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February 21st 2007
A bad week for Phil Gordon
In a few years time Phil Gordon, the millionaire computer scientist, poker player, commentator and author, may reflect on this most ill-fated of weeks, and laugh. But right this minute laughter is probably a long way from his thoughts.
A week which got off to a rotten start when Daniel Negreanu let rip at Gordon on his blog, just got decidedly worse when Gordon found himself mixed up in an unseemly argument with Eric Cajelais, after getting eliminated from the WSOP Circuit event from San Diego.
Gordon made his millions in 1997, when the company he worked for, Netsys Technologies, was acquired by Cisco Systems, allowing Gordon to retire aged just 27 and head off to travel around the world.
A few years later Gordon returned from his travels and quickly made his mark on the poker scene, finishing 4th in the WSOP main-event in 2001 and winning the WPT’s Bay 101 Shooting Stars event in 2004.
In no time at all Gordon became a poker celebrity, commentating on Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown TV series and writing a number of books on poker strategy. He also writes columns in various poker magazines.
And it was one of these magazine columns that got him in hot water with Daniel Negreanu, when he criticised Daniel’s close friend and fellow professional poker player Erick Lindgren. The column drew a furious response from Negreanu, who said Phil Gordon “done lost his mind,” and added that “Erick would trounce (Gordon) at the poker table. He’d slap him up silly.”
Such a cutting response from one of the most well-liked players on the poker circuit was probably not what Gordon had in mind when he wrote his column, but if he thought things couldn’t get any worse he was in for a nasty surprise.
Gordon’s second moment to forget occurred during Day One of the WSOP Circuit event in Harrah’s Rincon Casino in San Diego. Gordon had just been knocked out (with A-7o against Barry Greenstein’s K-J) and was busy lamenting his bad luck when the normally reserved Erik Cajelais (who wasn’t involved in the knock out) piped up, saying: “Why don’t you just take your beat and leave?”
The comment stopped Gordon dead in his tracks, and flabbergasted, he stared at Cajelais, before retorting: “What the fuck!? What the hell is your problem?”
“Just take your beat and leave,” repeated Cajelais. “You’ll be fine.”
Gordon, clearly not fine, responded with a veiled threat, saying: “We will meet again,” only for his tormentor to quickly snap: “You don’t go deep enough in tournaments, we’ll never meet again.”
Gordon, visibly shaken, then spread his arms in a macho display of aggression and told Cajelais: “Any time you want to go, we’ll go.” But the muscle bound Cajelais simply agreed and sat watching as Gordon exited the poker room repeating his mantra of “anytime” to anyone who’d listen.
And with that ended seven days Phil Gordon would rather forget. Still, he can at least rest assured that things can only get better from here on in, you’d think . . . . !
Submitted: 21/02/2007 10:32:44
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