Gossip Column: Aaron Massey’s Request For No Congrats Rouses a Twitter Storm, Phil Ivey’s Namesake Poker Room in Aria Rebranded & More

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  • Namita Ghosh February 26, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

Winning a tournament is the ultimate aim for anyone entering one, but luck and skill don’t always come together. And when a player does manage to make it in the money in a tourney but is still left in a loss after firing multiple bullets, it’s not something they’d like to be cheered for! Or so felt Aaron Massey who tried his luck recently at a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event but only managed to cash for $700. Massey had bought into the game twice for $400 each time, and so congratulations coming from the WSOP team his way didn’t find him smiling. Taking to Twitter, Massey blasted WSOP and questioned the logic behind the wishes. Many on Twitter didn’t agree with him, and then there was the usual storm building up, with many a poker player jumping in!

The ARIA Resort & Casino seems to have caught on to the legal troubles of multiple bracelet winner Phil Ivey and acting rather promptly by taking down the plaque leading to the famous ‘Ivey Room’ dedicated to the player. Poker vlogger Joey Ingram was one of the many seen expressing his displeasure at this move.

In what has shocked the poker community of Ireland, a tourist Jon Jonsson went missing right before the Dublin Poker Festival. Jonsson had traveled to Dublin with his girlfriend, only to participate in the tournament, and seems to have vanished without a trace. Poker players and several poker organizations have come together to raise funds, and launch search groups for Jonsson.

Aaron Massey’s Request For No Congrats Rouses a Twitter Storm

Yes, it’s normal for players who win tournaments or score deep runs to be given a pat on their back by fellow pros or even tournament staff. But what if you have bought into a tournament twice, and ended up spending more than what you cashed? Anyone congratulating you for a loss would be rubbing salt on your wounds. Evidently, Aaron Massey seems to think so.

Aaron Massey
Aaron Massey

The Chicago based player who has over $3.7 Million in live winnings recently trained his guns at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Hey @WSOP please train your staff not to say “Congratulations” when someone busts. If they cash for a loss, cash for < 2 buyins, or get their heart broken in 3rd for $250k etc it will always be annoying as fuck #Ron2020

From what we hear, Massey has recently finished 21st in a $400 Turbo NLH at a WSOP Circuit stop in Rio Las Vegas. Massey earned $700 but only after he had fired two bullets. Now that’s not exactly a successfulrun, we agree, and so did many of Massey’s followers.

But then, a lot of people didn’t, Miranda Miller Tipton was one of them.

Massey defended himself in response to the criticism.

Fellow poker players had their own take on this, and some of them were not easy on Massey. Matthew Salsberg though agreed somewhat.

But Darryll Fish evidently did not.

One thing led to another and soon Massey was up in a full fledged war of words with other pros. His response to Matt Berkey was less than pleasant. The argument went on for long, with each standing by his point.

 

Phil Ivey’s Namesake Poker Room in Aria Re-branded

When you are in a bad patch, nothing seems to go your way, and most people will turn their backs on you. Multiple WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey certainly knows what that feels like. His legal woes seem to be never-ending, and now possibly as a consequence of his legal scandals, the ARIA Resort & Casino has decided to re-brand the previously named ‘Ivey Room’ to ‘Table 1’.

ARIA Ivey Room
ARIA Ivey Room

The plaque leading to the ‘Ivey Room’ has been taken down and replaced with what some might consider a lackluster moniker of ‘Table 1’. Poker vlogger Joey Ingram took to Twitter to express his displeasure regarding the name change.

The Ivey Room was named after the poker superstar in the spring of 2010, only a few months after ARIA had been opened. Starting with its inaugural million-dollar freeroll for VIP casino gamblers, the room has played host to some of the biggest nosebleed cash games in the last nine years.

It had also been at the center of several controversies including a drunken poker game that led to a $3 million lawsuit between poker pro Matt Kirk and King’s Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik.

At the time of the room’s opening, Ivey was 33-years old and was considered one of the best in the business. Though he is still a force to be reckoned with on the felts, the recent scandals he has become embroiled in has led to a decline in his popularity.

 

Irish Poker Community Pitches in For Search of Missing Poker Tourist Jon Jonsson

The poker community has been known for its benevolent deeds, and charity contributions. So when a tourist from Iceland, Jon Jonsson went missing in Ireland last weekend, poker players and organizers got together to pitch in.

Jon Jonsson
Jon Jonsson

41-year old Jonsson, a taxi driver by profession was visiting the country with his partner, Jana. The couple regularly travels across the world to play in poker tournaments, and this time, they were in Ireland to play in a 10-day long Dublin Poker Festival at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin.

Jonsson and Jana had an entire tour planned around Ireland, to visit castles and places right before the poker tournament kicked off on February 10. The couple was also waiting for their friends, and the Icelandic team to arrive for the tournament. But just two days into the trip, Jonsson simply vanished. He was last seen in Whitehall on February 9. Jana, who had stepped into the hotel bar for coffee, found Jonsson missing, with only his hat and coat left behind.

The mystery deepens, as Jonsson neither carried a passport, a phone or a wallet. Police in Iceland tracked his activity online and didn’t find any activity on his bank card. Just a day before that he had lost in a poker game that played out in the hostel. It wasn’t something for Jonsson to get upset over, according to Jonsson’s sister–in law Katrin Birgisdottir.

“He lost some money and police have a record of it and have watched CCTV footage of the event.The loss was within the budget that he had anyway and he has lost a way more before,” she said, in an interview.

Since Jonsson’s disappearance, 12 members of his family visited Ireland, with a search party from Iceland to help them. Jonsson’s brother David Karl Vihelm said that he was last seen leaving the hotel room.

“He might have had cash with him but we are uncertain of how much. If he had cash, we are talking not that much. That was for the poker tournament. We are talking few thousand Euros,” Vihelm told the Irish Sun newspaper.

Reacting to appeals from Jonsson’s family, a group of Irish poker players has pledged to help Jonsson. They have set up a fundraiser for which the Irish Poker Open, IPO and Irish Poker Series tournament director have also come together and set up a fundraiser.

Tournament director Nick O’Hara said that the players also planned to get together for an organized search. The group is aiming to raise €5,000/$5,660 so that Jonsson’s family can join the search. Till now, O’Hara and his followers have already donated over €2,700/$3,056.

The CCTV footage at McGettigan’s bar shows Jonsson exiting onto the Swords Road, heading towards the airport on foot. He was not familiar with the area and was last seen at the exit of Highfield hospital, on his way towards Collin Avenue.

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