Tony Guoga - Poker Legend Tony G Talks Bitcoin, Blockchain & Freedom In Dubai

Full transcript: Tony Guoga on London Real

2:49 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Tony G, the world-renowned poker player, serial entrepreneur, politician, and philanthropist. You are best known as one of the most recognizable faces in the world of high-stakes poker and spent 11 years competing in the biggest tournaments in the world. You’re also the CEO of Cyberpunk Holdings, a cryptocurrency investment firm that was one of the first listed companies to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

3:14 You are the founder of both CryptoNews.com and PokerNews.com, which became the largest poker media outlet in the world. You’re also a former member of the European Parliament for Lithuania and focused your efforts on promoting a better climate for entrepreneurship and business opportunities. You ultimately believe blockchain technology will revolutionize how we do business and have a hugely positive impact on the world. Tony, welcome to London Real in Dubai.

3:40 Thank you for having me. It’s an honor. My pleasure. We met at the Satoshi Round Table over the weekend, and everybody said that’s the guy. That’s the poker guy.

3:50 And I went to YouTube and found some pretty interesting highlight reels of you. You’re only my second poker player to have on the show. The first was Dan Bilzerian, and he taught me some things, but I wanted to learn more about your life because it’s pretty interesting. I think maybe we’ll jump right into poker moments, because I’ve seen a few online, but I’m always wondering, like, what stands out in your mind as some of those big moments, or maybe the big moment.

4:19 Maybe not because of the pot, maybe because of how you were feeling or the drama, or maybe because you wanted to beat somebody at the table, because I know sometimes you play the man, maybe not the hand. It says you won over $11 million in tournament poker. I’m guessing it’s more, not to mention private games, but I’m wondering, like, is there a hand that stands out? Would it have been in Russia, or my. You hit it.

4:42 You hit it right on. Russia. Russia is actually, you know, you were, you were saying it, and it’s like Russia in the early 2000s. I was playing a very large pot-limit Omaha game with proper billionaires and proper goons. Goons.

4:58 Well, I mean, it’s a mix, right? I mean, poker is a mix. So, the environment is tense. And I had this one hand that had aces double-suited. And I won a $5 million pot, you know, in the early 2000s.

5:10 So, it’s like, it’s a lot of money for me, you know. And then, yeah, you still need to collect. You need to have, have a nice and get out of the country. And get out of the country and get the money sent to you because you’re not going to take the cash, and there was no crypto then, right? So, it, it was fun.

5:26 So anyway, I ended up having a good relationship with everyone and collecting and winning the pot and winning a lot of money and being able to play in a very good game. So the key was always to play in a good game. And I was spending a bit of time in Russia playing poker, playing some tournaments. Actually won maybe three or four tournaments in Russia, and ended up I gave all the money to charity from the tournaments, and that’s why I probably got invited to the game.

5:52 I mean, without thinking about, to those big games and having much more profit there. Why do you think you won in Russia? Why did I win? Because I think I had more, just more experience playing playing, understand the game better, and playing players that are weaker than me. I’m not, I’m not the greatest player, but it’s the ability to get in and find bigger fish than you, that’s more important in poker than to be the best player.

6:19 Because if those GTO young players will not be able to get into those super good games if they don’t have a profile, some charisma, some personality, something else for the rich people want to play with you and to donate to you donate to you. It’s kind of a donation, right? I mean, if someone’s a lot better, it’s a way it’s still like chess: if one player is better than the other, you can win in a long run, but the standard deviation can be much higher in poker.

6:48 You can have winning days or winning hours, and you can feel good about it and you can, you know, make the bluff here and there, but someone that’s very good at poker, was, is always going to have an advantage on you, and at the end of the day is going to come out winning. So, but there’s a lot of intricacies there, right? Because it’s, you have to maybe sell a piece because the stakes can be too high. So, there’s not many pros can just come in and play in a million dollar buy-in game, right?

7:16 They’ve probably never seen a million dollars. So there’s a lot of politics and deal-making on the sides all the time in these games. It’s interesting because we just think it’s a poker game, but it’s not. It’s a show to a certain extent, right? Especially when there’s cameras on you.

7:31 It’s an experience for the billionaires that are playing because they want to play, Tony G, or maybe they want a cool story for their friends. Maybe that’s worth a million dollars for them. Of course. Of course. People don’t mind losing a million dollars.

7:42 It’s nothing. You know, we’re playing private games all the time. And you’re happy for them to do it? I’m happy for them to do it, and I could use the money better, right? No, look, for now it’s not about that.

7:53 Now it’s not about really winning, but just having fun and playing and I’m still fortunate that a lot of people do want to play, and we have a bit of fun and interaction and you get to meet very interesting people, and then spend some time and have a bit of fun playing poker and if you’re a little bit better, it’s always a bit more fun winning. Believe me. I mean, I heard you talk about, you know, 2002, you’re in Austria, and, you know, you’re kind of broke, and you’re like, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

8:18 I’m going to try to make this poker thing go. So, to fast forward that a few years, and you’re making $5 million in Russia. I mean, how do you keep calm when you’re sitting at a table about to be $5 million richer, which, you know, will change your life forever unless you give it to charity. Um, but, but like, how do you, how do you do that? Because it’s real.

8:39 It’s not like you’re already worth 20, and it’s an extra couple. I mean, it’s a real, it’s real. It’s like pro progression. You know, the game might start much less, and then it builds up, and at the end of the night you have super big pot that, that’s like, can be life-changing, and it’s, we all run at once. It’s important to win that pot there, and there, and I was actually behind on the flop, like a nut flush draw.

9:01 It came in, and, you know, as I say, Bob’s your uncle. You find you, you move forward, but you can also lose those spots, and it can be heartbreaking, and there’s been a lot of those too in my life, right? As, as you say, in Austria, broke and, as well, it was like I found an Italian guy to play heads-up for, like, 72 hours and was able to clean him out to get a nice bankroll together and then progress from there, invest some money in PokerNews.com and other things, uh, to keep yourself going.

9:32 It was never easy. No one gave, give it to you. In fact, it’s always people trying to take it away from you. So, you have to keep fighting, right? That’s the name of your business is people are literally trying to take away your money.

9:43 Yeah. Literally, literally trying to take away your money in every, every possible way. So, you have to. The sharks are circling all the time. So, you have to be brave, strong, and always looking around and ready to take a punch every now and again as well.

9:56 When you’re at that table in Russia, were you talking trash like we see you? Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Not in Russia. Scared, and just wanted to get through the night and move on, right?

10:08 This is not like you. That’s not a place you talk trash, necessarily. No, no, you don’t talk trash in, like, private games, okay, with people who are not, you know, as good as you. You try to be a total gentleman, which actually I am, you know. Actually, I’m off the table, just in those TV shows, you know, playing as those super pros.

10:26 Look, we want to make it a bit, have a bit of fun. So, I’m aggressive and brash and having fun in my own way. That’s my personality on TV. It’s real, but it’s only that’s the way I am playing poker on TV or playing poker in a competitive environment. So, we know it’s a competition, and we’re meant to be professionals.

10:45 So, you know, it can take a bit of heat here and there. But in private cash games with, you know, sophisticated, articulate people, we keep our etiquette also at the same sort of level. Right. But you still probably give a little bit. You just dial it way down.

11:01 I dial way down. I’m not, no, I’m really, okay, very calm. So I’m safe to invite to your game as long as you have very high stakes. Okay. Now, but your highlight reels in the tournaments are so, you’re saying they’re for show, and Tony G’s in the corner, and you’re, you know, prodding people, sometimes pushing them, sometimes making fun of how they’re playing, and again it’s a great show for TV, but it also it, you do get under people’s skin, even professionals, you do.

11:32 And those pros are on TV as well, which means you’re potentially making them look bad in front of a lot of people. Is that a method of you dealing with the situation yourself, from not an anxiety standpoint, and, A, is it a way to get in people’s heads and trip them up, or C, is it just a way of you just being I think it’s, yeah, for sure, having anxiety I’m also anxious, right? Playing, so of course a lot of that comes out, and you try to cope with it one way or another, and that, that’s probably coming out, and it’s also being me, just excited on TV, right?

12:12 You know, now, reflecting to my younger days, it was even more brash and exuberant. So, it’s true. It’s just the way it was. It wasn’t like I was a strategy for me to be like that. It’s also, you know, having a drink just to relax the nerves a bit here and there.

12:28 So, it was just me. It was just my personality, but on the table, it wasn’t like I’m, I’m like that off the table with people. So excited, pumped, wanting to win and doing everything I could to win, but it wasn’t some secret strategy to disbalance the opponent or to humiliate the opponent here and there. Probably a lot of luck. A lot of those hands and TV things I won was a lot of luck, a lot of fortune.

12:54 And fortune favors the brave. Is sometimes the best defense a good offense? Because I was watching you sometimes prodding those people, and I thought, man, you move first, and so if it’s harder for them to now do it to you, they’re reacting to you. They’re reacting to you, and if they try to go on the offensive, it looks like, oh, now they’re perturbed. So just by you giving it large a little bit, you kind of establish that I’m the guy that’s kind of giving it a little bit.

13:17 It’s also very British, Aussie, your vibe. Yeah. And I don’t think the Americans know how to deal with that. They’re not used to that. Maybe that banter.

13:25 Is that what it is? Yeah, it’s the banter, that there was a player who passed away, Devilfish David. That was a big win for you, and you were kind of in his face. Yeah. Yeah.

13:34 Yeah. I was, I was, I was in his face all the time. I beat him most of the most of the games were on, but he was also very aggressive, but you know in a more even more aggressive way. I mean, I’ve toned down that version, but I did learn from him, and you feel very uncomfortable playing with him. So I guess players just felt uncomfortable and could make a few extra mistakes, which we can take to the bank.

13:56 Right? And so you saw him doing that early on, and you felt him doing that. And you were kind of inspired by that. Yeah, I was inspired by that, and it was my personality, you know, just brash excited about being there, trying to win, believing I could win, and that’s very important. Even just believing that you can win and believing you’re the best.

14:17 Even now, on reflection, thinking maybe I wasn’t, it gives you 80% of the way there, you know. It gives you such a big advantage that it’s not funny. So, really, even in poker? I think in poker it’s extreme. If you look at Phil Hellmuth, for example, as well, it’s like he’s so confident, as well, in himself, although for sure he doesn’t have the skill of those GTO super guns, but if you’re confident, if you can intimidate people and you, and really believe in yourself, it will give you some advantage.

