Meet Robbie Strazynski: The Voice of Poker Media
If you’ve ever searched for down-to-earth poker advice, chances are you’ve come across Robbie Strazynski’s work.
The creator of Cardplayer Lifestyle, Robbie turned a passion project into one of the most recognizable independent voices in poker media, covering everything from mixed-game strategy to behind-the-scenes industry stories.
Over the years, he’s interviewed legends, launched the Mixed Game Festival, and shared some of his most personal stories. Now, Robbie joins OUSC as an expert contributor, ready to share candid insights gathered from two decades of playing, reporting, and, above all, living the poker life.
Interview with Robbie Strazynski
Get an inside look at Robbie’s life, passions, and the drive that’s made him a trusted voice in poker.
How did you first get into poker?
My father introduced me to the game when I was 8 years old. He taught me Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. He used to play in a home game that would rotate hosts each week.
Whenever the game was at our house, I made every possible excuse to visit him at the table so that I could watch what was going on. Right around that time, in 1989, my family started taking multiple trips to Las Vegas each year.
While I always loved poker, I’d say I first “went all in” with it when I watched the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event broadcasts in 2003 (the year Chris Moneymaker won). I began playing in my own home poker games shortly thereafter and still play with my friends on a weekly basis to this day, over 20 years later.
Tell us about Cardplayer Lifestyle. How did it start and how has it evolved?
I launched the site in late 2009 as a fun side project during nights and weekends. It all started somewhat unexpectedly; a friend suggested we start a poker blog together. A couple of months later, in November, we launched the site, treating it purely as a hobby.
After about six months, we saw our first trickle of revenue. Around the same time, I began to understand who I was writing for and how to better connect with my audience. Slowly but steadily, both traffic and earnings began to climb.
Over the next two years, I immersed myself in learning the ins and outs of running a website. In the summer of 2011, my partner stepped away from the project, and I bought him out to take full ownership.
What began as a casual poker blog side project has evolved into a thriving career and a fully fledged poker media website.
Cardplayer Lifestyle became my creative outlet and a way to engage more deeply with the poker community. I focused on producing the kind of content I enjoyed reading myself: unique, thoughtful articles geared toward recreational poker players and fans.
From opinion pieces and strategy articles to lifestyle stories and interviews with top players and industry figures, I aimed to carve out a niche distinct from the major poker media outlets.
Over time, I expanded the site’s content by bringing on contributing writers to help publish more regularly. While monetization was not the primary goal, I was grateful that the site began generating a solid side income.
Traveling the world to cover poker events and tell the stories of the people in the game is truly a dream come true
By late 2016, it was clear the site had real potential as a business. After consulting with a financial advisor, I set a minimum earnings benchmark to justify pursuing it full-time.
In March 2017, I made the leap to self-employment, and in that first year I exceeded my target by 20%. I haven’t looked back since. Each year has brought new opportunities, growth, and milestones.
Today, I’m proud to be a full-time self-employed poker journalist. What began as a casual poker blog side project has evolved into a thriving career and a fully-fledged poker media website. Traveling the world to cover poker events and tell the stories of the people in the game is truly a dream come true.
You’ve interviewed some of the biggest names in poker. Is there one that stands out to you the most?
I’ve conducted so many interviews over the years that have felt special in a variety of different ways. It honestly feels like I’d be diminishing so many others if I were to just single out one. With that said, the interviews I’ve conducted with Poker Hall of Famers have by definition been extra-special.
Conducting interviews is both a networking superpower and one of the easiest ways to make new friends.
Rather than focus on one interviewee, I’ll share that a major reason I enjoy conducting interviews is that it’s both a networking superpower as well as one of the easiest ways to make new friends.
So many of the players and industry people I’ve interviewed over the years are friends of mine and have been for years now. So much of that traces back to the first time I approached them for interviews.
What has been the most surprising thing you’ve learned after more than a decade covering the poker world?
I’m surprised that it’s overwhelmingly the negative stories and scandals in poker that sadly get the most traction, views, and clicks. There’s overwhelmingly so much positive and good that goes on in the poker world. There are so many wonderful players and stories to tell.
Naturally, no industry is perfect, and we of course have our bad apples, but I’m dismayed that it’s those bad apples that often capture the attention of the poker world and whose stories tend to go mainstream.
I wish we’d pay more attention to and spend more of our energy focusing on the people and events that so often serve as shining beacons of light in the poker world.
You’ve hosted several poker podcasts and shows. What do you enjoy most about that format?
I’m an extrovert and genuinely love speaking with people. That’s also a big part of what I love about playing poker, namely getting to sit around a table and interact with people.
Working alone from home, especially since I live so far away from the epicenter of the poker world, can get quite lonely at times. Hosting all those podcasts and shows over the years has been a major lifeline for me that has helped me stay connected to players and plugged in to the industry.
Hosting podcasts has been a major lifeline that keeps me connected to players and plugged in to the industry.
Beyond that, it feels increasingly rarer these days for people to have lengthy, meaningful conversations.
The one-on-one podcast interview format, by definition, helps to facilitate these sorts of conversations, and (as mentioned earlier) having all those conversations has helped pave the way towards me developing so many genuine and valued friendships over the years.
You also translated Eli Elezra’s autobiography from Hebrew to English. What was that experience like?
