement. I love that like I mean it's it's good I I it's great to hear that you like did what didn't sour like you didn't weren't soured on it, you know? 'Cause 'cause it seems like it could be, you know, like 'cause it's it sounds like it just dropped off precipitously after the the Gold Coast. But it's I'm gl I'm glad to hear that it's like something that you guys hope to do in the future when we know the bill can get time. But it's also hilarious to think that, okay, so we won the Gold Coast after three months and now the Bill's like, Well, if we're gonna do it again, we gotta do it to play for Australia I'm not saying it's that but it's actually it's I mean One of the reasons that I wanted to do this ⁓ do this interview with you guys is I'm teaching a friend of mine, Bridge, who is ⁓ who played in the NBA briefly. He's like an all he was an all American basketball player at the University of Virginia, which is where I went to college. And he's a great guy and he's played a lot of spades. And it's just been interesting teaching him because it's almost like the spades is a negative thing. But but you guys, you know, I mean Like we're we're doing well, he's committed we're committed to do this for a year together and we're making ⁓ like we're making content for a YouTube series out of it. And just to think that you went from, you know, being ⁓ you know, Nabil's friend to like winning the, you know, a major tournament like is i is is pretty wild to me as someone who's, you know, we've probably we're probably close to three months already and we and I haven't I wanna take him to the local bridge club, but we haven't I didn't think we were ready. ⁓ the last time when we were we were gonna try to do it on the first of July, but he he wasn't ready yet. It was gonna be like too too regressive. ⁓ sorry, I'll ⁓ I'll send you a package with all my old padlocks. So eventually obviously I let AJ out of the door, but you know, ⁓ you as much as you gotta do it properly. You know there's a dungeon there. I wasn't ⁓ I wake up in the morning the whip's ready and he's like sit down, we're we're playing fixed three hours. We actually had a routine. Like it so it's you know, I I played bridge for for three months, but it was like we played a lot. Like we played a lot in three months. The routine was I'd wake up, ⁓ and then we'd play three hours of bridge. Like we'd go through ⁓ like bidding or we'd go through gameplay or whatever. And then we'd go for a walk down to the beach and then we'd come back and have something to eat and like maybe review a little bit and it was a lot. It was a lot. And it was really fun. Like I think if you do something, you do it a hundred percent. ⁓ And we did that maybe like five times a week, Nabil. Like it was it was a fair bit. We did a lot. Yeah, yeah. It was a fair bit. And then we're playing, you know, we were playing random congresses and things like that. Yeah. It was really fun. It was like a really fun time. And I think if you if you really want to learn bridge at a competitive level, you've just got to like nosedive in. And I'm sure having a friend like Nabil or a friend like you would help so much because you know the game inside out and you can teach it at a low level or you can teach it at a high level. And, you know, if somebody's willing to learn you There's no reason I don't know. I don't know that I can t I mean, like it it is it like just watching the footage that we shot from the when you like like a month and a half ago for this ⁓ Sean Large Bridge. I mean, I I really realized after I was watching the footage how much he thought the bidding was related to spades when it was like, you know, i it really it was actually a negative because he understood the spades bidding so well that ⁓ that it was a negative. I think like you need a really flexible mind for Bridge as well. Like I've played lots of different games. Like it's not just one game. I've played like Yu Gi ⁓ and Versus System and Magic and Grand Archive and Poker and like there's a Lebanese game that's like a really watered down version of Bridge called Tan Nib and like so you've gotta take little aspects from all the different games and understand that this is a totally different game. Like I think my mindset's quite flexible. So if Nabil would explain something to me I'd Sometimes I'd be able to reference it produ to a different game and be like, ⁓ it's kinda like that. But if I only had one game as a foundation and I was trying to learn, so if spades was my foundation, I was trying to learn bridge, it's a lot more difficult because like your mindset is glued into spades. Whereas my mindset was like, ⁓ I could take from any of these different games and bring it into this game. It's why Especially also in poker, you've got Different types. You've got Hold'em, you've got Omaha, you've got tournaments, and they're all sort of similar, but you sort of take little aspects of that. So it's almost like it's a it's a similar thing, you know? It's like you sort of learn in poker to apply concepts from other games in in in these games and things like that. Hmm. It's also like I I enjoy learning new games. Like I think it's fun. Like right now I'm learning a game called Guandon. It's like this really big Chinese game. ⁓ and I was playing poker with these guys and they were just like, You're beating us a poker, but what about Guan Dun? And was like, all right, well the game, let's play. ⁓ like I've always loved learning new games. I think you have to have that like hunger to learn a new game sometimes. Otherwise it gets it gets a bit hard. And I'm sure, ⁓ what's the Sean? Is that what you said his name was? Yeah, Sean's Sean Singletary. Yeah. Sean's probably got that hunger, but it's about ⁓ for sure. Completely releasing the spades thing and not having it as a reference point and just coming in fresh and being like, okay. I'm an open book, teach me. And that's not easy. Like it's not easy from the teacher's side or the student side. It's it's hard, man. Like learning new games is hard. You've got to be dedicated. So you guys know each other through poker. You Nabil told me that you met at a poker table 15. Yeah, yeah. We met at a poker table, all right. This this dirt bag. He ⁓ let me tell you the story about how Nabil and I ⁓ Nabil and I met. So I'm sitting at a poker table, minding my own business, right? Crushing the table. There we go. Nabil's gone. That's how embarrassing the story is. This guy, man, he he does computers like he does bridge and every other game. Hey, what the fuck, man? You