In a recent CardPlayer article, online poker pro Dusty Schmidt laid the smack down on the Epic Poker League and Annie Duke. Getting into the specifics, Schmidt had a problem with how the Epic Poker League took away a $20k seat won by online qualifier Michael Devita on the grounds that he was a sex offender (read about it here).
The former pro golf hopeful-turned-poker-star is basically fed up with all of the hypocrisy that exists in the poker world as he wrote the following:
The problem is there is no leadership. Leadership needs to start from the top. Sadly, just this week the Epic Poker League, which is essentially trying to become the PGA Tour of poker, stiffed a guy out of $20,000. Annie Duke (aka the Sarah Palin of poker) and her Epic Poker League told a winner of a satellite event into an Epic Poker League event that they couldn’t play the event itself because of a prior conviction as a sex offender. Not only did the league decide that this person should not be allowed to compete in the event proper, but also stole the $20,000 the man won fair and square. All they did was refund the man’s entry fee and tell him to go away, essentially. How much do you want to bet that had he not won, not in a million years could he have asked for his money back on the grounds that he shouldn’t have been able to play. They basically just free rolled the guy.
I’m glad that somebody agrees with my point of view on how it’s not the Epic Poker League’s right to turn people away based on prior convictions. Sure Devita may have been the biggest weirdo at the table had he been accepted into the Epic Poker League, but he still won the $20,000 seat fair and square.
But enough about my thoughts, and on to the last of Schmidt’s comments on the matter. He finished up by discussing some of the biggest hypocrites in poker, which includes Duke, and here’s what he wrote:
The irony in this is astounding. Annie Duke herself used to pimp UB which has stolen tens of millions (if not more) for a large fee (and to my knowledge has kept all the money) and rumor has it, has had a number of shady dealings in the past. Her own brother is basically the Bernie Madoff of poker. Yet she is the one telling others that they are too shady to allow a seat in her Epic Poker League, and stealing money from them in the process. Of course if you are on of her friends like Mike Matusow who is a convicted felon, then that is obviously not a problem. What a world we live in!
If you’d like to read the entire article, you can check it out here.
