{"id":27034,"date":"2014-04-22T01:38:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T00:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/?p=27034"},"modified":"2015-08-21T18:07:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T17:07:09","slug":"dim-mak-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/2014\/04\/22\/dim-mak-records\/","title":{"rendered":"The Founder of DIM Mak Records\u2019 Passion for Poker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Aoki<\/a><\/strong>: DJ, Music Mogul, and Poker Fiend<\/em><\/p>\n

The founder of DIM Mak Records<\/strong>\u2019 passion for poker\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The poker boom has led to a lot of poker players coming out of the woodwork. From the average man on the street to millionaire celebrities, everybody is visiting poker tables and putting their skills to the test. One of them is Steve Aoki<\/a><\/strong>. While most people know the electronic music maven as the founder of Dim Mak Records<\/strong><\/em>, Aoki<\/strong> is likewise a self-confessed rabid poker fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a poker fiend,<\/em>\u201d he tells CBS<\/strong><\/em> affiliate KROQ<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cI\u2019ve been a poker fiend for 6<\/strong> or 7<\/strong> years now. That\u2019s the one thing that will always keep me going. That\u2019s usually my routine. I go play in the club then I go play in the poker room until I leave the town. I don\u2019t even see my bed.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The superstar DJ<\/em> compares the adrenaline rush he feels when playing poker to the one he gets from completing a new track. \u201cWhen I finish a track that\u2019s an absolute banger,\u201d<\/em> he tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cyou get that same feeling as when you go all-in on a hand, someone follows suit, and you know you\u2019ve beat them.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of Aoki<\/strong>\u2019s playing is done in Las Vegas<\/em>, where he\u2019s been a resident DJ<\/em> for numerous clubs over the past few years. When he\u2019s not in Vegas<\/em>, though, he still manages to find time to play with a group of friends including Michael Phelps<\/strong><\/em>, Verne Troyer<\/strong><\/em>, and Joe Madden<\/strong><\/em>. He has also hit the tables with fellow EDM<\/strong><\/em> artist Deadmau5<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Aside from his cash games, both at home and in Las Vegas<\/em>, Aoki<\/strong> has also organized poker tournaments in his spare time. One such event took place during last year\u2019s Holy Ship! Cruise, a weekend trip to the Bahamas<\/em> with some of the biggest EDM<\/em> names in the world including Fatboy Slim<\/strong><\/em>, Boysnoize<\/strong><\/em>, Laidback Luke<\/strong><\/em>, Rusko<\/strong>, Diplo<\/strong><\/em>, A-Trak<\/strong><\/em>, Skrillex<\/strong><\/em>, and Zedd<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although Aoki<\/strong> doesn\u2019t consider tournament play as his area of expertise, he\u2019s had enough poker experience to be comfortable with providing some guest commentary at the 2013<\/strong> World Series of Poker<\/strong><\/em>. It\u2019s not surprising, though, as Aoki<\/strong> has spent time playing with poker luminaries like Antonio Esfandiari<\/strong><\/em>, Phil Laak<\/strong><\/em>, and Phil Ivey<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 three players who have several titles from the World Poker Tour<\/strong><\/em>, whose events are sponsored by bwin.party, operator of Partypoker.fr<\/a><\/strong>. They also have 12<\/strong> WSOP<\/strong><\/em> bracelets between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the poker world, Antonio Esfandiari<\/strong> is the one who brought me in,<\/em>\u201d Aoki<\/strong> reveals in a Poker News<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0interview. \u201cThen, I met Phil Laak<\/strong> through him and eventually met Phil Ivey<\/strong>. Ivey would come to XS<\/strong>, we would grab some dinner and hang out and talk about some other business stuff. He\u2019s actually really smart and really intelligent, so having conversations with him is great. Ivey is a really great dude and we get along really well.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his current decision of avoiding the tournament scene, Aoki<\/strong> isn\u2019t exactly keeping that particular door closed. \u201cIf I ever retire from DJ’ing, then maybe you\u2019ll find me at a tournament,<\/em>\u201d he says. Judging by the way he\u2019s going, that\u2019ll be a long time from now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Aoki: DJ, Music Mogul, and Poker Fiend The founder of DIM Mak Records\u2019 passion for poker\u00a0 The poker boom has led to a lot of poker players coming out of the woodwork. From the average man on the street to millionaire celebrities, everybody is visiting poker tables and putting their skills to the test. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[9030,9031,9029],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Steve_Aoki_@_Inox_Park_Paris_Chatou_2011.jpg?fit=800%2C535&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p36U99-722","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aceworldteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}