One of the best characters to emerge from the last 20 years of poker is Allen Kessler. Known as ‘Chainsaw’, the Vegas resident is one of the most passionate players in the game and has enjoyed a lifetime of success in poker.
After enjoying a winning series in Las Vegas during the 2026 WSOP, Allen hosted the Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker, where he welcomed more mixed-game players than ever to Sin City players games under the CMSOP banner.
We caught up with Allen to find out how successful the series was and where he sees poker developing in the remainder of the year. It turns out that poker’s ‘crazy professor’ might just have the most sensible solutions.
The Host with the Most
Taking place over eight days at the tail-end of August, the 2026 Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker welcomed more players than ever to its home at the Caesars Palace poker room, with events in H.O.R.S.E., Omaha 8 or Better, Stud 8 or Better, OE, 5-Way Limit Triple Draw, Big O, 2-7 Triple Draw and the T.O.R.S.E. Championship all filling the tables. Allen tells us he considers the series a resounding success.
Our numbers weren’t spectacular but pretty much matched what other competitors were drawing for mixed events this year. Players were very pleased with the structures, the Player of the Series race and especially the trophies.
The Chainsaw MSOP is developing nicely but is still in its infancy. With other series in Las Vegas, such as the CardPlayer Lifestyle Mixed Games Series, what does Allen think makes the CMSOP so unique?
The structure and trophies make my series unique, says Allen. We give players a lot more play throughout each event. Our final tables were coming in with a lot more big bets as an average stack than competing events at other Vegas venues.
Also, if a player runs bad early, there is extra leeway to make a comeback and thrive, rather than just be eliminated.
Having deeper structures than many Vegas tournaments, especially in mixed games, is growing Allen’s CMSOP fanbase, and regulars have returned to the series for that very reason.
I had several players comment on how deep the structures were, and that they came back from some bad beats to a reasonable stack, where in a competing event with shallower structure they would have just been eliminated or forced to rebuy.
We have been contacted by several venues across the country to bring our series to them. Borgata [in Atlantic City] is upcoming and possibly a venue in Texas.
A Deep Love of Mixed Games
Allen loves all mixed games but has a couple that he enjoys more than most and had a part in each of them being developed to the stage that they are.
I started a five-way triple draw concept, and it’s really caught on. I enjoy that as well as T.O.R.S.E., which I also introduced.
There was an absence of No Limit Hold’em events on the schedule, and Allen references solvers in discussing why he no longer favors the most popular game variant in poker.
I don’t enjoy No Limit any longer because it’s studied to death and literally a solved game, he says. Mixed games are far more complicated and much more difficult to solve. There are also live elements in hands that come up and require a lot more analysis than No Limit.
Allen reflects on a profitable summer during which he cashed 11 times for over $250,000, selling pieces of his action on PokerStake. Edging him to the brink of $5 million in live tournament earnings, the summer’s abiding memories of the series were actually when things went wrong for him.
I had my first successful WSOP in several years. The key memories I have are pivotal hands three-handed in the $10k Stud Championship event and four-handed in the $2,500 Mixed Draw where I could have easily won my first bracelet had they gone differently.
Poker’s Mixed Future
Discussing poker in a more general sense reveals the beating heart of Allen Kessler, and that is the care he has for the game and the community who play it. His ‘Chainsaw’ alter-ego might come across as a curmudgeonly character, but the reality is that he really does care about poker’s future. It is one that he sees having to deal with the solved nature of No Limit Hold’em.
It’s actually a shame how solved No Limit has become. With the proper amount of study, it’s possible to master most situations – that’s why I prefer mixed games. There are so many different games and nuances to each game that make it far more interesting to play… and way less solved.
Allen has been in the game long enough to appreciate that history remembers the entertaining characters as much as champions. Acknowledging that his own personality guarantees poker immortality might be beyond his natural modesty, but he is a considered fan of two of his peers.
Phil Hellmuth and DNegs are two I really enjoy watching, he says. I know both pretty well, and neither is a tanker or plays by solver rules. They each have their own style, and it works for them. They’re a pleasure to watch.
How To Improve the Vegas Experience
Las Vegas tournaments change all the time, and Allen has been around long enough to know that fashions and trends dictate much of the landscape. He would certainly make a couple of changes to venues around him given the chance.
More mixed events – there aren’t very many mixed events throughout the year at either The Venetian, ARIA, or The Bellagio. I wish all Vegas venues would follow The Orleans lead and run mixed events almost every day.
Allen is an aficionado of Vegas’ long and storied history and sees poker as a key part of the city’s charm. He believes that keeping poker fun to play is key to the game’s importance as part of the gambling fabric of Las Vegas.
Let people play. The Vegas Strip has become much less enjoyable for me lately, as most of the mixed events have gone to faster structures: double up early or go home. That’s exactly the opposite of my philosophy on my series. I prefer deep play throughout.
Allen believes that many casinos have an attitude of ‘This is how we do it and we’re not changing’. He has seen it across multiple locations and considers a resistance to change as ‘unacceptable’.
Recently a T.O.R.S.E. final table started seven-handed, which is fairly standard. The first game drawn was Omaha 8. I told the floor we need to play seven hands of each game until someone busts, or a player gets a free pass on posting the big blind. They shook their head and said, “Nope, we’ve always done it this way,” and they wouldn’t even discuss it further.
With Allen Kessler as passionate about the game as ever, poker is in safe hands. Chainsaw may appear as sharp as ever at the felt, but away from the poker table, he’s desperate to spread the love of the game as far and wide as he can… and in every different format imaginable.
