Poker is a game of subtly. If you have a good hand, you don’t want others to know. And if you have a great hand, it’s in your best interest to shut the hell up and wait until you score your massive payout.


While a little trash talking is acceptable, sometimes it can go too far — like, “get yourself banned from the game” too far. That’s exactly what happened in this incident that took place last week Wednesday as a part of Big Bet Poker LIVE.


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One player, identified as Jason, starts the video by saying, “I’m bipolar. I’m fucking insane. You thought Kanye was bad? Wait until you see me.” (Sir, this is a Wendy’s, etc.) He continues: “I don’t give a fuck. It’s my money. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.” Jason also notes at one point that “this is a free country.”


Another player opposite him, identified as Austin, tells him to “calm the fuck down.” While this is happening, the long-haired player in the center seems to just count his chips, presumably hoping to god that he’s not about to be in the middle of a fistfight.


Anyway, Austin then threatens to rape Jason’s mom, a totally normal thing to say during a card game. Austin says that Jason needs to “watch his mouth” as well. Naturally, this devolves into threats of physical violence, with the two making a plan to “take it outside” once the game has concluded. All the while, someone off-screen is begging the duo to play poker. Too late, buddy.



Things do not improve from here. There are threats of torture, players’ moms get shoutouts that I’m sure they would not have liked to hear and the stream eventually gets cut off before Austin and James, according to PokerNews, actually began to physically fight.


So who are these two potty mouths?


Per PokerNews, Austin Yoo is “a Los Angeles cash game player,” while Jason Liu is “a Stanford University graduate who has worked for Twitter and Facebook.”



Is this what goes on at the Ivy Leagues? I have no idea. What I do know is that Yoo and Liu were banned from the stream in the future. In a statement shared with PokerNews, a source close to the show wrote, “We regret this confrontation happened on stream and shut the stream down as soon as we saw it escalating to such a level. Our goal is to provide a safe atmosphere for high-stakes poker players from all walks of life to come, have fun and celebrate the game of poker. The two players involved have been banned from our stream at this time. We hope to be making future headlines with new ideas, big pots and great competition. Poker trash talking is one thing, but it crossed a line that doesn’t represent the spirit of what Big Bet Poker is trying to achieve.”


The true hero of this story is Keir Sullivan, the man in the center, who told PokerNews that he “just wanted them to be quiet so we could keep playing.” He played the hand he was dealt as best as he could — in every possible way.