Phenom Poker Interview Series: Heads Up With Table 1's Justin Young

Heads Up is an interview series by Phenom Poker's Michael Dunlap, where he sits down with a new guest each week, talking everything poker.

For our latest edition of Heads Up, we welcomed Table 1 stalwart and all-around fun-loving poker professional Justin Young. Michael and Justin talked about the Wild West days of poker, expanding Table 1’s reach and advice he’d give his younger self. Let's get into it.

TABLE 1, THE SAVANNAH BANANAS OF POKER

Michael Dunlap: I have to start with Table 1. You're turning high stakes poker into an experience, basically. So, if I did my research correctly, I can sum it up by saying you got to give action to get action, right? That should be one of the new merchandise items.

Justin Young: Yes. Yeah. Bring that up to Art, he'd love that.

Michael Dunlap: Do you have any plans to expand the idea to lower stakes? I know you've got the Poker Go stream coming up. It just sounds like a fantastic way to expose people to the idea.

Justin Young: Honestly, yes. Art and I have talked about it. We run into, I wouldn't say roadblocks I don't think that's the right word for it, but in order to have the Table 1 which is in a glass room at the Aria, they have certain requirements that the game has to be so big in order to play in there. That being said, we have talked about doing more of meetup games and stuff like that but that kind of comes with popularity of myself and Art and other people in our games for people to actually want to play with people from our games. I think we have four straight days of streaming at Poker Go here next week, which I hope that the public gets to see some of the characters that we get to play with every day.

Michael Dunlap: So, I can't figure out how you did it, but it's amazing to me that the management there allows you guys to just kind of do what you want to do. I worked in casinos for 15 years, so all the regulations are very familiar to me.

Justin Young: That's extremely fair and I'm not going to say that we haven't stepped on some toes throughout the process. Art has done a really good job when it comes to some of the formalities like there are waivers out there in order to record certain things. We have to adhere to certain rules as far as not getting employees faces involved and getting permission from everyone's face that is happened to be involved. But even some of the shenanigan games that we kind of make up on the fly, I know the Aria gaming folks aren’t too enthusiastic to see that stuff. And they have kind of reigned us back on that a bit, but rightfully so. I mean you can't just make up a game every half hour and then expect the cameras up top to be okay with it. But yeah, we're simplifying it. And then we've even gotten to the point where they're going to ask us to basically write a rule book that they're going to submit to gaming for some of the games we've made up before. And that way it'll help out for the future.

Michael Dunlap: So there's no 52 card pickup coming.

Justin Young: No, no, no. Yeah, compared to what we were doing, we're going to be a little bit more controlled. And in all honesty, It's tough to have new players come in a game and we're just like, "we're playing Optimus Pineapple with a redraw and they just get to explain that to them and then by the time they get used to that game, they're like “now we're doing Matt's little PP kukaruch style." And they're like, "Okay, yeah, I quit. I have no idea what you guys are talking about." Those are fun games when it's a bunch of the locals that play, three, four times a week to kind of get together and have some fun. But it's not going to be sustained, I don't think, in the long haul for the people that come in town once a month or once a year.

Michael Dunlap: You guys are kind of like the Savannah Bananas of poker.

Justin Young: That's an amazing analogy. I love them. I love what they're doing to baseball. Even though I'm an old school baseball fan and I thought I would hate this new idea. I thought it might kind of tarnish what I thought baseball was. But it's just different. They're not trying to remake baseball, it's a whole new product. They basically created a new sport and I love the comparison.

Michael Dunlap: A Table 1 cruise would be amazing.

Justin Young: Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, we have talked about putting a vacation together. Just get 15, 20 guys together, go to some destination, doesn't have to like where somewhere with a beach or a view or whatever, and just let everyone, hang out all day, and then at 5:00 it's game time, and we break up into two games, and we just like kind of f*** around for the night. But to that point, that takes some planning and some logistic stuff that I don't think we're quite ready for yet. But hopefully, to your point, as Table 1 grows, then we'll have more interest and that kind of stuff will be a quarterly event. And to me, that'd be great to take everyone down to Mexico or take everyone or even if we go to someone's like hometown and…just kind of see the sites there and f*** around there. I think it'd be a lot of fun.

