The Muck: "Check, Bet or Joke?"

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Jun 10, 2018 5 min read Last updated Apr 21, 2020

Angle shooting is always a controversial topic within the poker community. It tarnishes the integrity of the game, puts those at the table in an awful position, and should just never be done in any poker room in the world. Recently though, during a LIVE at the Bike live stream, regular Armenian Mike did something that may be perceived as angle shooting. The debate: was it an angle or was it really just a joke?

Joey Ingram has become a sort of investigative journalist cracking down on online bots, alleged harassment, and now angle shooting in poker. Take a look.

Ingram calls it the "worst angle" he's ever seen and certainly it sparked some debate. The controversy comes in two parts, though. Part I: Armenian Mike makes it $10K on the river, gets called to only then follow up by claiming his raise was all a joke. Part II: The floor ruled that Ryan was given the opportunity to decide what to do — either take the money or give it back.

Max Pescatori defined it as, "angling is taking advantage of something to get a pot or something. How can you take an angle to steal 900 with 10,000. This is just a stupid joke, not an angle."

Dan Fleyshman chimed in to say that, "the floor shouldn’t have even needed to walk over for a ruling because there was no option for 'joke.'"

Here's what others had to say:

DJ McKinnon: "If he wasn’t responsible for booking the show etc, I’m sure Ryan would’ve demanded he get the $10k. Just awkward spot bc of that."

Another LIVE at the Bike regular Garrett Adelstein: "This situation is unfortunately similar to many others I’ve had to deal with in live poker, often for a lot more $, often with 0 backup from other players just trying to protect their interests. Stay thirsty my friends. See ya next Friday Mike."

Allen Cunningham said it clear cut: "His opponent bet all in as clear as can be and he called. If your hand beats his you win. Does he think he’s pulling some grey area shit? Does he play poker? There is nothing to say but “pay me my money!” (Russian accent)."

One comment that did receive much praise was one coming from Sean McCormack, Director of Poker Operations at ARIA. He took a strong stance on this video and posted to Twitter for all to see that Armenian Mike was no longer allowed to play at ARIA.

The consensus seems to be that yes, indeed it was an angle shot but there are still plenty debating that it was an inappropriate "joke" that went awry. One thing that's certain is that a majority do feel that Ryan Feldman was put in a compromising position that never should have happened in the first place.

One thing we do know, is that this response won the debate --

Allen Kessler the new PokerNews Tournament Blogger?

Everyone in the poker community knows who Allen Kessler is, or at some point, has maybe seen a tweet from him or read about him.

He's an interesting fellow who always seems to be caught up in some kind of heat himself. At the very least, he just releases words into the Twitterverse and typically it generates two types of reactions - a chuckle or a debate.

He's always been supportive of the PokerNews brand (typically), heck - he even has his own video series, but from time to time does release some steam talking about the live reporters during the WSOP. But this time, he's tweeting something that we at PokerNews are taking a little interest in.

Let's be honest, poker reporting is a tough job. There are thousands upon thousands of players, so it's tough to know 'every single player' out there. There are hundreds of hands being reported daily so hey, a mistake or two may happen. Instead of getting upset, just throw up a tweet or DM and all will be rectified.

But having Kessler walk in the shoes of a tournament reporter could be a lot of fun, for us — not so much him. It would give him the knowledge of what the job is really like and experience the hustle and bustle of the summer grind. Allen, we accept your application - you're hired (but just for a bit).

Tweets of the Week

Twitter is my favorite. I mean, does anybody even use Facebook anymore? There are just so many gems to keep up with. Here are a few.

Any time there's a chance to have some fun with Phil Ivey, we're all for it.

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• Tags WSOP Phil Ivey Allen Kessler Allen Cunningham Dan Fleyshman Max Pescatori Armenian Mike Ryan Feldman
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• Related Players Allen CunninghamPhil IveyAllen KesslerMax PescatoriDan FleyshmanRyan Feldman