14:49 You will have a very big advantage. You’re going to have a very successful life. You’re halfway there. So definitely, advice is just to be confident and work on that confidence. Confidence, you have to be crazy confident.

15:01 That’s how I see people making it. You, you know, especially when you, when you get over 50, and you know, in your 50s, and you look at people, reflect, you think, you know, they’re not that smart, but you think you have to also reflect on yourself that you’re not that smart. But if you’re confident, if you’re doing some good things, you make it a life. You have a good successful life. So I think that’s what we all have to work on.

15:23 One of my mentors was asked, like, 20 years ago, what’s the split between brains and balls? And I think he said 50/50. And then he looked back later and said it’s more like 90/10, 90% balls. And then he looked back later, and he said it’s 99% balls. It was just him going for it and taking the risk that got him where he was.

15:43 Exactly. I think for sure. Because if you’re, yeah, very conservative and reserved you’re probably not even going to play poker on TV. So it’s, you have to go for it. You have to believe in yourself, and just have to work on things that are perhaps lacking, and you have the whole lifetime to learn.

15:59 That’s why we’re still living. Did you ever get to a tournament and were surprised at how people weren’t bringing their game, their mental game, their head game? Maybe you had heard about these players and you were at the table, and you’re like, “Man, this guy, he’s, I’m able to intimidate him easy, or he’s having an off day, and he’s, he’s really, seems rattled, and it’s affecting his play.” Because a lot of times fighters will get to a fight and they’ll be like, “Wow, this guy wasn’t his night.

16:24 Something was off, you know, and they’re like, “Wow, it wasn’t what I expected.” Had that happened to you? And then the other way around as well, where someone really surprised you with composure, maybe a younger player. Yeah, I could, I can remember one, a tournament with about 500 players. It was the first ever Asian Poker Championship in Singapore.

16:40 So, a lot of players, big tournament, huge trophy, and a lot of new players playing this tournament. And I could, I just ran over the whole field and won the tournament quite easily. Because people were just intimidated, you know, playing tight, folding their hands, and just aggression used to work in terms of just being in control of the betting and the pots. So, it’s very easy. Now, with the game advancing, it’s, it’s the game is the other way around.

17:06 Now calling and creating value in pots is become very important. So that’s just mathematics. I mean, poker is just mathematics at the end of the day. And confidence. Yeah, of course.

17:17 Of course, especially worked, you know, 15, 20 years ago, but now the game is advanced a lot. So confidence is still very important, but mathematics ultimately does beat confidence. So it’s just been worked out now, and you know, the GTO game theory optimal is there now, relevant, and it’s the game has changed a lot. So when you say the game is advanced, it means that most players now know the percentages down to the decimal, and now they know much more about the game.

17:50 They know the game theory, so they’re much wiser than maybe they were 10 years ago. Exactly. That’s what the super pros work on. They work just on the game theory. Every situation, ranges, starting situations, they’ve, the game is basically worked out now for no-limit hold’em.

18:05 If you played very deep in terms of smaller blinds, in very deep, a million dollars plus deep, the game is still difficult to work out. But, any, I must admit, I’ve also had a little bit of coaching to improve things that I wasn’t so good at. And that’s been mainly creating value in situations, in terms of not re-raising people out of hands, which previously you could do all the time, and just intimidate and catch the other way. And now it’s, the game has turned a lot.

18:33 Even my style has changed. You cannot be aggressive. Because people know better. Yeah. It’s more about situations where you have to really work out and polarize or exploit certain situations.

18:46 So it’s, it’s, it’s very mathematical now, which is a bit of a shame. Yeah. So we need some evolution. The game is now becoming a Squid Game. So now we’re playing Squid Game, and the Squid Game is very important.

18:58 What do you mean by Squid Game? So you have to win a hand, every, say, every nine hands, you have to win a hand. If you don’t win a hand, you pay everybody a penalty. So it can be. It forces you to be aggressive.

19:09 It forces you to be in pots. Not, not just to be aggressive, it forces you to play. Right? You can’t sit back because you get penalties. So this Squid Game now is a nice evolution, and hold’em is a lot more interesting for cash games, because I feel no limit hold’em for tournaments is still a lot of fun.

19:24 It’s, it’s very different, but things have worked out. So people know, you know, they know, they know their strategy basically from a sheet of how to play, especially at the end it’s very easy. So it’s not very complicated, no-limit hold’em. It’s, people are working on it, and then it becomes more of a show. Who can make a better show?

19:45 That’s how you become more famous, because it’s not like you can be the best of the best from a billion players, right? So key is to be invited to those very juicy cash games. And also, it’s not just the juicy for money. For me, it’s not about money. It’s also the personalities, the people you can meet and have fun with, you know.

20:05 So it’s, I think that that’s also, and there, some people might not be famous but very successful people that you can learn, learn a lot from and have a lot of fun. Okay. So, tell me how poker evolved, because maybe you were one of the first people to create a media brand. Obviously you had PokerNews, but then you became this brand, and then now people want you there for a lot of reasons. They don’t just want the best players.

20:28 They want, they need a show at the end of the day. Right. Yeah. Tournaments. They want people to watch.

20:33 Exactly. So that, that was always on my mind. And with PokerNews, we actually paid for media rights first. I paid the World Series of Poker to have the media rights to cover live reporting. And with PokerNews, we revolutionized poker, because we made live reporting interesting and profitable for everybody and to attract a lot more players.

20:51 So we built good, good technology, good, good interaction with the fans at home, and that was very important in terms of innovation of poker. So poker became much more prevalent, and people could just, you know, follow it on their phones and then in the cash games itself, right? So we had a lot of fun playing TV cash games, the PokerStars big game. That was just fun, you know, I could just come enjoy myself, have fun, make the game loose, wild, you know, put straddles on, and we had some memorable moments for, you know, that go down in history.

21:28 So, I’m very fortunate to have being able to live through that and to enjoy that. And now you play to meet people, have fun, and just enjoy yourself. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

21:41 That, that, that, that’s all I do. Of course. Sometimes there’s some exceptionally big games. And it might be on a very nice big yacht. It might be in some mountains in Japan.

21:52 You know, there’s secret locations, or some, something around Dubai. We’ve had some big games, you know. We never disclose who or where or what, but games are going on all the time. And that that’s, that’s fun. And I do it, but I’m not like looking to play poker anymore.

22:10 Just when you try to get out, they drag you back in. Yeah. When I try to get out, they they give you an offer that you cannot refuse. You know, like come. Yeah.

22:20 Like, we have, we have a yacht in Italy. We have the, you know, the best yacht in the world. How, how can I come and meet the most interesting people and play an amazing game, and, you know, maybe make 3-4 million for coming? So you kind of refuse, right? How many people will sit at that table, and what does that look like?

22:36 You walk in, you’re meeting these people, you know, you’re, you’re looking at them, you’re reading them, you know, you’re staying there. What is that whole process like? It’s, it’s fun. Usually like some bosses, you know, from in some kind of business. Maybe I’m more around Asian people usually, you know, that, that really love to play and invite you.

22:58 It was nice that people want to party, have fun, drink, and, and play some poker. And that, that’s that’s how it is, you know. I’m not like for those very serious games where people want to grind and there’s, you know, pros involved who want to, you know, beat one player. So, it’s, it’s important to get into the right environment, because if it’s not a very healthy microclimate, it’s not a lot of fun. Will it be like six people at a table at six people?

23:26 You’ll play for 4 hours or… Yeah, about six, seven people maximum. We don’t want to play longer. You know, we don’t want to play like with more players, because the game’s a bit tighter than and boring. And we play four, five.

23:39 Look, if someone’s losing big and, you know, very wealthy, the game can keep going longer, a lot longer. So, it’s, there’s never a time limit, you have to probably say you have to play at least 4 hours. And you can never quit winning. Although there, you know, crypto guys do that all the time. They what?

23:58 Quit winning. Quit winning. Yeah. Quit winning early, which was surprising. They do that and then they leave.

24:04 Yeah. Cash out. I want to cash out. That’s a big no no. Any poker, any poker veteran knows you ride that wave.

24:11 Yeah. Yeah. You have to ride to the end of the game. You can’t just, like, you know, unless you come and said before the game, you know, I have to leave. You can’t just run up and, you know, take 100k off the table and go.

24:22 Because it’s rude. It’s bad etiquette. Yeah, it’s bad. Have to give them a chance to win some back. Of course, bleed them dry.

24:29 It could also break the game. You know, it’s like you’ve got a stack now. Someone can chase, and it’s, you have to give a chance. You can’t just come, and, you know, it’s not a casino. You know, we were playing poker here.

24:39 It’s not like you can come, you know, have a spin on roulette and leave. Yeah, casinos do that for sure. But in a poker game, it’s not, it’s not cool to just run up and leave and cash. So, I just want to cash out. Okay.

24:51 So, on the side of games, you don’t do that. You don’t do that. I mean, yeah. You go, they want to start playing. Yeah.

24:58 I mean, in a private game, you cannot do that, right? Because how how, how can you do that? The game, you know, people are coming a long way to play, and you want to have fun. So, usually that’s those people would not, not be invited. It’s not, it’s not appropriate.

25:10 Do you ever win a lot of people money from someone in a private game, and they get upset, and they want you to stay longer so they can win it back? Yeah. And you have to do it. Really? If you have to do it.

25:19 So, the yacht, the yacht just is not coming to port for a few more days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’d play days and days and days, right?

25:25 So, it wouldn’t be, you’d have to just keep playing. Just go overnight and keep going. Play in the morning. I mean, if, if someone’s losing and, you know, you respect that person, you have to give, you have to give a chance. You ever had to say no, like, I had enough.

25:38 Well, usually you say, “Okay, I have two hours, 2 hours, lotus.” You know, it’s like 6:00 in the morning. You say, “Look, two more hours, three more hours.” You know, I’m going to sleep, and that’s it. So, you, you have to you have to have some limits if you’re super tired.

25:51 But you can’t just say, “I’m quitting now. I have to one or. Okay. If you’re losing, you can quit. It’s fine.

25:58 I mean, no one can stop you from losing.” Have you ever been in a dicey situation in a private game? I haven’t. I haven’t. But there is a lot of cheating going on in games for sure.

26:08 I’ve been fortunate, but I’ve heard a lot of stories. Uh, I guess I’m just in with the right kind of people. So I haven’t experienced it, but there is a lot of cheating now. Would you know if someone’s cheating? You could not know exactly.

