Gossip Column: David Williams’ ‘Boiled Eggs’ Deny Him MasterChef Title, Doug Polk & Ben Tollerene Spat Hits The Fan & More

Poker knows no restrictions or boundaries; come rain, autumn or summer, the game continues to bring out all the craziness even in the best of the best. Poker players can be truly incredible in their behavior – childlike in petulance, conniving like thieves, fighters and even evaders when it comes to money!

And, shockingly these are not just ordinary players, but some of the top pros, who astound us with their shenanigans.

In this edition of our PokerGuru Gossip Column, we have tales of pros such as David Williams, Ted Forrest, Doug Polk and Brian Rast! Put up your feet on an ottoman, with a cooler besides and enjoy the read on a cozy afternoon…

David Williams ‘Bad Behaviour’ & ‘Boiled Eggs’ at MasterChef

There is a close bond between poker players and showbiz, with many a pro hitting the airwaves, such as Vanessa Ruosso in Big Brother among others. So it was not surprising to hear of David Williams making it to the international cuisine show, MasterChef Season 7.

The 36-year old pro with a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in his kitty has already amassed $8,688,583 in total live earnings, besides making it to notoriety for alleged card-marking when he made it to the top rung in the Magic’s Pro Tour during the late 1990’s.

Williams is now busy with kitchen utensils and made it to the top three in MasterChef, before he lost out to DJ Shaun O’Neale and Brandi Mudd, a young school teacher.

The finale was a dramatic one that saw Williams storm out at one point and later return to the show. He also had his mother to cheer him on, as he prepared a dish of cured salmon. O’Neale decided on a Miso Halibut, with something close to a sea urchin as garnishing, while Mudd was busy with bourbon-braised pork belly, accompanied by apricots and other delicacies.

Finally more than two hours later, the judges were clearly in favor of O’Neale, who got the $250K prize and the cookbook deal, with Williams at third place, simply because of his badly done “boiled eggs”.

The pro later said that, “Honestly, it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life and I’m thankful for that. It was so challenging, it took me to places mentally and physically that I’ve never gone before.”

Williams also claimed that he was being deliberately made out to be a villain in the reality show, which wasn’t exactly ‘reality’. He declared that “the entire world was rooting against me” and admitted that“my behavior wasn’t good and I looked bad” and adds “I understand I didn’t represent myself well at all and of course I wish I could go back in time and do it differently.”

Post-the show, Williams also stated that he had no intentions of leaving poker for cooking. “I like being at a poker table, I don’t want to be in a kitchen every day,” Williams said. “I have a lot of friends who are chefs and I see that lifestyle and I don’t think I could hang. It takes a lot of hard work and long hours. Poker’s my first love and it’s what I’ll always want to do.”

Sure, after all that is where all his moolah comes from…..!

Six-Time WSOP Bracelet Winner’s Checks Bounce

Now here’s another WSOP bracelet winner, and he’s got six bracelets at that – we are talking about senior pro Ted Forrest who won those. But few know that Ted also bought, yes bought a WSOP bracelet from Hamid Dastmalchi, who won it in 1992, and felt it was not worth the $5,000 claimed by Binions and offered it to Ted for $1,500!

Now, this very Ted has been taken to Court for two checks that bounced in 2012 and 2013, both towards the Wynn Las Vegas totaling $215,000. The checks returned due to insufficient funds and Ted even signed a confession of judgment in 2013, declaring that he owed the casino $270,000 and agreed to make monthly payments.

Ted appeared in court on September 8 and was charged with two felonies i.e. theft and drawing and passing a bad check with the intent to defraud. Luckily, the 52-year old pro was soon released and has been asked to return to Court next month!

Doug Polk and Ben Tollerene’s Online Spat

Spats are common between pros, what with their high stakes and equally large egos. Here is a new one between Artificial Intelligence (AI) vanquisher Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk and Ben ‘Ben86’ Tollerene, and what’s more it all started because of another issue that Hendrik ‘ValueH’ Latz and Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz had with Alexander Dreyfus, CEO, Global Poker Index (GPI).

Latz and Holz issued a joint statement against Dreyfus on the Two Plus Two forum and Tollerene chipped in his two bits against the GPI owner. This got Polk mad, who immediately retaliated by posting, “What about agreeing on NL for PLO coaching, getting some NL coaching, then backing out on the PLO coaching because it’s not convenient for you.

That’s way more legitimate.”

Clearly, Polk and Tollerene had issues and the former was using the opportunity to get back. Turned out the problem had its roots going back four years, when the two players were neighbours in Vancouver. The two entered into a verbal agreement that Polk would coach Tollerene in No Limit Hold’em and Tollerene would return the favor by teaching Polk Pot Limit Omaha strategies.

However, though Polk completed his side of the bargain, Tollerene withdrew at the last minute saying that his partner did not approve of him sharing their secrets. It was said that Polk was quiet at that time, but flipped his lid at a drinking party the players had attended.

Tollerene posted his version and said, “Then we go out drinking one night, it’s late and we’re wasted. Doug starts giving his No. 1 in the World speech and I tell him I don’t agree. His sample is too small, etc. We argue for a while and he eventually breaks down and gets really upset. We talk it out until about 5 a.m. in his room, hug each other and we’re cool. I wake up the next morning to an essay on Skype about why we cannot be friends anymore.”

Thereafter, Polk was once at a table with Tollerene a year later and dramatically announced, “Ben Tollerene is my enemy, make no mistake. The way that I was treated, was beyond unacceptable. The story of what happened that night is the most absurd thing that ever happened to me, and if Ben wants to deny his guilt here, I will have no choice but to tell it.”

Polk also released a video describing the whole affair, with Joey Ingram also commenting on the issue in an ‘emergency’ broadcast. But, Tollerene refused to respond and last heard was busy online, with $46K already in his kitty last week!

Brian Rast Challenges Casino Mogul to Prove Poker is a Skill Game

All the world knows just how much land-based casino mogul Sheldon Adelson hates online poker companies and has put in millions just to keep PokerStars out of America.

The aging businessman recently launched a vitriolic attack on poker. In a recent interview to Yahoo Finance, Adelson declared that “Some say poker is not gambling. Poker is gambling.”

He then elaborated on the sentence saying, “They say poker is a game of skill. I don’t know how skill can apply to somebody shuffling a deck of cards and randomly giving them out to you. You don’t have any control over it. Can somebody bluff and can somebody place bets better than somebody else? Yes. But that doesn’t make poker a game of skill.”

The statement got to pro Brian Rast, who decided to give back in kind and challenged Adelson on social media to prove whether poker was a game of skill or not. Rast posted, “Hey Sheldon Adelson, waz up?” tweeted our hero at the mogul. “Poker is a skill game. Don’t believe me? You’re a billionaire, I’m not close. Let’s play HU 4 2 million each.”

Probably concerned that it was not enough, just four minutes later, Rast improved on the offer and posted, “In fact Sheldon, my man, I’ll pay you 500$ 2 play 100bb freeze outs for 2mil, so if poker isn’t a skill game u earning and can prove me wrong.”

No prizes for guessing that Adelson has not yet replied to Rast’s challenge, though it is difficult to even imagine the old man operating a social media account on his own!

That then folks, are poker players for you! They can be downright unpredictable, mean even and yet possess a heart of gold that put together creates for some crazy antics that never fail to amaze us!