button in SafariMatt Vaughan Makes the Transition from Vlogger to Card Room Owner
Matt Vaughan first became known in the poker world as a vlogger, building a following of more than 20,000 subscribers on YouTube. But a few years ago, he decided to take his career in a whole new direction.
In 2023, Vaughan became owner of The Barrel Social Club, a poker room in Franklin, Kentucky, alongside fellow vlogger Adam Rude. "It was kind of a dream of mine since seeing the Lodge and similar clubs open. I had the opportunity thanks to Adam Rude," Vaughan said.
"I jumped at the opportunity, and when we needed a lot more help with operations, decided to move over there and help out."
Vaughan admits he rarely gets to play poker anymore with his job, but he decided to make the trip to Caesars Southern Indiana this week. It's already been a successful week, as he finished in 10th place in the PokerNews PowerStack event. He jumped into Day 1b of the $800 Main Event late in the day, andn immediately found a double up in a preflop race. He then doubled right before the break when he picked up kings.
"I definitely can't complain about the main. I thought about not even playing tonight. I got in and on my second hand, I doubled up, 10s against ace-king. And then maybe two orbits later, I doubled up again with kings about ace-jack. So going about as well as it possibly could," Vaughan said.
Poker is just a hobby for him these days, and that suits him just fine. "Not that much at all. I work a lot. Playing is just a hobby again, which is kind of a weird full circle thing, but I enjoy it," he said.
"RunGood is amazing. I love these types of events. RunGood wasn't as big when I was first coming up in the game, so it wasn't nearby. I only played my first RunGood last year. So I'm excited to be playing more."