She needs to be accountable. She is one of the best most ruthless poker players there are and that is awesome however I can't remember who was in a video I watched a while back of her playing and she jammed on someone and they tanked for a long time and then called with A8 and Vanessa went over to the rail and just whined to Liv Boeree that the player had it in for her why does he keep calling blah blah (I think it might have been Boeree's boyfriend at the time) but anyway it struck me as pathetic, like he was supposed to soft play because it was her. She needs to realize that she is a Poker player/gambler and her opponents are not in it for her. How many drunks lose money at the poker table vs her? If she has a problem then she should get some help for it but she made the bet she can pay it if she loses just like everyone else .
I don't remember an A8 hand, but I do recall an A9 vs 44 hand.
A9 wasn't soft playing her. Selbst 6bet jammed and A9 made a very risky call with A9o for their tournament life. It was a very risky play with A9o because, even though Selbst is super aggro, she is making the same play with a ton of
hands that has the player crushed preflop. Yes, 6bet 44 is a bit spewy, but so is calling off with A9o. Selbst could easily be 6bet jamming QQ here, does that make A9o a good call?
In fact, if my math is correct, A9o only had ~30% of the stack invested before calling the shove for the rest of it. So, it wasn't like they were committed to the pot. I think they were getting just a little over 2:1 odds to call preflop, but are they beating Selbst's 6bet shoving range here? I think this is still a -EV play by A9o.
Also, keep in mind that after 10 minutes of tanking before calling, Selbst asked if her opponent had AJ as that's probably one of the only hands they would tank with for the rest of their stack, so Selbst probably felt she was in a race situation, but never against a hand like A9o.
Selbst knows you makes risky plays with your aggression, but 6bet jamming 44-as crazy as it may be-is definitely a much better play than calling a 6bet jam with A9o.
I don't think this has anything do with her prop bet and is completely unrelated. And while I think Selbst should be responsible, that pay out is pretty huge and we have to consider a person being drunk can't make the most rational decisions.
And do we even know if Selbst is the one that said she'll pay $1.8M? It's possible Mercier could've taken advantage of a drunken Selbst and said something like "If I don't win 3 bracelets, I pay you $10K and if I do, you pay me $1.8M." and Selbst agreed to something she didn't fully understand? [I don't know who suggested the bet first, so please correct me if I'm wrong.]
Why would anyone, who is thinking clearly, take such a small payout when you're risking a ton more? Granted winning 3 bracelets is hard to do, I still think risking $1.8M to win $10K is ridiculous.
But a bet is a bet, and drunk or not, you should still be responsible if you were aware of your actions. It's different if someone is taking advantage of someone who is near blackout drunk, but since I don't know the level of intoxication Selbst was in, it's hard to comment on that.
I think Selbst should stick by the bet with Mercier, but Mercier should consider that Selbst was intoxicated and not thinking properly and show a little mercy, but not drop the prop bet entirely. I think dropping it down to Mercier risking $10K to win $800K-$1M would be fair. Still high, but a lot more fair.