When it comes to the World Poker Tour, Darren Elias is king – with four titles, 13 final table appearances, and 47 cashes overall. The only WPT category he doesn’t lead is in total earnings, although he has won plenty, with $4.6 million of his career $13.9 million in cashes coming on the tour.
His path to the top of the leaderboard began in 2014 with a win at the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $843,744. Then he captured his second title a month later at the WPT Caribbean in St. Maarten for $127,680.
In 2017, Elias won the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic in Canada for $335,436 and his third title. He added the record-breaking fourth in 2018 by winning the WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic at Aria in Las Vegas for another $387,580.
He also came close to a fifth title in 2022, finishing runner-up in the WPT Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $660,000. Beyond the victories, this BetMGM Poker ambassador also has five third-place finishes on the tour along with a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh.
The New Jersey resident was a recent guest on the Table 1 Podcast in a broad conversion that included not only his success on the WPT, but also a discussion about his phobia of birds, growing up as the son of a college football coach, and a crazy prop bet that involved a bit of drinking.
Check out the full interview below. You can also watch or listen to the entire episode on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any podcast app.
Darren Elias: I have a fear of birds. I made a bet with Chewy (Andrew Lichtenberger) in a tournament when there were 50 left and he was chip leader. He said, ‘If I win this tournament, you have to come meet my pet birds at the house.’
I went to his house. Fucking frightening – he’s got doves flying around.
Justin Young: I’m not scared of birds, but that is kind of creepy.
Art Parmann: Why are you scared of birds?
Darren Elias: They’re legit dinosaurs. Have you ever seen a picture of what they know a raptor looked like? It had feathers.
Art Parmann: Just like a chicken.
Darren Elias: A giant, scary chicken.
Art Parmann: What’s funny is that my daughter actually told me recently that we might have it completely wrong the way that the dinosaurs looked. My kids are dinosaur nerds. (Scientists) used the same technology on some hippopotamus bones. Just like to see (if the technology worked). They’re like, ‘Let’s take our animals and see if we got it right, how they looked.’ They mapped it out and it looked like a fucking freakish dog with really tight skin. So, dinosaurs might have looked completely different.
Elias also talked about what it’s like to grow up with a father as an SEC football coach.
Darren Elias: My dad was a college football coach, so I lived almost like a military family life. When you’re a football coach, if you’re doing well and you win, you go get a better job. We were at Vanderbilt and then we went to LSU because he was doing well. And then they lost, he got fired, and we went to a worse school. You’re always on the move, so I moved every three or four years my whole childhood.
He was linebackers coach and then recruiting coordinator, but usually assistant head coach. He would visit with kids (as a recruiter). Obviously, it’s different now, with the money. But back then, it was just trying to get kids to come to school.
Justin Young: Who was the biggest superstar that he got to recruit?
Darren Elias: Probably Kevin Faulk (former LSU running back who won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots).
I remember when I was probably eight or nine, the most exciting part of the year would be the bowl games. If we got to go to a bowl game, after Christmas we would go stay somewhere for a week and they would turn the hotel arcade on free mode. They’d bring in soda dispensers, and all the kids of the coaches would just be in there. We’d play pinball for six hours and gas Dr. Peppers, it was awesome.
I wasn’t there so much for football, but I remember playing Tecmo Super Bowl with Kevin Faulk. He’d be knocking on the door to play against the kids.
The conversation later moved on to discussing his success on the WPT, including winning back-to-back titles.
Art Parmann: Let’s go back a little bit. What was your breakout WPT win?
Darren Elias: It was 2014 at the Borgata, the $3,500 event which got about 1,300 runners. I think first was $840,000 or something. I had made a couple of final tables where I got like third and fifth, but I [finally broke through]. It was my home casino, and I had all my family there. It was huge to win that one.
Obviously, the money’s great. Anytime you’re in a big field main event and you can win 250 buy-ins or whatever that is, and have most of yourself, that’s huge. But also just getting the monkey off your back for that first big live win feels good mentally. That was huge.
Art Parmann: Was that a big change in your lifestyle or were you already pretty comfortable at that point?
Darren Elias: I was pretty comfortable. I don’t think it changed too much in my life. I don’t know if it’s confirmation or something, but you never want to be the guy that makes a bunch of final tables and can’t close, the guy who always gets third or something. It was getting to the point where I had made multiple WPT final tables and hadn’t won, so just closing it felt really good.
Justin Young: Do you know what your Wikipedia nickname is?
Darren Elias: I hope it’s not ‘Big Brisket.’
Justin Young: I kind of want it to be that, but that wasn’t it.
Darren Elias: It probably was ‘End Boss.’