didn't want to hear the story. Sorry, it just came up with a pop-up. It said that the computer stopped recording. I don't know. I had to re reload it. ⁓ anyway, so Nabil comes to my poker table, he's like, Hey, you're AJ. Just so you know, there's two versions of this story. AJ's is the funniest version, so we'll go with that. Center Bill comes, he's like, ⁓ here you're AJ, like you're you're doing really well. You're friends with Trent. Da, I'm friends with Trent's girlfriend, etc. I'm like, cool, cool, cool. Anyway, so he sits down and he stacks me three times. I was up like 600 bucks. I'm back to eat. I made it even down 200. He stacks me three times. And then afterwards, he comes up to and I'm like, okay, I'm done. I'm out of here. Like I'm leaving. And I was battling him and I was trying to bluff him, and it wasn't working. So I get up to leave and he's man, you're really good. Like, you're too good to be playing these low stakes. You should play bigger stakes with me. And I'm like, this guy just stacks me three times and tells me I'm good at poker. It was true. He just like the like if the hands were reversed, I would have got stacked in all those hands. He's just like, and he was playing in small stakes and he played every hand really well. And I was like impressed, right? And I was also impressed that I had his money as well. ⁓ So anyway, this guy, he's the he he's like, he really feeds me and he's like, yeah, you're really good. You should play high stakes with me. Just come play a session with me sometime at a at a bigger at a bigger game. I'm like, okay, I'll do it. Anyway, we move up stakes. I go from the $200 mine to the $500 mine. I sit down, I'm there for three hands, Nabil stacks me straight away. I'm just like, this fucking guy. Like he literally takes all my money at low stakes, tells me how good I am, and then he stacks me at two stakes. And then we've been busy. Hey, tell the truth. You had Kings, I had Ace King, and the board here and Ace. It was cut off versus button. Yeah. I had Kings. He was cut off versus button. We're always getting the million back. At this time, like we we hadn't really I don't know, we thought we were friends and we were kinda like ⁓ you know, there's an unspoken rule, we're not trying to take each other's money. Like I'm trying to like help him, bring him up on the table, but and I didn't know if he was trying to bluff me or we were both in this weird situation. Yeah, that was great. And and we've been best friends ever since. And then Nabil and I it got to the point where we'd we would go to the casino together and people would be like, Are you guys brothers? ⁓ 'cause we'd always be hanging out and we'd have the same curly hair and like What do you AJ, what do you tell people what do you tell people when they ask you what you do? ⁓ these days I just say I play games. Like ⁓ I don't really I don't play like a a ton of one game anymore. I feel like I play a lot of different games now. And I just Do whatever I think is fun. Like right now I'm preparing for the world championships of Grand Archive and I qualified from this event in Taipei. so I've been doing that pretty full time. Sometimes after so world championships is next week. And after that I'm going to Gold Coast to play ⁓ the APL millions, a poker tournament. And then after that I'll it's just whatever whatever's coming up. Like if there's a game and it's really fun and I really get into it, I'll just try and play it at a competitive level. It'll be great. So but Guan Dan is such a fun game. So ⁓ the Chinese guys I play with, like, i nobody if you're not Chinese, you pretty much don't play Guandon, apparently. ⁓ we're playing these really high stakes and I was really into it because Guandon is a lock game, but there's like there's there's skill factors, right? Like you're playing the man and like if there's four people that are at the same skill level, sure, it's a really lock based game. But realistically if there are four people that are at completely different skill levels, it's not that lock based anymore. Like I think there's a lot of different skill edges you have. So I was obsessed with that for like two months as well and Yeah, I just kinda bounce around games and if there's a big competition coming up, I'll just start preparing for that. And I'll try and pick one game at a time. ⁓ so yeah, if somebody asks me, I just say I I play games and most people think I'm insane, which is great. Yeah, I'm I'm fine with that. What did you think of Bridge? Like give me some like Bridge like deep Yeah, I I think Bridge is one of the most school based games I've ever played. Like I I think that especially I really, really love the teams based format where you're playing mirror boards. I think that's fantastic. And don't get me wrong, there is luck. Like, you know, you might have a system that leads this card in this spot, and somebody else would have a different system that leads a different card. And sure, there's nothing you can do about the board once you lead that card. But I think Bridge is super skill-based. I love the partnership factor. Like, I think you you can get really good at reading your partner. And like, I don't know, Bill talks to me a little bit about a little bit about like cheating in Bridge and whatever, but I think a lot of it can be intuitive as well. Like you kind of just know. what your partner would do in this situation. And when they do this, sometimes you can kind of pick something up. Like I'm not saying that's a thing that I picked up. Like I don't know, I haven't but Nabil and I, if we were in a partnership for twenty or thirty years, I think I'd probably end up picking up like very subtle things. And I think like so there's this massive skill factor. Then I think there's another skill factor based on like who your partner is, how long you've been partners with them, how well you can read them. And like I I just I think the scene is it when I'm meeting like eighty, eighty five year old people that their minds are so sharp still. I'm just in awe. Like I want to be that. Like I want my mind to be that sharp. Like most 80, 85 year olds you meet, like, you know, that you know, their minds gone backwards a little bit. But when you've played Bridge all your life, your mind hasn't gone backwards. It it's quite sharp. Or maybe it's gone backwards a little bit, but it's still super sharp for your age. I think bridge is a brilliant game. Like I wish I was playing it from when I was a kid. I I think I'd play it more competitive competitively now. But