Are poker pros damaging the image of the game?

As much as poker players talk about long-term equity, and making solid decisions, it has become readily apparent over the past year or so that this is a case of “do as I say and not as I do.” And I’m not simply talking about the Erick Lindgren’s, Chino Rheem’s, JRB’s, Howard Lederer’s, and Chris Ferguson’s of the world; I’m talking about virtually every poker player.

We need to start thinking long-term if we really want a second poker boom (this time in a completely legal and regulated market) and that means that a lot of the shenanigans need to end.

As bad as it is for some random Friday night poker player to read that Erick Lindgren owes ridiculous amounts of money for fantasy sports bets, or that Full Tilt Poker owners have made $40 million while leaving the company’s coffers dry, it’s just as bad when they hear about some upstanding poker player who shoots off $200k in a golf match, or runs 70 miles in a day, or is involved in a $2 million weight loss bet, or [insert any other prop bet story here].

The idea of credit card roulette, Lodden Thinks, and all the other misadventures that go on in the poker world -and are propped up and used as some weird form of hero worship-are having a huge impact on the public perception of poker, and the peopled who participate in the game. I mean, if the game’s best-known players are embroiled in this type of behavior, what are the degens doing?

The poker community is basically making the case for their opponents like Focus on the Family and other groups. I can see some Christian conservative Senator now: “You want to see what kind of impact poker has on the people who play it day in and day out, go read 2+2 for a while.”

Now, I’m not saying these activities have to, or should, stop; what I’m getting at is they need to remain behind closed doors, and the practitioners of these wild bets shouldn’t be the recipients of some bizarre teenage-boy hero worship because of their escapades. Basically, if Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest want to make a 7-figure bet over weight loss, FINE. Just keep it in the inner circle of high-stakes pros, and let the poker world find out about it 10 years after the fact.

Realistically, if the general public was completely unaware of some of the antics of poker players, a story like the recent Erick Lindgren fiasco could be looked at as an outlier. Instead, a serious opponent of poker could use it to signify the guy who was simply outed, because look how they all act!