3 Minutes Read
There’s hardly a day in the poker world without drama. Well, poker players are certainly celebrities in their own right and when it comes to Arlie Shaban, the popular streamer who shot to fame after clocking 125 consecutive days of streaming on Twitch, we’d say it’s been a really good year for him so far. Shaban has also been dealing with challenges thrown at him by the ‘Poker Gods’ and it’s the eighth one that’s kept him busy these last few days. So what was Shaban’s eighth challenge all about?! It was all about capturing horses we learnt.
And what is this we’re hearing from Las Vegas? Shawn Daniels recently accused Justin Lapka of beginning play at a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event in Planet Hollywood with more chips than others! Is that even possible, right under the eye of the tournament director and the casino management! Daniels surely thought so and he was not going to keep quiet about it. The storm blew all over Twitter and eventually, Lapka had to apologize his decision to continue playing with the larger stack.
So, what are you waiting for, here they are, the gossip filled stories you just have to check out, so get reading!
We didn’t hear of poker streamer Arlie Shaban and his exploits on the felts for a while and that had us worried! But turns out, Shaban was busy these last few days and it was the eighth challenge, out of the ’12 Labours of Arlie’ put forth before him by the anonymous ‘Poker Gods’ that he’s been sweating over.
On Sunday the ‘Poker Gods’ set Shaban on his latest challenge. They wrote, “It’s time for you to get back in the saddle, kiddo. You remember ol’ Hercules right? Strong guy? Great physique? Sometimes complained a little much about how much he had to work? Yeah, well, when he got to his eighth labour, he was in for a real treat. I mean, the dude had already cleaned out the stables long ago. Now he had to capture the Mares of Diomedes. These were some bad-ass horses. Some folks say they breathed fire.”
Now that’s quite cryptic we’d say and the Poker Gods went on. “If you look out there in your normal poker pasture, you’ll find 12 horses wandering around every freaking day. There’s a big one every week that shows up and struts around like, “Look at me…I’m a BIG horse!”
And then it was finally clear. Shaban had to cash in a HORSE tournament, over the next five days.
“We don’t care which one you capture. Just get one of them. That’s all we ask. Capture one in five days, and we’ll call this labour complete.”
Wow, this was really challenging since Shaban not very familiar with the rules of Hold ‘em, Omaha hi/Lo, Razz Stud and Eight-or-better.
And so, Shaban took it upon himself to look up the rules. His first tournament was on Sunday where he failed to cash. But Shaban is certainly not one to give up, so he returned on Monday and managed to cash in the first HORSE tournament of his Monday stream. Well done Shaban, eight out of 12 challenges is not a bad scorecard after all!
Watch Shaban’s Twitch stream that has him playing a HORSE tournament on Monday here.
Event #5: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack at the ongoing World Series of Poker (WSOPC) Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, brought Cosmin Joldis his first-ever gold ring. But that wasn’t the only memorable thing that happened at the event. Justin Lapka was accused by Shawn Daniels of starting the event with an over-sized chip stack on Twitter.
A successful player online, Lapka has $42,000 in live tournament winnings. He finished fifth in a $1,000 WSOP Online Bracelet event this summer ($65,000).
Daniels claims that Lapka, who registered late, began with an extra 5,000 chips on Day 1. Based on Daniels’ Twitter posts, it appears “Lappy” wasn’t at fault for receiving too many chips. But he also said Lapka refused to return the excess chips.
Most players in the $600 buy-in event started with 40,000 chips, except Lapka apparently. However, the dealer eventually took the extra 5,000 chips off his stack.
Daniels took to Twitter to publicly call out Lapka for his actions.
“This kid got very upset when someone mentioned he started with too many chips. He knew and wasn’t going to say anything. When I mentioned he’s scumming/cheating all his peers he said he will do what he has to it’s business. If you interact with this guy pay close attention,” Daniels tweeted.
Steven Snyder, another poker player, responded to the tweet with an insult to the alleged “cheater.” He said, “He has to be the biggest douche I’ve ever met at the tables.”
“Constantly talking sh*t when he loses a pot and just always unhappy making smart ass comments to everyone. He thinks he’s some hot shot player,” Snyder continued.
Daniels continued his twitter tirade all through Tuesday’s Day 1 session.
“He just asked me to stop being an asshole. He’s ‘sorry and writing an apology to his fans’. Gave me 40 horrible excuses why it was ok and I was wrong. Just writing apology for some shitty @TwitchPoker partnership he doesn’t deserve to have.”
Trying to protect his reputation as a Twitch streamer from being completely tarnished, Lapka posted a formal apology on Twitter.
I just want to address the situation that happened today in WSOP Circuit Event #5 Double Stack. Below is my apology to everyone. Sorry this has taken so long to release. I have been playing Day 1 of Event #5 all day. pic.twitter.com/a7jwCwk2af
— Justin Taylor Lapka (@LappyPoker)
Lapka admitted he noticed he had an extra 5,000 chips when he got to his seat. At first, he said, he “made excuses as to why it would be okay to stay put.” But he now acknowledges that he “wasn’t taking responsibility” for his actions and referred to his behavior as “inherently wrong.”
Lapka apologized to the poker community and “anyone who believes in me as a person.”