Poker players are a funny bunch. You’d be amazed at some of the stories we’ve heard over the past 17 months, but what stands out are the excuses people dole out for not wanting to appear in the magazine, whether it be a photo of them winning a high hand or a mere listing in a tournament result they entered. We’ve actually seen people cover their faces to avoid being in a photo at a $10K World Poker Tour event. Which begs the question: What would they’ve done had they made the televised final table?
Often we get players asking why their local poker rooms aren’t represented better in the magazine, and that’s when we get to rattle off some of these beauties.
• A poker room manager once told us none of the players in his poker room would pose for a bad-beat picture. When asked why, he said the excuse almost always given was they didn’t want the Internal Revenue Service to know, not realizing any jackpot more than $599 will be reported to the IRS through the W2 form given to you with your cash.
• One player asked not to be in a photo because he didn’t want his wife to know he was playing poker. This prompted the player next to him to say, “She’s sitting right behind you.” If that weren’t funny enough, the first player then said, “No, that’s my girlfriend.” And he was serious!
• On a recent road trip, we asked to take photos of the room and its players. We were told to get permission from everyone at a table before photographing them. Fair enough. We got permission from everyone at one table, but one guy said, “I don’t want to be in, so I’ll just sit back out of the picture.” But when he saw the angle of the camera he feared he’d still be in the shot, despite our assurances he wasn’t. Instead of just standing up and stepping back, he leaned further away from the table and fell out of his chair.
• If someone wanted to legally change their name to “Declined Points” they’d run away with the Ante Up Poker Tour Player of the Year race! What exactly could be the reason for not wanting 700 points for second in an AUPT event? One player said there were warrants for his arrest. He was joking, but if he were serious he’d have bigger problems than accepting non-monetary points from a tournament in a public cardroom.
• We ran into a Florida player at the World Series of Poker this past summer. And this wasn’t just your ordinary poker player. He’s actually fairly famous for something that happened to him in the WSOP Main Event years ago. So, being the newshounds we are, we approached him and asked if we could do a “Whatever happened to …” story. He politely declined, saying he liked his anonymity and the edge it gives him at the table. If he were anonymous how did we know who he was? To top it off, he posed for a photo that ran in Ante Up for a local event he had won the month before.
• Many times we receive photos from leagues and cardrooms of their winners, but they only send in first names or first names with last initials. We can only assume the reason for not giving their full names comes from one of the aforementioned excuses. But their PHOTO is in the magazine! Wouldn’t you love to be the fly on the wall when a guy’s wife sees this photo and says, “What do you mean it’s not you?”
• One person told us he didn’t want his last name listed in the magazine for fear family members would hit him up for a loan. … OK, this one we agree with.
Seriously, players have every right to not want to be in Ante Up. But if you DO want to be recognized for your achievement then let the establishment know. That’s why we started this magazine, to give our players the recognition they deserve, because no other poker magazine is going to do that for you.
In fact, take a shot of yourself with your trophy and/or winnings and have the room or league send it to us at editor@anteupmagazine.com. We’d like nothing more than to run your beautiful face in our magazine.
We’ll see you at the tables.
Christopher C. and Scott L.
