Before Wayne Chiang was helping shape the future of poker content at the WSOP…
he was one of the best StarCraft players in the world.
Not “pretty good.”
World Champion.
Back when esports barely existed…
before Twitch…
before streaming…
before anyone thought playing video games could become a career…
Wayne was already there.
Grinding real-time strategy games.
Writing battle reports by hand because replays didn’t exist yet.
Competing against future poker legends, esports pioneers, and internet entrepreneurs before any of them were famous.
Then poker happened.
And suddenly the same competitive obsession that made him elite at StarCraft…
translated perfectly into online poker during the boom.
In this episode of The Table 1 Podcast, Wayne “D22-soso” joins Art Parmann and Justin Young for one of the most fascinating crossover stories we’ve had yet:
- ♠️ Becoming a StarCraft World Champion in the earliest days of esports
- ♥️ The original “content creator” grind before streaming existed
- ♦️ The overlap between elite gamers and poker crushers
- ♣️ Going broke in poker and rebuilding from scratch
- ♠️ The insane early online poker ecosystem
- ♥️ Playing the biggest games online before bankroll management existed
- ♦️ Becoming part-owner of Live at the Bike
- ♣️ Helping shape the WSOP Vlogger Program today
- ♠️ Why poker needs creators more than ever
- ♥️ How AI, content, and media are changing poker forever
We also get into:
- esports history
- Commerce poker politics
- poker fame vs actual skill
- livestream tells
- what makes good poker content
- and why “your network is your net worth” becomes more true the longer you play poker.
This one feels like a time capsule of:
early esports,
early online poker,
and the weird internet era that created both.
👇 Drop a comment:
What old-school poker or esports moment made YOU realize the internet was changing everything?
Show Notes
00:00 Pro Gamer Origins
11:46 E-Sports Forever?!
16:05 Poker!
19:30 “Old school” online poker
30:46 Going Broke
39:00 Streaming Poker & Live at the Bike
46:36 2-Hand Hold’em
48:49 WSOP & Content!
56:45 The BOOK
Wayne's Links
X - https://x.com/D22_soso
2 Hand Hold'em - http://play2hh.herokuapp.com/
YouTube - https://youtube.com/@waynechiangpoker
WSOP Vlogger Program:
https://www.wsop.com/poker-vlogger-program/
T1 Links
Phenom Poker (Daily MTTs + deposit bonus):
https://play.phenompoker.com/register?r=Table1
Play with us in Vegas:
https://table1.vegas
First-time depositors can get up to 200% on $2,000 when you use our link.
Card Player Magazine (Table 1 stories):
https://table1.vegas/cardplayer
Follow us:
X - https://x.com/table1vegas
IG - https://instagram.com/table1vegas
