Ethan "Rampage" Yau has turned his love of Pokémon into a seven-figure-sized talking point: he has sold a rare Pokémon card for a staggering $700,000, and it was the headline story of episode #1,006 of the PokerNews Podcast.
- Rampage sold a rare Pokémon card for $700,000.
- Back in February he had paid $340,000 for a PSA 10 Rayquaza EX Deoxys Gold Star — one of only 47 in existence.
- Hosts Chad Holloway and Mike Holtz were joined by Nikki Limo at Level 9 Studio in Las Vegas.
- Also on the agenda: the WSOP's bad AI, the Queens & Cards festival, Triton Jeju and Jacob Long's MSPT Main Event title.
- Episode #1,006 was released on September 10, 2026.
From $340K Purchase to $700K Sale
Rampage's move into high-end collectibles has been one of the stranger subplots of his poker year. In February, the vlogger-turned-high-stakes regular revealed on X that he had spent $340,000 on a 2005 Pokémon Rayquaza EX Deoxys Holo Gold Star graded PSA 10 Gem Mint — a card with only 47 PSA 10 copies in the world. The previous public sale of that card in the same grade, in October 2022, had gone for just $34,200.
At the time, Rampage insisted the purchase was about personal growth rather than profit. He described getting "hooked" on the franchise he loved as a kid and said the card would stay in his personal collection whether the price went up or down.
"There are only 47 of these cards in the world and the demand seems higher than ever for high end collectibles. Sadly this one is now off the market, whether price goes up or down doesn't matter to me."
— Ethan "Rampage" Yau, February 2026
Seven months on, Rampage has now sold a rare Pokémon card for $700,000 — a figure that got the PokerNews Podcast crew talking. Neither the podcast summary nor other reports have publicly confirmed which card changed hands or who the buyer was, so it remains unclear whether this was the Rayquaza Gold Star or another piece from his growing collection.
The Rest of Episode #1,006
Holloway and Holtz were joined in the studio by Nikki Limo, who was back on the show after appearing at the Champions Club Queens & Cards festival alongside Phil Hellmuth. The trio also took aim at some bad AI-generated imagery from the World Series of Poker, and shared a WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star update involving the podcast crew.
Elsewhere in the episode:
- Mike Holtz is heading to Texas for the WSOP Circuit stop at TCH.
- The Triton Poker Series in Jeju was underway at the time of recording.
- Jacob Long finally captured a long-overdue Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Main Event title.
- The PokerNews Podcast is heading to the Bahamas, and listeners have a chance to win a book autographed by author Michael Kaplan.
The episode, sponsored by 888poker, is available on YouTube as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and SoundCloud.
