Poker And Our Moral Responsibility

Txpokerlover

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Let me begin by saying I am not a journalist or blogger but simply a 44 year old female poker player who loves the game. What I love about poker is not just the game itself but the social experiences it allows us as people to enjoy. When I sit down at a cash game or tournament I love to talk and meet friendly players and even try to have some fun with the grumpiest of them all. The game of poker is not just a game in my opinion, it is a complete social experience.

Poker has allowed many companies the opportunity to showcase and sell their apparel, gear and various products to us, the consumer. Some of these companies are small and rely on social media to fuel their growth. I joined Twitter a few years ago during the wsop to keep track of how some friends were doing and for its instant access to news. Since then I have seen the power of all social media as a means to market and promote even the smallest of start ups and ideas.

I have, unfortunately, also seen the negative side of this instant access to the whole world and the poker community.

That brings me to one big question: what is our moral responsibility when we represent the game of poker? (By "our" I refer to both players and companies representing the game in all ways.)

Two experiences have compelled me to write this. I will not use names, though, so as to stay focused on the main issues.

The WSOP is fast approaching I decided to spend my day doing research for the player draft I play in yearly. I was doing internet searches for various players who represent some of these apparel teams I have seen on Twitter. I came across a player whom I did not know and decided to Google him. The first page listed his Twitter account, poker results and that he was a registered sex offender arrested and charged for Criminal Attempt Sexual Assault on a Child a few years back. At the time of his arrest he was 26 years old. Now he was representing a poker apparel company as part of their team.

My initial reaction was shock and disgust that any company would allow a registered sex offender to represent them in the business of poker. I contacted the company privately explaining that I was doing WSOP draft research on the Internet and were they aware that this player on their team was a registered sex offender. The answer I received was "Do people deserve a second chance? Just wondering." After my initial bewilderment at this response I answered back that in my opinion second chances are not on a black and white scale. Any type of a "criminal sexual assault on a child" and a 26 year old man does not warrant such a chance and that a business owner in the poker community must use judgement on what or who deserves second chances. The answer I received was "We will follow up...thx for the info..."

I must admit I was disgusted that anyone in my beloved poker world would believe a registered sex offender was a proper and moral choice to represent them on and off the felt. My train of thought then went to question if there were others out there who believed the same as this company owner, that this player deserved a second chance to do what thousands of up and coming poker players would love to do, represent an apparel company as part of their poker team. I can't be the only person who believes your team players are the moral backbone of your company.

The second experience I had a couple weeks ago related to my topic was a tweet from a poker player who got knocked out of a tournament and then proceeded to go on Twitter to write about the player who knocked them out. The tweet written about the knockout hand was rude and very disrespectful to the other player whom I assume, based on the description, was an older woman.

I asked what this full time poker player got out of calling another player out on social media with such terrible and mean language. The answer I got was a bunch of excuses; it not being their best moment, mega tilt, they had planned on deleting the tweet and apologizing (which still has not been done) with the final excuse being "freedom of speech".

Free speech is one of the most important aspects of our beautiful country. I am all for free speech and it's incredible power. However, to quote Uncle Ben from Spider-Man, "remember, with great power, comes great responsibility". This full time poker player also represents a poker company while they play and tweet.

Do you not have a moral responsibility to the company you represent to conduct yourself with class and show respect to the other players? Have we lost, as a poker community, the ability to be morally responsible and have basic common courtesy to our fellow competitors and customers?

As we fight to have the wonderful game of poker recognized across the world let's not lose sight of the best part of this game I love...people.

I'd love for some feedback from this forum. I chose this space to have some respectful and thoughtful discussion on these issues.
 
Robbie Strazynski

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A damn fine post. Kudos to you! Well written and full of excellent points.

Agreed on all counts!
 
Debi

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You should be a blogger ;)

Very well written - also agree with you on both counts.

There are plenty of good moral poker players who need sponsors and don't get them.

And one of my pet peeves are poker players who berate other players - at the table and off the table.
 
Zorba

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Great post Tx, welcome to CardsChat.

.
 
Karnscoach

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Well said Amy.

Loved what you wrote Amy. Nothing worse than a sore loser. Shows people's true character when they lose. It's easy to be a good winner.
 
Txpokerlover

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Your the best Tracy

Your the best Tracy
Loved what you wrote Amy. Nothing worse than a sore loser. Shows people's true character when they lose. It's easy to be a good winner.
 
