It’s not often that Isaac ‘Ike’ Haxton finds himself at the centre of a Twitter spat, but the highstakes crusher’s views on poker vloggers filming at the table saw him front and centre of a mild backlash this week…
No, please don’t do this. Playing with people who are dividing their attention between the game and the content they’re creating is unpleasant and cameras have no business anywhere near a live poker hand. https://t.co/cACBC4JvfZ
— Isaac Haxton (@ikepoker) 22 February 2019
The tweet above saw Haxton come under fire for opposing what many see as one of the best drivers of poker’s reincarnation in recent years. Vloggers such as Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen and Jeff Boski have contributed hugely to poker’s recent surge in popularity with their fly-on-the-wall casino content.
Haxton, it appeared, found their means unpleasant, but he was fighting a losing battle…
This has zero effect on you. You play high stakes cash and 40 person tournies vs the same people. This is the only thing that is growing the game in the US right now. These are special events organized with signs posted everywhere. Horrible take.
— Richard Parker (@UPSPWNAGE) 22 February 2019
…the afore-mentioned Neeme also entering the vlogging fray – although by Twitter standards it was a very polite debate!
YES whose dumb idea was the hole-card camera??
Jokes aside, there are currently 160 people on the interest list for an upcoming game me and another vlogger are hosting. It seems unlikely it’d be because we’re unpleasant to play with. Maybe you can come to one sometime in Vegas?
— Andrew Neeme (@andrewneeme) 22 February 2019
Gentle Twitter slapdowns…
Ike Haxton is not only one of the best players in the world; he also gained huge respect when he spoke out about PokerStars SNE theft back in 2016. This is probably why those who opposed his anti-filming views on Twitter didn’t take the usual ‘baseball bat’ approach to him.
As it turned out, both sides of the debate (i.e. Haxton versus the rest of the poker community) were arguing at cross-purposes. Unaware that poker vlogger ‘meets’ were even a thing, Ike was soon back to qualify his initial statement…
I guess I should amend this a little. I wasn’t aware meet up games were a thing. If you’re hosting a game and people are turning up specifically to play with you, that’s great. In that context, record whatever you want.
— Isaac Haxton (@ikepoker) 22 February 2019
The Law is on my side…
Ike wasn’t quite alone in battling his corner, though, with Aria Casino Director of Poker Operations, Sean McCormack popping in to let everyone know that filming hole cards is actually illegal!
I’m a fan of vlogs but this cant happen. Filming live hole cards is not only against gaming commission boards but also its illegal to film guests without their consent. I realize people will say they don’t film faces, but filming audio is equally as bad. Player privacy first. https://t.co/6Mp3ZcnbPu
— Sean McCormack (@ThePokerBoss) 22 February 2019
…but Greg Merson certainly isn’t
Sharing his industry knowledge and experience led to a brief contretemps with former WSOP main Event winner Greg Merson – the argument going off on a tangent, related to Merson’s disgust at ‘private’ games being hosted in public casinos…
You might be the most delusional poker room manage on the planet
— Greg Merson (@GregMerson) 22 February 2019
Pros and cons
Back to the main issue at hand – filming poker hands live – and it the discussion started to centre around ‘how’ rather than ‘yes/no’, most agree that there are many positives to the vlogs and some way of making it legal would probably be a good thing.
Top vloggers have gone out of their way to adhere to sometimes archaic casino rules, granted they were born out of the old ‘ask for forgiveness not permission’ notion. I think the argument is to open a dialogue and find mutually agreeable parameters. Then write them down.
— Michael Loekle (@MikeLoekle) 22 February 2019
Poker rooms should have zones or tables where it is allowed and clearly explain it to all customers. If a customer isn’t happy with it, he can go somewhere else. Chances are, it will actually draw players.
— Tintin_poker (@TintinPoker) 22 February 2019
Incredibly for Twitter’s poker community, a positive debate had sprung up. Had it been Daniel Negreanu or Doug Polk instead of Ike and Sean, it would likely have descended into a slanging match, ending in red (or perhaps black) faces for those involved.
Although Ike was persuaded that the vlog meets were a legitimate reason and arena for filming, he still wasn’t convinced it should be allowed otherwise, but as always there is a meme (or a Neeme) to counter everything…
— MoikeAA (@m_a_627) 22 February 2019
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