26:19 There’s different ways of cheating, and I, I wouldn’t even know all the ways. So it’s just more appropriate to associate yourself with the right people. So, it’s, it’s very dangerous to just go with random people that are very well known and playing in a private game, because there’s multiple ways of, you know, 100% cheat, to be cheated, and it’s going on all the time. There’s, you know, gangs working on this 24/7. I call them gangs, but whatever.

26:44 They’re, they’re organized criminals, right? I mean, they’re looking for people to target them and to take their money, you know, by cheating. Got it. It’s going on. And what about when people get emotional?

26:56 I mean, if they lose millions or more and they just are angry or want you to stay forever? You, I feel bad actually. You know, I had one been playing with one guy, and you know, he’s actually been losing a lot to me like recently, like in the millions, and you actually feel bad, you know, if they, like, run out of money, can’t pay straight away. Even if they’re rich, you know, you still feel, feel bad, but you still got to take the money. Do you have to collect sometimes?

27:24 Do people owe you money in the world? No. Basically, I mean, I have a few small debts, but it’s just, it’s not. I don’t have any, any big dramas at all. Okay.

27:32 I’m pretty good. ‘Cause I asked Dan Bilzerian what to ask you, and he said ask him about the private games. And Dan is known, I think his book was called The Setup. And so Dan is all about the setup with women and with poker. And this is advice for maybe younger men, is that, you know, don’t try to go out to the club and hit on every woman there.

27:50 Put yourself in a room where there’s 20 women and you’re the guy there, and they have no choice but to talk to you. If you look at his Halloween parties, which he’s invited me to, that’s kind of what he does. And he’s always like, it’s about the setup. And I think the same is in poker, where he always tried to go at the private tables with people who wanted to play Dan Bilzerian who probably weren’t as good as him, but maybe just wanted that experience. Is that, you said, you alluded to it earlier.

28:14 Is that the best way? I’m actually very similar in that way. Of course, I’m not anywhere near that level of acumen of Dan, but this is of setup or acumen of poker. Acumen of whatever his status is just, you know, godly. So, I’m different, but I’m in my own way.

28:31 I also, we have, like, to have girls around, lots of parties. If I’m, like, at King’s Casino in the Czech Republic, you know, I’d have the spa. The whole floor would be closed for me. The spa at night. Everybody would know, you know, it’s like the Tony G party.

28:45 And we’d have fun, where we have a very big game, and then we have a lot of fun. It’s the same everywhere. So, I also do the same thing. You know, try to invite 20, 30 girls and have a lot of fun. People could talk to them, and you know, we’d have six men for 30 girls or something to make sure it’s a nice balance.

29:04 But that’s what people want. That’s our business, right? It’s pleasure, entertainment, right? So, we have to, we have have to have everything to have fun and to be happy. Is that what it’s all about?

29:15 Is that what poker is all about? Having fun? It’s not really. I mean, I think it’s about winning, but it’s also about stimulation, but at certain times it is about having fun, right? So, you want to have that image of, of having those girls around you.

29:27 It’s for image building. It’s important, right? It’s not. It doesn’t mean it’s like you’re that or you’re not that, but for image, it’s important. And I think people love it.

29:35 You know, there’s something mystical, something more interesting about you than just a nerd playing poker. Very well. Right. So I mean, there’s no one, no one wants to have, everyone wants to have fun. Everyone wants to have some release, and everyone wants to have some gamble.

29:48 That’s a game of skill. Poker is a real game of skill. So at least you’re losing to someone smarter. You can feel good. But if you’re interacted and have fun, you’re satisfied for that transaction to have occurred fairly and cleanly, and everybody moves on.

30:02 So it’s the Tony G show at the end of the day. It is the 360-degree experience. You get the party, the girls, the fun, the talk. For sure. For sure.

30:14 It’s the. That’s how I try to roll. Okay. You talked about, like, partying and drinking. Do you have any rules when you play poker?

30:22 Can you play when you’re drinking? Can you play when you’re tired? Can you play when you’re in a bad mood? Can you play when there’s girls there? How do you do that?

30:30 Because it seems like drinking and poker is a dangerous combination. Yeah, I manage it. Yeah, it’s managed. But yeah, you kind of have to do it, because you would stand out that you’re like different from everybody else. And so standard to drink at the poker table.

30:44 It’s standard for our kind of games. It’s standard to drink and to have fun. I mean, not necessarily you have to really get drunk, but I mean, I do, I do have a drink, but not all the time. You could also not do it. This is daily, right?

30:57 But usually people will have a drink and have a bit of fun and relax. I mean, you don’t want to be like tense. So for me, it’s, it’s normal. I guess that’s my brand, but it’s not like I, I recommend it for everybody else. Okay.

31:09 Takes a lot of years of drinking and experience to get immunity to be able to handle yourself well. For you, a drink can help you play better. A drink can change things up a bit. Yeah. Yeah.

31:22 A drink can help me play better, I guess. Who knows? Maybe I would have won much more money not drinking, but you know, it’s too late now. I mean, darts in Britain is really popular. Got a British vibe to you, and so is snooker.

31:34 And the darts guys are known for just drinking and throwing darts, you know, highly precision work, and I’ve, I’ve met a lot of those guys. So, it’s very interesting, you know. It’s Yeah, they can do it. It’s fun, right? Their business is also entertainment, and they’re very skillful, and I guess the drink relaxes them a bit.

31:52 I think for poker, no problem. Especially if you’re playing with, you know, similar ability people, and if everyone’s having a drink, everyone’s having fun. And it’s, it’s, it’s nice that the time passes faster as well, right? More exciting. It’s fine for me.

32:04 It’s fine. I’m, you know, old school, but I’m sure the young kids don’t do it and they do properly and do everything properly. You know, I’m, I’m more for everything to happen and nothing bad to happen. What are the young kids like in this business? Do they come in super serious?

32:20 Do they come in, what’s with all the sunglasses and all that stuff? Has that been kind of banned on the TV stuff? Because a bunch of the highlights I saw, because for a while I would see it, and everybody’s face were totally covered, and it probably doesn’t make for good media. But I guess that was so people wouldn’t give tells. Is that right?

32:36 Yeah. You could tell from your eyes if they’re contracting or expanding sort of, you could tell if you’re bluffing or not, or how stressed you are in certain situations. Can you read people pretty well? It’s an instinct, you know. It’s like it’s not, not I guess I can, but it’s, it’s an instinct.

32:52 It’s not like a. It’s not like an art that you have precise knowledge of it. But you can, some people you can and some people can’t. It’s all, you know, a number of area of hands and situations. And you just hope to do more good things and bad things in terms of reading.

33:12 And I’ve managed to do that in my life. It’s also about what they’re thinking about you and how they’re reading you. So it’s about the signals you send to. And these guys work on it. The young kids are, are bots.

33:23 You know, a lot of, a lot of the best players are like, you know, focused. They’re taking eight seconds to act, exactly the first move, and it’s, it’s all very set. So, it’s very boring and very mechanical in the way. So, I’m very anti that. And of course, they’re not going to have a drink, and, you know, they’re going to be very strict and precise and very nerdy, like computers.

33:45 They’re trying to be computers. Yeah. They just be a computer. They just be a computer. For them, the game doesn’t mean anything.

33:50 It’s just, it’s just another puzzle, which is fine. You have to respect it, but there’s a lot of people like that nowadays, and that, that’s where it is. So you know, you don’t want to be in that environment. That’s why I don’t really, I refuse to play so much with them and tournaments nowadays. It’s, it’s a, it’s a bit boring for me, but I still play the big, the big action Triton Poker series.

34:13 Like, it to be going to Korea in a few weeks’ time. We’ll have the big Triton cash game on TV, which I play all the time. And we had a million-dollar cash game actually in Los Angeles, LA, which I also won in. And we had a very successful trip in LA last year. And again, I’m planning to go to the million-dollar cash game this year, and have a bit of fun in Vegas, LA, everywhere.

34:36 Play those very big cash games and crush their souls. Let’s talk about that, because I saw you do a couple highlights, and you get up, and what, what do you say? I’m the best. I’m the best. I’m the best.

34:47 I’m the best. I’m the best. That’s what I say. Yes. It’s very important to believe that.

34:52 And to get that momentum when you, when you crush them, uh, to keep it going, to make sure they really understand that they’re under pressure now, and they have to do something extra that they wouldn’t normally do to catch up, because now they’re behind, and now you’re going to really drill them hard, and, and really crush and suck that blood out. You have to work yourself up like that, and it helps a lot. That momentum helps, because the game is very grueling and grind and grinding, right?

35:18 So, you have to do some of these things to really get some momentum. Celebrate your win. Yeah. Celebrate my win. I kind of, when I was in politics, I didn’t play much poker and then kind of came back after getting out or finishing my term in commitments in politics.

35:36 I came back and I won a few tournaments straight away. I had some very good results, and so I still, still have the game, but I hardly play tournaments. Okay. So saying I’m the best. Did I see you celebrate?

35:49 It comes from the soul. Like, from the soul, for sure. I could tell you something’s pent up. Like, you feel a little stressed there, and it happens, and you’re like I’m the best. I’m the best.

35:58 But it feels like not many people celebrate like that. Like, the guys are like ah, Jesus. What’s going on here? This guy. And but the Yanks don’t seem to celebrate like that.

36:06 There’s a few, but yeah, there’s no one, there’s no one quite like me, or can it’s not really, but I guess it’s pent up stress, anxiety, whatever it is, as you said. So it’s being anxious, and that wanting really to win, having that hunger from the young days, were having nothing and having to win. I had to win my first money to make it alive and nowhere else to turn to. We’re all in, having to win, having to survive. Right.

36:32 So that, that’s why it’s still there. You can remember it from the young days, you know, like 30 years ago. You had no choice but to win in life. No other options. So that guy comes out sometimes.

36:46 That guy. Yeah, that guy comes out, you know, was, uh, yeah, I was actually expelled in year nine from school for gambling, you know. So in Australia, so yeah, washing car windows on the street, and then just gambling, and making a life through that. It’s not easy. Are you a gambling addict?

37:04 I was a gambling addict at like 12 years old. Yeah, for sure. But I’m not a gambling addict anymore. So, but the only therapy and cure I had, I had to win from it at the end. What do you mean?

