Gossip Column: Ice Bucket Challenge Spills Over to Poker World and Daniel Negreanu`s $1 Million Bet

The Internet has revolutionized our lives and there can never be enough written about how it has done so. Among the myriad ways it has enriched our lives, one of the most delightful are its sensationalist moments, which go viral and fill our humdrum existence with some hilarious antics and escapades, adding that much needed flavour of spice to daily routine.

Spice – Masala! Yes folks, we are back again with some more juicy news for this edition of PokerGuru’s Gossip Column! And, we talk of Internet to bring you news about the latest wild series that has spread across the globe, albeit it does have an altruistic motivation.

We are talking about the “Ice Bucket Challenge”, which has seen a number of celebrities getting sloshed with chilling blocks of icy water and yes, these also include some of our very own famed poker stars!

In this edition, we also have a recent incident-involving veteran Daniel Negreanu who tweeting on how he could beat $25/$50 with just 15 days of preparation. The controversy seems to have sparked a possible face-off between Negreanu and online pro Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk that brings to fore the unspoken rivalry between online and live greats.

You can catch all the latest gossip doing the rounds in poker world, just read on…

Poker Pros Guzzling the Ice-Bucket Challenge to aid Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been doing the rounds of the web, with some hysterical videos of celebs getting drenched by a bucket of chilled water.

Poker pros have also come into the newly started initiative and done their bit for the cause.

The Ice Bucket activity was promoted to create awareness and raise charity for relatively unknown diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Motor Neurone Disease Association.

The origins of the ice-bucket challenge are obscure; it is believed that the activity had various earlier avatars as the “Cold Water Challenge” and the “Polar bear plunges”, which dates way back to 1904.

In recent times, US baseball player and ALS patient, Pete Frates, can be credited for taking the idea from a friend and making it an overnight sensation.

After he initiated it, the idea spread like wildfire and an estimated $23 million has been donated to the ALS organization.

The concept is to dare people to get a full bucket of ice water dumped on them and then urge someone else to repeat the action. Any one refusing would be penalized $100 dollars, which would be donated towards the ALS association.

A number of celebrities have already undergone the challenge and some of these include Cristiano Ronaldo, Lady Gaga, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears, Brian Vickers and Satya Nadella.

Some of the Indian stars who have taken up the dare are Shreya Ghoshal, Sonakshi Sinha, Shah Rukh Khan and the entire team of Happy New Year, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Riteish Deshmukh.

A large number of sports persons took up the challenge, including tennis players Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, badminton players Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta, besides swimmer-turned-golfer Rehan Poncha and cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

With so many celebs taking up the chilling dare, could our poker pros, be left behind? Poker world is known for its magnanimous heart and there are many instances of players donating generously.

Honestly speaking, it sounds and looks really very funny to watch all these stars, go through the ritual of being doused by a bucket full of icy water. But think for a moment, it requires a lot of sportive attitude and a large heart to bear the chill of low degree H2O drenching you to the bone.

Nevertheless, our poker pros rose to the occasion admirably.

One of the first to take up the dare was the stalwart himself, Phil Hellmuth!

The 13-time WSOP bracelet winner actively took up the challenge issued to him by Nolan Dalla, the media director for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), who later went on to take it up himself.

Adam Pliska, the president of the World Poker Tour (WPT), Todd Anderson of Poker Night in America, Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross were some of the others to follow Hellmuth.

Ty Stewart, Executive Director, WSOP and Lynn Gilmartin WSOP on-camera host were others to happily indulge in the dare, with the latter giggling away the tingling cold in her own shower room, which she customized to contain “natural” ingredients!

Others included Texas businessman and amateur poker player Bill Perkins, November Niner, chip leader Jorryt van Hoof, Tony G, who did it on his honeymoon, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Mueller, Jason Koon and Matthew Waxman, who says in his latest blog that “the ALS #IceBucketChallenge is good fun for a good cause.”

Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey are expected to get chilled to the bone soon and add to the charity.

Dan Bilzerian does it “his way” with goats and bikini babes!

But the best Ice Bucket drench comes from, who else, but the King of all The Good Life – Dan Bilzerian himself!

The self-confessed porn-star junkie and unofficial playboy king of Instagram, who lives a life of fantasy, decided to do this one also, in his signature “Roman Orgy” style.

After getting drenched, Bilzerian further pledged $10,000 to the association and dared television host Ellen DeGeneres to take up the bucket next.

The whacky bearded poker pro took up the challenge dressed down to as little as possible in a tub of ice; with a bevy of bikini clad beauties, one who poured the icy water on him and a Goat!

Yes, you heard that right, a Goat to stand by the side of the tub!

We sure can understand the bikini babes, but the significance of the Goat has eluded us for now!

Perhaps Bilzerian can enlighten us, about its contribution in facing a bucket of ice water!

Maybe it kept the player “hot” in all that bone-chilling temperature! Go figure!

A little bird also tells us that Rick Salomon may or may not take up the challenge, but his sex-siren ex-wife Pamela Anderson, is certainly not going to allow her assets to be pelted by icy water.

