In this week's P.O. Box:

I love the end of the year and taking stock on what went down over the past 365 days, even if it’s a mostly arbitrary window of time.

It’s very easy to move on to the next thing in my neck of the woods with the fantasy football calendar providing a never-ending stream of contests and content fodder, but I like taking a second to reminisce—even in the middle of Cash Game Week.

My year-end lists started literally two decades ago (big time sheesh) with just recapping my favorite music, but has now ballooned to include a highlight video from streams, an April montage, and of course, this P.O. Box round-up.

As I mentioned in the Deposit Kingdom Discord the other day and on X, I’m thankful for everyone I get to collaborate and work with—from co-hosts to producers to editors and everyone in between; as well as all of the awesome people who watch, read, listen, and comment.

Getting to socialize with all of your friends on the internet under the guise of work is something I’ll never take for granted.

Alright, let’s get to the highlights, starting with a slick recap video from all of the 2025 streams and videos:

🍺 We went the full year without drinking any alcohol in the house. I didn’t hit every resolution, but I’m glad I implemented this idea from David. Similar to no phone in the bedroom, this is one I’d like to keep rolling outside of a few very special occasions.

✍ 10 lessons from 10 years making content. Generally my newsletter posts are short and sweet, but I spent a significant amount of time on this retrospective. I’m far from having everything figured out, but I’ve learned what works for me after a lot of iterating over the years and enjoyed sharing with everyone.

🌴 San Diego trip. This was our first vacation with April and my favorite trip in a long time. The combo of the Underdog festivities, having my parents there, and getting to meet up with friends was the perfect blend.

🎉 The Bash was a hit. I remember being on a long solo walk in the cold last February when the Bash idea came to me. I had a blast meeting so many viewers and putting faces to various usernames I had never met before. It also ended up being responsible for my best team in BBM. I’m going to make it bigger and better in 2026.

🧙 The Underdog Masterclass. I spent basically every morning from March to September working on the Underdog DFS Masterclass. It apparently siphoned off all of my own drafting powers in the process, but it was awesome to make some money on a product I helped create (s/o Jon & Nez) while simultaneously helping a bunch of other people have successful seasons on Underdog.

✈ Ship Chasing & Dawg Bowl meet-ups. It’s hard to squeeze in trips during busy season, but drafting weekends like the one we did in Florida with the SC crew in August and the Dawg Bowl live final in KC in December were well worth the busyness. There’s a repetitive element to doing the same shows each week and everything can start to blur together, but these trips always stand out when looking back on the year.

📺 An opportunity on global TV. I still can’t believe this happened, but getting to do a spot on YouTube’s pregame show for the KC/SD game in Brazil was the professional highlight of the year for me. Time for a Derek Carr Randomizer episode I think…

🚢 Another Ship Chaser won $2M in Best Ball Mania. Speaking of things that seem completely impossible, how about another Ship Chasing host—Sam Sherman—winning Best Ball Mania VI for $2M. For the second time in three years, we hosted a sweat show during the final game of the year where a ‘Chaser become a millionaire from a contest with hundreds of thousands of people. Batshit insane.

😻 April, April, April. Every year gets more and more fun with this girl who turned three in December—even if some of her growing up gets me teary-eyed. I love making these annual montages with a bunch of videos we’ve taken of her throughout the year. I’m really looking forward to taking some time off this spring to spend even more time with her.

Previously: 2024 highlights and 2023 highlights.

Alright, here is a list of my favorite music from 2025. I also put together a Spotify playlist with all of the songs listed below. Enjoy…

1. Dijon - Baby ("Rewind")

This album dominated 2025 for me. I love the combo of soulful R&B mixed with fuzzy, indie looseness. I saw one writer describe the sound like "a corrupted Prince mp3." Frank Ocean meets mk.gee is probably my best comp for it—which is fitting since he's pals with mk.gee and that was my No. 1 album from last year. I remember listening to this album on repeat while walking around Venice Beach before doing my YouTube gig—and many, many other times—and it always perfectly hits the spot for me.

2. Geese - Getting Killed ("Husbands")

In most other years, Getting Killed would be my runaway album of the year. It immediately takes me back to the mid-2000s when there was a string of indie rock albums with explosive energy—think Wolf Parade, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah—that completely reshaped my music palate. This album is so fresh with incredible song-to-song variety. Crank it up and then crank it up some more. 