37:15 Well, you have to win from gambling, right? So, if you’re a gambling addict, that’s winning is not a problem. Like a functional alcoholic. Yeah, like a functional alcoholic, right? Is it, I mean, you see people gambling, you see probably addicts.

37:28 Like, how does it compare to other addictions, like drugs, or I don’t know, sex or alcohol? How does it compare? I can only relate, like, from 12, like a 12-year-old, I was really addicted to horse racing in Australia, and I would just, like, want to bet and complete. I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to do anything.

37:47 I just wanted to gamble. I would know, I would lose, because I couldn’t beat racing then. But I just want to get money and gamble and plan and bet on horses. So I can relate to addicts, but I mean, eventually you just have to cure yourself. So one way is by beating the system and finding ways how you could win.

38:08 So, like, in blackjack you can learn how to count cards, for example, which should, so you have to go through a whole lot of therapy and knowledge and learning to get on top of it. Then you understand that it’s not so exciting. You’re not addicted anymore. Then it’s a business, right? But it’s good, I think, for kids to be exposed early so they’re not going to be addicted at late life, because it does the most damage when people in their 50s 60s already with all their life savings are now going to lose all the money.

38:38 That’s very dangerous, right? But for a young man or young woman, it’s not a big deal. You can learn from it and move on, right? You’re not going to be. It’s not, it’s not like drugs.

38:47 It’s not going to, like, ruin your health potentially. Right. I mean. Potentially. Yeah.

38:52 So, I’ve, uh, I’ve met a lot of addicts. I’ve been an addict. Drugs, alcohol, overdose from heroin. That was one of my favorites. And, uh, since then, I’ve managed to get clean of all that stuff.

39:04 But those were really ugly addictions that almost cost me my life. But I met a couple gambling addicts. One was a famous MMA fighter, and he used to tell me some of his behaviors. And sometimes I look at that, and it looks even uglier sometimes, because I guess ultimately when I would take those things in my system, my system would have to like stop at some point, or I would tell me I was feeling terrible, or my heart would stop or stop breathing. But like with gambling, it seems like you can ruin savings, families, relationships.

39:33 I mean, I guess the same as with drugs, but it’s just, it just seems like an equally, but some potentially more destructive addiction. Yeah, it’s, it’s very destructive at a, like at a later life, especially when you already have family, you have commitments, and you don’t have the resources to recover after. Yeah, it will damage a lot. So, it’s, it’s very dangerous. So, you have to really study and learn it, that’s how you want.

39:55 You won’t be addicted once you really understand it. But it’s yeah, especially mixing gambling with drugs and alcohol. It’s very dangerous. It is very dangerous, and it’s, it’s something to avoid for sure especially now that you can, you can have, you know, you can play online you know, I heard a story, someone losing like $34 million, actually was on TV yesterday $34 million losing online, stealing the money from the company, and managed to lose $34 million and having to, you know, like disappear, basically, jump off a cliff, right?

40:27 It’s because it’s so embarrassing and so stressful with the whole situation, but there’s lots of ways to gamble. Nowadays, you know, we have forex on margin, you know, it’s, it’s also the same, the same evil. There’s so many ways, you know, people playing the stock market, you know, one day options, which I’m also like a trader in the market. There’s so many things now for people to gamble on, and we’re kind of gambling on everything. So, I guess it’s, it’s, it’s in human nature.

40:53 So, just the best ones that can be on top of it survive, right? It’s, it’s, it’s a free-for-all thing. But governments do put a lot of protection, especially the UK. The UK gambling authority is pretty diligent, and I think, and it’s pretty, pretty doing good job in terms of protecting people as much as possible from those dangers, in terms of getting rid of those machines in the shops, and, um, and things of that. Right?

41:17 You have to say they’re a good example for how gambling should be supervised, because you still want to get freedom, collect the taxes, and which is good for the government, and, um, allow people to be free, right? You can’t tell them you cannot gamble, because people that’s, that’s, that’s our, that’s our freedom, right? We want to do what we want to do. Yeah. It’s kind of a human right to be able to do what you want to do, right?

41:40 And online gambling changed everything, even for you, right? Yeah. And how did it, how did online poker change the game, change you, changed the world? That’s the first bit of money I invested in PokerNews, like about $8,000 in 2001. And we built it out, and yeah, we started making $2 million a month revenue from affiliates.

42:06 So poker was like affiliates. So you’d have trackers, and you’d send players to places like PokerStars or Party Poker. That, that, and I, I was good at making deals. Go and see the owners, have a good chat, have a drink, make a good deal, even with Full Tilt, and try to make the most amount of money from each player that you send, you know, and that was the way it was going. And you as a player, did you get better online?

42:34 Were you able to win online as well? I was able to win online. I used to play a lot of sit and goes and Party Poker. I was able to win tournaments more or less on winning, and yeah, I, I have the record pot for online poker, online, that was just a few years ago, $7.7 million, actually won online on Coin Wow. You won?

42:53 I won another. Yeah. It was another pot-limit Omaha pot, and I won with a straight, $7.7 million pot online. Yeah. And they gave it to you.

43:03 And they gave it to me. And they gave it to me. Yeah. It’s like crypto, crypto poker. So on Coin Poker.

43:09 Wow, that’s intense. When you’re online, you know that people can be running numbers while they’re live. Does that change the game at all? Yeah. Yeah, they can be.

43:18 Yeah, but on this side, it’s not allowed. But yeah. Yeah. Well, it does, but you still want to Sometimes you still know they’re super high stakes. You might know the players pretty well.

43:27 So, they’re not, they’re not running the numbers like PLO is super deep. It’s not so easy to run the numbers that well, and you have to play very fast. Okay. So, it’s, if HUDs are not on it, it’s, I don’t think it’s happening at those very high stakes, because you kind of know the player, and you have to be super good to, to be able to play. But online poker is good.

43:48 I mean, it’s healthy, I think, for people to play, play like tournaments, small tournaments, whatever you can afford. It’s good actually. It’s good for Alzheimer’s, too. Delay it. It’s good.

43:58 It’s good for sure. For sure. Like these sort of things with your mind and a bit of stress in losing or winning, bit of excitement, it’s good for your health. Very, very healthy for your health for sure. Interesting.

44:08 I know you’re into longevity, and I want to get to that, but that’s what I wanted to ask. Should everyone play poker? I mean, like you said, I’m, I’m calling out gambling as being an addiction, but life is a gamble. Business is a gamble. Anything, relationships are a gamble, right?

44:22 So, do you think everybody should play poker? I think everybody should play poker. They should, they should do it at school and learn about gambling and school risks. Yeah, I think I think it should be from school. Start at school.

44:33 So, kids are, you know, learning how to protect their chips, you know, how bankroll situations, as soon as possible. There’s so many things, and so many good traders come out from poker. So, so, so good for your life if you’re a successful poker player. Even if you’re not successful, it’s so good for stimulation and being smarter than you normally would be, for sure. Because it’s ultimately risk management.

44:56 That’s what it is, right? You’re, you’re trying to estimate probabilities of you winning, and you’re trying to decrease the probability of you losing. You’re cutting your losses. All these things that humans don’t naturally do. Oh, for sure.

45:08 For sure. And so many, like, poker players turn into very good crypto OGs, right? Because that helped them to take the risk and take the opportunity and press it a bit and really make a fortune and really, like, change the world, right? So, it’s a lot of poker players, a lot. I played with a lot of those guys, you know, and we, it’s, it’s, it’s for sure.

45:29 Even if you’re not good, you don’t have to be very good anymore, right? But you still play, and it’s still very healthy for you. Wild. So, that’s how you got into crypto, and a lot of poker players were into crypto early because why? You guys are kind of on the fringes.

45:44 You’re always looking at new things, new technology, and you’re comfortable with risk. Yeah. Actually, even someone like CZ, first, the idea of, I think, Bayas came from a poker game in Shanghai. Yeah. So, you can ask when, when is when he’s back.

45:58 I’ll ask, because he, I met him in October. Yeah. You got, you got into. So, so even from that level when a lot of other, other people of that stature, it’s poker was important. They play poker, manage poker or so on.

46:12 And it’s, uh, it’s, it’s for sure a very good game to interact if you have, if you run your own private game in your, wherever your area with people. It’s, it’s, it’s something to do instead of just watching a game of football and getting drunk. Get drunk and play poker. Preferably with Tony G. Right.

46:31 So in the sa with the 30 girls. Yeah. All right. Let’s go. Well, I mean, it’s around.

46:36 Yeah. With the 30 girls. 30 girls. Let’s go. Um, okay, that sounds good.

46:40 And so tell me about your relationship with crypto. Like, when did that start, and then what’s it been like? You know, I know you had a bunch of games that you play in crypto. I know you’ve done a bunch of innovations in crypto as well. So how did that play?

46:52 Yeah. So I started, I started first I guess around 2014, 2013, I started doing a bit in crypto, and Bitcoin maybe 2012. Yeah. Silang Gauss, who started, was when it was like 300 bucks, started saying that, bought some up and telling my friends, you know, you have to just pick up a thousand Bitcoin here, just have it, you know. And I remember, you know, people remind me you were telling everybody to buy.

47:21 So I think around that time I had an interest. Then I was successful in business. I decided to run for European Parliament just to give something back, and did a lot of, like, conferences and things. I was in crypto and promoting Bitcoin on record for all of them. It was 1K to say, “Look, everyone should, parliament, to the parliament.”

47:40 They said that in parliament, everyone should buy $1,000 worth of Bitcoin or crypto. When it was $1,000 per Bitcoin, they said everyone should just buy some Bitcoin, and you’ll be fine. What year was that? Uh, that was like 2015. 15.

47:52 Yeah, it was 1K, and it’s like on a record. You can find that if you search my name, European Parliament, Bitcoin. There was a lot of speeches I gave about blockchain and that. So it was a good time for me to be in European Parliament, you know, being in invested and, uh, enjoying it there, and doing a lot of, like, different conferences, teaching kids how to code. It was, it was fun.

48:14 It was a good 5 years, and was happy to be in and happy to be out. So 2014 to 19, you decided you would run to represent Lithuania and the European Union. Yes. And how did that come about? I mean, that’s exact, not many poker players do that.

48:28 I just think you need to change something in life. I mean, life kind of became boring. Just playing poker was boring. You know, I just wanted to change something, you know, doing business, had enough money, thought, you know what, I’ll do something. I’ll change the world.