The “Baywatch” babe and the namesake of social poker site Pam’s Poker, has accused ALS researchers of animal cruelty. A post by her read, “Sorry, I can’t bring myself to do your Ice bucket challenge. I enjoy a good dare, It’s always good to bring awareness – in fun, creative ways, I don’t want to take away from that. I thought instead, I’d challenge ALS to stop animal testing.”

A Special Mention:

When Poker deals us bad cards, we can try again another day. But the cards dealt by Life are strong enough to derail us permanently and the true test of character is how we handle the blow!

One poker player, not a star or a pro, but a recreational player also took the challenge – Gal Sont!

Gal was diagnosed with ALS five years ago and has certainly not given up on life, despite being confined to a wheelchair.

Even as his condition worsened, Gal founded Click2Speak, a company dedicated to empowering severe physical impairments victims, allowing them to communicate via a revolutionary eye-movement-powered on-screen keyboard.

BBC World News recently featured a short film on Gal’s inspiring tale.

Gal took up the ice-bucket challenge sitting in his chair and words are not enough to describe the immense fortitude and inner strength the man has.

Dan Russ, co-founder Click2Speak,rightly sums it up, “when Gal has passion for something – nothing stops him”.

We cheer Gal and wish him a truly wonderful life!

Daniel Negreanu $1 Million Poker Bet

Face–Off between 6-time WSOP Bracelet Winner and Pro, Daniel Negreanu and Online Pro Doug WCGRider Polk!

Negreanu a professional poker veteran has been in the news recently. He finished the mammoth Big One for One Drop event at second place, losing to young pro Daniel Colman!

Colman recently created a stir, when he refused to give interviews or even pose by his winnings, after the winning event. It was a consoling Negreanu, who supported Colman, stating that he had his own rights and views about the game.

Negreanu is now in the news, this time for shooting his mouth about online cash games on social media!

The controversy erupted on twitter, where Negreanu posted a thread discussing the TV capture of the Big One for One Drop event. He spoke about being creative and thinking out of the box, which drew the ire of another player, Daniel Merrliees, who dived into the thread and told the veteran that he “couldn’t beat $5/10 on Stars.”

A provoked Negreanu lashed back stating that he had “zero doubt” that he could win the $25/50 6-max online, with just 15 days preparation. He said, “I believe it would take two weeks of work and I would be a winner.”

Negreanu also went on to remind the others about his win in 2010 at $100/200.

It was obvious that Negreanu’s “two week” win statement had stung the online pros and grinder Trujus hit out at Negreanu, saying he could hardly be serious. Not one to back off, Negreanu shot back,“I couldn’t be any more serious. 2 weeks. 5 hours playing, 4 hours studying numbers daily. Would bet a million.”

Clearly, the online poker pros were offended by the WSOP winner’s comments and felt that he had slighted their efforts and was definitely undermining the vigors the game required.

Responding to the words of Negreanu, Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk tweeted that “I respect what you have done in your career, but it’s naive to think that you can just log onto PokerStars and beat $25/$50.”

In a subsequent interview, Polk, considered one of the worlds best in online tournaments stated, “It came across like he was undervaluing how hard it was to get there. If you play $25/50 these days, you’re really good and I don’t think he realized how that felt to the online community.”

Going further, Polk added, “While I think Negreanu is getting undervalued slightly by the online community, he doesn’t really have the skill set I think is necessary to succeed in [high-stakes online] games.”

Insisting that poker had changed drastically in the past 5 years, Polk insisted that it was now a game of math and required trained observation and calculation. He said, “The ideas that were commonplace five years ago are now seen as ancient.”

He continued, “There’s definitely been a transformation away from what was considered to be good poker and more towards the math and the theory side of things. Unless you’re going to take the time to figure those things out, you just can’t hang,”

After airing his views, Polk went on to challenge Negreanu to an online bet, he said, “I am challenging Negreanu. We have to set some exact terms, and I don’t want it to be like, ‘I challenge to whatever he says,’ but if we can get a bet in place where he has to play $25/$50 on PokerStars over a reasonable sample, then yes, I would bet Negreanu.”

In a bid to soothe the ruffled feathers, Negreanu responded with “I want to make one thing clear. You know, the fact that I said I could be competitive within two weeks, that’s not a slant to all the guys who put in a lot of work.”

However, he went on to insist that he had it in him to win online and even discussed his strategies for doing so.

As for the challenge, poker world will have to wait some, as Negreanu refused, saying that he was not open to travelling and would rather wait until poker was fully legalized in the US to take up the dare. “It is extremely unlikely to happen obviously, but it does sound like a fun challenge. I’m open to taking on at some point,”he signed off.

While the incident has caused quite a stir in poker land, whether this marks the end of it, or whether it will rear its head sometime in the future, is a point that remains to be seen.

That’s it for now, folks. Though poker world is a gold mine of some hysterical anecdotes and we will be back with lots more juicy and scintillating stuff soon.

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