Justin Young: To me, I just go back to video games when you go through and at the end of every level you fight the boss. The end boss was always the one that hit the hardest. So, you were End Boss, which I think is a great nickname, even though I’ve never heard anyone call you that ever in my life. You have so many seconds and thirds and fourths. It’s ridiculous. How did you get the nickname End Boss when you could never finish?
Darren Elias: (Elias laughs) Bowser is not that tough. Jump on his head right a couple times and he misses you with the fire.
Justin Young: I’ll remember the next time I get to the final table with you.
Darren Elias: ‘He’s headed right for third, don’t worry about him.’ Greg Mersen used to call me that. I guess he kind of coined it back when we played at the Borgata. I give him credit for that nickname, but nobody calls me that except Wikipedia. (Also Card Player in 2025, 2022, and 2019. Embrace the name, Darren!)
Justin Young: After the first WPT win, did the second WPT become the most important thing?
Darren Elias: I actually won the next one I played. I play more when I’m winning and less when I’m losing, kind of on purpose. I believe a little bit in the ‘hot hand fallacy’ or whatever you want to call it. I believe in long-term momentum in poker.
Generally, when I’m winning, I’m going to play more volume just because I’m having more fun when I’m winning. Usually there are things that work that you don’t understand. I would say when you’re winning and playing well, you’re making plays that you’re not really cognizant that you’re playing better, but you are. I think that that’s something that happens on both sides of it, when you’re on upswings or downswings.
Justin Young: It’s not a fallacy. It’s for sure real, and it’s not even close. Even though you can’t put a finger on exactly what you’re doing, making any move confidently is so much better than making any move without confidence.
Art Parmann: We’ve talked about that a ton on this podcast, where if you’re on an upswing and you lose aces versus kings or you lose some flip, you’re like, ‘Oh, well, that’s going to happen or whatever.’ But if you’re on a downswing and you lose aces versus kings, you’re just like, ‘Every time for me.’
Darren Elias: It hurts a little more.
Justin Young: Exactly and then you’re able to focus and play better. Any bluff, any value bet, any three-bet, [it all works]. Everything just becomes crystal clear.
Art Parmann: You find stuff that you don’t find on a downswing. Maybe people with strong mindsets don’t have that issue. (laughing)
Darren Elias: Yeah, people go on runs. I’ve been in poker a long time and just seeing these one- and two-year runs is unbelievable. The last couple years Bin Weng has been winning in these main events. Is he the best player in the world? No, but I would probably pick him during that run if we were doing a draft. He’d be in the top five picks just because of that momentum, that confidence, and how he’s playing. It’s wild. There’s always a guy who’s having a run – you just hope it’s you.
While Elias may not be the biggest gambler, he did share a whiskey-drinking prop bet for a Bitcoin.
Justin Young: I don’t want to put you too much on the spot, but do you have any awesome gambling stories?
Darren Elias: Probably compared to most of the guys you have on here, no. I’m not a huge gambler money-wise. My best gambling story is probably the whiskey bet I did with Ankush Mandavia.
We were shooting the shit in Florida after a tournament, and Kush was saying that one of his friends got offered a bet to do 10 shots of whiskey in 15 minutes and how that was impossible. I said that doesn’t sound too impossible.
I had never tried to do that, but I thought I could. He’s like, ‘No, you couldn’t do that,’ but then said, ‘Alright, how much do you want to bet?’
‘I don’t know, a Bitcoin?’ I answered. And this was back when Bitcoin was at about $10,000. He got super aggressive, ‘You want two Bitcoins?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m good with one Bitcoin.’
We had all these conditions on the bet. I couldn’t throw up for two hours, and I couldn’t get arrested. He wanted to throw that one in there. As if I’m going to go ballistic in the casino, start punching people in the face, and then get arrested.
We got a fifth of Johnnie (Walker) Black and went to the hotel room.
Justin Young: Johnnie Black, how was that negotiated?
Darren Elias: They had it in the gift shop.
Art Parmann: He wanted to hurt you. He wanted you to throw up.
Darren Elias: I poured it in a pint glass with some ice. There was a big group of 10-15 people watching me and they had side action too.
I think I did it in 11 or 12 minutes. Then we went down and had a couple more drinks at the bar. Kush was watching me for two hours. I was fine. I wish I would have bet more.
About The Table 1 Podcast
Hosted by high-stakes poker pros Art Parmann and Justin Young, the Table 1 Podcast is on a mission to make poker fun again. Tune in to see world-class pros talk poker, gambling, and all manner of life experiences on and off the felt. Visit the website for the podcast, newsletter, or even to get in the game. ♠
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