This post is from "D_Matthews" on 2+2, which I assume to be David Matthews, who once won the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. He is a recreational poker player, and claims to be a Seven Stars member at Caesars.
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So I sign up for the $5k NLHE at Rio today and I draw a table with Maurice Hawkins, who I don't know.. Maria Ho.. who I don't know.. and Melanie Weisner who I don't know.
Well I know them all now. I guess they're really big deals. Like I should care how important and awesome they are or something.
But anyway, Maria likes to raise preflop and bet every street. Or at least she did today.
I had pocket 33. the board came Q7752 (or something like that). I can't remember how the action went but she bet 850 on the river. The pot had 1400 in it, and we each had about 14k behind. (very early in event.)
I want to think about it. I don't like my hand, but I'm not certain she has anything. In fact, she might be betting because it's the only way she can win. Sure it doesn't seem like a lot of chips being only 850 but every decision matters in a tourney, IMO.
About 8 seconds after she makes her bet, Maurice Hawkins rolls his eyes at me (indicating that it's such a small bet I should have auto-called or auto-folded) and then starts loudly singing the Final Jeopardy theme song. This makes it more difficult to think. On top of that, he says, "Call the clock. It's only 850. This is ridiculous. He's had one whole minute to think about it and it's only 850!"
I decide to muck before the floor comes over but I ask for the floor to clarify the situation. I say, "Is it OK for him to sing the Jeopardy theme song while I'm trying to make my decision and is it OK for him to call the clock after only one minute (which he even said HIMSELF it was only a minute! not lying here).
The floor says that it should be at least 2 minutes before a floor is called, and no in no uncertain ways is singing the Jeopardy theme song acceptable while I'm making a river decision.
Maurice tells me before the floor gets there, "You know what? I don't give a damn."
But when the floor gets there he says "My fault. I shouldn't have said that."
He did get a warning for the Jeopardy singing.
Prior to this event, he had dropped the F-Bomb twice. I am not worried about the F-Bomb. Wouldn't have cared, but after this whole thing he said it again so I called the floor. The floor came over. Gave him another warning for dropping F-bomb (which the whole table had heard).
THAT's TWO WARNINGS.
So we play for a while and he gets in a 3-way pot that I'm not involved in and the early position player checks, he bets 3100, player behind him calls, then early position goes all in for 11,000. He had about 28000 then.
I wait for 2 whole minutes (remember he only gave me one Jeopardy-music-filled one minute earlier) and then I call clock. He says "You know you're a little bitch don't you? Yeah that's right you're a little bitch!" He's still in the hand and deciding what to do, but that's what he says to me.
A person with a Boston cap, then leads into me saying I didn't give him enough time, etc. This player had not been there for the earlier stuff. I told him that. Turns out he was close friends with Maurice so it was all a sham.
The floor gives both me and Maurice warnings. I'm thinking that's crazy. He got a warning for Jeopardy music, he got a warning for F-bomb, and he got a warning for calling me a little bitch.
What did I do? I called clock after 2 whole minutes on someone who called clock on me after 1 minute where he was singing Jeopardy the whole time.
So I'm the bad guy or something.
Anyway, there's a clique in poker. Maria Ho and Maurice obviously thought they were both superior to everyone else. They laughed and chided me and thought it was fine to break rules and etiquette because they're just that far superior to the peasants that troll these games like me.
There were a few other people at the table that refused to say a word in the tournament, but on the break they told me I was right on everything I said.
The floor seemed in the tank for Maurice too. They came up smiling to the table and Maurice greased them with hellos and smiles too. Clearly there's clique in tournament poker, and if you're not in it, you're not going to be treated well by the floor.
I think he is a bit out of line criticizing Maria, even if she did get some inappropriate lols out of Maurice's actions. It's not Maria's job to get in the middle of this, and from the rest of his posts on the thread, he seems to believe that she was "supporting" him while not really providing real evidence of that.
But this Maurice guy sounds like a big asshole, and this is exactly what we DON'T want in poker. In addition to creating an unpleasant environment in general, it scares away the recreational players. Here the guy was playing a tough $5k buyin event against presumably much better players, and Maurice chased him out.
Another player named JCHAK posted this:
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1st and only experience with Maurice Hawkins
3 tables left in a WSOP 1500 event when the following happened:
Eric Lindgren raises, I flat HJ with 44, Maurice Hawkins flats button.
Flop KQ2ddd, Lindgren checks, I check, Maurice bets 1/2 pot.
Lindgren check raises all in.
I fold.
Maurice goes on an expletive filled rant about his luck, bends his cards together high in the air and then folds.
15 seconds of silence pass.
"***** idiot, god dmn ***** idiot, idiot play cost me the pot" - maurice in bellowing voice
I thought to myself wow, can't believe he's cursing at Eric Lindgren like that, they must have some history.
15 more seconds of silence.
"just haaaaad to get in preflop with that sht, gave him odds, just had to get in the way"
at this point Lindgren has raised preflop again and just as it was my action Maurice says
"You gonna flat his open again, fk us up again? Stay out of my pots!"
Apparently the whole time he had been cursing me out for getting in his pot with lindgren in the prior hand, before he was even in the pot.
I remained silent and just thought to myself "this guy is special". FWIW, there was some sense of sarcasm to his voice, perhaps he was joking around, but he was genuinely pissed and I didn't know him at all. The actual words and statements were beyond unacceptable but they were slightly mitigated by his persona, if that makes any sense. It wasn't overly malicious, just pestering and narcissistic. It's been a year so his statements were somewhat paraphrased but that was the gist of it.
Table broke after the second hand.
He also likes to call people with 3 times his MTT earnings "fish" as reported here and here.
He may be a character, I don't mind characters at all, think people should be able to act out a little more than they currently are allowed, but in OP's case, I 100% have to give him the benefit of the doubt and would say Maurice most likely instigated everything. OP may have over reacted and gone too far himself, but when people feel attacked and/or marginalized, they simply don't respond well, which is understandable imo.
While I don't know Maurice, these stories all seem similar, and it seems like the guy is bad for poker. I wish the tournament floor people would put a stop to shit like this, while worrying less about petty rule violations.
