Nick Rigby Loves Spending Another Day at The Office
With deep runs in the 2021 and 2023 WSOP Main Event, Nick Rigby has found that he loves being under the bright lights of the feature table.
Hockey fans of a certain vintage will gleefully explain to you why the area behind the opposing teams net was referred to as Wayne Gretzky’s Office. Anytime ‘The Great One’ was back there with the puck, teammates, opposition, and fans knew that he was in his element and about to make magic.
Nobody will mistake affable 38-year-old poker pro Nick Rigby for Wayne Gretzky. And if they did, the Pittsburgh native might be a little bit insulted considering he grew up when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were the dominant forces for his hometown Penguins.
That being said, he does have a place where he’s more comfortable than most others that allows him to make his own kind of magic.
Those who may have paid less attention to the World Series of Poker Main Event when it was on CBS Sports over the last five years might not know who Rigby is, or what the ‘Dirty Diaper’ is, but those watching the Day 1B livestream, got a tiny taste of one of the CBS Sports era’s most endearing characters.
In 2021, a pre-poker-pro version of Rigby was waiting for some paperwork to make its way through the red tape that comes with a government job when a few of his buddies put together $10,000 for him to enter the WSOP Main Event. Rigby, one of thousands of hopeful anonymous dreamers playing that year, was used to the size and pace of local tournaments back in Pittsburgh.
“I wasn’t familiar with any of the more well-known players or anything. It was just these guys at my table. And looking back, it’s funny because I didn’t know who Alan Kessler was, but he was at my table on Day 1,” Rigby said.
What happened over the next few days became the stuff of legend. Rigby first caught people’s attention when he started winning hands - multiple hands - with 3-2 offsuit or suited - a hand that he dubbed the ‘dirty diaper’ and was playing to pay homage to his home game. When the PokerGO production team got wind of this, they knew they had to get him on the broadcast.
“I was just naturally so comfortable up at the feature table,” Rigby said. “Jeff Platt and everyone started referring to my rail as the ‘Rigby Rail’ and it would kind of get rowdy … It created a fun atmosphere.”
His run ended on Day 6 with a 52nd place finish, a $136,100 score. And while that benefitted him, and his friends who raised the stake, poker had found a new character that prioritized having fun while playing and making sure those around him were enjoying the experience too. It’s something Rigby takes from another Yinzer who has had a good deal of WSOP success.
“Poker’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be a social game. Dewey Tomko, he’s actually a Pittsburgh guy … and I’ve seen the interviews he’s done before and he said he’s saddened because poker isn’t what it once was,” Rigby said. “You don’t want everyone sitting there, hoodies stretched up covering their mouth, wearing sunglasses. You want that social atmosphere where you’re talking with one another.”
The WSOP has a long history of finding shiny new characters during the Main Event who grab chips, headlines, and the poker world’s attention one year only to disappear into the mythology of the event itself before re-appearing in a ‘Where Are They Now’ article some 10 years later. Two years later, Rigby had a Day 1 performance that made it impossible to not put him back on TV. He finished Day 1D as the chipleader and spent a lot of time on the stream over the days that followed before he busted out in 131st spot for $67,700.
“I think they were just excited to have me in 2023 up on the stage every day. It creates an interesting dynamic because a lot of people are obviously a little nervous just because it’s the Main Event and every morning I was like, ‘Oh, what do I get to wear on TV today?’,” Rigby said. “It helped that I had a lot of good friends that would come to support me. They would chuck High Noons at me over the rail. I would chug them or shotgun them.”
“I think all that just creates a fun atmosphere for the fans that are watching at home because you almost become like a showman at that point and you just want to put on a show and have a good time.”
So when Rigby showed up for Day 1B of the 2026 WSOP Main Event he expected to be on the radar of ESPN producers. The Rigby magic, combined with the reputation he now has following 2021 and 2023 performances, allowed him to build up a decent stack through the first few levels of play and eventually, ESPN cameras began circling his table.
“We ran well for a few more orbits and I touched 150,000 and next thing you know, everyone at the table was getting clipboards and I jokingly texted my buddies and said, ‘It’s time to go to my office’,” Rigby said.
The clipboards are for filling out player bio sheets and his office isn’t a patch of ice in a hockey rink, but the livestream feature table, which might just be Rigby’ favorite place to play cards.
“I honestly get really excited. I have a blast playing on the feature table,” Rigby said. He is so used to playing on the livestream, that he helped at least one of his tablemates navigate the paperwork side of the experience.
“There was a young Japanese fellow to my immediate left. He didn’t speak English. Before we went to the future table, he was using the translator and he didn’t really understand why we’re getting clipboards and everything and I was kind of helping him fill out his paperwork,” RIgby said. “And once he realized, he’s like, ‘I like to stand out. I’m really excited for this moment’.”
That player, Keiichiro Sugimoto, messaged Rigby the next morning to thank him for helping him out. Rigby came to the feature table with 141,200 chips and had plans to take advantage of his tablemates and steamroll them on the way to another Day 1 chip lead. It didn’t quite pan out that way though and he finished the day with 75,700.
None of this is to say that Rigby doesn’t take playing the Main Event, or any poker, seriously. He looks back at the 2023 run and wishes he would have done a few things differently and ultimately finished much higher, but his playing style is part of what allows him to build stacks and ultimately have success.
“Anytime I lose hands, I do let it get to me a little bit. I’m not going to necessarily just kind of punt them off, but I’m going to get in spots where I’m going to be a little bit more aggressive and kind of getting tricky,” Rigby said. “I’m going to put myself in a bad spot with cards I shouldn’t be playing and I know that, and I think over the course of the last three years, since 2023, I’ve polished my game a lot better.“