I think it's skill based. I think it's fun. I think the community is amazing. Like in a lot of games, I think they're quite most games are compet like polco is very toxic. Like the community is quite toxic. Like Grand Archive, the community is very ⁓ I don't know, I would say casual. Yeah, well it's fun, but it's very casual. Whereas Bridge Community is is quite intense and supportive. And like everyone's willing to talk strategy with you. So yeah, I think Bridge Bridge is one of the best games I've ever played, to be honest. Nabil was asking to play bridge with him from when I was twenty one. And I think we started playing bridge together when I was thirty-one. So Nabil was asking for like 10 years. And I think it wasn't until I stopped playing poker full time that I actually started to consider it. Like, yeah, back when I was twenty-one, there were these crazy poker games happening. And like back then, you're 21, then you're blinded by money and you're blinded by like playing the biggest games in the world and whatever. Once you don't have that. that like film in front of you and you can see the world for what it is, I think you go to bridge and you're like, this is it. Like I've made it. I'm playing these big bridge tournaments and like this is how this is what a good feeling is. ⁓ but it's more like the atmosphere in the community. Like the atmosphere in polka is yeah, not as good. But yeah, so Nabil asked many, many times for many years. And I said no. And then he eventually kidnapped me and ⁓ and I had no choice. And it was the perfect time. And so how how did it go the first like how did it go the first lesson then? Like what was like the You finally did you say, Hey, let's do it or like I remember the first lesson. I was like, All Nebo, come on, that's like we've got nothing else to do with COVID. Like, show me. The first lesson was about finessing. I remember it. We were we were finessing a queen or something. It was like a queen or whatever. We we were doing this finesse. and I was like, ⁓ this is like the game Tunnib. It's like a Lebanese car game called Tun Nib. Like I ⁓ automatically I was like, ⁓ you do this in the game Tun Nib. It's like you you know, you've got a like you Play low from your ace queen because the king might be on like the left hand side and you whatever thing. It was really fun. Those first few lessons were so fun. ⁓ and then it was like, I got him. And then that's when the chance. Yeah. Then it was like, you don't even know this, AJ? I explained this to you two weeks ago. How can you not remember from two weeks ago? Like, okay, sorry, man. Like, let's do it again just in case. Like, and sometimes the girl will be like, I I've explained this to you. And I'm like, no, you haven't. And he'd go through his notes and he's like, ⁓ okay, sorry, I yelled at you, but I haven't actually explained this. But you should know it because it's similar to this one. I'm like, my bad. Sorry about that. ⁓ yeah, that that was that that was like the first introduction I had to bridge. And it was it was really fun. Nabil knew how to get me in. He'd just show me the really fun things that would happen and how it'd be really complex. And then I was like, Ooh, and like he like got a little bit of a cheese out, and then I followed the cheese, and then I felt the crack and And then ⁓ and then we were in for we were we were battling for a big tournament. It was fun. Also, I gotta say in that tournament, we had like Wibley on our team and we like we had a really good team. Like Ash Wibbly. We did have a good team. Like what the hell? Like what was I doing? I was just there. You had a great team. I I didn't lose in. I I still remember that finals. I this is how delusional I was at the time. I think ⁓ pretty sure we won we won Penny so we lost like it lost super small or something. We did pretty well. And then I was watching the board updates and you got like smashed in the second set. And I was like, Nabil, just put me back in, bro. Like ha ha ha ha Ash to sit down. And Ash is like fucking way better than me. But I was like, I love these moments. Like I'm gonna crush it. Put me back in. Go over there. That was so funny. I remember that last board happened. And I was like, Did I make a mistake, Nabil? And you're like, let's not talk about it. And I was like Okay. He didn't even admit he made a mistake at the time. He was like, just don't talk about it. I was like, I must have really fucked that somehow. I don't know. ⁓ wait, I just read the match report actually the other day. I think it was ⁓ didn't you play in force baits? Do you sure you didn't play in force spades? Yeah. 'Cause they played it from the other side at the other table. Did we have any did we win or lose in that set? ⁓ maybe not. Maybe I'm thinking of a different one. ⁓ Did I I just wanted to see if you could check how many imps we won or lost in that set while I was playing. If my memory's good. Yeah, that's not a big deal. I you lost I think you lost I think you were down thirty six to twenty seven. They were up by nine, I think. No. Yeah. Bill, that were your imps, bro. Yeah, where where had the where had the early lead thirty six to twenty seven? Yeah. Okay, maybe it's a different board. Here here's one of the here's one of the comments from the from the article that I want to share. Antonios Antonios had played a sorry. Antonios and Hempst both replicated a strong technical line in 3-0 Trump. Yeah. That's what that's what Liam Milne said in his article. And then at the end he said Antonios had played a remarkably solid set under immense pressure given his lack of expertise. ⁓ that was nice. I think was that Milne? Yeah. ⁓ that's nice of him. It's actually a well written ⁓ we'll we'll put a link to it in the show notes. It's very well written. There's a lot of there's like one th he ⁓ Wibley led from Jack X Jack Six of Spades and his partner at Bid Spades and he he led the Six of Spades and ⁓ and Liam called it a fruity lead, which I enjoy. There's like some there's like some there's some vocab in there that you don't see in like a lot of bridge write-ups. And you opened ⁓ there was another funny board. You opened two hearts with like King Seventh of Hearts. King ⁓ I remember that board. Yeah. And you went for you. Yeah. That was ⁓ a discipline. You had you had seven hearts and you still went for eleven eleven hundred. I remember that. Like Nabil was so impressed with that board. He was like he went afterwards, I think you were talking to Milne. You were like, AJ did this, and Milne's like, Is