I haven’t been in the poker business for that long, but I've been around long enough to realize that poker players do not respect money.
Maybe it’s the fault of the online kids? The digital currency just doesn’t have the same feel as the cocaine-laced, pissy-smelling wads that we stuff into our pockets after a good night at the cash tables.
It’s this disdain for money that has caused the likes of Chino Rheem and Erick Lindgren to turn into little poker monsters.
The pair have been outed more times than an Elton John tribute band, for their lack of adherence to the general principles surrounding the management of the green.
But should the blame of their woeful management of money fall squarely at the feet of the pair who recently won over $1.8 million between them, as they finished one-two in the $25k WPT World Championships?
I say no.
The people to blame are the ones who do not respect money. The people who think that loaning $40,000 to a complete stranger is perfectly acceptable practice.
I wouldn’t loan $40,000 to my best friend and I would certainly think twice about handing it to my parents.
Wake up and smell the Chai Tea Latte people. You don’t know Chino Rheem, Erick Lindgren and anybody else that you've played a few thousand hands of poker with.
This is the problem with this business of ours. People need to take 100 per cent responsibility for their actions and they don’t.
A wise man once told me to never put my hand in a hole that I wouldn’t put my old boy into. The same rings true here. If you're willing to give $40,000 to another poker player on good faith, then serves you right if you never see it again.
Poker players believe that they need to act this way because it’s the nature of the game. That’s nothing but an excuse to hide the fact that you have a blatant disregard for cash.
How can anyone say that they are just going to accept that they have lost the $40,000? With an attitude like this is it any wonder anyone pays the money back?
Dusty Schmidt once wrote a decent poker book called Treat Your Poker Like a Business. How many businesses would give out an unsecured loan of $40,000 based on good faith? It’s little wonder that there are so many players who are broke in this industry of ours.
It doesn’t take long to blow through $16 million. Just ask Rheem and Lindgren.
So if you don’t want to be the next person begging someone for a bowl, then sort your life out. Take 100% responsibility for your actions and start respecting the very thing that makes the world go round.