Michael Dunlap: What's the official drink of Table 1? 

Justin Young: I would say the drink of Table 1 is Space Dust.  It is a higher octane beer. I think it's around 8.5-to-9% somewhere in that range. but I would say that is probably the drink that you're going to see most often, mainly because Art and I would normally have one in our hand at 1:00 when the game starts.

2004 ATMOSPHERE > 2025 ATMOSPHERE (FOR NOW)

Michael Dunlap: So your first win came in 2004, but you didn’t really go pro until 2006, is that right?

Justin Young: Yeah, basically what had happened was I won that first tournament. I think it paid 40k or something like that.  And my dream was to play the World Series main event. This is when the coverage was hot and I was fully entrenched in ESPN coverage. And I was like, I just want to play one time thinking my life was going to be pretty steady and boring after that. So I went to play that year, which was the last year it was held solely at Binions downtown. 

And the whole time, I was playing online a little bit like making some money, not a whole lot, but I was like, I think it'd be fun to try to be a professional poker player. So, I made a list of 30 things (to do before turning pro). And it took me a good year and a half, maybe even two years to complete everything on that list. And as soon as number 30 was crossed off, I went in and talked to my boss. He knew it was coming for what it's worth. But just to put in my two months notice and everyone was thrilled for me and in all honesty I think everyone thought I'd be back in about a year anyway. So, …

Michael Dunlap: Yeah, you've had quite a run. That was before people were really buried in their phones and you had to be there to know what really happened. Is the atmosphere better now or was it better then?

Justin Young: That's one of the things Table 1 is trying to change, but to me it's very clear the atmosphere was just better then. And you can attribute it to the phones or you can attribute it the infinitude of knowledge when it comes to poker playing as well because before you show up and there might be a few pros here and there in a tournament or a cash game but you didn't care everyone just sat around and we talked and chatted and everything like that and now I think even some of the recreational players that want to get better at poker can so easily. It wasn't like that at all 20 years ago. It was just kind of like, I got top air, I call, one of those. And so I think it's the difference between whatever. Phones, social media, plus I think it's a combination of technology and the wealth of knowledge out there kind of in improving anyone that wants to improve at poker as well.

Michael Dunlap: Let’s go back to 2006. if I gave you the opportunity to go back to your last day of mechanical engineering to give yourself some advice as you were just getting started in poker, what would you say to younger you?

Justin Young: I have thought about this a lot and I'm not a regrets type person. I think all the tough stuff you go through in life, it makes you a better person as long as you understand that you're going through a tough part in life. That being said, I would very much like to have a conversation with myself about loaning money to people. It's the nature of the beast when it comes to poker in general, but as well as when you run your own private game, it is I wouldn't say expected, but it's a day-to-day occurrence. We've been okay while running the game, but over the 19 years, just like a lot of poker players, I have a large number of money owed to me that I know I'm never going to see again. And it kind of hurts my feelings, I will say.  Now, granted, I've been close to broke a few other times, and that has nothing to do with those. I would tell myself not to go through certain pitfalls, but I don't think I would have listened.

I don't mind the fact I've gone through those bad times because I think it makes me a better poker player and kind of a better person as well, which is kind of weird to say, but yeah, kind of going through stuff, you learn some lessons.

Michael Dunlap: Just having more compassion, I think, for people's problems and things that they're going through and understanding how to better help people, too. I totally understand. Let’s get to the five questions.

FIVE QUESTIONS

Michael Dunlap: Give me your favorite poker variant.

Justin Young: I guess this is very quick, I'm going to say just no limit holdem tournaments and I want to speak specifically about making a deep run in tournaments. I don't think there's any better feeling in the world than that. As far as type of poker, I do enjoy PLO the best, but I don't think PLO translates as well in tournaments. So, that's why I put the caveat with no or hold them tournaments. 

Michael Dunlap: I’m kind of surprised that it’s not a parlor/carnival-type game!

Justin Young: Yeah, I'm not a five card guy, six card guy, PLO8 guy. I mean, I enjoy those games, but I think the more cards you add, I think it kind of hurts the game. A nice 6-max PLO cash game I think is a wonderful game.