that good? And Nabil's like And Milne's like You sure? I that's what I remember. That was really funny. That was a good one. Did you so ⁓ were you one of the poker players, AJ, that ⁓ was involved with Nabil in this bet for golf? ⁓ okay, so I facilitated the bet. ⁓ so let's talk about this is a great story. This is like this is such a So Nabil and I are living together at a time and Nabil and I had always been very competitive with each other for our entire lives. Like with like Yeah. But we're two dumb guys in their twenties and we compete over everything. And I was officially in my thirties at this point, right? I'd turn 30. ⁓ and we just lived together and I was like, All right, Nabil, no more competitiveness. Let's just be friends. And he was like, Yeah, yeah, sweet, let's be friends. I was like, Cool. And one day we were just hanging out and he's like, we're talking about golf. And he was like, you know, there's this driving range called Moor Park, and I can hit it over the fence there. And I was like, Nabil, you can't hit it over the fence there. It's like 350 meters on the fly, you're delusional. Like and he's like, No, bro, I can hit over the fence. And usually I'd be like, all right, I'll bet you. Like, let's go. Let's go right now. And I'm like, Nabil, I don't want to take your money. Stop it. Like, we're not competitive anymore. You can't hit it over the fence. And he's like, I've hit it over the fence. I can do it again. Da-da-da. I'm like, look, Nabil, I'm just gonna call them and I'm gonna ask them if it's possible. And I called the Pro Shop and I was like, Yeah, look, is it possible to hit the ball over the fence? My friend's like, Six foot sticks, 120 kilos, da da da da da. Do you reckon he could hit this golf worth of fence on the fly? And they're like, nah, he can't do it. Like it'd be a danger hazard, whatever, whatever. He couldn't he couldn't do it. And he's the guy's on speaker. I'm like, see Nabil, you can't do it. And the Bill's like, I bet you I could do it. And I'm like, all right, whatever, man. I'm not interested. And for the next thirty minutes, he was like, What are you chicken? Are you you You think I can't do it? Like you put your money where your mouth is. Like, dah da da. I'm like, all Nibel, listen, we'll do a small bet. Let's bet a hundred bucks. He's like, A hundred bucks? A hundred bucks. Give me eight to one and w and I'll put five grand on it. And I was like, what the hell? Like, all right, bro, listen. And he just grinded me down and eventually he pissed me off enough. I was like, fine, you want to lose five grand? Let's go lose five grand. He puts five grand on it and I give him eight to one. Or maybe it was six to one, six to one, eight to one. ⁓ and I told my friends about it and we're all laughing. They're they're golfers as well. They're like, he's gonna lose his money here, whatever. Anyway. So there was a week of ramp up before you actually went to attempt it? Yeah, because everybody wanted to see it. It had to get it had to be on a day where everybody could go laugh at the bill. Anyway, the bet was he gets five warm-up shots and then he has 20 shots to get it over the fence. So he's five warm-up shots and twenty shots to get over fence. Hey, he hadn't literally he literally hadn't swung a golf club in a year. And he thinks he's gonna hit a 350 meters over the fence. The guy's delusional. Anyway, full delusional. Anyway, so I go to the back of the fence, like the the side back of the fence, so I can see the shots. And we're on the phone together, and I'm like, okay, go. Like, let's have your five warm-up shots. Hits his first warm-up shot, he tops it. It goes like five meters. He hits his second warm-up shot. He slices it 200 meters to the right, not even close. And I'm and I'm laughing. That's fucking delusional. He hits his third shot. And it's like a meter from the top of the fence. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, he's gonna do it. Like this is bullshit. Anyway, by his like and he he hit his next two shots. They almost went over again. And his third shot of the bet. He has 20 shots. His third shot of the bet. Clean hit. Straight over the fence. My money's gone. And I'm just like, what the h how is this possible? He hit seven or eight shots and he got over the top. Anyway, so Nabil's on a high. He just won like 30 or 40 grand. He's he's like, he's telling he's laughing at all of us. He's telling us how stupid he we are. Like ⁓ my god. No context. No con no, no context. Anyway, you gotta see our you gotta see our perspective, right? Nabil is saying to us, so Nabil gets it over the face, right? And then he says to us, guys, you don't understand how talented I am. If I had played if I had played golf since I was a kid, I would be the right. ⁓ I would be the next Tiger Woods. Like if I played basketball, I'd be Michael Jordan. Like you guys might be against. We're just like, this fucking guy doesn't understand. And I'm like, Nabil, Michael Jordan plays off one. Like his handicap is one. And and Nabil's like, I'd be it I'd play off scratch. I and Nabil's like, I reckon I could get off scratch in like three months. Like I could play scratch at golf in three months. And we're just like, bro, just because you you can't play off scratch because you hit the ball far. And we go to this dinner and it's and the guys that were laughing at him and me and whatever and the Bill's celebrating 'cause he won the money and he's just he keeps going. He's just like I could be I could play scratch, da da da and these guys have played golf for the last like ten years and they try really hard and they suck, right? They're playing off like eighteen or eighteen or whatever. Yeah. And I've played golf since I was a kid. And at the time I play off like five, right? And I've been playing since I was a kid. ⁓ and we're like, bro, you can't play off scratch in three months. It's impossible. Yeah. So Nabil gets that look in his eyes, because you know, we just told him the fence is impossible. And he's like, All right, I'll bet ya. And these guys are like, bro, you can't do it. It's the same thing over again. And in the end, Nabil got four he there was a couple of different bets, but basically Nabil was outlaying 50 grand. And if he won, he won like 220 grand. So Nabil then became a pro golfer. And I think you had nine months. Was this three months or nine months? Six months. There you go. Nabil had six months. To get to a scratch handicap. ⁓ three handicap. That's right, we negotiated. It ended up being three. He had six months to get