Boards went into overdrive yesterday morning when a very dramatic thread was started by Gholimoli with the heading being "Warning: all live Irish poker players must read this". Within this thread Gholimoli made the point that he was very close to being "cheated" out of a €3,000 euro pot on one of the cash tables at the EPT in the RDS.
The other player involved in the hand was Gordon whos user name is "trippie" on boards. This is roughly what happened in the hand. Please excuse any errors as this is relayed completely through memory. Basically Gordon (when asked) deliberately announced the wrong hand while the turn and river cards were being dealt and both players were practically all-in less €400. In this case, Gordon announced "straight", when in actual fact he only had bottom two pair. By announcing the wrong hand, he hoped his opponent would muck his hand which Gordon knew full well was ahead. Gordon maintains this is standard live play or "angle shooting" and apparently is to be expected in live cash games.
Following a ruling, gholimoli was allowed turn over his hand. His hand had been folded, face down and over the line but according to the table of players, was nowhere near the other cards ie the muck. Gordon argued that the winning hand of KK775 was in fact dead and that the pot was his. Gholimoli was awarded the pot.
The thread sparked outrage amongst the poker community with every tom dick and anonymous man giving their 2c. The thread was left open for Gordon to respond and closed immediately afterwards. Gordon's response (I believe) was vague and dubious as he harped on his reputation being damaged. I was disappointed with his response and feel he could have answered the allegations better. I would like to see him clear the air somewhat with an open and frank apology which people could read for themselves.
At this point I propose a Q&A session with Gordon this afternoon on this blog to answer some of the burning questions which were left behind.
Feel free to post a question for Gordon here:
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8 comments:
Hey Gary,
I know Gordon is a friend/acquaintance of yours and therefore you are trying to give him a dig out in terms of his tarnished reputation following the incident at the RDS but for me this all hinges on how you view what he did.
The major facts are not in dispute.
Having a Q&A isn't going to change my view on the matter.
You either view "angle shooting" and deliberately misdeclaring your hand to try and take a 3k pot as acceptable or you don't.
For me it's unacceptable.
As for then arguing for 10 minutes to try and get your opponents hand declared dead following your angle shoot - Well thats acting the pr1ck and should be acknowledged as being indefensible.
Bullshit about apologies or taking defamation cases over loss of earnings is a smoke screen that I personally don't give a fuck about and neither deosn't any poker player I've spoken to about the incident.
My question to Gordon is fairly simple.
"If the ruling had been made that Gholi's hand was dead would Gordon have returned the pot to Gholi following his own admission of his "disgraceful behaviour" at this stage?"
Regards
Olly
I have to say Gordon was a but taken aback by the whole thing yesterday and understandably so.
The entire thing comes down to how you view angle shooting.
In my opinion Gholi was way over the line in calling Gordon a cheater as nothing Gordon did was outside the rules.
Gordon was not threatening a legal action, simply pointing out how very serious an allegation Gholi was making, with some people equating his actions to attempted robbery.
Personally I think there is a serious case for "he without sin cast the first stone" here. Am I to believe that NOBODY in the Dublin poker scene before Gordon, and least of all the Halo-clad members of Boards.ie, ever tried something they knew was a little out of order to win a pot?
So funny to see Trippie's friends trying to make this out to be nothing. I wouldnt dream of mis-declaring a hand on purpose, its disgusting behaviour and inexcusable. It would only be done by a classless individual. Also i would not be inclined to play at a table with a guy who is drunk and/or on drugs. It makes it worse that Trippie and his friends are trying to defend his actions.
If it was me and my hand was ruled dead and he flipped over two pair instead of a straight it would take a lot of security to drag me off him.
I agree with mdwexford. This type of this is inexcusable and it should not be tolerated in poker.
However, I would urge people not to formulate outright opinions of Gordon based on this one thing.
mdwexford: get a clue. First off of course Gordon's friends are going to defend him. Secondly, Gordon ahs already admitted his actions were disgraceful.
I also think it would be idiotic to say we are making it out as nothing, Gary has admitted he felt Gordon should make a proper apology and I agree with him.
However, Gordon was backed very quickly into a corner and are you saying you would do otherwise than try and defend yourself?
Funny 4 percent in your last post i see nothing resembling saying he was wrong. It looks like you're blaming Eshan and boards and everyone else you can find except your mate.
The difference is i would never find myself in this situation. But if i was Gordon i would be issuing grovelling apologies asap to Gholi and the rest of the people he plays with regularly or they might not be so eager to sit at a poker table with him again which im sure he doesnt want.
Anyway ive said what i think, end of story as far as im concerned.
Mdwexford: I have in a number of places said he was wrong, not least my final post in the ethics thread on boards.
I am not going to write a blog on this because I think there has been enough said on it already.
As for Eshan, he did absolutely nothing wrong in the RDS, not a single thing. In fact I hear he composed himself very well from a number of people given his obvious feelings on this.
I do not think, however, that posting on a public forum under the title of "CHEATER" was very smart on his part and he should not have done it. Asking for opinions on what happened: fine. Writing a post designed to destroy a players reputation: completely out of order.
I am not saying he was wrong to post the situation, I am saying the way he did it was very ill-advised.
I was one of the people who was trying to get the lynch mob to back off a bit yesterday and give Trippie a chance to answer.
The way he answered smacked of arrogance to be honost and I feel that he needs to seriously review what he thinks is acceptable behaviour or "angle shooting" as he quaintly puts it.
declaring a wrong hand when all the money goes in the middle to try and get your opponent to fold his hand is bad enough but to then try and get your opponents hand declared dead is disgusting, and underhanded (i don't care how much drink or other substances were involved)
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