FOR PIERCE - NOT IN THE CARDS

Pierce ousted at WSOP
July, 12, 2011

By Chris Forsberg | @ESPNForsberg | Email

Celtics captain Paul Pierce's quest for a gold bracelet ended early Tuesday morning. From Andrew Feldman of ESPN's Poker Blog:
With only 20 minutes to go in Level 9, Paul Pierce made his exit from the WSOP main event. The NBA All-Star had been the attention of all at the secondary feature table, even players like Dennis Phillips who asked him for an autograph during play. Pierce played a patient game, but seemed to get active after dinner and would ultimately find himself in a rough spot with 2-2 all-in preflop against the J-J of Allan Vrooman. The board ran clean for Vroonman (K-8-5-4-K) and Pierce stood up from his chair, grabbed his backpack and walked out the door with spectators and players giving him a round of applause as they announced his departure.

Pierce spent a total of 17 hours and 40 minutes in action and outlasted more than half of the field of 2,031 that began on Day 2A.

112288

With a family to support now and no telling how long the lockout will be, a high stakes poker game was the last place Pierce should have been.

MD

Actually MD I believe the "buy in" for each player at the WSOP is only $10,000. A lot for you and me but really chump change for PP.

beat

MD,

I hope you were joking.
Paul has made over $137m in his career.
If he never got paid to work another day in his life, I would think he could support his family pretty easily.

Buy - in was $50K

112288

112288 wrote:Buy - in was $50K

112288

That means he still has $15,283,334 left from what he was paid last year. And only another $32 million coming in the next two years (unless the NBA shuts down for good).

I don't think we need to pass the hat for him.

Unless Obama wants to raise taxes on millionaires!

112288

Who are we to suggest how Paul spends his money????

WE don't want THE CAPTAIN involved in anything that involves gambling that would cast aspersions on his character or his need to be involved in "fixing" games should he incur substantial debt by his gambling. I think Jordan's gambling woes caused Stern to suggest to Michael he try baseball for a while until he could get his habit reasonably under control.

MD

MD,

Playing in the WSOP was entertainment for Paul. Paul can't get into substantial debt playing in this tournament. Paul will make back the $10,000 buy in fee in less then 3 minutes into his first game this season.

MJ playing baseball had completely nothing to do with gambling. He was bored, had done and won everything and was looking for a new challenge.

You shouldn't expect that athletes should follow your personal beliefs if what they are doing is not illegal, dangerous or could cause harm to themselves or others.

TJ - you are right. I, myself, love watching the poker tournaments. My husband thinks I am a nut! It is a mind game more than anything, some of these guys are really smart. Oh well, I don't think we are going to change MD's mind. I go to Vegas once in a while and just love it there. Not for the gambling, but the excitement. This is what these guys thrive off of. I watched
the tournament that night until I found out PP had been eliminated. They would have loved it if he had moved on.

Rosalie

My last words on the subject. If Paul wants or needs to gamble, let him take $10.00 or $20.00 a week and play Mega Millions or Powerball. I would allow him an occasional scratch off ticket as a possible instant winner. By limiting gambling to this amount, he can't get into any significant trouble with Stern, or his wife and daughter.

MD

MD

at lerast with poker you have the choice of what to do, decisions ect that need to be made as with most card games.......lotto takes no brains. Sort of like bingo.


And Rosalie I agree watching people gamble in almost any form is interesting and when I have a few bucks I go at it a bit myself, usually just blackjack for very small stakes.

beat

I love Vegas!! Just to people watch is fun for me! I take whatever $ I have put away just for this trip and when it is gone, I just watch others! What a life huh????

I do what you do Rosalie and it makes sense to me...I also used to get a years amount of vitamin C in one weekend by ordering the free drinks (Please bring me another orange juice) at the blackjack table...until I discovered that excess Vitamin C goes away the same way beer does. So I switched to beer.