to a three handicap. Anyway, and I was like, look, I've had enough of betting with Nabil. Fucking take my money. I don't think you can do this, but I'm not betting against him now. Like I want to support Nabil, 'cause it's a lot of money. I want to support him. Right. ⁓ so the other guy I was fuming, and it wasn't ten grand. ⁓ I lost I actually lost thirty two grand to you, I think, in total in that gold bag. Yeah. And I was fuming. And one of our other really rich friends was there. And ⁓ I was like, somebody fucking bet me something. I'm I'm pissed off. I'm down 32 grand, whatever. And the reason This is such a poker player, poker player the mentality. Like we're just it's just tens of thousands, just So my my rich friend is like, ⁓ man, AJ's on tilt. I think I'm gonna win some money off him here. He's like, All right, let's play a forty thousand dollar game in Monopoly. I'm like, done, let's go play Monopoly. ⁓ so anyway, and then I won forty grand game of monopoly. So I won't grand. So I was like, okay, this wasn't that bad after all. So then the bill was I'd won my money back, so I don't care anymore. So then when the when the bill was kind of teeing up this golf bet, I was like, ⁓ I won my money. You guys have fun. ⁓ so then my friend who lost forty grand to me was now on tilt and he wanted to get his money back. So he then that's why the bet was for fifty grand, because he wanted to not only did he want to win his forty grand back, he wanted to win an extra 10 grand. But that's how this bet came to end up happening with this other guy. Somebody out there bet Nabil he can't get to an eight handicap in three months, who'll probably take you off on it still. Let me tell you how close Nabil got. Okay. This is this is the reality of it. And Nabil's story there is fake. Don't worry about that. So I was getting up I was getting live updates of Nabil's round. So when Nabil was playing for this $220,000 bet, my friend who made the bet with him was in the golf buggy following him around. So we're getting hole by hole updates. So they go to the golf course at like six thirty in the morning or something. My friend doesn't wake up before ten PM. He's already pissed off. So they start at six thirty. Nabil hits his first shot three hundred and twenty meters down the middle. Nabil hits his second shot. He puts it to within a meter of the hole. And then he cuts it into a thirty. It's a part four. And my friend texts me, he's like, AJ, I'm fucked. And then Bill proceeded to quadruple bogey the next hole, and my friend's like, ⁓ he's an idiot. And and then every update from them was my friend just been like, This guy had no chance at any point in time. Nabil shot like twenty-eight over in nine holes the first round, and then he was like twenty-three over the second round. And by the third round, he was like fifty over and he was dead. And my friend was just laughing the whole time. ⁓ and that was the story. So Nabil had hope. Fun hole. He scared us for what he scared him. Also golf's a different game. Like golf's so different to poker or bridge or whatever, because in poker and bridge you can sit down, you can take a deep breath, and it's your mind, right? ⁓ but yeah, that's the golf bet. It was a very fun time of our lives. ⁓ when Nabil lost his mind for a little bit. He got drunk with power. Yeah. Didn't you didn't you didn't your hands get so blistered though because you were practicing so much that you had to like you had to kind of call it Let me tell the story. Let me tell the story. Nabil's going to tell the story. Let me tell the story. All right. So Nabil is going to play golf every day. And he's just like, ⁓ AJ, my hands hurt. And like I need to get a massage every day. And I've I need to get accuracy and like, bro, grow up. Like, what's wrong with you? Anyway, and he's like, dude, you don't understand. I've got this pain in my like thumb and da da da. I'm like, Nabil, it's golf. I've played all my life. What are you talking about? Anyway. So one day he he's like, I I need to get accu acupuncture to like help whatever. One day he gets acupuncture and he's he keeps telling the girl to go deep and the girl's like, I can't go any deeper. I think I I might hurt you. And Nabil's like, just go deeper. Anyway, the girl punctures Nabil's lung. And Nabil, the girl's like, ⁓ I think I went a bit too deep. And Nabil's like, Yeah, I think you did too, but it's probably fine. Like, I'm six foot six. Don't worry about it. Anyway. ⁓ I wake up the next morning and I'm like, Nabil, how are you? He's like, Dude, I went to hospital last night. I'm like, what the hell? And I I looked at my phone. I had like 20 messages from him, been like, dude, I I don't think I'm okay. I can't breathe. Da da da. I'm going to hospital. I'm in the hospital. And I'm getting this text-by-text update of Nabil just he's like, I have a punctured lung, like da-da-da-da. Anyway, then he got back the next day and he was fine. He was just like, yeah, I gotta puncture. And in the hand context, after the golf bet, Nabil got his hands looked at and he had like you had like torn ligaments in your hands or something. And you were just he was just cooked. He was just completely cooked the whole time. So Nabil the whole time he was complaining about pain in his hands from golf, it was legit. Like he just had muscles or something and he was just cooked the whole time and he needed surgery. So yeah, Nabil rougher than that bet. Yeah, yeah. You that's why you and and honestly, also, Nabil's never hit it three hundred and fifty meters again. Ever. Ever. It was just defect in his hands and let him hit the wall so far. Were the guys were the guys from the pro shop who told you that there's no way he could do it? Were they there when he did it? ⁓ my god. I called them afterwards those bastards. I bet. I bet you did. I was like my mate just popped it straight over the fence and they're just like, ha ha They're like, nah, he didn't. Nah he didn't. I'm like, hey, you wanna bet fucking forty grand that he did? Like the people can over here. ⁓ man, they they couldn't believe it. They were just like, there's no way he did that. Like the and I was like, No, he he I was watching it, he he did it. And you were cheating because you had muscles for ligaments. Did you do it with range balls too, or did you buy like brand new range balls? We did it with range, and he still hit it with it's ridiculous. Like how that bet. I go to more parks sometimes. It was ridiculo it's so ridiculous, man. I can't believe that ball went over the fence. That