GhostEagle

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Excellent Amy!!! We all have to remember that no matter what your status is in the "community", you should be conducting yourself like your Mom is standing right behind you. Whether or not we are representing someone's company, but with extra care if we are.

Very well thought out & presented Amy, though you didn't have to think about it, you were speaking from the heart🌹 . That's why we love you. Congrats, Tx.
 
blitzenfish

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I love stumbling across GEMS! :)
 
dipstick2

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yes was well written with a few good points,i believe ppl should have a 2nd chance but some crimes should be a no go for sponsorship.love the quote play like your mother is behind.as for mean and verbally abusive ppl i have no sympathy
 
BearPlay

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Loved every word, Amy.

Brilliant job.

You have a voice which needs to be heard.
 
fletchdad

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Great post. Well written. I usually speed read a lot of posts and actually took the time to read yours more thoroughly.

As a father, I guess I dont have to elaborate on how I feel about the first point in you post. I am a bit radical, and mouthy at times, so I probably would have put the name of the player and apparel company in BIG LETTERS, the sponsor especially after this "second chance" bullshit. Second chance for some, sure. For a child molester, uhhhh, hello? If someone else wants to forgive that, their bizzness. But A company using this person as a spokesman? (I am assuming they know about it after the second chance statement....)

The second point, well, people tilt. I keep my comments to myself, but many dont. (I do feel like saying "You called a raise and c bet with that????" but I dont) But to then log onto a social media site and tilt for all the world to see, the player should be embarrassed at his/her lack of self control. Sadly, this is more common than I would have initially thought when I started playing poker.

Anyway, great post, and thanks for joining and writing this:)
 
Txpokerlover

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Thank you! I did think about it but can only hope that the owner of this company, and all other poker companies whom associate with him, reads this and takes a stand against hiring him.

Great post. Well written. I usually speed read a lot of posts and actually took the time to read yours more thoroughly.

As a father, I guess I dont have to elaborate on how I feel about the first point in you post. I am a bit radical, and mouthy at times, so I probably would have put the name of the player and apparel company in BIG LETTERS, the sponsor especially after this "second chance" bullshit. Second chance for some, sure. For a child molester, uhhhh, hello? If someone else wants to forgive that, their bizzness. But A company using this person as a spokesman? (I am assuming they know about it after the second chance statement....)

The second point, well, people tilt. I keep my comments to myself, but many dont. (I do feel like saying "You called a raise and c bet with that????" but I dont) But to then log onto a social media site and tilt for all the world to see, the player should be embarrassed at his/her lack of self control. Sadly, this is more common than I would have initially thought when I started playing poker.

Anyway, great post, and thanks for joining and writing this:)
 
Mr Sandbag

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Very interesting post. Without knowing the player or the details of the crime I'm gonna refrain from casting judgment. But I am quite shocked the company would sponsor him or her. It seems really bad for business.

I really don't think there is anything wrong with the second situation you described. It's in bad taste to bad-mouth someone on Twitter, but I doubt it crosses any moral boundaries. You'll find the same outbursts and personalities in every competitive game/activity. It's actually part of what makes it entertaining for others. Poker would be much more boring to watch if every player was polite and said "good hand" after every beat.

In regards to the issue of moral responsibility in poker - obviously humans have a moral responsibility in every aspect of life. But I think it is a bit delusional to think poker of all things will involve all upstanding individuals. As I spend more time playing, I find that the number of unsavory characters I meet increases rapidly. I'm not saying all poker players are scumbags (I've met quite a few awesome individuals through poker), but poker itself is closely related to establishments and activities that are very capable of ruining lives. And anything involving nice chunks of cash will always be conducive to dishonorable behavior.

All you can do is live up to your own moral standards and shy away from people that do not hold quality values. I'd also avoid calling people out on poor behavior, especially people you do not personally know. It will rarely be productive, and it could reflect badly on you. Everyone makes mistakes.
 
Shells

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Very well written and articulated! From what I can tell, the 'company' doesn't seem to take the title of 'registered sex offender' very seriously and obviously did not take into consideration the possible negative effect the individual would or could have on their business.

Touch my kids and there is NO WAY I would have anything to do with a person registered as a sex offender.
 
Martin

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An excellent post which I agree on both counts. The second chance part, I work with offenders who have learning disabilities, probably 75% are sex offenders, it is in the make up of the pedophile to be attracted to children, nothing can change that and the amount of offenders I have seen get released from the hospital after all sorts of treatment and therapy, for their second chance only to be returned to the hospital for the same offence is frightening, giving them a second chance only creates a new victim somewhere along the line in the majority of cases.
 