48:40 And it’s like, it’s a fairy tale, but you know, I have, I have, I have a crack. You know, I I’ll do my bit. So, you know, I give all my salary away. I didn’t do it for the money. I put a lot of money into it.

48:52 And also, how much did you spend to get elected? Was it hard? ‘Cause, it was hard. It was. It was.

48:57 It was hard work. I mean, I drove 40,000 miles around the country. Had a lot of meetings, but I loved it. I wanted to meet people. I wanted to experience my country of origin, Lithuania.

49:06 I wanted. You spent nine years in Lithuania before you moved to Australia. Is that right? I moved to Australia when I was 11, still in the Soviet Union. Yeah.

49:13 Okay. And then I came back, and kind of, you know, I felt nostalgic, and wanted to be doing something for my country apart from doing businesses and doing tech stuff, you know. I thought maybe I’ll be a great politician, and and then have an amazing career, which I think panned out in a way, you know, in my own way, and it’s, it was a great start. I had great then we had some problems with the party, and things happened. Did you win the first time you ran?

49:40 Yeah. Yeah. Won by landslide. Because people knew who you were in the country. Did that help?

49:44 Because I also worked hard. I didn’t just put my name up, you know. I actually went and met people and met everyone face to face. I did a lot of conferences, and I put my heart in it, you know. I didn’t just go for election and expect to win, and I never expected to win until, until I saw the results, you know, and then the results are humbling and sort of empowering to move and do things and then at the end of the day, you know, the mechanism is also very tough to do anything.

50:07 I’m just glad I didn’t have any scandals or, you know, didn’t have any like super big controversy that I did something wrong or stole something. So, even not doing it, you could still be set up, you know. So, it was like I’m just happy to be through it and out of it, and moved on to being free again. And then I moved to Dubai to enjoy my life, you know, my retirement. So, I ran to be Mayor of London in 2021.

50:33 And it was a reason everybody asked me, why did I run? But I was watching the city I love being shut down by the current mayor without any evidence for that being the right thing. And I knew people that were like dying literally from their businesses going bankrupt. Black cab drivers, to the restaurants, to the pubs. And it just made me angry.

50:53 And I looked at the other candidate, the Conservative candidate. They both seemed like jokes to me. So I decided to run. And I spent seven months running. I spent a lot of money.

51:02 We had a bus. I drove 5,000 miles through London and went to every borough and tried to meet people. Although we were locked down, the police pulled me over and tried to arrest me for campaigning. I didn’t know that was a thing. And, uh, managed to piss off everybody in the parties.

51:17 So I I kind of know what the experience is like. I didn’t win. But I’m really glad I ran, and I learned a lot about the process and a lot about the city. No. Well, congratulations.

51:29 Was you got like 80,000 votes or something, right? Yeah, maybe it wasn’t that many, but it was enough to fill a stadium or two. It’s good. Now, look, it’s such a hard work. It’s so difficult, especially, you know, when you’re like in traditional politics.

51:41 For me, it was a lot easier, like, you know, Lithuania, which is still a young democracy, you know, being freed from the grasp of the Soviet Union. It was, it was easier. So, it’s, it would be very difficult, challenging thing to do, and it was for me as well. You have to give so much of yourself away, and you get so little back. So you have to understand it before going into it, and, you know, I do it all over again, and that, that’s, that’s my story, and it’s, I think politics is, either way, we all play in politics, whether we go for elections and try to do something, or whether we vote, or whether we participate as a volunteer, or whether we know, we show an interest, I think is great.

52:21 Politics is great. We need it. It’s what makes us democracies and what makes us free and vibrant and aspiring, because if we have no politics. Who does what? Who’s going to decide?

52:35 Well, they do a pretty good job here in Dubai. Well, we can’t compare it, like it’s a kingdom, right? It’s its own bubble. It’s, of course, it’s, it’s great, but then is it great for the long term, you know, for people growing up and living? We will, we will see.

52:51 But it’s, I think it’s not so easy not to have elections and not to have both politicians. We have no news. So, Dubai, when I have good news all the time, which is nice, right? You don’t have any bad news. There’s no…

53:02 But can things function? We will see. It’s, it’s strange. It’s nice. I love Dubai.

53:07 It’s free. It’s a wonderful country. But you still love politics. You love watching Donald Trump. Yeah, I do love watching Donald Trump.

53:16 But, like, it’s very easy to come from a Western democracy and have this smug sense of superiority of everybody else that we’re doing it right. And sometimes I look at what we’re doing and the results, and sometimes I really ask, are we doing it right? You know, I don’t really know, and the process is, is really controlled by Coke and Pepsi, the two major parties, and I ran as an independent. I couldn’t even get invited to a debate, even though the bookies had me as number two.

53:40 And the media is also kind of complicit in this system. And then I look at London, and it’s just a mess. If I had managed to do what I wanted to do as mayor, and I told my advisory team this, I said, the next mayor is going to take credit for it. Now, we were okay with that, but most aren’t. So, it’s very hard to even get change without a long-term vision.

54:00 So, I don’t know. We will see, but I’m really looking at some of our Western democracies and asking big questions. Also, it’s turned into so much media and entertainment that sometimes I wonder, like, what are we doing? Yeah. It’s like, what did Trump say?

54:15 What did they say? What’s the scandal? What’s the this? And it’s like, is that, that doesn’t have anything to do with democracy really? But we spend a lot of our time looking at it.

54:23 So, look, I’m just asking questions, you know, that. That’s why we’re living, right? We always just keep asking questions and learning. We’re all learning, and it’s like, who knows what’s the best setup, but it’s difficult to transition a democracy to an autocracy. It’s pretty difficult and pretty hard to handle for people.

54:41 I think it’s more about now the green and the extreme left against the extreme right, and, you know, like, the middle being weaker, which, which is going to be pretty interesting, but the extreme right in Europe is definitely on a march forward and these things happening, there’s some systematic shifts happening in politics in Europe as well, and Europe is very, very important for the whole world. It’s why the European Union was created, to stop wars and our countries that were in, is at war. But you know, the main, the main reason for the European Union was not to have wars, because Europe would have a war all the time.

55:21 So it’s a question now what’s going to happen next, right? It’s a question what’s going to happen with the solution with Ukraine, and how Ukraine is going to be integrated once there is peace, and there’s always peace. There’s never been a war forever. So it’s just a matter of time, and the time will probably come sooner than what we think. And then, and then how things will progress from there, and what other conflicts there could be.

55:44 But the world is definitely rolled into a new phase of war and aggression and, you know, you can say it’s bad, but it’s just the way we are human beings. We just do this all the time. We do. When you look at it, and we do, like, oh, there hasn’t been a major war since World War II. And it’s like, well, actually, a few years later, there was this, and then there was Korea, and then there was this, and yeah, we always seem to be getting into some violent action.

56:11 They say war is what happens when politics fail, I guess, is what they say. What did you, what could you tell us that you took away from your five years of experience at the European Parliament? Like, a positive and maybe a negative. Did you have to fight against not sometimes being jaded with the political process? Were you able to see things?

56:29 What was that like for you? It sounds like you had a net positive experience. I had a lot of net positive, because I was like, working on, on, on things on the side, you know. So, you know, having the mandate, I could visit, like, Zimbabwe and spend some time with the kids. I could do conferences in Lithuania, which was called the Switch Conference.

56:46 Have 30,000 kids come in, you know, with buses for free that I could sponsor, bring in all the top politicians of Europe, and have kids’ confidence and girls’ confidence to code. That was important, you know, being on CNN talking about things like the Soviet Union memorabilia, and, you know, the stuff like that was, was fun, you know, going to New York, and having some impact on, on as a human being on the whole world in a very small way was important. Of course, as a one individual, you don’t, you cannot do too much, but I did as much as I could, with the tools that I had.

57:23 So I thought it was impactful for me, and rewarding. The downside, of course, is that you’re going to do anything at the end of the day, apart, but then I knew that, so I did things on the side that were impactful for me at least, and can’t do anything, because you’re one of 750 members in parliament. Yeah. Yeah. Any change?

57:41 Yeah. Parliament, and parliament translates to talking. It’s just a place to talk, right? So that’s what that’s what I did, and, you know, I did that. I had my agenda, which is tech and, you know, innovation, and we did it, and Lithuania has come a very long way in innovation, technology and success, and you know, the country’s done very well, from combination of many good people, and the people themselves, and politicians doing as little as possible sometimes can help too.

58:08 So just by minimizing corruption and having a different flavor to politics, can be also important. So it’s everyone has to do a little bit, and it can work, and you can have very, very nice results for the country. Of course, people inside never see it, but your statistics do show some good things, right? People are always going to be upset and not not satisfied and always going to want something better, and there’s always rotations from left to right all the time.

58:34 And it’s, it’s a, it’s a normal process, peaceful process that get, you know, you’re part of while you’re alive. That’s something that you could try to do. But yeah, the downside is you can do nothing. So you have to know that you can do nothing, because the system is bigger than the elected politicians. The European system itself, the European Commission, and the jobs for life, you know, the protected jobs, are they’re the ones deciding things, and the politicians themselves do not decide anything.

59:05 That’s why there could be a big revolution soon where the extreme right does take over, and there are splits in the European Union. Because people want their countries back. Yeah. At least they feel that way, right? Or whatever that means.

59:18 But the left and the liberal side is becoming weaker, significantly weaker. Although they have the government jobs inside, those people have been placed. The man on the street is not feeling well. But I guess this is always happening, right? So would you make a Brexit?

59:40 Yeah, I was, it was surprising. I think even Nigel Farage was surprised and not that excited, because that kind of took away his role now of, being, you know, like, losing, losing the European Parliament. See, just because you got, you got the Brexit, and what do you do next? Because he had, he had a forum, you know, he had a forum, and he had opposition, and he was fun to watch. You, I had a lot of beers with him myself and had fun, and was exciting, exciting man to have there, you know, him, and Le Pen was there in my time, you know, and we had a lot of very interesting people.

1:00:13 You know, even the Barlonius party was, it was, it was fun. You know, European Parliament was fun with Nigel Farage and Le Pen, and there was real politics, at least in terms of talking and the parliamentarian perspective. Now it seems to be a lot more a lot more opaque and quiet and very boring, which I think is good in general for everybody, but there’s not much movement in things, right? There’s not much progress Brexit was a mistake for Britain. Yeah, I, I think it’s, I think time will tell, you know.

