Posts Tagged ‘Josh Arieh’

The Underground Atlanta Poker Scene

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

Outside of Hoyt Corkins (Alabama), Shannon Shorr (AL), Josh Arieh (Georgia) and Greg Raymer (North Carolina), there aren’t a lot of famed poker players from the United States’ “Dirty South.” But that doesn’t mean they don’t still like to play in this area, as evidenced by a recent special on Atlanta’s underground poker scene.

PokerTube gives us a sneak peak of Atlanta poker games, which are said to include everybody from lawyers and entertainers to Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves players.

Going beyond the famous and powerful, what makes this segment so cool is that it brings viewers back to the pre-boom days of poker, when the game’s popularity was generated by interesting characters and dangerous settings – not some internet kid meticulously analyzing his opponent’s 5-betting range.

As you’ll see in the video, some of the players talk about being in games that were robbed at gunpoint. Shannon ‘The Mouth’ saw a guy get pistol whipped and have his head cracked open, something that Shannon describes as “freaky.”

One of the most entertaining characters is ‘Little Ricky,’ an energy drink owner who loves the expression, “Let’s get to the money.” He doesn’t seem to be the best player at the table, however, he definitely looks like somebody who makes the games interesting. During the video, Ricky says, “You can’t really have a social life when you tryin’ to get money. I’m married to the money right now.”

A common theme throughout the segment is that these Atlanta underground poker players need to know who’s in their game to avoid law enforcement or getting robbed by thugs. All in all, you’d be much safer playing online at home, but you wouldn’t have half the fun that these guys are.

Josh Arieh retires from Poker since it’s “Really Tough”

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Josh Arieh has remained a well-known figure in the poker world ever since he finished third in the 2004 WSOP Main Event and collected $2.5 million. He’s also managed to win two WSOP gold bracelets (1999 and 2005), which has furthered his reputation as a strong tournament player. However, it appears that Arieh has decided to retire from poker – save for playing in the WSOP Main Event.

The 37-year-old dropped this news by telling PokerListings, “I’m not thinking about it, I am (retiring from poker). This is my last tournament until the next WSOP. To me, poker is not what it used to be.” He expanded on the reasoning behind quitting as he said, “Poker is really tough. Kids got so good. Instead of poolroom hustlers and gamblers it turned into freaking geniuses. Kids that are making 1600 on the SATs.”

So how serious is he about retiring from poker? Well the Atlanta resident commented on this by saying, “I’m willing to take any bet from anyone. I’m the action junkie, everyone knows that I love being in action and I’m a complete degenerate. I’m willing to take any bet that I don’t play another tournament after this until the $10k PLO at the WSOP next year.”

About the only way that Josh Arieh would return to poker full-time is if the United States fully legalized the game. After all, this would bring a lot of fresh, unskilled players into the fold and give pros like Arieh a bigger edge. He echoed this sentiment by saying, “If poker gets legalized in the U.S. there will be another boom. It would be great again. That would make it worth what we go through.” You can read the rest of Arieh’s comments on the matter here.

Besides his aforementioned accomplishments and $6 million in tournament winnings, Arieh is also known for representing Bodog and Full Tilt Poker in his career. However, without a sponsorship deal now, it’s likely that this helped contribute to his decision to quit playing poker.

Questionable Bodog Poker Signings

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

One thing that I’ve been noticing a lot in the online poker world is some questionable signings. And what I mean by this is people who don’t necessarily show all of the merits that a typical signed player should.

The prime suspect in this discussion is Bodog Poker, which has dumped all of its male pros like David Williams and Josh Arieh in favor of an all-female contingent of Amanda Musumeci, Tatjana Pasalic and Evelyn Ng. Now I do have to say that Ng has been with the company for a while, having cashed for a respectable $377,191. However, not a whole lot of people get signed to a major poker room with $377k in winnings, and the sultry Asian went nearly two years between 2008 and 2010 without any cash at all.

Of course, this is better than Musumeci, who has zero live cashes. Fortunately, there is some merit with signing the Pennsylvania native since she has over $770k in online tournament cashes. But once again, your average, chubby male grinder doesn’t get signed by a site like Bodog with $770k in online cashes. No, they’d have to be an attractive younger woman to swing this deal.

Last up on this list is Tatjana Pasalic, who has virtually no poker experience away from her reporting and presenting duties. Pasalic has less than $6,000 in live cashes, which doesn’t really qualify as much more than a good poker TV host. Even fellow hostess Kara Scott has a nice playing career with $561,603 in live cashes.

Now all of this isn’t to say that Bodog and other rooms shouldn’t be signing attractive female players because it not only appeals to red-blooded males, but also encourages other women to get into poker. But trying to turn your stable of pros into a swimsuit calendar isn’t exactly the most respectable thing to do.