PokerStars veteran Terrence Chan has lashed out at PokerShares founder Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald. He claimed that the wrong odds were given for the upcoming Bill Perkins-Landon Tice heads-up ‘Match for Soulz’…
Yesterday I’m scrolling Twitter and Mike RTs the pictured tweet. I go for the clickbait, and click through to see that indeed this is the bet they have. pic.twitter.com/LbxvBMN1b9
— Terrence Chan (@tchanpoker) February 8, 2021
Terrence Chan likes the odds
The poker pro turned MMA fighter, who started off life as head of the customer service team for PokerStars back at the height of the poker boom, decided those odds were too good to turn down.
After firing off several bets on Tice, however, he was emailed explaining that there were limits. His extra bets were then being cancelled by PokerShares.
Terrence Chan claims that it was only at this point did he discover that Tice was in fact giving Perkins a $720,000 head start, and the published odds reflected that.
That’s when the Canadian pro and his fellow countryman and supposed friend, Mike McDonald, came to verbal blows. The “Bank of Timex” kicked things off by asking Terrence Chan, “Are you dumb?” and it all went downhill from there.
Almost immediately I get a private message from @mikemcdonald89, and our conversation is as follows. Note that this isn’t trimmed at all; the first words of this conversation are in fact, “are you dumb?” pic.twitter.com/bik841rHEn
— Terrence Chan (@tchanpoker) February 8, 2021
Chan vs McDonald
Terrence Chan claimed that the least McDonald and his PokerShares company could do was to honor the bet, claiming that it was their fault the terms of the match weren’t made explicitly clear.
“I’m obviously aware that Pokershares have a right to cancel my bet. But as I see it, they’re just plain wrong here,” he stated in what became a lengthy Twitter storm.
“If you run a business and fuck up, you own it and you bite it. **Especially** in this business where reputation and service matter. You’re the house.”
Those tweets included explaining: “I’m old school. Everything I learned about this business is from Isai Scheinberg, a guy who would give players the best of it even when *they* screwed up, much less when *we* screwed up. Isai would give people back $1000 SNG buyins because they fell asleep and forgot to unreg!”
And then it was time to have another pop at his supposed ‘friend’: “Timex otoh, is unwilling to own his peoples’ mistakes, and calls me names and insults *my* integrity for … placing a bet? A 1k bet that means little to me and less to him?”
McDonald hit back, unwilling to accept Terrence Chan’s version, refusing to go to arbitration, and claiming that he was being ‘angleshot’…
20k to a charity of your choice if you show those screenshots of your 3 convos with friends and it clearly confirms you weren't pushing an angle https://t.co/ag3YqTZVKB
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) February 9, 2021
…following it up with more tweets that only ensured the Twitter spat would stay top of the day’s poker headlines…
Your bets were placed minutes after the 9BB comment from your friend. And once again you've cropped a screenshot. The one you cropped earlier today was highly misrepresentative so one can only guess as to what was said here.
And that's 1 convo out of 3
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) February 9, 2021
Several other pros get involved
The argument certainly drew in a number of well-known poker names, and their views on who was right and why were quite varied…
- 1) „challenge“ includes the terms for me but should be clarified for people less familiar with the matter, I’d side with PS here 2) mikes communication seems offensive, I assume the incident emotionalized him 3) as a friend I’d text him that I think one of his lines is off – Fedor Holz, highstakes legend
- “Wording is definitely ambiguous. What if someone saw this and bet on it without knowing the tweeted terms of the 9BB/100 rebate? Timex should probably eat this one. Still, this has the appearance of Terrence angling his friend’s book, which is not a good look. Bad all around. – Todd Witteles, PokerFraudAlert founder
- “Not sure why I feel like responding to this message, but I think you are making a pretty big fool out of yourself. I don’t know @MikeMcDonald89 personally and I would respond exactly the same if I was in his position. – venividi1993, anonymous highstakes online grinder
Who’s right?
- “Seems pretty obvious the bet is on the challenge winner, so the handicap is included. Either way, if you consider Mike a friend of 20 years, why not message him first to clarify instead of repeatedly clicking max to try and snipe some EV in what u hope to be a loophole – Daniel Colman, highstakes pro
- “Wait WTF is everyone talking about that HU challenge insinuates 9bb/100? Mike makes and changes lines for a living. This is like posting “Superbowl Tampa vs KC” And then posting -109 and expecting people to know that the line is -3 because DYOR? Or am i thinking of this wrong? – Patrick Serda, WPT & EPT champion
Whether the pair will kiss and make-up or not, it does make clear that when it comes to betting and money, you can never be too careful what you offer and how you offer it.
As for the upcoming Bill Perkins-Landon Tice heads-up ‘Match for Soulz’, you can check out all the details right here on VIP Grinders…
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