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Poker Stories Podcast: Brek Schutten Is A High Roller Who Spends His Days As An ICU Nurse

Poker Stories Is An Audio Podcast Series That Features The Game's Best Players and Personalities

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Poker Stories is a long-form audio podcast series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Brek Schutten is a family man with five children that spends his days working as a nurse in the intensive care unit. But that hasn’t stopped the Michigan native from dominating the live tournament circuit for more than a year now.

The 34-year-old topped a record-field of 2,482 entries in the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open to win a life-changing $1,261,095, and in the months since has parlayed that score into even more cash. After making two final tables at the Poker Masters last September for a combined $162,900, Schutten took down the $15,000 high roller at the Wynn in March for $219,300.

This summer he packed up the family for a trip to Las Vegas, where he opened with a win in the MGM Grand Mystery Bounty event for a total of $71,000. Then at the World Series of Poker, Schutten jumped into the big high rollers, taking fifth in the $25,000 event for $323,730 and second in the $50,000 event for $820,808. He now has $3.4 million in live tournament earnings.

Highlights from this interview include finding poker through a radio ad, why he got into nursing, being cool under pressure, 15 big blinds and a dream, celebrating in Florida with Mickey Mouse, gambling on himself, battling Jake Schindler for the poker community, House vs. Grey’s Anatomy, bagging groceries with big bro, a backyard batting cage, being kicked out of the band, Padme Amidala and brown sugar rice, and getting mistaken for David Peters.

Catch up on past episodes featuring notables such as Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Patrik Antonius, Justin Bonomo, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Galfond, Nick Schulman, Fedor Holz, Barry Greenstein, Dan Smith, Scotty Nguyen, Mike Sexton, Maria Ho, Brad Owen, and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes automatically when they are released.

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