Gossip Column: Bilzerian & Polk in Twitter Battle, $1.37M Bad Beat Jackpot & Crown Melbourne Fined For Tampering Poker Machines

We are back to regale you with the choicest morsels of gossip! While, we can discount most of the crazy shenanigans, when it comes to our Gossip Column favorite Dan Bilzerian, we simply can’t resist as he is at the center of our first story. Bilzerian was at it again this time in a twitter battle with Doug Polk and that too on the hottest topic of current times – cryptocurrencies!

Moving on we have news of a windfall bad beat jackpot that was hit at the Playground Poker Club worth over $1,375,000 at a nine-handed $2/$5 NLHE cash game with the loser of the hand – Kwane R winning $522,622 while the winner Daniel F collected $261,311.

In our final tale, we bring you the news of Crown Casino Melbourne being fined $300,000 after they were found guilty of removing buttons from 17 of their poker machines without approval from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.

So, get set, pour two fingers of your favorite poison, soda or ice and settle down to read it all…

Dan Bilzerian Takes on Doug Polk in Twitter Battle

Dan Bilzerian was back in news recently and mind you ask for what? Another prob bet? Another scandal? Nope, this time it was a feud he got himself on world’s favorite social media platform for such battles – Twitter.

Who did he fight with? Poker and cryptocurrency YouTuber Doug Polk.

How did it start? It all began on April 23 when an innocent tweet started getting attention –

Doug Polk took no time and gave his two cents –

If you ever have to get back into crypto you are doing it wrong. https://t.co/TAMFZmznc5

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 23, 2018

Not much of a surprise but Bilzerian didn’t take the reply lightly and hit back tweeting –

Selling my bitcoin at 16,500 was wrong huh? Plz tell me what else I’m doing wrong you dumb shit, make sure to use my name so people pay attention to you 😂

— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) April 25, 2018

Polk wasn’t taking one to back down and he fired another major burn –

Since you brought up the subject, make sure to continue to use Daddy’s money so people pay attention to you as well.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

Then Bilzerian replied bringing how a poker player thinks –

Professional poker players know that just because a decision is profitable it doesn’t mean it was the correct one.

Doesn’t surprise me you don’t realize that. https://t.co/0eQNTQ4BdN

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

Polk immediately responded and well it escalated to another level post this –

The goal in poker is to make as much money as possible. You figured let me get super good and tell everyone how good I am. I figured let me make everyone think I suck and play with the bad super rich rec players in private games. Keep making training videos, you’re killing it 😂

— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) April 25, 2018

Would you say you are more of an expert on poker or bitcoin Dan?

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

To save time, I’ll bet you a million dollars I can show wires for poker wins in excess of 40 million dollars in a one or two year period. I’ve probably won more in one night than you have in your whole life, so I guess to answer your question, poker.

— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) April 25, 2018

Seemed like Polk had it and he challenged Bilzerian to a game –

As fun as it sounds to settle this by getting your accountant involved (he does an amazing job btw) how about we actually play some poker?

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

To add to the fumes, Bilzerian bragged and tried to put Polk down while carefully sidelining the prospect of playing poker and tweeted –

Don’t need an accountant, just bank statements from the bank. I focused on making money and fucking hot girls, you focused on game theory & training videos, you’d be a favorite heads up, which is irrelevant. Point is, you said I didnt make money playing poker, so let’s bet on it.

— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) April 25, 2018

I’m glad you clarified where the bank statements would come from

You are also misquoting me, I never said you 100% didn’t make your money from poker, I said it was very unlikely. Statements dont prove anything, with time and money you can make it look like it came from poker

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

Polk’s final reply was just an advice to our controversy lover Bilzerian.

But we are also getting pretty off topic here, my main point is you should never be fully exiting cryptocurrency. The value will increase over time, and trying to time the market will be on average an inferior strategy to investing in the long term success of bitcoin.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) April 25, 2018

$1.37 Million Bad Beat Jackpot Hits at Playground Poker Club

After a solid eight months, at 5:30pm on April 27, the largest bad beat jackpot amounting to over $1,375,000 was hit at the Playground Poker Club hit. The ironic thing is that the jackpot that was hit in August ($1.21 Million) last year was triggered at 5:20pm and this one was triggered at almost the same time! Spooky right?

It all happened on a nine-handed $2/$5 NLHE cash game table with five other NLHE games running.

The hand in question saw Kwane R opening to $25 from UTG +1, next player to act called, cutoff seat joined, and so did Daniel F in the small blind and the player in the big blind. On the flop, both small blind and big blind checked, and Kwane decided to jam for roughly $100, holding a set of queens. All except Daniel F folded who called with for a Royal Flush draw. As fate would have it, the turn gave Kwane quads but the completed the community and Daniel hit a Royal Flush to take down the pot and trigger the massive Bad Beat jackpot.

Kwanewalked away with the biggest share of the jackpot worth $522,622 while Daniel collected $261,311. Each of the other seven players at the table received $37,328. Moreover, everyone seated at a table in the poker room at the time the jackpot was hit pocketed $5,938!

Crown Casino Melbourne Fined $300K For Tampering With Poker Machines

As per recent reports, the popular Crown Casino in Melbourne was fined $300,000 after they were found guilty of removing buttons from 17 of their poker machines without approval from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.

In an official statement, the Victorian Commission said that the actions varied certain gaming machines and therefore the move mandated its approval. The statement clarified, “This is the largest fine the commission has issued to Crown and reflects the seriousness with which it considers the matter.”

The commission also asked Crown to provide an updated compliance framework within six months and explain how it will prevent a similar matter in future.

The whole matter came to light after whistleblowers alleged that the casino was using a practice known as “blanking buttons”, where a working button on the machine is “blanked” so that players have limited available options. It has been alleged that it was all part of a plan to increase player’s losses by forcing them into making higher bets.

Crown Resorts Ltd on the other hand stated that this was just a trial and did not affect the return-to-player ratio, “While Crown Melbourne’s position throughout this process was that the gaming machine trial did not require the prior approval of the commission, Crown Melbourne respects the commission’s decision, which brings this process to a close.”

Notably, Independent Federal MP Andrew Wilkie, who took a former casino employee’s concerns to parliament, said that the fine was not enough. He said, “This is a very serious offence for which Crown should stand condemned. However, I do not accept Crown’s explanation that this was only a trial, because there is an abundance of evidence that the practice has been more widespread.”

“I expect the commission and the police to diligently probe these matters. It would be completely unacceptable to the community if they take the casino’s explanations at face value or continue to hand out slap-on-the-wrist fines,”he added.

Phew! Well, that’s poker world for you folks, a lot of bluff, a few bets and some calls, take it all with a pinch of salt and ice to go with the Malt! Cheers!