Matt Berkey’s Only Friends Podcast to End

After three years and 700 episodes, Matt Berkey’s Only Friends podcast has unexpectedly lost its home and will likely shut down at the end of April.

Earlier this week, fans tuned in to hear all about the return of Nik Airball to Hustler Casino Live, and instead got the bad news that Berkey’s landlord had given 30 days notice for them to exit the premises.

Matt Berkey has been a polarising figure for some in the poker community, but you can’t knock the effort that he has put in to show up every day — yes really, every day — to generate discussion about the most pressing matters in poker.

Matt Berkey Points the Finger at GTO

So, the obvious question is why not just move it elsewhere? Berkey explains that on launch, “it was a marketing tool for Solve for Why which by and large, especially now with us being evicted from this place… with that coming into play, and everything else, Solve for Why is scaling way way way back.”

He added:

“It was always a passion project, and I’ve been beating this drum for a while — I just don’t think the training space is flourishing for the small business. I think it’s absolutely carved out for the GTO Wizards of the world, and I think that’s the direction it should go.”

Berkey and his guests did discuss the podcast switching venues, although he did seem torn about the daily content aspect. Is it really overvalued?

Berkey was honest enough to admit that even though there’s a hunger for the product, it’s not something “that the community overall values”. He continued by saying he didn’t know if the team was the best for the job but rather only the most available for it.

As already said, it’s been good for the poker community to have a daily poker discussion vehicle like Only Friends. Other producers will pop up if the story is big enough but they don’t tend to be interested in the smaller areas of poker.

And then there’s other reasons why Berkey thinks the time might be right to let go. Mainly that the biggest names in poker aren’t interested in talking!

But after three years of an experiment that has gone well, at least Berkey can say he’s enjoyed every second of it and is looking forward to the final 20 or so shows. He’s also very grateful for all the people who stop him in public to say how much they enjoy the show, but he’s “lost whatever sense of purpose there is.”