1:00:48 We will see how Britain evolves. It’s very difficult to judge these things within a year. It’s a mistake for people who didn’t want it maybe. A lot of people who did vote for it now do feel it’s a mistake. It’s, it’s a painful transition, but for me I always value things as they are.

1:01:05 You can never, you know, be upset with what people wanted to do. So you have what people wanted to do. The majority wanted to do it. Whatever happened, they went. So I think let’s see how Britain evolves within the Commonwealth with other countries, other partnerships.

1:01:21 Maybe it’ll be positive. So I’m not, I’m not, I’m not certain yet. You know, I think the European Union had a lot of problems, and that’s why they want to exit. Once, you know, once Britain didn’t make the integration in the monetary policy. Once you’re not in the euro, that was the biggest thing.

1:01:39 That was the first part of the Brexit. Once that didn’t go through, and you don’t want to be part of the euro, you’re not really integrated. So, I think those countries that don’t have the euro are not really integrated. You have a very different setup and scenario. So, it’s, it’s, it’s complex.

1:01:55 We could have more exits. I mean, you know, like Hungary, for example, now it can look like Poland. The, these countries can, although Poland become liberal again with the new elections can go back to the extreme right soon, and then it can be on the edge of leaving Europe, especially if Europe has difficulties, very strong difficulties, like a major crisis in the world, then we will see what happens with the European Union. And what do you think of Trump?

1:02:23 I like Trump. I think Trump is fun, and you know, some at least makes politics interesting, you know. It’s, it’s for me, it’s, I can’t you like Biden? I mean, I don’t know. Do you like Biden?

1:02:34 Is there something fun about Biden? I don’t know, it’s not, doesn’t seem like, but I can understand people wanting stability, and you know, being on the left, like, you know, I’m not on the left, so it’s not, it’s hard for me to be not with Trump, since he’s the Republican Party nominee, right? I mean, most likely, yeah, whatever happens. So it’s hard if you’re a Republican at heart, or you know, whatever, on the right side of politics. It’s hard not to be with Trump, you know, although you might not like him.

1:03:02 It’s that the majority of Republicans want him. I mean, I think it’s fine. I think it’s, he can change things up a bit and make things more interesting. But I can’t say like or dislike. I don’t know the guy.

1:03:15 We watch the media. We, it’s, you know, it’s a bit of fun when you’re watching it far away. So, it’s not like you can like or dislike anyone. I don’t like Biden. I can tell you.

1:03:24 For me, it’s no fun. Trump’s fun for me. So, he is fun. You, you were always on the right. Yeah.

1:03:30 Right. I was. Yeah. I was in like, yeah. Right.

1:03:32 Liberal ride. Yeah. But I was in the EP, European People’s Party fraction in the European Parliament. So, yeah, would with the right, I would be right, or I would be with, you know, more more, more, more on the very right of government without being on extreme right. What do you make of this upcoming election in America and the fact that it’s just becoming more divisive?

1:03:55 They seem to be using. I had a guest recently on my show named Jim Rickards, who calls it lawfare, where they’re using kind of the law as a warfare instrument, where they’re trying to obviously either indict Trump in many states or get him actually taken off the ballot in certain states by the Supreme Court, and, you know, they see going to all ends trying to use old amendments to try to literally remove him from the process. Yeah. What do you think? I’m following it, even Nevada now.

1:04:18 I mean, Haley couldn’t win, right? Other candidate won. I mean, I follow politics. It’s very interesting. And I think, I think it’s a shame.

1:04:25 Well, Supreme Court has a big say now, right? Because obviously Trump’s appointed three Supreme Court judges. It’s, I mean, I’m hoping Supreme Court just makes it clear that they have to have this election, and Trump has to be on a ballot, because the country wants, wants it, because you can have a very bad situation in America, like a civil war again. I mean, in just a matter of time, if you don’t, if, if the left is going to be protecting and deciding who, who can run for, for office.

1:04:55 That might be crazy, but it’s not, I mean, it’s an opinion of someone, right? It’s not like there’s, there’s a doctor now, whatever. What are you going to do now? Say the guy is unwell and he can’t run. It’s like, who’s going to decide?

1:05:10 Okay. So, he made some mistakes, and, you know, maybe he’s going to be guilty of something, but it’s unclear if the Constitution doesn’t allow him to run. I think he should run, and he should win. He should win the election, and he should, and we will be watching America. Yeah.

1:05:24 I mean, you can run for president as a convicted felon in prison. That’s been, that’s actually happened before. Yeah. And you’re right. If they try to deny the people being able to vote for a candidate, there’s going to be some real problems in America.

1:05:37 I mean, people say civil war, and people think, oh, that’s a little extreme, but I mean, think about half the country being really angry and thinking that injustice is being done, something will happen. Now something will happen, especially after the, the allegations of those, you know, election machines and things, and we’ve had that, you know, with Bush, or those machines fired up, right, in one way or another, and Democrats took a lot of action and complained very heavily. We don’t talk about that, right?

1:06:05 So, in, especially in Florida, right, it was very interesting, and when you saw Trump winning Florida, I mean everyone is smart. The odds went to, like, 90% Trump going to win this election, ’cause you can’t sweep Florida so strongly and then do so badly in very similar demographic states which happened especially towards the end, and I could see him feeling so bad about it, because the election was won. It’s it’s a [expletive] feeling, but it, it’s, look, I’m not saying elections were wrong or right.

1:06:33 I don’t know. I’m not an expert. The mail and ballots made it all very suspicious. Yeah. Yeah.

1:06:38 The mail-in ballots made it suspicious, and for people, I can, I can, I can understand and relate to it. So it’s, it’s, it’s tricky. But look, we need a fair election. I think on everything, if the election was to be held today, Trump would win. And it’s probably good.

1:06:53 Look, we have a rotation, and look, it’s just another, another few years of Trump, and then that’s it. He’s not going to, never going to be there again. More years of Ramaswamy after that. Yeah. And eight more years of Ramaswamy.

1:07:04 He’ll be good. He’ll, he’ll be cool. He’ll be super good. Yeah, I think so. You like Ramaswamy?

1:07:08 Yeah. Yeah. He’s, he’s great. Yeah, he’s really refreshing. He’s great.

1:07:12 He’s the best. He should be nice. Well, maybe if they do disqualify Trump, maybe it will be Ramaswamy, right? That’s could well could be, right? Or would it be Nikki or who knows?

1:07:24 That would be, that would be funny. I mean, if they do disqualify him, that would be and put him in jail. That would be something, right? I mean, yeah. Can you imagine citizens breaking him out of jail?

1:07:34 I could. I could imagine. I know. I could. I could imagine.

1:07:37 I, I don’t know. I don’t know how you do that, too, especially, you know. I don’t know. This is, this is going to be fascinating. The whole world watching it.

1:07:45 And there’s so much propaganda, you know. So if you watch CNN, it’s one propaganda. You watch Fox, another propaganda. There’s so much propaganda. And it’s, I think Yeah, I think he missed out a bit with Fox by falling out a bit.

1:07:56 I think that cost him the election. Uh, yeah, Rupert had enough of him. Rupert had enough of him. It surprises me, but I’m sure he’s got his reasons. Uh, yeah, I guess it was in interest to have Biden in for a while.

1:08:09 Yeah. It will be interesting. There’ll be more propaganda. There’ll be AI deep fakes. There’ll be all sorts of weird things happening, especially a few months before the election.

1:08:18 He could get killed. I mean, there might be a liberal that, you know, will take him out for the rest of the country. My fourth guest on London Real to independently bring up an assassination possibility. Yeah. So, this is becoming real.

1:08:29 I always, when I see him walk into, you know, the UFC in New York City, I’m thinking, I’m sure security did their job, but, like, doesn’t take much, you know, and he’s doing he has tons of public events, doesn’t he? It’s that, it’s a scary situation. Scary, scary, what’s going to happen. Yeah. And again, election fraud, who knows?

1:08:50 Somebody said in Philadelphia there hasn’t been a fair election in 100 years. Like, some of these places are really, you know, they have proper rigged, rigged for life, as I said, but you know, you don’t want to think about that. You think, “Oh, it’s just a part pure democracy.” No, no, because you just get promoted, right, by, by people of authority, you know, anchors of CNN, and like it’s, it’s the truth, right? It’s almost the truth, you know, there’s no other truth.

1:09:13 Yeah. Which is, I watch it, and, you know, being in politics, I could understand, but I mean, before, I would believe all of it, too, you know? Yeah. Which they would just look so innocent and so real that whatever they’re saying has to be the truth. Yeah.

1:09:24 Media is crazy. It’s crazy. And I’ve seen my media, you know, like when you get attacked, and, and you know, they come up with things, they come up with spins. It’s coordinated, you know, it’s a lot of people, you know, it’s, it’s a network of people who are doing a job on you. It’s, you feel, you feel that power.

1:09:41 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Of that wave. And it’s, it’s, it’s painful. It’s fun now, but when you’re there and you’re getting hit and you know, like, doing only good things for a country all the time, and, and they’re making and spinning stories that don’t exist, they can do it.

1:09:54 And it’s like, it’s, and they repeat it so many times then it’s just quoted as a fact, whatever they take and it’s not a truth, but they quote it as a fact now, because that’s what they said. It’s what the media said, it’s the truth, even if it’s been proven not to be a truth. So it’s like, so people, I hope young people really, really pay attention to news and, and learn about it and have their own opinion and everything, because there’s so much fake and deep fake.

1:10:23 It’s not funny. Yeah. Especially from the left, unfortunately. Yeah. Which controls a lot of the news.

1:10:28 Yeah. And the media. Yeah. When I, it looks the most innocent and pure because, you know, it’s ESG friendly, right? Look at us trying to help the world.

1:10:37 Yeah. Yeah. When I ran to be mayor, man, they just came after me. And then I never looked at a newspaper ever again with reality, ’cause they would just make stuff up. It was the clickbait that would get the attention.

1:10:47 And I was the American former baker, banker, breakdancing, heroin overdose. And then you repeat it enough times, and then it’s there. And the same thing happened when we were kind of censored in 2020. There was a famous quote by Hearst, who ran all the newspaper empire in the 30s and 40s, and somebody had just come out with a movie about something. It was like a documentary film, maybe, about, I don’t know, the livestock, you know, yards.

1:11:14 And he said, “Okay, movie’s good.” He said, but with a newspaper, he said, I can break a man, because he would just repeat the same thing over and over for months and years. And he knew. He just knew he can just ruin someone that way. And there’s a lot of that going on.