Michael Dunlap: I'm actually really surprised to hear you say that cuz I was watching through some of your podcast and…

Michael Dunlap: favorite place to play poker. I know you're going to be a little biased.

Justin Young: I am. And I'm just going to…man this is tough.

Michael Dunlap: There's got to be some nostalgia to the short ceilings and the smoky atmosphere, right?

Justin Young: I was about to say there was this home game that I played in Eastern North Carolina.  It was just outside of Greenville. And I went there maybe three times a month on Mondays. And to me, It felt like the most Wild West old school thing. They have double locked doors and a bodyguard, but you get in there and it's just, this huge spread of pool tables and a buffet and all this fun stuff. I don't know, I was young enough it kind of felt like the Wild West a little bit. I knew I was doing something a little naughty but I got to make money off of it and it felt like an old school gambler type place to me.

Michael Dunlap: Sounds like you were at Teddy KGB's place.

Justin Young: It kind of did feel that way. I remember another home game in North Carolina got robbed. It was hours and hours away from ours and I brought it up to the table. I was like damn are you guys worried that we could get robbed and I was like does anyone have a gun? And every single person but me at the table stood up and showed me their gun that they had in their pocket or in their holster or whatever. I was like, “I guess I feel fairly safe even though I'm the only one not packing!”

Michael Dunlap: What would be your most memorable poker moment?

Justin Young: I mean it's easy for me. I won the WPT down in Florida, some Hard Rock. And speaking of a nice place to play, I really enjoy that staff and all that. But yeah, it felt like I was chasing not only tournaments, but specifically a win at WPT for forever. And I'm sure it was only seven, eight years when I was actually actively playing WPTs. But, it was always kind of like the echelon of what I wanted. I wanted that more than I wanted a WSOP bracelet. I made a final table three or four times before that. So it was the carrot that I couldn't catch basically. So when I did and having my wife there, my in-laws, 10 of my really good friends stuck around even though they were supposed to leave the day before, it was special.

Michael Dunlap: Who's on your Mount Rushmore of poker players?

Justin Young: Oh, I do like this. (Daniel) Negreanu is up there. I like the way he approaches the game. He's not only good, but he treats the game, I think, the way it needs to be treated. I'm just an old school guy as well, obviously. Eric Baldwin is on there. I've been friends with him for a very long time.

And to me, I don't think there's many if any other person that I think is more underrated. Not that he's not rated well amongst his peers, but if you go to any establishment, they're like, we love poker, but don’t know who Eric Baldwin is, so I think I'd put him on there. Doyle Brunson, just absolute legend.  Did stuff before it was cool, before it was safe. So he's up there. And let's see here. I want to put…man, I'm going to go off what I thought I was going to do just because I want to bring up this aspect of poker. I'm going to put Huck Seed on there.

Not only is he an a incredibly nice guy, talented poker player, good at every game, but the best props bettor in the history of gambling in my opinion. And to me, that's what kind of brings extra fun into the poker world is these prop bets of I can do this. I bet you can't do that. And then people just get money and they go find out who can do the most random s*** in the world.

Michael Dunlap: The last question I have is what is your biggest poker pet peeve?

Justin Young: My biggest poker pet peeve is when people berate other people at the table. And I know that's kind of a classic for a lot of the old school people, but I think it's gotten better over the years. Just because the type of person that poker has attracted over the last decade I would say is more the introverted self-reflecting thoughtful professional where before especially when I came up – and I certainly was guilty of it a couple times – it was more the brash kind of feeling of like I'm better than you I'm going to let you know about it. But yeah, I'm a big respect person. A lot of please, a lot of thank you, treat people the way you want to be treated. It's more just showing the respect to others. We all have X amount of money to sit down at whatever table we're playing at. We should all be on a level playing field, no matter your skill level or your intelligence or your status in life.

It's part of the reason of what makes poker just a beautiful game is that, I play chess. I'm not great, but I can't go play Magnus Carlson tomorrow if I wanted to. But, if I know Negreanu is going to go play the next Poker Go 5K, and I happen to have 5K, I get to sit down with him. And it's a beautiful thing to play with people that you put up on a pedestal regardless of your status.

Note: Some of the transcript was edited for clarity.

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