Some people learn poker. Tristan reverse-engineered it.

Most players follow the path.
Tristan constructed his own.

If you’re new around here, every week we comb through the CardPlayer streets searching for legends, hidden gems, and players who probably should’ve blocked our number years ago.

This week’s story is about the long road.

Before he ever played a hand, Tristan was hacking AOL, spamming half the internet, and accidentally building a bankroll before he knew what a bankroll was.

By college, he was mixing computer science, psychology, and $40 home games in Orlando with retirees who couldn’t believe the “nice kid” was cleaning them out.

Then Black Friday hit.
Online poker vanished.
And Tristan had to decide whether he was built for the arena…or for a résumé.

He chose the arena.

And that’s where the story gets wild…

So here was Tristan:

– $125K in makeup. He clawed out one online final table at a time.
– A $99K WSOP score that nearly validated the dream.
– Backers who wanted no part of him in the $10K 6-max.
– And a friend — Sam Cohen — who said the seven most generous words in staking history:

He final-tabled it for $292,000.
Then won his first bracelet in Europe.
Then kept grinding, coaching, commentating, and building the kind of career that only happens when you refuse to disappear.

This episode is about reinvention — the kid who went from AOL bots to WSOP glory, from psychology textbooks to six-max warfare, from one free-roll to a career he’s still building 20 years later.

It’s a story about staying in the game long after others tap out.

📺 Watch the Full Episode with Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade

🎧 Listen on Spotify

See you next week!
— Art & Justin
🃏 @artparmann & @justinyoung07

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PS: Want to play high stakes in Las Vegas — but in a game that still feels like home?
Come play with us at Table 1.

PPS: Check out our Cardplayer Featured Stories — the best hands, moments, and madness from the pod.