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I have a lot of poker fans on TikTok, but have one fan who watches all the poker tables I play on ACR and I stake him sometimes for micro MTTs.
Just had a guy offer to stake me 50% on the $109s and $215s buy ins MTTs on ACR. I usually play lower stakes, but if I went higher, I would rather have all the profits, so unsure on this - will have to think about it. There is a $510K $109 running now and the first place is $79.8K. That would suck to win and have to pay him $40K and who knows how much in taxes. All because I didn't want to pay $55 more bucks for the $109.
RIP, he was a great one. We should all be as lucky as him.
So sick..
He was just as shady as all of them. Listen to some of Dewey tomokos stories.
It was also sick to see how he basically took money from Eli all this years and deluded Eli thought they were good friends. Lose millions to me and I’ll be your friend too.
Not hating, you have to be scummy to survive as a poker pro for all those years, but please don’t pretend he was some honest dude.
I've been reading this book titled "Poker Winners are Different." It was recommended by poker pro Michael Loncar. It has been startling to me. The main premise is using your skills to take advantage of people. Make people give you all their chips. It seems sleazy, but is just psychological warfare. That's why the game is so pure. It is just psychological warfare against others. If you can't keep up, don't play.
Yeah I don't see this as terribly different from normal course stuff in the business world.
hard to explain just how big poker was in the mid 2000s to some younger people who werent old enough then to get into it. But it absolutely was the 'cryptobro' or draft kings pursuit of its time - attracting a lot of people (mostly young men) to think they could make it rich in these major tournaments or online games
Similar to others, I got really into it as well. But when I started transitioning from online games to actual casino games I quickly realized just how low lives all these people are. Not just the pros, but the day to day grinders. They are usually overweight, have several vices, busted family life (if any family at all), and just overall uninteresting. Then more scandals came out among the top pros and just realized that even if you make it in cards your life isn't that desirable
Do fondly miss that 3-4 year stretch though when WSOP was mandatory summer watching and randome poker degenerates were legitimate household names in the sporting world. Dont know if we will see an obscure interest like that become mainstream so quickly anytime soon
I’ve posted before about my foray into the world of high stakes, and playing the famous pros really took the sheen off for me.
I agree that they all had terrible habits and even the ones that were gifted at poker has so many other life leaks. The poker book allowed many of them access to outside cash streams, without that they would have had much less baller lives. To this day, I believe lederer and Jesus Ferguson have never returned the millions they stole. They fact they are still walking around shows just how spineless the poker community is.
Peruse two plus two and it’s littered with stories of people like chino rheem, brad booth and matasow acting scummy. Lindgren is another well known cheat.
And we all know the whole shady business that’s happened on poker streams.
Poker obviously attracts scummy people, but I think it also causes decent people to become scummy. Fast money does that.
But man those early wsop shows on espn were fun. Especially before you learned how scummy these people were. But to be fair, they only grift from people looking to degen so I don’t feel bad about the victims.
Towards the end of my high stakes run, I lost 50k in an underground game in nyc. But how could I cry about it? I willingly played in the game lol.
After blowing about 500k, I stopped playing cold turkey for about 8 years now. But a few months ago, I needed a break and told my wife I wanted an AC trip all alone. She let me go and I only took 20k to limit my losses, since my biggest leak is firing off huge amounts when tired.
I am not kidding, I saw most of the same people still playing the game lol. All looked miserable and tired and overweight. To be fair, it’s impressive they can survive that long playing poker off fishes like me, but it’s not glamour life. Embarrassingly, they all remembered me and how much I punted off that summer. It’s a strange feeling playing in a game where it’s clear you’re the fish, but the casino game is at least more protected than the underground games.
I wish Netflix would make an awesome documentary about the underside of poker. Would be a cool watch.
Historical I don't know exactly what was happening at that time, but it was a mix of fans coming off of professional wrestling and looking for something. Just as the WWF/WWE had this Hulk Hogan, pro poker had its Chris Moneymaker (real name). Guy looked like a slub and apparently somehow got staked into the main event. Basically had the look and the story. I remember poker exploded after this, was on ESPN main, kids my age were playing it everywhere, in school, after school, before school. Then it basically died as fast as it came. Definitely needs a documentary.
The whole scam with Full Tilt poker was also insane.
Chris Moneymaker paid for an $86 satellite to get to a $650 satellite to the main and he won a $10,000 ticket.
"Chris went on to play in the WSOP satellite event with the $650 ticket he won from the initial game. He got down to the last four players and intentionally started losing because he wanted to win a cash prize.
The first three players would win seats at the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas, but the 4th place winner would win $8,000.
Moneymaker wanted that $8,000 to pay off the credit card bill that he often stressed about.
His accountant’s mind told him to go for the guaranteed cash that could drastically change his current financial situation. That sounded a lot wiser than the risky possibility of participating in the tournament and potentially losing it all.
Fortunately, a friend called to encourage him to keep playing his best. His friend told him that participating in the World Series of Poker would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The friend even offered to give him $5,000 in exchange for half of his action. So, Chris decided to change his strategy and focus on winning.
He won first place in the satellite event and earned a $10,000 seat at the WSOP main event. His friend who had offered him $5,000 backed out because he lost the money through his own gambling ventures.
Moneymaker started to panic and regretted his decision to keep playing instead of opting for the guaranteed cash. His father and another friend offered $2,000 each in exchange for 20% of his winnings to convince him not to sell his seat.
So, he asked for time off work and headed to Las Vegas."
The Moneymaker Effect - How Chris Moneymaker Won the 2003 WSOP (gamblingsites.com)
Yea the Moneymaker story wasnt the peak but the initial spark that led to the powder keg going off. He had the name, the backstory, the initial success, everything. This also was when the internet was coming of age but still pre-social media. People were captivated by the idea of online poker and if Chris Moneymaker could do it then hell 'so could I'. Also think that it was the first time you could see peoples cards while playing, televised poker didnt always have that camera, so it was interesting to watch the bluffing and so forth
Poker also filled that summer sports void on espn perfectly. It's during a time there wasnt much on TV, especially for men, and poker was something everyone already had some familiarity with. Was an incredible time and couldve been even bigger if we had todays gambling climate
Rest in peace
One of the greatest. Such a shame to see the godfather go. At least he was still playing up until recently. Got to do what he loves
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