ShareBrian Hastings is the latest old-school legend to join the RunItOnce coaching team, the player known to a generation of online poker fans as “Stinger88” announcing his new role in the same week that Daniel “Jungleman” Cates took his place on the RIO pro roster...
Phil Galfond’s training site boasts that they have “150 of the toughest pros” ready to teach everything from “No Limit Hold’em to Pot Limit Omaha, tournaments to mixed games,” and a quick look at Hastings’ and Cates’ colleagues reveals that is no empty claim.
The likes of Jason “NovaSky” Koon, Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood, Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky, Daniel “Oxota” Dvoress and Joni “Bustoville” Jouhkimainen would grace any elite final table, and the new signings wouldn’t be out of place either.
Hastings’ signing for RunItOnce will see him take on the role of Elite MTT coach, and you can catch a glimpse of his RIO debut, in which he offers “a brief introduction to his storied poker career before diving into a few recently played hands on the American-facing sites.”
Playing on ACCR and Ignition, Hastings can currently be found playing $400-$1k online cash games and anything from $55-$630 buy-in online MTTs, with his live poker anything from $1100 up to Championship $10k buy-ins.
Brian Hastings is a name known to millions in the poker world, with 4 WSOP bracelets and legendary highstakes online cash game battles with Viktor “Isildur1” Blom.
It was the Blom story that dominated much of the talk about Hastings when he took $4.2million from the then-anonymous Swede in a single session back in 2009, finishing off Blom’s bankroll with another $1.5million hit shortly afterwards.
It transpired that Hastings had collaborated with fellow CardRunner training site members, Brian Townsend and Cole South, to discuss Blom’s playing strengths and weaknesses, courtesy of a database Townsend provided.
That was against Full Tilt’s T&Cs at the time, resulting in Townsend losing his Full Tilt Red pro playing privileges for one month, though Hastings and South were cleared of wrongdoing.
A multi-accounting scandal followed, and Hastings eventually announced his retirement in poker back in 2016, but he reappeared and, controversy aside, has consistently proved himself to be one of the best.
You can find out about RIO’s other new signing, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, via his American Psycho-inspired video here – you don’t want to miss it!
