The Only Friends poker podcast is coming back. Matt Berkey and the Solve For Why crew will air the first episode of the revived show on Monday, November 9, at 11 a.m. PT, according to a PokerNews report published on November 6, 2026. Berkey confirmed to PokerNews that the programme will run Monday through Thursday, meaning four episodes every week. For a show that signed off in April 2025 with a four-hour farewell stream, it is one of the more notable comebacks in poker media this year.
What Only Friends was, and why it mattered
Only Friends launched in March 2022 and became one of the most recognisable voices in the poker conversation. Berkey hosted, and a rotating cast that included Landon Tice, Conrad Simpson, Melissa Schubert and Brian Lamanna kept the discussion loose, opinionated and frequently unfiltered. The show covered high-stakes poker, cheating allegations, cryptocurrency and the industry controversies that most outlets handle more cautiously.
The numbers behind the run are striking. According to PokerNews, the programme ran for 719 episodes over roughly three years and won Best Podcast at the 2023 Global Poker Awards. In a niche where podcasts often come and go within a season, that kind of volume and recognition is a serious achievement. It also explains why the announcement drew attention so quickly after Only Friends posted the news on X.
Why it ended in 2025
The show signed off on April 25, 2025 with a farewell stream that featured Nikki Limo, Jesse Sylvia, Jason Somerville, Ryan Depaulo and PokerNews Podcast co-host Mike Holtz. PokerNews reported that the crew had lost its Las Vegas studio space and that YouTube's crackdown on certain gambling-related content made the timing feel right, as Berkey later put it. The farewell was framed as a "see you later" rather than a full goodbye, and that framing has now proved accurate.
The two reasons given are worth dwelling on, because they highlight how fragile independent poker media can be. A physical studio is a real cost for a daily show. Platform policy is an even bigger variable: when a video platform tightens rules around gambling content, creators who depend on it for reach and revenue have to adapt or step back. The return after more than 18 months suggests that either the circumstances have changed or the team has found a workable way to operate within them. PokerNews did not detail the new setup, so it would be wrong to speculate about specifics.
The format: four shows a week
Four episodes per week is an ambitious schedule. A Monday-to-Thursday cadence gives the show a news-cycle rhythm, which suits a programme built around reacting to what is happening in the game. It also puts Only Friends in direct competition for listener attention with the established weekly poker shows, including the PokerNews Podcast, which Berkey appeared on in late May 2025 for Episode #965. Topics on that episode included the WSOP "patch war", Charlie Carrel being banned from entering the U.S., and the return of poker at The Lodge, a reminder of the sort of ground a Berkey-hosted conversation tends to cover.
PokerNews also noted a more speculative possibility: that daily WSOP broadcasts from the show could return next summer. That is not confirmed and should be treated as a hope rather than a plan. Still, the Las Vegas summer series is the natural showcase for a daily poker show, and the 2026 WSOP drew 251,899 entries from 149 countries, which shows how large the audience for that coverage can be.
What this means for poker players
For recreational and professional players alike, independent shows are one of the few places where strategy talk, industry gossip and accountability journalism meet. Three areas stand out.
Cheating and integrity. Only Friends was a regular home for discussion of cheating allegations. In 2026 that conversation has only grown, with live rooms changing dealing methods and online sites expanding bot detection. Our own coverage of the Venetian's move to slide dealing is one example of how the room-level response is evolving, and a four-day-a-week show is likely to react to similar developments quickly. If you play online, it is worth understanding how to choose safe poker sites and what protections the best operators offer.
Crypto. The show covered cryptocurrency, which has become increasingly relevant to poker. WSOP's 2026 partnership with Solana, crypto-friendly networks and sites that accept coins have all pushed the topic into the mainstream. If you are curious about the practical side, our guides to crypto poker and Bitcoin poker explain how deposits and withdrawals work and what to watch for.
Strategy and the high-stakes lens. High-stakes players think differently about risk, variance and bankroll. Even if you never play nosebleed stakes, listening to how top players frame decisions can sharpen your own approach to bankroll management and to the fundamentals in our poker strategy hub.
A reminder about hype
A returning show is not a reason to take every claim at face value. Podcasts mix fact, opinion and speculation, and cheating discussions in particular can run ahead of the evidence. The healthy approach is to treat what you hear as a starting point for your own research, check primary sources, and remember that allegations are not findings. That applies equally to our own articles: everything above is drawn from the PokerNews report and its quoted details, and where something is unconfirmed, such as the possible WSOP broadcast, we have said so.
The bigger picture for poker media
The comeback also says something about the health of poker content. The game has had a strong year in terms of participation, with record WSOP entries and rising online traffic at the biggest operators, and audiences are clearly willing to follow personalities who offer unfiltered takes. Streaming and podcasting have become part of how players choose where to play, which tournaments to chase and which sites to trust. A well-known show returning to a daily schedule gives the community another place to debate those choices.
It will be interesting to see whether Only Friends reclaims its old role or finds a different one. Berkey's first show goes live at 11 a.m. PT on November 9, and the early episodes will show what the revived version looks like in practice.
Bottom line
Only Friends is back after 719 episodes, an April 2025 farewell and more than 18 months away. Expect four shows a week starting Monday, November 9, and expect the usual mix of high-stakes talk, industry debate and strong opinions. For players, it is an extra source of poker thinking, best used alongside your own research. If you want to get the most out of what you hear, pair it with solid fundamentals: review the poker hand rankings, learn pot odds, and keep your bankroll under control while you chase the next edge.
Source: PokerNews, "Matt Berkey's Only Friends Poker Podcast Is Back From the Dead," November 6, 2026.