Until the last week of November, the poker world seemed to have gotten a little sleepy. For example, in Vegas, there were actually two mixed game festivals running at the same time. Things were so slow on the Strip, the Formula 1 race took a day and a half.
Yes, the NAPT was held at Resorts World, with Gal Yifrach winning the Main Event for $543,025. The 10K High Roller Trophy went to Vitalijs Zavorrontnijs, along with $1,532,600. When he was asked what he was going to do with the money, Zavorrontnijs said, “I’m going to buy some vowels for my name.”
That was about it for excitement. The only thing that passed for a raging controversy on the cesspool formerly known as Twitter was a gentle debate about tournament start times. But then out of nowhere, a pair of controversies hit the Poker world back-to-back, and we went from debating start times to facing End Times.
Controversy Number One – Table Dance
A week before Thanksgiving, a woman named Rose (last name withheld) won a 20 dollar winner-take-all Omaha tournament amongst friends in LA.
She celebrated the victory by jumping up on the final table and doing an admirable rendition of the popular booty dance known as twerking. Her friends joined in the fun by showering her with chips and cards.
Meanwhile, Hustler Casino Live high-stakes player Sashimi gave us all something to be thankful for by filming the celebration on his phone. It subsequently went viral with over one million views across all platforms.
A number of commenters on the content were offended. I’m not sure why, as it was just a poker player having fun. Yeah, it was a little sexy, but what’s wrong with that? It was far from pornographic.
The person who posted it may have been named Sashimi, but thanks to Rose’s yellow shorts, there were no glimpses of raw fish. Okay, now you should be offended.
Soon, those whose noses were not bent out of shape by the original video had an opportunity for outrage when ClubWPT Gold reposted the video with the headline: “GTO Players took this from us.”
Obviously, that’s not true. Poker was never that fun. But one person in particular who took umbrage was player, content creator, and BetMGM ambassador, Abby Merk. She posted that ClubWPT Gold member’s repost was demeaning to women and suggested that their only place in poker is as sex symbols.
She was then soundly shouted down for perceived hypocrisy because, as many pointed out in the thread, Abby has posted plenty of poker-adjacent thirst traps. Was she jealous of the million views? This kind of seemed like a case of the pot calling the kettle hot.
In fairness, though, Abby’s outrage wasn’t aimed at the dancer, Rose, but at ClubWPT Gold. And there she might have a point. The aforementioned sweepstakes model poker site was trying to be funny. But guess what, WPT ain’t SNL.
Was it funny?
The joke seems like a gross exaggeration designed to appeal to the most boorish, bro-ish element in the game. And it kind of works on that level.
Could they have been going for more subtle humor with the intent of making fun of people who whine about GTO? They seem like a worthy target, but I think I may be giving ClubWPT Gold too much credit.
My ruling is that the joke is marginally funny, but they should probably just focus on improving their abysmal website and leave poker-based comedy to the professionals.
Controversy Number 2 – Turns Out, There Are Limits…
A couple of days after the table dance controversies swept across the X waves, Alan Keating posted that the producers of No Limit, the docuseries he was featured in about the players in last year’s WSOP Paradise tournament, had used A.I. to put words in his mouth on several occasions.
He didn’t recall saying these things in his interview, and executive producer/director Dustin Iannotti promptly confirmed that they had, in fact, manipulated the tape of Keating and used software to duplicate his voice.
The WSOP, who are co-producers of the doc with Iannotti’s company, Artisans On Fire, wisely bought themselves a bus and tossed Dustin under it:
Well-known celebrity players were appalled:
While some entertainment insiders used to being behind the camera, thought it was no big deal: (Matt Salsberg tweet here)
Obviously, I don’t think anyone should have words put in their mouth. If it happened to me, I would be pissed, unless the words were a hilarious story that I could dine out on for years.
To me, what was really horrible was that Iannotti maintained that his only offense was not telling Keating before the show aired. As if Keating would have said, “No problem, bro. Fake it ‘til you make it.”
But Matt Salsberg is right. Manipulation in post-production is what happens. This is just at a new level. The problem is you can’t stop progress, even if it is dehumanizing. Most progress is, in one way or another. Take GTO.
Unsure of how I felt about this, I asked my guru on all things tech, Deepfake Chopra.
He said, “It could have been worse. They could have used A.I. to make a video of Alan Keating dancing on a poker table.” That would definitely have been labeled N.S.F.T., not safe for twerk.
And Now a Callback
I spent nine days at Resorts World last month pretending to be a journalist, so I have a short review. It’s not a themed resort, per se, and yet it has a theme: resorts.
Just as The Excalibur gives a nod to King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Craps Table and Treasure Island pays homage to pirates while giving you a jolly rogering in Caribbean Stud, Resorts World celebrates big hotels by having three of them under one roof, the Hilton, the Conrad, and Crockfords.
Personally, I think it would be more fun if the three properties were called Hotel, Motel, and Holiday Inn, but I’m old school.
Have a great December.
