Honesty and Integrity

The question of morality in poker has never been more to the fore. With Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet owing tens of thousands of poker players millions of dollars, both players and media alike are beginning to ask the hard questions.

With hindsight perhaps we should have done this before but with so much cash sloshing around in the poker economy it seemed like there wasn’t a problem money couldn’t fix.
How things have changed.

In March Full Tilt’s chief executive Ray Bitar spoke out for the first time since his company collapsed through mismanagement and greed a year ago. He apologised but the poker community was having none of it.

He hid behind his lawyers saying he couldn’t speak out before. Poker players called him a liar and a cheat.

Elsewhere former Full Tilt pro Erick Lindgren faced the opprobrium of the poker community for the slow payment of his gambling debts. He used to earn $250,000 per month from Full Tilt but is now reported to owe them a couple of million and was outed in a popular poker forum for his debt avoidance.

Counter this with the refreshing honesty of Gavin Griffin. In a recent blog post at CardPlayer.com he admitted he’d made mistakes with his one-time substantial bankroll and was biting the bullet and dropping down the levels to try and start over again.

“It’s my first time in this poker room with the beach murals on the walls,” he explained. “I came here to avoid familiar faces. I’m embarrassed. 2011 shattered many of my dreams and most of my ego. I was in a bad place mentally all year and that made for some bad decisions in my poker career. I managed my bankroll poorly and by the end of the year was playing some uninspired poker. I need to find a way to fix this. So, I’ve decided to drop down in limits, fix my game, and rebuild.

“My life journey has brought me through some incredible times and into dark days. I had incredible poker success at a very young age when I became the youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winner ever at the time. Then I went on to add an EPT and WPT championship to my resume, making me the first “Triple Crown” winner ever. Not long after that I was brought on by PokerStars to be a Team Pro. After a couple years of less than stellar performance, we parted ways. Now I’m working with a startup poker site and trying to restart my game.

“I’m going to work my way through these lower limits and share the things I learn with Card Player readers in an interest to better my game and yours.”

Not all poker players are dead inside and in a game of constant smoke and mirrrors, half-truths and bluffs, some retain honesty and integrity. ♠