was No, but I actually AJ, I was so I thought that w this was the coolest thing that I actually asked Nabil if I could come and make a documentary about it. When the golf show was going on. ⁓ yeah, that was it was pretty crazy. Yeah, he He he first he was down and then he's like, No, ⁓ he he called me like two days later or texted me like two days no no no. I mean it's such a great it's an amazing story. I mean, that's a lot of money. Yeah, that was a that was a crazy story. Nabil was the most stressed I've ever seen in During that ⁓ my god. Okay. Well anyway, this has nothing to do with the motor path. But yeah, but I've seen Nabil pretty stressed before. I've seen him pretty stressed. But the golf bet was the was the main stress. Usually he's happy go lucky. During that time he he looked like he life had beat him down. And Nabil's six foot six. Life doesn't beat him down, you know? But have you ever played basketball against Nabil? ⁓ my god, no Tennotyp, can let me tell you the last time I played basketball against the bill. It was three months ago. Right? He's like, AJ, I'm gonna try and go for the basket. You just stand there and defend me. And the Bill and I play a lot of one on one. I I never win, never one in my life against him. He's he's too big. Anyway, the last time we played, he spins to dunk it on me, elbows me in the nose. I'm like my nose is like glashing with blood. I feel like I lost a tooth like anyway, playing basketball against the bill at when he's six six and I'm six two, it's not fun. And he's got like He doesn't like to lose. Yeah. It was ⁓ I wouldn't say he's very good at basketball, and I wouldn't say that if he played basketball from a young age, he could be Michael Jordan. But he's pretty all right. He's not too bad. No, I couldn't beat him. I played bad I played like on my high school basketball team, and I I ⁓ Yeah, I have ⁓ a bad record. Yeah, it turns out height is ⁓ pretty important with basketball. No, he's he's a big boy. Yeah. ⁓ so You said AJ, ⁓ you were on Australian ⁓ Australia's Survivor. Yeah, Australian Survivor, I guess. And ⁓ you you finished ⁓ you finished in the top fifth you finished third. And you said ⁓ that Survivor is the ultimate game. Yeah. Survivor I think most games that I've played are just mental games, right? Like you your your mind, you're trying to get your mind to be as fresh as possible for whatever tournament it is. And like I've played Bridge and Yu-Gi-Oh! and Versus System and Magic and all these different card games. But the point of the game is like you when a big tournament comes up, you get yourself in the right mindset. Survivor is the opposite. Survivor is completely just your mindset. You it's how you are at your worst, not how you are at your best. So like Survivor, you're sleep deprived, you're starved, you're living the elements, you're wearing the same clothes for Australian survivors 47 days. So you're wearing the same clothes for 47 days. You it's it's t it's like don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but it's torture. I got torture. And there's no fun, you're stacking your whole head the whole time. And yeah, for context, I was I was cook I was so cooked. And like I'd I lost 15 kilos. So and I I'm skinny. Like I'm a tall, skinny guy. I lost 15 kilos from being that tall, skinny guy. And I remember when Nabil came out, I was I didn't expect Nabil. I was cause I put five names down and production fixed who they want to bring over. And I've been battling like production the whole time. Like, you know, production's like production wants you to be in your worst mental state. So they're doing everything to make sure you're in an awful mental state out there. Like they can say whatever. That's what they're trying to do. And like why the by the time Nabil got out there, I was broken. And I remember when he came out, I was so excited. Like I just felt like I got this spark of happiness. And he was just like, okay, what's the plan? because Nabil's like, there's got like he knows I always have a strategy for something. And I'm just like, dude, I don't think I can win. I think we just have to pray this guy wins. And he's just like, Wait, what? You're AJ? Of course you can win. And he just said that. And he said it was he had so much belief in me. And I was like, wait a minute. I am AJ. Like like what's going on here? Like, why did I just say I couldn't win? I even s and I said to him, Wait, why did I say I couldn't win? Like it it was like a light bulb moment where it I feel like, you know, this is a this is this is a super exaggeration, but like it feels like I was in a torture camp for like forty seven days and you forget who you are and you see a piece of your past and it comes back. And I'm like and I associated My association with Nabil because Nabil and I have always been very competitive with each other. And my I associate Nabil with like being competitive. And when I said to him that I couldn't do it and seeing his reaction, like Nabil was shocked. And I was like, in my head, I was like, wait a minute, why is he shocked? And I'm like, wait a minute, why am I thinking he's shocked? Of course. Like this is who I am. ⁓ and yeah, and then I gave my I wasn't gonna give my all on that challenge. I my intention was to just give up. and I gave my all on that challenge after Just seeing the bill like a minute. And I and I just realized in that time, sometimes it just takes one minute to undo like 48 days worth of or 47 days worth of torture. It was just it was crazy. And don't get me wrong, I had fun on Survivor, but like the game was fun and the people were fun, but the TV show side of it wasn't fun. Like it was it was hard. Survivor, if anybody ever wanted to completely challenge themselves, go do Survivor. You'll find out who you are. You'll find out who you are at your absolute worst and what type of person you are. And, you know, I would never encourage anybody to watch that season of Survivor because I think the edited product is rubbish. But I think that I learnt a lot about who I am out there. And like what what happened on TV wasn't a reflection of like how I felt and what happened out there and the connections that I made with people. And I love that cast. Like the ⁓ I I think I like a lot of the cast don't get along now and whatever else it is, but I love every one of them. It was it was like such a great experience for me. And, you know, you can't spend forty seven days with these people and not have a real soft spot of affection for them. Like if any one of them any one of