The 2025 World Series of Poker provided no shortage of narrative threads to follow. From Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi's historic victories in both the Poker Players Championship and the Main Event to Shiina Okamoto's back-to-back-to-back dominance in the Ladies Championship to the antics of Will Kassouf throughout the late stages of the Main Event, the summer series lived up the hype – and then some.
While the poker community's eyes were on the headlines, Rob Gardner had his cameras trained on a group of players for Season 2 of Chase The Dream – a documentary project following the fates of Jay Carrafiello, Brett Kimes, Mikha Richards, Jim Reid, Craig Savage, and Dayanna Ciabaton. Chase The Dream tracks the journey of each player as they battle through the highs and lows of a summer at the World Series of Poker.
The first episode of Chase The Dream Season 2 debuts on September 25 on the RecPoker YouTube channel, with weekly episodes to come each following Thursday.
PokerOrg spoke with Reid to learn more about his involvement in the documentary project and what audiences can expect from watching.
What does it mean at this point in your poker journey to be included in this documentary?
Honestly, it blows my mind! I definitely think of myself as being just a fun recreational player, so sometimes it feels weird to realize that I've been hosting the podcast and coaching poker players for as many years as I have. I originally scoffed at Rob Gardner when he approached me about being in the show, because I felt that I didn't have the chops to share the limelight with all the real crushers he had lined up for it, but he convinced me that I had an interesting story worth sharing, so the whole thing has felt very flattering and surreal. Do all poker players have imposter syndrome, or is it just me?
What can RecPoker fans/community members expect to gain or learn from watching the documentary?
They are going to get a very honest, no-holds-barred look at the entire journey that players go on as they chase their poker dreams: not just the highlights, not just the sanitized "look how great this is," perspective, but a truly unvarnished look at the highs and lows of players taking their shots. I think Rob has done a fantastic job of capturing the very real and authentic experiences these people have gone through, and giving recreational players a really accurate glimpse behind the curtain.
Jim Reid made the top 250 in the 2024 WSOP Main Event for his best-ever live cash.What did you learn about yourself/your game through this experience?
Several things. One, I'm used to the challenges of interviewing people from my podcast experiences, but being the SUBJECT of the interviews is equally challenging in a lot of ways – and maybe even more gut-wrenching! I also learned that even though my own poker dream is a little different than some of the other folks, the journeys that we are all on are very similar and have similar highs and lows. I also learned that I am not putting in enough active study time if I want to seriously compete at the stakes these men and women are playing – that was a good lesson for me.
What did you learn from your fellow documentary subjects?
The biggest lesson was all the work they do off the felt to help themselves chase their own poker dreams. From active study to travel planning to detailed bankroll and results tracking, fitness and food regimens - you often see the public and celebrated success that poker players have, but seeing how the sausage was made was really inspiring for me. These folks are so passionate and focused and determined that it was truly an honor to be included in their stories.
