Gossip Column: Matt Damon Denies Possibilities of a ‘Rounders’ Sequel, Patrick Leonard Hits Back on bitB Staking Critics & Arlie Shaban Completes Challenge 6

The Bill Simmons Podcast and Patrick Leonard
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  • PG News October 18, 2018
  • 8 Mins Read

Hey folks, time again for bringing you some juicy updates on the intriguing world of poker! For those who love the mind sport, The 1998 Hollywood flick Rounders is a cult classic that just cannot be missed. Over the past twenty years, there’s been a lot of talk on a Rounders sequel coming up. We hear, Matt Damon has, in his recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast denied the possibility of a sequel and talked about why.

Meanwhile, Patrik Leonard has been bitB staking in Budapest and for this reason he came under fire from the poker community. But Leonard is not one to keep silent and has come out with a lengthy rebuttal, asking everyone to chill out.

Who’d thought that Arlie Shaban would respond so positively to the summons by the ‘Poker Gods’ who have set Shaban on a tireless set of 12 challenges? Well, Shaban has just annoyed James Hartigan to complete his challenge 6 and we can’t wait to find out what it was. Can you?!

Matt Damon Gives Reasons Why a ‘Rounders’ Sequel Won’t Be Made

Though released in 1998, Rounders has been a Hollywood classic for more reasons than one. It was a movie that added to Matt Damon’s rise in Hollywood, after his breakthrough role in the 1997 flick, Good Will Hunting. Who’d have thought that 20 year’s down the line, Damon would be the one to play down a follow-up sequel, something he has talked about himself, in the past?

The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Bill Simmons Podcast

“There was a DVD market, and that evaporated. It’s gone,” Damon said, talking about the movie during his appearance at The Bills Simmons Podcast early, this October. In Rounders, Damon had played the role of a reformed gambler who had to return to high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.

“I asked a studio head recently when we were promoting The Martian, what was the real effect of that? He said 50 percent. Fifty percent of business has been cannibalized. It’s just technology. There are different ways to deliver this stuff.”

He also felt that the film industry would probably not be receptive to a movie like Rounders and there isn’t a market for a movie profiling the complex characters in the world of high-stakes underground poker.

A sequel set in modern times would need to show high-speed car chases and a super hero, spoiling the classic essence of Rounders, he felt. If a live streaming service like Netflix isn’t interested in a Rounders follow-up project, then probably no company is, he added.

“In very real terms for us, that’s why the movies have changed,” Damon said.“That’s why they won’t make Rounders anymore, they won’t make Good Will Hunting, they can’t. What the DVD market has been kind of replaced with is the international box office. What you want are movies that are big and really understandable to people all around the world, across language and culture.

That means talk less, make things more simple—white hat, black hat, superheroes. It makes total sense, right? Everybody knows who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. They spend $400 million and blow a lot of shit up. You can’t put Rounders into a movie theater up against that stuff. Everyone is wondering what is going to happen to the film industry.”

Well, coming from Damon who has competed in several World Series of Poker (WSOP) events and even speculated on a plot for a sequel during his 2016 appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, this is a disappointing piece of news for sure.

Watch Damon’s interview at The Bill Simmons Podcast here.

Patrick Leonard Responds to Criticism of His bitB Staking

partypoker ambassador and co-founder of bitB Staking, Patrick Leonard has been a long known supporter of staking, a fact that has sent many in the poker community to rile up against him.

Patrick Leonard
Patrick Leonard

Leonard’s recent tweet that showed a scene of the bitB Staking base in Budapest, had a number of players on Twitter throwing fresh accusations at the online poker master.

A good number of Twitterati had not so pleasant words to say about Leonard’s bitB HQ.

The criticism bothered Leonard so much, he could hardly catch sleep, and ended up writing a long rebuttal in defense of bitB Staking.

Arlie Shaban Completes Challenge #6

Poker streamer Arlie Shaban has been having a challenging ride through the tasks given to him by an anonymous group that call themselves the ‘Poker Gods’. But if the recent video that shows Shaban trying to, and succeeding in annoying James Hartigan is anything to go by, we’d say he’s also having a lot of fun.

Arlie Shaban Completes Challenge #6
Arlie Shaban Completes Challenge #6

Shaban’s sixth challenge began with him getting a message that he would soon find out what he had to do, but that he couldn’t talk to Hartigan about it. This should have got Shaban wondering why, but he found out soon enough, since his sixth challenge was set by the players, and Hartigan was part of the show!

So live on Twitch, as Shaban appeared on Hartigan and Joe Stapleton’s Twitch stream, viewers began to send it their challenge requests and guess what, Shaban had to comply.

So it went from ‘crowing like a cockerel’, to ‘changing shirts every few minutes to see if Hartigan would notice’! Shaban also had to spin around on his chair 20 times.

The funniest moment was perhaps when Shaban had to tell Hartigan that he had watched an adult movie a few days ago that starred a man who resembled the younger version of Hartigan. He also referred to Hartigan as ‘Jimbo’.

No wonder then, that Hartigan finally asked Shaban if his latest challenge was to “Act like a jerk live on stream.” Anyway, Shaban’s sixth challenge seems to be finally over, and it will soon be time for the Poker Gods to announce the next.

Watch Shaban playing out his sixth challenge on Twitch stream here:

So this is about all, in our latest round of gossips. Stay tuned to find out many more shockers and juicy stuff from the poker circuit, coming your way soon.

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