• Table 1 Vegas
  • Posts
  • The River Guide Who Crushed Poker (and Might Do It Again)

The River Guide Who Crushed Poker (and Might Do It Again)

Running deep in the main event, losing it all, and finding a new life in the Texas desert. But is one more Main Event run calling his name?

Author

Art Parmann
March 08, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Poker doesn’t just reward skill. It tests resilience.

Bryan "Devo" Devonshire learned that firsthand.

And his journey was anything but ordinary. He built his bankroll by selling his Magic: The Gathering cards, running a Costco to comic book store arbitrage and swap meet ammo-can flipping. He learned poker in his family home game at 13. By 19, he was sneaking into Commerce Casino before eventually propping poker games in a tiny mining town at 9,000 feet. Eventually running up his bankroll and getting to knock out Barry Greenstein in two separate events (This is a great story).

Then came the WSOP. A dream run. 12th place in the Main Event. A life-changing score.

And then? The worst 21-month downswing of his life.

But before we get to that, let me tell you one of my favorite quotes:

Poker’s like a couch, the money’s in the folds. Just kidding, only nits like that quote and I’m a punter. But speaking of punting, if you’ve got stablecoins just sitting in your wallet, it’s doing absolutely nothing for you. Gauntlet.XYZ lets you algorithmically lend out your crypto. The nerds do the math, you get the interest—better than letting them collect dust.

And here’s the kicker THEY DON’T TOUCH YOUR PRIVATE KEYS. Your Keys, Your Crypto. Check it out here: https://gauntlet.xyz/t1 (Do your own research OBV)

Episode 67 - Bryan “Devo” Devonshire

So there he was, high off his own success and then…

📉 21 out of 22 months in the red. Bankroll shrinking. Stakes dropping. Leaving Vegas.
📈 Rebuilding from scratch—final tabling in Colorado, making another deep WSOP run in 2014.
🏡 Walking away from full-time poker, settling in Terlingua, Texas.
🎤 Running a comedy burlesque show and playing DFS—but still thinking about rounding again.

So, will Devo make one more run at the WSOP? The game has a way of pulling you back in…

Watch the full episode here → YouTube or Spotify

Show Notes & Timestamps

📌 Click Subscribe for more high-stakes poker stories & interviews! (And so we keep making these!)

Cheers,

Art and Justin

PS – Check out www.table1.vegas to play with us at Table 1!