1:11:31 There’s mostly that going on. Most of that. You read a newspaper, you have to understand that most of that is nonsense that’s made to get your attention. And there’s usually very little underneath it. You’re in crypto news.

1:11:43 Sometimes I read it and I’m just like, that’s just, that’s not actually true. That’s actually old news. That’s actually got nothing to do, what’s really going on. Yeah. Sometimes I check in just to see what the monkeys are talking about.

1:11:53 But I, like, I try not to base any decisions about it. Well, crypto is interesting. Where are you seeing Bitcoin at the end of the year? It’s a lot, is the main question of all the OGs here. Yeah.

1:12:03 Look, I think the ETF is a net, is a huge, massive positive, even though it’s pulled back, but over the long term, and I’d love to get your thoughts on it, it’s, it’s actually media is what it is, because you’ve talked about this. You got the head of BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, talking favorably about Bitcoin. And I was talking to a guest recently, and he said, “These people are good at one thing. They’re good at selling financial products through research, through education.”

1:12:30 And when they start this wave, that alone will raise the price by putting Bitcoin in everyone’s hands. Yeah. What do you think? Because you knew all the angles. Yeah, I think it’s just, it’s just some liquidations from, you know, once those ETFs were converted that are overhanging the market, and some miners are overhanging the market slightly by having to sell, worried about the halving, because mining will be become less profitable.

1:12:55 So probably my position is short Marathon, short MARA, long Bitcoin as a hedge position. So you could leverage that a lot more, although it’s some risk with it. That’s an interesting play. You short the miner, long the Bitcoin. Yeah.

1:13:09 Yeah. Short the miner along the Bitcoin, maybe with a bias of maybe 30, 40% extra Bitcoin than the miner short. So you can have a bit of a free roll on, on, on that, on the Bitcoin. It’s probably like correlated pretty decently. Okay.

1:13:23 Two months before the, having you still want to hold Bitcoin now, or do you think it could go a little lower before that? No, it could pop now, because I think there’s a lot of that factored in. I think it could pop. It’s very difficult to say. No one really knows where Bitcoin.

1:13:36 I don’t know where Bitcoin’s going to be. Yeah. So, like, a natural position would be, you know, to hedge something and to be long something that would be a decent play, and I think a lot of smarter people are doing that. Uh, Ethereum ETF will not get approved. You know, actually, I work with Leah World from Y Career.

1:13:54 She’s actually on the board of Cyberpunk Holdings, where I’m the CEO. So that’s her opinion as well. And a lot of people, the SEC will not be fast to approve another ETF, really. We, we may not see another ETF for 10 years. We may not see, unless there’s, 10 years.

1:14:11 We, we may not see another ETF in crypto for, for quite some time, because Bitcoin is for sure not a security that was always clear. Yeah, just the risks that they said that they had, which they courts ruled, but for sure with other instruments, or you know, it’s unlikely to be approved in my opinion, and based on smarter people than myself, you know, I’m not I’m not basing that opinion, so people should know that. So Bitcoin, be the one, obviously, you know, building on Bitcoin is becoming very interesting, and, uh, we don’t know how the capacity and speed and the transactional costs will be for everything, scale, but it’s, it’s also something that can save the miners.

1:14:54 And then obviously Solana is a great, great network to be part of as well. I guess though those are the, the three interesting things to be in, and, and be very careful of all the s*** coins and new tokens, and although they’re flying. If you look at these meme coins, it’s just insane. The meme coins. Meme coins.

1:15:15 The meme coins are flying. It’s. What do you make of meme coins? ‘Cause you look at something like Dogecoin, it’s been in the top 15 market cap for years and years and years. And so you can, you can, you know, you can say things about memecoins, but it clearly represents some type of community value there, doesn’t it?

1:15:33 It’s a currency, right? So you just come up with a currency, and then if enough people support it and use it or hold it, but why would you need to use it? So it’s a lot of questions still, right? I mean, what is it? Is it like a collections card?

1:15:47 How, how does a normal person understand it? But I think it’s just more speculation. It’s good for exchanges, because a new token exchanges make profit on a trade. You know, we just had Doomcoin list. We just saw Doomcoin list on Binance two days ago, like $4.

1:16:01 It went $6 straight away. Whatever the price of these things, but I don’t know where Doomcoin is now, but it’s not Doom. There’s a bunch of Trump coins that came out as well. Yeah, Trump coins. Yeah.

1:16:13 So there’s, there’s a lot going on with these things, but no one knows where it’s going to go, you know, what’s going to be hot or cold. If we knew, you know. But long term, you’re, you believe the Bitcoin ecosystem is healthy and you will hold a position. Yeah. Yeah, we, we are, we, I will hold we will hold for several companies that I’m associated with, of course.

1:16:32 Okay. But you just have to be balanced. You don’t want to be like all in anything, you know. There’s, there’s no, no need to be all in. You only have to make money once.

1:16:39 It’s not like you have to keep making more money. So you just want to be balanced and, and relaxing. You don’t want to be stressed, you know, margin something and you don’t need to be anymore, right? All the money was made before, when things went up hundreds of times. It’s, it’s not going to happen now.

1:16:55 So then there’s no need for it to happen. If it happens, let other people make the money. You know, good luck. There’s so many new investors. So you don’t need to crowd all those positions.

1:17:04 I think for people with, with money now, you just want to protect what you have. Of course, be long, slightly long, neutral the market, and enjoy life and do other things like longevity. Yeah. While I’m talking about that, do you think everybody should own crypto? Everybody should own some Bitcoin.

1:17:20 Yeah, at least one, 1%, 10%. Of course, own Bitcoin, own, you know, a bit of ETF is an easy way to hold as well. if you have access to it, because it’s, like, you don’t have to worry about getting hacked because there’s a lot of that going on, right? So that, that’s the thing, that’s, you have some peace of mind now to put a decent amount of money to work in, in Bitcoin. Yeah.

1:17:43 And I think, I think that’s it. Just, just put some money in and forget about it, and spend it when you need it. I also, like, you know, when I have Bitcoin built house on Bitcoin. I mean, you have Bitcoin to enjoy. You don’t want to have Bitcoin to enjoy you, right?

1:17:58 So that’s very important to understand. It’s just there. It’s just there to have benefit from, and to enjoy it. That’s the key. So, I’m not worried about having less and less and selling it and enjoy a good life than to have to accumulate more and more.

1:18:14 Okay. This is not like the time to accumulate if you have plenty of it. Don’t let it own you is what you’re saying. Don’t let it own you. Yeah.

1:18:21 It’s a time, it’s okay to release it, you know, to other people. You know, it’s fine. It’s not like you have to die with it. You got one of these on your finger. Yeah.

1:18:31 Yeah, I have. I have. And so, you mentioned longevity. Talk to me about when did you start thinking seriously about your health, your longevity, all that, and what do you do? Yeah.

1:18:41 So, basically once I got out of politics, I went for a fast, a retreat. I went to Phuket place called the Life Co., and I did a 21-day fast of water and salt. Wow. To kickstart my. That’s the first, offing, first time ever to kickstart my fast and my, because I was a lot heavier, like 25 kg heavier.

1:19:02 I’m still not in great shape, because I still live a very active lifestyle of eating what I want and doing what I want and having parties and have a party tonight. Some OGs will should be be fun, but it’s like I want to enjoy my life, you know. I’m not, I’m not, it’s like, not just longevity, it’s just also quality of life and you know, being in your 50s and feeling like in your 30s, like I do, right? Which is important, right? You want to be in your 50s, in your 60s, and still be active and do everything you did when you were in your 30s.

1:19:31 But that, that’s longevity for me. So that’s important to look after yourself, to do blood tests, to do the right thing. You know, I have a walk in the morning. I had an ice bath this morning. Uh, but you know, I also, I’ll have some wine.

1:19:45 I’ll probably have a bottle of wine. We, good red wine. I think it’s also good, right? So you can’t be like crazy on just being healthy where you’re suffering to be healthy. So it’s important to be happy and to do everything you can that you enjoy.

1:20:01 So, I don’t enjoy doing gym work. Although it’s probably good for you, and I’m trying, but I can’t do gym work. But I can do a very fast, nearly run walk of 8 km, like 5 miles every day, you know, first thing in the morning. And then, you know, I eat my 3,000 calories, or maybe three and a half, and some, maybe it’s too much, but I really enjoy food, right? So, I still want to do things I want to do.

1:20:24 And then, what what do I need? So then I look at products for what we need. And we have a company called Tony G Holdings under Tikaton listed on the CSC, which is a new startup for us, and we, we bought a NAD manufacturing NAD plus manufacturing plant, and now we’re manufacturing NAD+, so you do an IV. What is it? Yeah.

1:20:45 So it’s like it’s minerals, basically vitamins, but it’s basically repairing your cells and giving you energy, giving you clarity of mind, and just making your health much better. This, fixing your heart. I was on heart medication in own in the parliament. So I’m off, I’m off all meds, and you know, just taking the right supplements and having NAD+ infusions. NAD+ is available in the UK, NAD clinic for example, that you can have, and we, we basically, the company that have manufactured that, that NAD.

1:21:18 Okay. And you were pumping the Satoshi Round Table full of it every morning. Oh my god. Everybody was ready to get themselves injected, that these, some people are billionaires. They’re ready to put something in the vein there from me.

1:21:29 I went so many, 30, 40 people, like, wanted. I just had to close it at the end. But too many people wanted the juice. Too many people wanted the juice. And you were surprised they were just like, hook me up.

1:21:38 Get in my vein. No questions asked. Yeah. No questions. Just have it.

1:21:42 Just have me down, you know. So yeah, I’m just happy that we didn’t have any bad experiences and everyone was happy, and yeah, our business is, is doing well, and it’s, it’s very interesting. I’m, so I got into PokerNews, right? I built PokerNews because I was in poker, and now I’m in longevity. It’s my business now to live long and be happy, right?

1:22:01 So that’s why I’m in longevity business. I’m not in there. It’s not a fake. It’s not because I want to make money. I love it.

1:22:06 Okay? I want to live, be longevity. I want to know everything about longevity, stem cells. I’m researching top of the world, you know, what supplements, what vitamins to take. For example, take repy.

