Last Sunday, March 21, marked the 15th anniversary of PokerStars’ Sunday Million, promoted as the world’s biggest weekly poker tournament. For an entry fee of $215, many, many players compete for a prize pool guaranteed to top $1.5 million, with 1st place prize money of at least $100,000.
That’s a lot of cheddar.
For the 15th anniversary event, PokerStars upped the guarantees and attracted 69,876 entries, a staggering number resulting in a prize pool approaching $14 million. First place paid $1,515,000.
That’s a whole lot of cheddar, with Canadian pro Vanessa Kade outlasting the field over the course of three days to become poker’s Biggest Cheese.
But that’s only half of the story. There’s some serious karma here.
This is the same Vanessa Kade who Dan Bilzerian called (in December) a “hoe,” adding “nobody knows who you are” after she had expressed her disappointment in GGPoker’s announcement of Bilzerian as a new brand ambassador.
Nobody knows who you are… that stings. Quiet hoe… that’s so far down in the gutter that even I, your favorite blogger, am at a loss for words.
Kade, who also had an affiliate relationship with GGPoker (which the site abruptly terminated earlier this month) had earlier remarked about GGPoker’s announcement, via Twitter, “Sponsoring a sleazy, sexist tool with toxic followers as poker’s biggest ambassador lends validity to the idea that he’s an accurate representation of our sport.”
In calling Bilzerian a sleazy, sexist tool, she ain’t wrong. He quickly reinforced that, but to be clear Dan Bilzerian has always been a toxic character with a checkered background. His father was a corporate raider on Wall Street who was convicted of various securities law crimes, and provided a trust fund for his son. Bilzerian has his own history of legal woes including lawsuits, bans from properties, an arrest on bomb-making charges and disputes about the source of his wealth. Mostly, however, he is famous for being outrageous without actually doing or making anything of value to society.
Bilzerian’s declaration that Vanessa Kade is unknown didn’t age well. Everybody knows now.
We need more Vanessa Kades and fewer Dan Bilzerians.
Karma runs over dogma.
This win was really sweet. I am quick to say “guys are pigs,” but that generality usually doesn’t apply to the men with whom I am friends. However, unfortunately, poker has more than its share of guys who give us all a bad name.
Poker has more than its share of guys who give us all a bad name… is a microcosm of All of Humanity has more than its share of guys who give us a bad name. The effect is probably magnified when sitting shoulder-to-shoulder for hours on end at the poker table.