Half Truths in the Media. Who Woulda Thunk It

So, for those who have not seen or witnessed the lashing I'm getting on twitter, here is an update.

Yesterday, while playing in a $1500 event at Rio, a PokerNews reporter took some extremely selectively worded notes on a hand that went down at my table. The exchange that was noted within the article that was thereby produced on the PokerNews website cast me in a very negative light, and honestly I think it is quite unfair and unethical reporting(to knowingly post partial information to paint an ugly picture of someone just so they can say they have an interesting story on a notable player in level 1 when little else of interest is happening).

I'm here to give the entire scope of the situation that had really occurred, as opposed to the partial story that most of you may have read online.

My opponent, who was in position, put in a bet on the river, which I called. I, without any intention of asking this gentleman to table his hand, tabled my own since I could tell by his body language that I had the winner.


After tabling my hand, my opponent showed his cards to his half of the table. It was at this point that I requested to see my opponents cards. See, when I'd called the gentleman's three barrels down to the river, I'd felt like he had stone air. When he showed half the table his cards, it made me feel like he had a hand with some value. And while typically I wouldn't ask an opponent to table a losing hand in this spot, I felt that since he'd shown half the table, and since that action indicated that he may have a different type of hand than I was reading him for, I, in all fairness, and within the framework of WSOP rules, asked my opponent to then table his hand. If half the table was going to be privy to the information, than I felt it only fair that I get the same information.

The man expressed that he did not want to show me his cards. I told him that if he shows half the table, then I want to see them and that the rules stated I could. He remarked with a smirk... "Have you ever played a tournament before sweetie?"  I respond with, "I have, sir. Have you?"

The man then demanded that the dealer call the floor for a ruling. I asked the man, "Do we really want to waste time on calling the floor?" The man insisted that he wanted to hear the ruling from the floor man.

Conveniently, there was a floor man only a table length away behind mine, and so we called the floor over.
The floor agreed that the hand would need to be tabled, and thus it was.

The way that this article was composed by PokerNews was extremely unforgiving and was without complete information or detail of the particular spot.

Many who have played with me more recently may have noticed that I've actually taken the mouthiness out of my arsenal at the table for the most part. While I used to use my chirp to help establish my table image... it's something that I've actually taken out of my game. I've been using other methods to get establish the desired image. While I don't want to give up my strategy info, I'd say that anyone who has played with me lately would have seen a major contrast in my table behavior as compared to what it used to be. I've been wearing headphones and not really engaging my table as much as I used to.

 I've grown quite a bit since the footage of WSOP Main Event in 2011. It sucks that articles like this aim to disseminate information that is either incorrect or written in a style that only allows for the biased notes taken by a reporter who clearly didn't like the story as much when all the info was present. I know that this reporter witnessed the whole hand, so it sucks to know that they intentionally chose to present it the way they had. Presenting only 50% the information made me look 100% like a jerk.

I'd absolutely agree with anyone who read the article and felt that I was an ass. But again, it wasn't written to show the public the full and uneventful story that it truly was.

Can any pro tell me that if someone showed half the table a hand that you called 3 barrels with, that they wouldn't then request to see the hand? Not sure I know of anyone with enough "poker etiquette" to fade curiosity given the situation.

Thanks for reading.