Darvin Moon Signed Sponsor-resistant November Niner selling out to Heartland Poker Tour?
Darvin Moon stood out among the ’09 November Nine not for the play that got him 2nd place (and $5.2 million) … but because he stood alone. The logger who had never been on a “big airplane” before the WSOP refused to accept upwards of a half million dollars to simply wear a patch for the likes of Full Tilt, PokerStars, or anyone else … because, basically he didn’t wanna be anyone’s bitch. (I’m paraphrasing, of course.)
But soon to be announced and official, the hapless poker multimillionaire from western Maryland has apparently caved — signing a deal with the Heartland Poker Tour to serve as their “ambassador” and wear HPT gear in all tourneys, including the WSOP.
This comes from a plenty reliable source; however, said source would not confirm (nor deny!) that Darvin Moon is near-broke and thus rethinking his aversion to wearing poker-related patches … but did confirm that no poker agents were involved in signing the agreement.
Moon, of course, was the unsignable runner-up at the 2009 WSOP … making him pretty much the opposite of Dennis Phillips, and the only November Niner ever not to be patched up at the main event final table. He also snubbed the WSOP this past November by turning down repeated invitations to be part of 2010 November Nine festivities in Las Vegas, opting instead to play a $1k HPT event at the Meskwaki Casino Bingo Hotel in Tama, Iowa.
One of my favorite fights with Katkin is on the value of Darvin Moon as a sponsored player. I dig the dude as a character … and consider him good for … nay, great extra=solid for poker — while Katkin (clearly stuck in his ’06-’07ish glory-days poker-world mindset) I think believes his donk play and non-pro, non-online nature make him the wrong guy for the WSOP to celebrate in their commercials. To which I say … hater.
Katkin says:
March 9th, 2011 at 8:33pm
I have nothing against Moon’s non-online nature. I do, however, think he’s a massive luckbox (a la Jerry Yang) and that his good ‘ol boy, aw shucks, I’m just gonna sip on some moonshine persona is a horrible image for a brand like the WSOP.
I don’t mean to say there’s nothing wrong with having a regular guy as a face of your brand, but if you ask me, someone like Steve Dannenman would be a much better ambassador.
Katkin says:
March 9th, 2011 at 8:35pm
***edit***
Of course, I meant to say I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a regular guy as the face of your brand. Damn that typing dyslexia.
Jordan says:
March 9th, 2011 at 9:12pm
I thought Darvin didn’t want to sign a deal because he didn’t play online and didn’t feel comfortable endorsing something he had no experience with. I didn’t think it had to do with being somebody’s bitch at all but I could be wrong.
eaaltonen says:
March 9th, 2011 at 10:42pm
Katkin just sees to much Davin Moon in himself–luckbox, bearded, unsponsored. 😉 However, I wish Katkin the best and hope to hear that he is one day sponsored and supported by the likes of Natalia Nikitina, Tiffany Michelle or Lacey Jones.
Dan Michalski says:
March 10th, 2011 at 1:19am
i accept katkin’s explanation. it had just been too long since i had thrown him under the bus for his wrong beliefs, lol.
Dan Michalski says:
March 10th, 2011 at 1:44am
@jordan … we’ll see what he says. you could be right — though i do think the “working” for someone else when he already had more money than he imagined possible was a big factor.
i do know that Darvin got his first ever email account something like 6 months ago.