1:22:17 I take repison once a week, but doctors can’t really subscribe, uh, give you a subscription to a normal person, because this, for organ transplant medication, but it’s basically a plan from Easter Island that’s, that’s giving you a huge boost in your longevity and your organs and stuff. So take Rapamycin, six tablets a week once a week. You know, take me metformin two tablets a day before you sleep, 500 mgs. Uh, you know, take NAD infusions, check yourself for magnesium.

1:22:48 Magnesium, a lot of people, you know, in the 50s are already very short of magnesium. Calcium, very important to have the right dose. And then doing water fast. So you know, we’re going to do apps on helping people fast. Make sure you go to the toilet frequently.

1:23:03 So we might need a lot more, more like psyllium husk, a thing like called Conwell, that’s, that you could take a few spoons to get plenty of fiber in you. So you can still have a very good lifestyle and do everything you can, and nothing to happen to you. So you can do everything bad, and still good things will happen to you. That, that’s my longevity plan. It’s not like a crazy one where you have to be suffering.

1:23:25 But I love an ice bath, right? So I jump in an ice bath. You do a bit of sauna here and there. It’s nice for you. You have to feel good about what you do.

1:23:34 Going to the gym does, doesn’t, doesn’t work for me. So I don’t. You find something fun that you can gify. Yes. Some type of activity, and then you’ll love it.

1:23:42 But, and you love it. It’s habits, but it’s habits. So you just change your habits slowly. But you know, even key is not to be too, too overweight. So I managed to do that, and now I still plan to get even leaner, and do a bit more.

1:23:56 Start doing planks, maybe things like that. You know, half a day fast when I need to, when my, I just control, you know, see my weight, and if I’m not happy, then I’ll go for a fast, and then now I’m, I’m due for a fast. I’m up, I’m up off my lows. So, it’s look, it’s a cycle, but you just have to just control yourself, and fast is really good to clean everything out. Even if you have high cholesterol, what, whatever is wrong with you, you can stop all medication and just take water and Himalayan salt for 3 weeks, and you’re going to be cured nearly of everything.

1:24:28 Isn’t that crazy? It’s crazy. And breath work as well. Breath work. So, like, know someone follows someone like Wim Hof.

1:24:34 So you know, breath work, or if you’re lazy like me, and you can’t, you hate doing breath work. You do hyperbaric chamber ozone therapy. So we do a hyperbaric chamber, which we have, and now I’m installing hyperbaric chambers everywhere. I think that’s a great one. It makes your skin perfect.

1:24:51 Your organs, even, you know, clinical research has shown that, you even, your all your veins improve, and you actually have new veins. Using hyperbaric chamber for 18 day period session. So 3 weeks with Himalayan salt cures almost everything. What does that tell us? Is that most of what we put in our body is actually hurting us and killing us.

1:25:11 Yeah, basically you’re not letting your body to flush out, and you know, the lymphs get blocked up. You just you just, you just need to give your body a rest, especially if you’re very active. And you know, as you say, if you’ve done stuff then you need, need to flush things out, and so just, just to fast 3 weeks is very long, extreme, but like three or five day fast is decent, but it’s actually easier to fast after 5 days. That’s what I heard. It’s once you break the fast, it’s beautiful.

1:25:38 You don’t want to eat. Your mind works perfect. You have a lot of energy. You can do everything you can. You can have a normal life, and I’ve actually helped a lot of people with doing the fast So counterintuitive, isn’t it?

1:25:50 Yeah, it’s counterintuitive. But to say when people get sick, when a dog gets sick, it doesn’t eat. You know, when animals get sick, they don’t, they don’t eat. It’s the best way to heal without any medicine. It’s the only way.

1:26:00 But you should just watch out, you know, if you’re very active, then, like, something just, like, magnesium can help you. A magnesium infusion, and then magnesium tablets, the right ones, or magnesium liquid, can really help you very fast feel better. If you’re feeling a bit strange and you think, well, I don’t know what’s going on with me, those blood tests can show. Glutathione as well. People who like to drink a lot of alcohol, then you need glutathione.

1:26:24 You know, you need, you need plenty of liquids, and then you can balance your body pretty decent to balance if you’re missing something. So longevity is my business now, my passion. That’s what we’re going to build a great billion-dollar company from nothing. And that’s what I’m working on. How’s your sleep?

1:26:41 Sleep is decent. Decent. I mean, my sleep, I never take any meds to sleep. now I have, like, a peptide that I started taking. I’m also doing peptides.

1:26:50 Peptides are incredible. I just started on them. We’re also going to start manufacturing peptides. Okay. Through Tony G Holdings.

1:26:58 So peptides are good and help you with sleep. I don’t take any medications. I sleep on average of about, or, shows about 6 and 1/2 hours, which is decent. 6 and 1/2 hours of good sleep is fine. And be active first thing in the morning.

1:27:16 You go and go and have a big, big run or, you know, if you’re in your 50s, just have a good walk. Yeah. I don’t think you need to push yourself too much, but you feel your body. I mean, some people love gym, and it’s good for them to do the gym, and they should do the gym, but if you don’t like it and you hate it, then you’re not going to be able to sustain it. So something sustainable and basic will go a very long way to improve your life than something crazy that you’re suffering.

1:27:41 I, I wouldn’t do anything that you’re suffering with. Yeah, that’s very cool, man. Another chapter in Tony G’s life. Yeah. New chapter.

1:27:47 Crazy. What’s your relationship like with Russia? Are you banned from Russia? I am banned in Russia. Yeah.

1:27:53 When I was in, in Parliament, I would say I made, made a few mistakes in relation to Russia, I guess. But I’m not against Russian people, you know. First of all, I actually did a Russian interview. I’ve repaired a orphanage in Russia from my poker winnings. You know, so I’m not against Russian people.

1:28:10 I’m not against even anything that’s going on. I’m, I’m, I’m neutral now, and I’m out of politics. So I hope they do reverse the ban, but I don’t mind being banned. I’m not looking to go to Russia anytime soon. But I am banned.

1:28:25 Yes, ’cause you said some things about the head of Russia. Look, sometimes you get emotional, and as politics. Yeah, probably I said something about. Oh, nothing, something, something really bad, but, some, maybe some speeches weren’t appropriate. Got it.

1:28:42 So, you’re still playing poker, still in crypto, doing longevity, and just continue going to the next chapter. That’s what you’re doing. Yeah. And people ask me, “What are you going to do next?” I said, “I just want to live.

1:28:54 Just want to live one more day. Take one day at a time. Try to improve yourself.” Of course, I make mistakes with things that we all go through in life, right? Of course, I make up mistakes, and a lot of mistakes.

1:29:04 So try to, a corrected mistake is not a mistake with yourself. So learn from that. Correct your mistakes that you can while you’re alive. Do your best and keep moving forward, you know, keep moving forward. Have positive energy.

1:29:17 Help people by helping yourself to start with, and then to just keep achieving. That’s very important. Just want to finish with some advice for people out there. I mean, I’ve been doing this now for 12, 13 years, and people always say, like, “How did you ever leave banking?” And people must look at you and say, “Tony, how did you not play poker for 5 years?

1:29:35 And how did you do all these big changes?” ‘Cause most people never do that. Most people find something they’re pretty good at, and then they do it to death until where they’re either old or so sick of it and they don’t do anything else. Yeah. How would you encourage people or advise people to be able to try new things?

1:29:55 Because you have to have that beginner’s mind, because you suck at new things. Yeah. Almost by definition, you’re never going to be as good. It’s very easy to keep doing the thing that everyone tells you, you’re amazing. You’re a great poker player, Tony.

1:30:05 Come play more. And you’re so bored of it. Like you’re so bored of it. Like I was a banker. I was making all this money.

1:30:09 I hated it. I just hated it. And it’s just like you’re so bored of it, but your identity is wrapped up in it. And then sometimes your financial security is wrapped up in it. And then there’s fear when you change.

1:30:21 How, what would you say to people about that? It’s just some people have it like I had like I remember as a kid, I just, like, jumped off a cliff. I didn’t know how to swim, but I jumped into the water, you know, and someone had to pull me out, saved me. But it’s like you have to be a little bit crazy, right, to do crazy things. I guess I’m a little bit crazy, because I actually really did it, and like story goes on.

1:30:40 So, like, just running up and jumping into something that you don’t know what’s going to happen, if you’re going to come out alive. Did your friends jump in and, like, keep you from drowning? No, there was, like, people. So, yeah, I got saved, obviously. Yeah, but I just, because everyone was jumping and having so much fun, I thought, well, someone’s going to pull me out, you know, so I just jumped in whatever was, like, 10 m.

1:31:00 And so it’s, it’s, it’s really, like, it’s a real life story. So, it’s important. But why do we do things that we’re not comfortable of doing? Because we’re human. We’re not animals.

1:31:10 Animals cannot do that, because the instinct doesn’t allow us. Because we’re human, we are able to overpower ourselves and do things that are not comfortable sometimes, things that are hard, and things that will make us better and stronger and evolve us. So, I think that’s why we can do things just because we’re human. It’s very simple answer. And that’s why we should, as well.

1:31:31 And that’s why we should, because that’s how we’re going to get growth. That’s how we’re going to learn. That’s how we’re going to get more stimulation, and that’s what I’ve been doing with my life. So continue making mistakes, and continue fighting and continue evolving. Super good advice.

1:31:46 So your animal instinct is to avoid all that. The human has to say, “Wait a second. That’s where the growth is.” And even though the short term is painful or dangerous, the long term is massive growth, success, learning. So you got to push yourself to do it.

1:32:02 It’s the only way. Yeah. People use that phrase, comfort zone, and it’s like people say, “Oh, we got to get out of your comfort zone.” But, like, even the best of the best get in comfort zones, and it’s like, it’s hard every time, I think, to get out of your comfort zone. Even the people that have done that so many, many times, because it’s comfy in there.

1:32:19 Of course. Of course. Tony, really appreciate the time. You’re a wild man with a lot of crazy stuff. I encourage people to go watch some of your smack-talking videos, which are great, and it’s hugely exciting, the longevity stuff.

1:32:33 So wishing you all the best. Give me some of that NAD. Okay. And, uh, you’re up. All right.

1:32:39 You’re on a free roll. All right. That, and invite me to one of your parties in Czech Republic as well. Deal. Deal.

1:32:44 A little bit of both. And, uh, yeah, let’s do this again sometime in the future. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Tony.

1:32:49 Appreciate you. And just want to thank, uh, Web3 TV for having us. We’ll see you next time on London Real.