For those who have followed us these past 12 months, it has been an incredible year for poker in many ways. However, as always there were shocking stories along the way. Here’s a rundown of the biggest poker scandals 2019.
Biggest Poker Scandals 2019 – Randall Emmett owes ‘Fofty’ a cool $1million
Randall Emmett may not be the best poker player to have emerged from the celebrity scene, but he is often the loudest.
That backfired spectacularly when it was revealed – at the poker table no less – that he owed rapper 50Cent a cool $million, and it led to a new word making its way into the lexicon…
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) April 27, 2019
The Hollywood producer may be a braggart at the poker table. But he proved to be less confident when facing an irate rapper chasing him for money.
Biggest Poker Scandals 2019 – Eli Elezra deep in debt
Israeli pro Eli Elezra has been a legend of the game for as long as most can remember. The High Stakes Poker regular even finally saw his life story in print this year.
The launch of his book – ‘Pulling the Trigger’–opened up a real can of worms, however, when it transpired that he owed Abe Mosseri, Cole South, and Shaun Deeb massive chunks of money.
His 2plus2 poker forum AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) was quickly pulled. Elezra just as rapidly disappeared from an increasingly embarrassing tale of unpaid debts.
Biggest Poker Scandals 2019 – Phil Ivey chased for his WSOP winnings
The fine line between scandal and shocking story centered around Phil Ivey this summer, the legendary pro losing out on his WSOP winnings when lawyers for the Borgata showed up at the Rio, legal writ in hand.
They were chasing Ivey’s earnings following his long-running edge-sorting saga, and the $124k that Ivey won by finishing 8th in the Poker Players Championship this summer was a nice starter.
If that wasn’t embarrassment enough for the man who was once reputed to be worth $100million, a countersuit was launched with some stunning information.
‘Jungleman’ Dan Cates and high stakes amateur Ilya Trincher claimed that they paid Ivey’s buy-in. Therefore, a slice of his earnings ought to go to them too.
A couple of months later and more surprising news emerged – Ivey had sold his Summerlin condo for $1.35million late last year.
Fellow Bobby’s Room regulars were heard worriedly whispering about Ivey, but the legend bounced back recently with some excellent Short Deck results. Where Ivey’s money came from or goes, could provide plenty of column inches in 2020.
Biggest Poker Scandals 2019 – Ken Strauss shocks the WSOP
Perhaps the saddest of all the shocking tales to emerge in 2019 was the Ken Strauss saga.
Strauss, a poker-loving rec from Pittsburgh, stunned the Main Event with his now-infamous dick-flash routine, throwing a shoe on the table and generally exhibiting bizarre behavior.
Just happened at the WSOP Main Event. (Drunk?) dude all in blind preflop (full stack) level one. Tables his hand early. Takes shoe off and throws it at a dealer / player in the tank.
Who throws a shoe?
(Hilarious, but not great for the game…)🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ cc @RemkoRinkema @Kevmath pic.twitter.com/PHMf6dI4aZ
— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 5, 2019
His DQ from the WSOP’s flagship tournament was far from the end of matters. Strauss repeated the behavior at the nearby Luxor and later issuing Twitter threats against Vegas casinos.
When police finally caught up with him, Strauss was facing terrorism charges and later declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, confined by the judge to an institution indeterminately.
Postlegate – the biggest scandal in live poker history
It was a story that we hoped poker might never see. A scandal that had the entire poker community working together to provide evidence that players were cheating right under their noses.
Mike Postle was the man at the center of the storm, outed by Veronica Brill and accused of using hidden technology during the streamed Stones Live Poker cash game in Sacramento.
It is the biggest scandal in the history of the live game. Rivaled only by the Potripper scandal in the online world, with many parallels between the two.
Every day seemed to bring a new allegation or piece of evidence to light – every blow of the investigation detailed for you here– and the community-led probe into Postle’s actions eventually led to a $30million lawsuit being brought on behalf of dozens of players.
That is ongoing, but here’s our analysis of what is likely to happen to Postle if he is found guilty.
So, a 2019 to remember in many ways. But the poker community will be hoping that 2020 has rather fewer stories of the kind we’ve seen above.
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