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Jose Ignacio "Nacho" Barbero was a top-ranked, world-traveling card player long before he ever found poker. The Argentinian discovered the game Magic: The Gathering as a teen, and he was soon leading the national team in global competitions.

After six years as a Magic pro, Barbero made the switch to poker. He broke out in 2010, scoring two of his three Latin American Poker Tour victories along with a win in the EPT London high roller for nearly $900,000. In the years since, he has continued to put up consistent results, while also competing in some of the biggest cash games around.

The last year has been incredibly profitable for Barbero on the felt. In the summer, he won his first gold WSOP bracelet and $587,000. Then in February, he finished fourth at the PokerStars Players Championship for a career-best $1.55 million. After a win and a runner-up showing at the Triton Vietnam series for $1.06 million, and a win in the PokerGO PLO series, Barbero now sits in first place in the 2023 Card Player Player of the Year race.

Highlights from this interview include soccer distractions, the collapse of the Argentinian economy, getting saved by Magic, living in France, having his own sports card, losing big his first online session, winning his first live tournament, getting a poker sponsorship, live reads, a crypto disaster, the comeback begins, a huge final table mistake, catching a very important flight, winning a $500,000 pot from a billionaire, teaching Pokemon, and losing a bitcoin at the UFC.

Stephen Song has been tearing up the tournament circuit for the last few years. The New York-born, Connecticut-raised Song was a childhood chess prodigy who found poker while in college, ultimately making a deal with his parents to turn pro. After winning a tournament for nearly $33,000, he was able to pay them back his tuition in full before hitting the road on his own.

In the years since, Song has racked up more than $5.1 million in live cashes, which includes a World Series of Poker bracelet and three WSOP Circuit rings. In 2022, the 27-year-old cashed in a whopping 44 tournaments and won the World Poker Tour Prime Championship for $712,000 en route to being named the GPI Player of the Year.

Highlights from this interview include living in London, nationally-ranked in chess, why school wasn't his thing, squash scholarships, penny-stakes poker with dad, puzzle pirates, winning back his college tuition, the 'glory days of poker' back in 2016, clearing make up for a deceased backer, winning live in front of mom and dad, getting through big fields, not being a dick swinger, never having a job, getting scolded for $1,000 on black, crushing tiger hidden dragon, self-driving cars, and why he won't 'update' his stack until the break.

Dr. Lara Eisenberg is not a professional poker player, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her results. She has already scored a WSOP Circuit ring, and a World Series of Poker bracelet, taking down the Ladies Championship in 2021. Then in December, she pocketed a career-high $481,500 for finishing runner-up in the WPT Prime Championship.

The 54-year-old has found a lot of success for someone who only competes on the circuit part time. When she's not staring down the pros at the table, she is usually running her own radiology practice out of her home in Maryland, or enjoying her other hobby, competitive skydiving.

Highlights from this interview include being destined for medicine, why she chose not to be a surgeon, her time as a billiards hall hustler, jumping out of a plane on a blind date, landing in a Thailand driving range, becoming a world-record holder, being an early gamer, her time in WPT Bootcamp, FOMO about poker education, studying with apestyles, a profitable decision to late register, donating $30,000 of her winnings, looking for tells, hiking in the Pyrenees, Trinity costumes, the hat lady, and being confused for an astronaut.

Mike Holtz spent his teen years as one of the best gamers around. In fact, at one point he was considered the top-ranked World of Warcraft player and was recruited to join a traveling league called the World Series of Video Gaming. Unfortunately for the Maryland native, the league went bust and he was left looking for his next step in life.

There were numerous jobs and even a stint in jail, but after rediscovering his love for poker in a local home game, Holtz decided to move across the country to Las Vegas to be closer to the action. Although he started in cash games, he found himself to be better suited to tournaments, specifically online at WSOP.com under the name 'BrockLesnar.' It was there that he won a WSOP Circuit ring and was crowned 2021 Player of the Year. Then in 2022, the 32-year-old added his first WSOP bracelet.

Highlights from this interview include Mega Bomber Man with mom, midnight baseball, World Series of Gaming and Napster, the mushroom diet, working as an underage bouncer, going to weekend jail, snitches get pizza, the hotel home game, building a bankroll, trying to beat Skyler, winning Player of the Year, having a spew tournament, the flop overcorrection, Hellmuth vs. Negreanu, from Bill to Brock, the sad ending for wrestlers, a barf 15-20 years in the making, abandoning Jeff Madsen to win a bracelet, Power Ranger hand kissing, avoiding spiders, Rat Fink Magoo, dodging highway traffic, and advocating for bomb pot tournaments.

Adam Pliska has been with the World Poker Tour since the start, and along with the company recently celebrated 20 years in the game. The WPT President and CEO acted as the tour's general counsel for several years before making the switch to the executive side. Under his leadership, the WPT has since grown to a truly global scale and recently hosted a record-breaking $29 million prize pool WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

Before Pliska took the helm at WPT, however, he worked in TV production. The USC film school graduate even helped to launch programs such as Baywatch, Win Ben Stein's Money, and a reboot of Lassie. He ultimately decided to go back to law school, however, graduating from UC Berkeley. He was all set to take a job with the Senate Judiciary Committee on intellectual property law when his good friend Steve Lipscomb called him with an offer for a brand-new poker TV show that had yet to secure distribution. Pliska decided to gamble, and the rest is history.

Highlights from this interview include faking press credentials for Hollywood access, being focused on TV production, Leonardo DiCaprio and the collie, following a girl to law school, battling the cold of Washington D.C., gambling on a poker start-up, becoming poker Disney, how the tour makes money, putting the world in World Poker Tour, pivoting during a pandemic, how to lease a horse, taking a frozen cake to the face from Steve Aoki, learning the cello, hating the 4 a.m. paper route, betting against Antonio Esfandiari's charisma, looking like Obama, a Maleficent job offer, in labor at the final table, and death-defying sailboat races with Richard Branson.

Miikka Anttonen has been gambling since he was just 10 years old. He was originally drawn to sports betting and slot machines, but after moving from his native Finland to Australia, Anttonen discovered poker. Despite a few false starts, he stuck with the game, and eventually built a bankroll and turned pro.

During his nearly decade in poker, Anttonen won millions, including a title at his native Helsinki Freezeout main event in 2011. Although he was mainly an online specialist, his time on the live tournament circuit saw him travel to 70 different countries.

A few years ago, however, Anttonen took on a prop bet that saw him forced to end his poker career. In the years since, he has focused on his love of writing, and took a job in poker media working with Pokerisivut on the Last Call documentary series, now available on YouTube.

Highlights from this interview include being an 11-year-old sports bettor, a teenaged slot machine addiction, buying all the candy, dropping out and moving to Australia, from the cheese factory to picking mangos, the rainforest home game, losing all of his prawn money in minutes, sleeping on benches, Spice-Gossip Girl love, three days trapped in a New Zealand hostel, spinning it up from zero and six-figure swings, why live poker is the tax of online poker, a costly swap, playing with Vince Vaughn, lucky underwear, waking up in jail, and the bet that ended his poker career.