3. Alex G - Headlights ("Afterlife")

Speaking of bridging decades of influences, Alex G's Headlights feels like Mac Demarco doing an Elliott Smith impression. I'm always a sucker for albums like this with lo-fi charm and catchy melodies (Real Estate, Woods, etc.). The whole thing is a delight, but at the very least don't miss the shimmering "Afterlife."

4. Sharp Pins - Radio DDR ("With A Girl Like Mine")

Ok, this one is pure nostalgia porn. Jangly, power-pop gems that feel like they could be outtakes from a Beatles record. If you want to try to win over the boomers in your life with one 2025 album, this is your best shot. 

5. Panda Bear - Sinister Grift ("Defense feat. Cindy Lee")

It's been almost 20 years since Person Pitch was released and, folks, I'm here to say that Noah Lennox still has it. The album's closer—a collab with Cindy Lee that snuck onto last year’s song list—is a perfect track that I've spun way more times than I'd like to admit. 

6. Wet - Two Lives ("Rosy")

Dreamy, ambient pop music and silky smooth vocals. Right up my alley.

7. caroline - caroline 2 ("Total euphoria")

If you like cinematic, post-rock stuff like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, you'll dig this album. It was one of my favorite albums to throw on while writing. 

8. TOPS - Bury the key ("Outstanding in the Rain")

TOPS has put out an album every 3-4 years like clockwork since 2014 and I'm pretty sure every one of them has made my year-end list. It's a change of pace from some of my previous reccs with really slick production. 

9. Wednesday - Bleeds ("Townies")

Fans of Waxahatchee and Big Thief will feel right at home with this shoegaze-meets-country rock album. 

10. Algernon Cadwallader - Trying Not To Have A Thought ("Koyaanisqatsi")

Another nostalgia trip with this emo revival album. It's the perfect punch-up on all of the stuff I was listening to as an angsty teenager.

1. UFOs - "UFO"

2. Darkside - "S.N.C."

3. Blood Orange - "The Field"

4. DJ Koze - "Tu Dime Cuando"

5. james K - "Play"

6. Nourished by Time - "Max Potential"

7. Beirut - "Caspian Tiger"

8. amaaarae - "S.M.O."

9. Sally Shapiro - "The Other Days"

10. deer park, Ivy  Knight - "Pharmacy"

💎 Week 18 Gems: My favorite scroll the eff up plays on Underdog. Against my better judgement I made it free for everyone this week.

⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: Top Plays For The Week 18 Double Up Contest. Scroll the eff up, baby.

🤯 The Best Cash Game Plays ft. Derek Carty. Had to bring in a fellow Cash Game King for this week’s DraftKings slate breakdown.

🔮 FANTASY LIFE: Week 18 Fantasy Football Expert Roundtable: Trey Lance, Quinn Ewers Dynasty Rankings, YOLO Plays and more. Can you believe they asked the Cash Game King a dynasty question?

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Newsletter Roundup. This week in the newsletter we forecasted big year two jumps for two Chicago weapons, looked at three players with plenty on the line in Week 18 and shared four New Year’s Resolutions.

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Week 18 NFL DFS Picks. Good luck figuring out who is in my shell.

☕ POURTFOLIO REVIEW: I’d Be Embarrassed To Win A GPP. Luckily, I don’t have to be embarrassed.

Tonight on After Dark (8pm ET) I’ll be joined by Sammy Reid to talk cash game alpha plays, swap poker stories, and sweat the Niners/Seahawks game…

For After Dark shows, you can become a YT member for access or subscribe on Spotify for a private RSS feed (I post the video/audio there directly after the show).

Then we’ve got the Week 18 Cash Game Cram at 10:30 am ET on Sunday where we will be sharing the top floor plays:

And of course, catch me on the Gillcast live on Sunday night recapping my big, beautiful cash team.

🏃 Book #10 for December (COMPLETED): Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

The barefoot propaganda section of this book was a slog, but the ending with the race was legitimately electric.

I wish the whole book would have focused entirely on stories leading up to the race and fallout after because it’s a marvel that it ever took place.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can do a proper list for my favorite books because there’s only two I really enjoyed cover to cover and they were the first two selections of the year:

💉 Book #2 for March (FINISHED): Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
🐃 Book #1 for February (FINISHED): The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

Be sure to check out Eddie’s list in the Discord, who carried this year’s Book Club on his back. I’m excited to have more time to read with the season winding down. I’ll have a new selection for next week…

Got a question for me? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll get back to you…