On April 25, Matt Berkey closed a chapter of his poker career with the end of the Only Friends podcast. After 719 episodes, Berkey and his rotating cast of friends decided that the show had run its course.
Poker’s answer to the format the likes of the Pat McAfee Show brought into the mainstream limelight built up an enthusiastic audience. Ultimately, though, with the end of a show’s studio lease and questions about revenue streams, Only Friends came to a close.
The reaction around the final episode was strong, and for Berkey and those directly involved in Only Friends, it was both well-appreciated and generally surprising.
“Truly shocking, to be honest,” Berkey said. “I really didn’t get the sense that Only Friends had become such a big staple in the poker community. All we look at are the analytics, so I get to see how many people show up every day live, and then what the total view count is.
“But I think it’s really hard to compare when you’re running a five-days-a-week live show compared to uploading a video once a week and looking at those numbers. There was a loyal core audience that was much, much larger than I think I understood, which does kind of sit in the back of my head when I think about the whole project.”
A Brief Return To Tournament Poker
On Saturday, Berkey sat down to play Day 1D of the 2025 World Series of Poker main event. It was the first bracelet event he’d played all summer. Berkey was perhaps hoping to harness some of the magic that saw him make a deep run in the 2010 WSOP main event, when he finished 43rd for $206,395.
Matt Berkey on day 1D of the 2025 WSOP main event.
The allure of poker’s most famous tournament was simply too much for Berkey to resist.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever miss this,” said Berkey. “I mean, until I’m so rich that $10 million doesn’t move the needle for me. This event’s just too special, even if you’re playing recreationally, it just means something. I can’t imagine a summer where I miss it.”
That score in the main event 15 years ago is currently the fifth-largest on Berkey’s tournament résumé. His career earnings currently sit at $4.8 million.
Even if tournaments weren’t his focus this summer, the grind never really stops. Berkey’s summer plans instead placed him in one of the biggest cash game spaces in the world.
It means he hasn’t had to face many questions about the end of the show in recent weeks.
“It’s been a lot less pressure, I guess, because I haven’t been at the World Series,” said Berkey. “I know when I play a bigger schedule, I often run into people who are paying attention. They watched, and they let me know, and then I feel guilty. But I’ve mostly just been hiding out in Bobby’s Room and kind of ducking all the attention, I guess.”
Berkey’s Life Post-Only Friends
The end of the show did make this summer feel a little bit different than the last few for Berkey. But for those who might think he added a lot of extra poker playing time, Berkey pumped the brakes on that front.
“I think people think that I freed up a lot of time ending the pod,” Berkey said. “It didn’t take that much time. People were like, ‘Oh, why don’t you do it once a week? And I’m like, ‘Five days a week wasn’t that taxing?’ It was a couple hours a day at most. I’m just basically working out in the morning now, instead of the afternoon.”
What a bad time to end the pod https://t.co/VE7e3yYjxq
— Only Friends Podcast (@OnlyFriends_Pod) July 2, 2025
Only Friends ended its run just before an eventful summer for the poker world. One can easily imagine the rundown of some of the biggest moments at the table. Benny Glaser’s three bracelet wins. The growing legacy of Nick Schulman. Or even the WSOP Player of the Year contention of Martin Kabrhel.
Fans of Only Friends would have loved a deep conversation about the events of the Millionaire Maker, though Berkey did make a few comments himself about how everything played out. When asked about whether or not he was disappointed not to have a chance to talk about the big stories of the summer, Berkey smiled.
“No, nothing happened this summer.”
