Week 9 of the PokerStars.net Big Game had plenty of fireworks, none more explosive than the confrontation between Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, and Andrew Robl, and the war of words hasn’t died down yet!
The week started with a lot of very loose action and a chatty table that included Tony G, David ‘Viffer’ Peat, William Reynolds, Daniel Negreanu, and Joe Hachem, as well as the “Loose Cannon” Elizabeth Houston. Despite some crazy plays, the table is all very wealthy and/or likes to gamble so there was a lot of good-natured needling going on. However, as some of the players left, the table dynamic changed, and this didn’t seem to sit well with Tony G –who was crushing the game playing 80% of his hands—or Daniel Negreanu –who was stuck quite a bit.
The first change saw Hoyt Corkins take over for ‘Viffer’, but that only lasted a couple of hands before he was stacked-off by Tony G’s set. Corkins decided not to rebuy, telling Amanda Leatherman, “I have a bad feeling about this table”.
The real drama occurred before Corkins replacement, Andrew Robl, even sat down. Tony G asked Daniel if he was a tight player, and Daniel indicated that he was, to which Tony G responded –I’m paraphrasing here—“he would let him have it.”
Robl was given an immediate tongue-lashing by Tony G and told not to come into “his” game and play tight. In subsequent hands Robl was cursed at for taking too much time, called a “f’ing Nit”, and had the clock called on him twice by Tony G. Daniel interjected himself into the saga by needling Robl for not straddling, and picking up on Tony G’s Nit theme. Another recent addition, Allen Bari, didn’t help things very much when he made a few silly comments about “inventing” the min-raise 3-bet –keep in mind Bari is all of 21 years-old!—and played a bit nitty himself.
Obviously when the episode aired the 2+2 forum lit up with people falling on both sides of who was at fault, and elicited responses from Tony G and Robl. Also recalled was an older blog post of Daniel Negreanu’s posted shortly after the episode was taped where he basically takes Robl to task without mentioning his name –but it was clear who he was referring to now that the episode has aired.
- Daniel’s original blog entry.
- Tony G’s blog entry.
- Here is Robl’s version of events, which is very candid, and explains a lot about how these TV cash games are run.
- And finally, here is Daniel’s most recent blog entry saying he and Robl talked and everything is all good.
Related Posts
- Wild Action in Week Nine of the PokerStars.net Big Game - October 25, 2010
- PokerStars.net Big Game Features Another Tough Amateur - August 19, 2010
- Possible Fireworks from this Week’s PokerStars.net Big Game - October 5, 2010
Written by Steve Ruddock on October 27th, 2010