In the first PokerNews Podcast episode of the New Year, Sarah Herring and Chad Holloway talk about Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme & Brad Owen getting into the Texas card room game down in Austin, Polk's chat with the controversial Dan Bilzerian, and Mike McDonald and Phil Galfond closing up shop on PokerShares and Run It Once (RIO) respectively.

They also recap Kyna England winning MSPT Season 12 Player of the Year, Masashi Oya winning the MSPT Venetian for $161,780, and the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) kicking off their latest stop at Northern California's Thunder Valley Casino.

Finally, they welcome guest Maria Ho to the show to talk about the new season of The Amazing Race, being best friends with Tiffany Michelle, her goals for 2022, and whether or not she'll be attending this year's Global Poker Awards.

Time Stamps *Time|Topic* 00:24 | Welcome to the show 00:55 | Chad comes down with a case of COVID 03:48 | Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme & Brad Owen get into the Texas card room game 07:23 | Doug Polk chats with Dan Bilzerian 14:30 | New season of The Amazing Race premieres tonight! 16:15 | Guest Maria Ho joins the show 17:50 | Bonding over The Amazing Race 22:10 | Best friends with Tiffany Michelle 23:30 | How her family relates to her poker success 27:43 | Maria Ho’s 2022 poker goals 31:05 | What can we do to make poker more attractive to new players? 35:08 | What’s it like women playing against other women? 39:06 | Are you going to February’s Global Poker Awards? 40:54 | Sponsor: partypoker 41:40 | Mike McDonald shutters PokerShares 44:55 | Phil Galfond ending Run It Once international operations; to focus on US market 48:30 | Kyna England wins MSPT Season 12 Player of the Year 51:11 | Masashi Oya wins MSPT Venetian for $161,780 51:43 | RGPS Thunder Valley kicks off in Northern California 56:40 | Sponsor: GGPoker