2025 FPN Desert Dash-for-Cash National Championship

FPN Main Event
Day: 1
Event Info

2025 FPN Desert Dash-for-Cash National Championship

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k5
Prize
$25,000
Event Info
Prize Pool
$100,000
Entries
404
Level Info
Level
24
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
600,000
Players Info - Day 1
Entries
404
Players Left
1

Music Icon & Bracelet Winner Steve Albini's Death Puts Fabled 20-Year Poker Home Game on Pause

Level 5 : Blinds 500/1,000, 0 ante
Steve Albini
Steve Albini

The death of musician, recording engineer and poker player Steve Albini hit the music world with a force like that of the incendiary device aimed at Earth pictured on Big Black's 1986 debut album Atomizer. It may have hit one group of Chicago poker players the hardest.

Albini, a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner who recorded landmark works by bands like Nirvana and Pixies and who The New York Times described as "one of the most admired, and most divisive, figures in rock," was a key figure in a friend group that bonded, joked and supported one another over the poker table. For 20 years, they played in a weekly low-stakes Chicago home game often held in Electrical Audio that included bracelet winners like Jason Gola, Eric Rodawig and Brian Hastings. Now, the game is on hiatus after Albini's death in May as the group of poker pros, musicians and audio engineers adapts to a world without its figurehead.

PokerNews spoke with two of Albini's closest friends who were regulars in the game, Brandon Shack-Harris and Andrew Kosinski.

Read More About Albini's Home Game on PokerNews

Tags: Andrew KosinskiBrandon Shack-HarrisBrian HastingsEric RodawigJason GolaSteve Albini