the people that I got to know out there needed help, I'd be there in a second. Like I just I love ⁓ all. They're amazing. Yeah. It was a great experience. What kind of fa what kind of fame did you ⁓ did do you have because of that? ⁓ not much. Like it's it's nothing. Like, you know, I might get it recognized on the street. once every couple of months and somebody would come up and say hi and I'll say hi back. But like I'm I'm I don't want fame. I just like playing games. Like I went on Survivor not to be famous, but I wanted to play the game with Survivor. Like I was a Survivor fan. ⁓ I got to the final section and I dislocated my shoulder. and I couldn't go on and you know may well maybe I wouldn't even got on at that time. I don't know. But I dislocated my shoulder so I couldn't go on so I dropped out. And then the second time I applied ⁓ was when I got on and I was stoked. I just wanted to play. ⁓ Actually I hated the I hated the media exposure so much that I just ended up just turning off my Instagram. I was just like, I I don't wanna like I don't I don't want the exposure. Like I'm not playing games because I get famous or anything like that. I'm playing 'cause I love it. Like and when people recognize you, it makes it harder to play games. It makes it harder for you to live your life. Like being a movie star, like an actual famous movie star, it must be so hard. Like I'm like sure they're rich and whatever, but not being able to go out in public and just integrate into society would be really difficult. And I'm not saying I understand that. I don't. I got like a total tiny little snippet of it. And it made me feel uncomfortable. And maybe that's just because I'm a nerdy, introverted, extroverted, whatever. I don't know what I am. But I'm a nerdy guy. So like maybe other people's attention makes me uncomfortable. I don't know. But ⁓ yeah, the media side of it was something that I could do without. ⁓ but the game side of it and finding out who I am as a person was amazing and it was irreplaceable. And I would never do it again. But I enjoyed it the first time I did it. So it was great. There's a there's a bridge player, ⁓ Nabil, you probably know Greg Humphreys. ⁓ so he lives in my city and he loves Survivor, and he's told me a couple of times that he he thinks I would make a great Survivor can contest him. It's and so I So I asked him if he knew if he watched any Australian Survivor. Unfortunately he's not watched ⁓ Australian survivor. But I was looking it up the the y yesterday. like how 'cause I guess the application process like kind of heats up in September for the American one. They have two seasons a year in America. It's it's hard to be ⁓ a survivor player, I think. You need to be you need to have a a very wide skill set to be a good survivor player. You need to be like social, you need to be strategic, you need to be able to have no ego. No, Nabil can't be a good survivor player, Nabil awful survivor. ⁓ but yeah, like to be a good survivor player, you have to just be able to swallow your ego and be wrong when you're not wrong, or sometimes you have to take charge, sometimes you have to know when you screwed up and apologise. And you know, it's you just this is a really good strategy by the girls. So we it was like day fifteen or something. And I heard this narrative that the 'cause the girls were against me. Like to to these two girls were not the girls, but these two specific girls were against me. ⁓ And they wanted a w an excuse to get me out. So the best way to get people out in Survivor is to spread narratives. So they spread a narrative that AJ's eating too much food. And the second I heard it, I was like, even though it wasn't true, I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna stop eating. Like they they can't say that I overeat if I don't eat. So every time we like we cook dinner, ⁓ which is like nothing, it's like a handful of rice, ⁓ they'd give me my share and I'd be like, No, no, I'm okay, I'm I'm not hungry. ⁓ and that went on and I didn't eat anything except what I could scavenge by myself, like a coconut here and there or whatever. I didn't eat for two weeks on the show. I just did not eat. And you can see it on the show. I go really gaunt, like really, really, really gaunt in that two weeks. They ⁓ the only reason I started eating again was one, the doctor said to me if I lost any more weight, they'd have to pull me. ⁓ he was like, You're at a dangerously low level. You you can't lose any more weight. And the second reason is we got to merge, which is like the final section of the game. And I got to meet new people. And by then the narrative was kind of dead. But I'd I'd already I was already in the habit of not eating. So ⁓ one of the girls who was in charge of the food was like, AJ, ⁓ have some food. And I was like, No, no, I'm okay, I'm not hungry. And by like the fourth day that I rejected the food, she's like, What the f like what's go why aren't you eating? And I explained to her what happened. And she was just like, No, you're you're eating. I don't give a shit if you're like take the food, damn it. Like you haven't eaten for what two and a half weeks or something. ⁓ so yeah, and then I started eating because of her. ⁓ I started eating again. And then I I kinda life's way way better when you eat food, let me tell you. ⁓ even if it's I love food. I love food. So yeah, I I I got back some of my weight, which was good. I've actually I Survivor was two and a bit years ago. I've never got to the weight I was pre-survivor. And like I I thought I was a really healthy weight pre-survivor. I was fit, whatever. I think I was like ninety-two and a half kilos. pre-survivor and I haven't cracked 90 since. Like I I can't do it. Like I don't my body is still in like fast mode all the time. It's crazy. ⁓ but it it's an experience that definitely changes a lot of your mindset and I guess your body as well. ⁓ but I don't I don't think it's a negative experience. It was it was good. It was good. How remote is the is the how remote are you in like where you where where you're where you are? ⁓ for Survivor, you're in Samoa ⁓ and you're in like this national park in Samoa There's nobody you see nobody. You see absolutely nobody. You're living on a beach next to a forest and there is no technology, no phone, no nothing. Like it is you don't have a change of clothes. So you're wearing the same cl and there's no shower or anything. There's no bathroom. Like you're literally living in the wild for forty seven days. ⁓ my your beard grows out and