Boston Rob Shares Story of Costa Rica Poker Raid w/ Daniel Negreanu & Cheryl Hines

Life Outside Poker is a new podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.

In the 21st episode, Connor speaks with Survivor legend Boston Rob, aka Rob Mariano, about growing up near Fenway Park, learning poker at the age of 6, studying psychology at Boston University, applying for Survivor and winning Season 22, his recent appearance on Deal or No Deal Island and filming an upcoming season of The Traitors.

Boston Rob also revealed a story about Costa Rican authorities raiding a mansion known to host high-stakes poker games during a 2006 filming that included Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh, David Williams, Michael Mizrachi and actress Cheryl Hines.

"Calvin had a big party at the house, and they came in guns drawn," he said. "And we were fine, but we all had to stay at the party until they checked our passports and everything. I think it was a little bit of a shakedown. But we had a good weekend."

This interview was filmed at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) festival at Resorts World Las Vegas.

The Life Outside Poker podcast is available on major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud and iHeartRadio. You can also watch the interview with Boston Rob by heading to the PokerNews YouTube channel.

Be sure to follow Boston Rob and Connor Richards on X.

Learn More About Life Outside Poker!

Time Stamps

TIME TOPIC 0:00 Intro 0:49 Growing up in Boston 2:12 Studying psychology at Boston University 5:25 Learning poker at age 6 7:18 Poker game raided by Costa Rican Federales 8:54 Balancing skill & luck 10:34 Playing poker with celebrities 13:34 RunGood Poker Series 15:51 Boston Rob cook book 19:07 Survivor & reality TV 25:34 Other poker players on Survivor 26:12 Deal of No Deal Island 30:26 Traitors 33:50 NAPT Las Vegas 34:49 Book recommendation 36:08 Advice for younger self 36:54 Favorite life lesson from poker