I attended the launch of the original Hebrew autobiography in Tel Aviv in early 2017. When it was my turn to get my copy signed, Eli asked me to hang around until the event was over.
That was when he said to me “Robbie, my children don’t read Hebrew; I want them to be able to read my story someday and I think you’re the best person to translate the book. You might not be a native speaker of Hebrew, but you know poker and that’s the most important part to me.”
The project took me months to complete, and it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever taken on, but it was among the most rewarding as well. Eli and I have been tight friends ever since.
What inspired the Mixed Game Festival, and how has it been received by the community?
When I began traveling to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker in 2016, I noticed that a couple of my poker media friends occasionally tried to arrange impromptu late-night mixed games after they got off duty.
They would put out the call, see if anyone was available, and a few people would come. After attending a couple, I knew I wanted to organize them myself. I knew that with enough advance notice, and that if I were able to put together some prizes and incentives for people to come, they’d likely show up.
Our most recent Mixed Game Festival attracted players from over 25 U.S. states and half a dozen countries.
By March 2020 I was ready to announce the inaugural Mixed Game Festival. Those plans got delayed by 1.5 years due to the pandemic, but when we finally held the festival, at Westgate Las Vegas in October 2021, it was a massive success, buoyed by the fact that PokerStars was our title sponsor.
They gave me the opportunity to give away a $30,000 Platinum Pass prize package and that was won by 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer.
As of this writing, we’ve now held 11 Mixed Game Festivals, 10 of which have been in Las Vegas and one in Malta. Our main partner venues have been Resorts World and Bellagio, and our title sponsors have included PokerStars, the Moneymaker Tour, PokerGO, Pokercoaching.com, the World Poker Tour, and BetMGM Poker.
Our most recent festival, in June, was our biggest ever. We attracted players from over 25 US states and half a dozen countries.
What kind of poker content excites you the most to write or create?
Personal stories based on experiences I have had playing the game. At my core, I’m not “just” a poker writer but also a poker player.
That’s part of why I called my site “Cardplayer Lifestyle”; it’s a lifestyle I always wanted to lead myself. I’m not a professional player, but I have spent plenty of time at the felt playing all sorts of games at all sorts of places around the world.
I’ve been telling personal poker stories ever since I founded the site, and the more I get to play and the more experiences I get to have, the more I enjoy sharing those experiences and stories with my audience.
Is there an aspect of the poker and casino world you think doesn’t get enough attention in the media?
Yes, the behind-the-scenes stories. The stories of the dealers, staff, and other casino personnel that work so hard to facilitate poker games and provide a welcoming environment for players to enjoy themselves.
As paying customers, poker players head to the casinos and poker rooms expecting a certain type of experience. There are people whose jobs are to provide that experience. I like speaking with those people, learning their stories, and better understanding why they do what they do and what they enjoy about their jobs.
What do you hope readers take away from your work?
Attention has become one of the world’s most valuable commodities. There are only 24 hours in a day and seemingly endless things that compete for people’s time and attention.
If people decide to devote their time to reading something I’ve written, I want them to come away feeling like it was a great use of their time, that they gained a valuable lesson (not necessarily a poker lesson).
I believe poker has the power to bridge even the widest divides and bring people closer together.
If I’ve made a reader think, smile, want to comment or share my work, and want to come back and read the next thing I write or look around for other stuff I’ve written in the past, I consider that to be a big win.
If you could play a home game with any 3 people—famous or not—who would they be and why?
I believe poker has the power to bridge even the widest divides and bring people closer together. I’ve sat at tables with people who have vastly different outlooks on life and diametrically opposed political views, and yet they’re perfectly happy to sit around the table and enjoy a shared love for the game.
For that reason, my choices would be President Donald Trump, President Barack Obama, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I feel like the way a person plays poker, and the types of conversations that a game of poker can facilitate really help you learn a lot about a person. I would welcome the opportunity to get to know these people better.
Their world prominence notwithstanding, they put on their pants the same way I do. We’re just people and it’s just chips and cards around the poker table.
I’d like to believe that the conversations the four of us would have around the poker table would lead to each of us growing and better understanding each other’s perspectives and world views.
I’m not naïve enough to believe that such a home poker game could make the participants the best of friends, but I would hope that other people would see as inspirational the fact that we could all sit at a poker table together and have a good time playing the game despite our differences.
The world is a better place when we focus primarily on what we have in common rather than on what divides us.
When you’re not working on poker content or playing poker, what do you enjoy doing?
Spending time with my wife and children. Life passes by quickly, so it’s important to treasure every moment with the people you love most. Activity-wise, I love to travel and explore new places, so I hope to have the means to keep on doing that for years to come.
Final Deal: Stay Connected with Robbie
From learning Seven Card Stud at age eight to founding Cardplayer Lifestyle and launching the Mixed Game Festival, Robbie Strazynski has carved out a unique lane in poker media. One built on curiosity, community, and a genuine love for the game.
Whether he’s interviewing Hall-of-Famers, translating stories for the next generation, or sharing his own mixed-game adventures, Robbie’s goal remains the same: leave readers and listeners a little smarter, a little happier, and a lot more excited to play.
Want to keep up with his latest insights, interviews, and event announcements?
- Follow Robbie on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn
- Subscribe to the free Cardplayer Lifestyle newsletter
- Reach him directly at [email protected]
Keep an eye on our site for more of Robbie’s writing. His next poker story is only a shuffle away.