your hair goes crazy and you smell awful and sure, you wash your clothes in the beach, you know, ⁓ in the sandy water and stuff, but You still smell bad. Like, you know, you just smell a little bit like sandy water and dirt, really, because you're sleeping in the dirt. Like you yeah. It's tough, man. So were were you allowed to tell I mean, obviously Nabil kinda knew how far he made it, but like how what would that what was that like? Were you allowed to tell No when you got back? You signed NDA, so you can't tell anybody anything. But Nabil knew because he was there. So I could talk to Nabil about it. ⁓ so after I got out, I got to, you know, you get to see your f your people that visited you and whatever. So I had a luxury of Nabil knowing. and obviously my family knew because they contacted my family with updates. So my family knew how I went as well because the production tells your family how you went. ⁓ but that was it. So yeah, I try to keep it as quiet as possible and you know, a a lot of fans are so smart. Fans figure stuff like people would message me. ⁓ I don't know, maybe they're not smart, maybe there's just spoilers, but You know, some fans would message me and being like, Congratulations on coming third and I'm like, Well, I'm not gonna respond to this and not breaking my NDA. ⁓ but yeah, I think like there must be leaks somewhere. But yeah. Otherwise you you it's pretty s they're pretty tight NDAs. So I wouldn't recommend breaking them. So what's this game that you're going to to play in the world champion? You qualified for it's coming up. You're you're you're yeah, it's a training it's a real life trading card game called Grand Archive. And it's kind of like if you've played Magic the Gathering. Magic the Gathering is the biggest flagship card game. So it's very similar to Magic the Gathering. and I've been playing it for about a year now. The game's been around for about two and a half, three years. And it's the most fun card game I've ever played. It is so well designed. It's made by gamers, ball gamers. ⁓ I think the the average age of people that play it is probably a Bob 25. So it's like very mature and it's really competitive. ⁓ And it combines so many different skill sets like deck building, reading people, like ⁓ car like dynamic gameplay. It's very interactive. It's so fun. ⁓ so it's the competitive season right now. World championships is next week. ⁓ they have like a world championship season, which lasts a couple of months. I traveled to Taipei to qualify for the world championships. I had to come I came seventh ⁓ in a 417 man tournament. ⁓ and top sixteen got invites. ⁓ for the next tournament. Actually, top six got invites and seventh to sixteenth got invites to gauntlet. So I'm qualified for a gauntlet and world championships is the day after Gauntlet. And the top thirty five percent of the gauntlet field make world championships. I have I have been reading this book called Peak, which I really like ⁓ about ⁓ performance. Like how about how you get better at things. It's a great book. I don't read a lot of books. It's it basically talks about he's escaping the the he's escaping the bill. He's changing the topic. No, I I you're right. You're I'm not I am not committing to it, but but it's t it talks about deliberate practice. And so it it kind of it kinda throws the Malcolm Gladwell ten thousand hours things on its head because t it's not if it it it doesn't pay to be mindless. You know, you have to be intentional and you have to get good feedback. And that's kinda that's what he calls deliberate practice. The example I the example I give people, which I think is probably the best example of of being mindful is you can sit at a poker table, because most people know poker analogies. You can sit at a poker table and just play your cards. And sure, you might win. You might not win. But realistically, your cards don't matter. Right. Like look at people. Get tells on them. Like there's so many, there's so many levels to focusing on poker. There's always a game within the game. Like you get tells on your opponent. Sometimes I don't need to look at my cards because that guy has a tell. His tell is that when he looks down at his cards and he goes straight for chips, he has a good hand. When he looks down at his cards and he thinks about it before he goes for chips, he's making a decision whether his hand's good enough to play. So if he raises, he can just re-raise him and take the hand down. Because he has a tell. People have betting tells, people have timing tells, people have, you know, tells where their necks going crazy. People have eyesight tells. Some people can't look at you in the eye when they're bluffing. Stuff like that. Some people smile at you when they're bluffing. It it pays to focus. Your cards in poker, sure, they matter to an extent. You might get cooled, whatever. But there's so much dead money you can pick up. just by focusing and your cards don't matter. So at a poker table, you should always be switched on. If you find yourself autopiloting on a poker table, I think you're doing the wrong thing. This this ov this obviously only applies to live poker. But ⁓ no, it does apply to online poker as well. You can pick up tells in online poker, but it's more for live poker. I think like what the equivalent of what I was doing in Grand Archive is just autopiloting. I was just playing my cards. Yeah. I should never just be playing my cards. I I should have been aware that my opponent wanted to go for the win there or wanted to go for the draw there for no reason. But like if I was focusing, I would have seen that he hadn't given up yet and kind of been more switched on. But yeah, I think the bill will back that up. Yeah, it's really important. It's like I was talking about like if you play in a partnership with somebody for long enough, you kind of understand what their intentions are. And maybe that's not a physical tell because that's illegal. And the same applies for your opponents, right? Like your opponents, like you, it's not that you've played with your opponents so much, but it's just that you're so focusing here. And maybe it's a subconscious thing where you're like, He led it this way and this time he I I don't know. I don't know what the equivalent in bridge is, but I definitely it always pays to focus on not only your hand, but your opponent's hand and the other hand. It's like thinking about everything at once. You're thinking about things in three D instead of two D. I think that's the best example. Alright. Thanks, guys.