Txpokerlover

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Thank you for your comments. I am curious if your view is the same on the second situation if the player was representing both via social media and patches, etc a Poker company while they were playing a rather large Poker tournament. I kept thinking how awful it was for the "older woman" if she was known and people read the tweets and thus equated them with her. Trust me the verbage and description this player used was so rude I wouldn't even repeat it in my blog. Would that not hurt the image of the poker company being represented?

Thank you for your time and input.

Very interesting post. Without knowing the player or the details of the crime I'm gonna refrain from casting judgment. But I am quite shocked the company would sponsor him or her. It seems really bad for business.

I really don't think there is anything wrong with the second situation you described. It's in bad taste to bad-mouth someone on Twitter, but I doubt it crosses any moral boundaries. You'll find the same outbursts and personalities in every competitive game/activity. It's actually part of what makes it entertaining for others. Poker would be much more boring to watch if every player was polite and said "good hand" after every beat.

In regards to the issue of moral responsibility in poker - obviously humans have a moral responsibility in every aspect of life. But I think it is a bit delusional to think poker of all things will involve all upstanding individuals. As I spend more time playing, I find that the number of unsavory characters I meet increases rapidly. I'm not saying all poker players are scumbags (I've met quite a few awesome individuals through poker), but poker itself is closely related to establishments and activities that are very capable of ruining lives. And anything involving nice chunks of cash will always be conducive to dishonorable behavior.

All you can do is live up to your own moral standards and shy away from people that do not hold quality values. I'd also avoid calling people out on poor behavior, especially people you do not personally know. It will rarely be productive, and it could reflect badly on you. Everyone makes mistakes.
 
dj11

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I dislike 'moralizers' more than I dislike just about anyone else (as a group) in all the world.

Your notion about no second chances means you were damned to your hell the first time you stole a cookie off of the cookie plate.
 
Mr Sandbag

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Thank you for your comments. I am curious if your view is the same on the second situation if the player was representing both via social media and patches, etc a Poker company while they were playing a rather large Poker tournament. I kept thinking how awful it was for the "older woman" if she was known and people read the tweets and thus equated them with her. Trust me the verbage and description this player used was so rude I wouldn't even repeat it in my blog. Would that not hurt the image of the poker company being represented?

Thank you for your time and input.

That has nothing to do with morals though. It's a business decision as to whether or not the company keeps the player on its sponsorship roster. And tbh, I don't think it affects much. If businesses were only ever interested in sponsoring upstanding individuals with a strong set of morals, there would be very few professional athletes with sponsorships.

Talking about moral responsibilities in poker is a bit odd anyway considering how many threads I've seen on the internet about the morality of poker as a whole. Some consider what we do as immoral: we look for the worst player and try to take all his/her money as best we can. If that applied to other sports it would be quite unappealing to the general public. Imagine a beginning MMA fighter jumping into the cage with a UFC champion. He knows what he's in for, but I don't think fans would be too happy about watching a UFC champion beat down his inexperienced opponent. I'm not saying I agree that poker is immoral - just pointing out that not everybody holds the same values and that certain things are far from black and white.
 
fletchdad

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I dislike 'moralizers' more than I dislike just about anyone else (as a group) in all the world.

Your notion about no second chances means you were damned to your hell the first time you stole a cookie off of the cookie plate.



Uhhh, I am a bit offended by the comparison.

No, make that quite offended.
 
AlfieAA

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morals and money don't go together..every business is out to make a quick buck.....although im sure 2nd chances of this scale wouldn't be offered if there was no money involved...

greedy world we live in..

good post, even though you highlighted an 'extreme' and something 'trivial' in the same post..
 
AlfieAA

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I dislike 'moralizers' more than I dislike just about anyone else (as a group) in all the world.

Your notion about no second chances means you were damned to your hell the first time you stole a cookie off of the cookie plate.

probably the worst comment ive ever seen on cc....and ive seen a few terrible ones....this statement makes spam look like a quality post.
 
rawbad

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good post every one has a right to make money moral or not poker has a bad rep already and these companys are not using morals same as players its all about greed and the almighty buck
 
alfiyka

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good topic.A second chance can and should give everyone ,but this should be done wisely. For advertising companies most importantly-profits. And sometimes they are not interested in the moral side. It's bad.
 
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