Was Kristen Bicknell fired from Party Poker because of anti-vax beliefs?

[Dan Druff]

Up until recently, Kristen Bicknell had a great reputation in poker, both on and off the felt.

She's a 34-year-old Canadian poker pro, and has been successful for years. Some believe she's presently the best female tournament player in poker, and that's a reasonable assertion. She has over $5 million in cashes, and holds three WSOP bracelets -- one live open bracelet, one ladies event bracelet, and one online bracelet. She's engaged to another top tournament pro, Alex Foxen.

She and Alex are presently engaged.



Kristen is known to be softspoken and pleasant at the table. She simply bears down and plays, like all the dudes do. She doesn't tend to get involved posting controversial or provocative content, nor does she exploit social media to bring attention to herself. Simply put, she's no Cate Hall.

I don't know Kristen personally, but I generally thought highly of her, from everything I had heard. Party Poker apparently thought the same thing, as they signed her as a site ambassador in 2017.

However, Kristen is involved in some uncharacteristic social media drama recently, and it involves the COVID vaccine, of all things.

If you go to her Twitter, you'll see tons of anti-vax stuff like this:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/krissyb24poker/status/1428026785011146760

... even though apparently she doesn't like it being called anti-vax.


People in poker have been very nasty to her for weeks, due to this. While I am pro-vax and believe that Krissy is mistaken, I don't approve of the vitriol, condescension, and namecalling aimed at those who are vaccine hesitant. Indeed, there have been a lot of lies from the governemnt and media regarding COVID, and it's not trivial to inject yourself with a vaccine which was rapidly developed.

At 34 years old, Krissy would be a lot safer with the COVID vaccine compared to taking her chances with actually catching COVID. However, it's not like she's 70. It's not necesssarily a no-brainer to take the vaccine at 34, and I can understand why some people at that age are distrustful and feel the upside isn't that high for htem.

Her fiancee Alex Foxen has been even more aggressive and more vocal regarding his anti-vax stance. It is likely that one probably influenced the other somewhat, which is common with married or engaged couples.


Anyway, the surprise came from her announcement today:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/krissyb24poker/status/1428756707682013187




Sooo... this begged the question whether Bicknell simply left because her contract was up and they couldn't agree to terms, or if she got fired mid-contract because of her vocal anti-vax beliefs.

I don't have a source at Party who can give me such an answer, nor do I know anyone who is close with Kristen, so I'll have to speculate.

The speculation will take place in the next message.

[Dan Druff]

Kristen Bicknell seems to have signed with Party Poker in the latter portion of 2017.

Here's a picture from a Party Poker event in May 2017. Notice she isn't wearing the patch, but the guy next to her is. This would imply that she wasn't yet a sponsored pro.



https://www.facebook.com/partypoker/...56102509699992


Now take a look at this article from flushdraw.net, dated January 31, 2018: https://www.flushdraw.net/news/phili...al-partypoker/

In addition to Haxton and Gruissem, partypoker has signed Jason Koon, Martin Jacobsen, Joni Jouhkimainen, Fedor Holz, and Kristen Bicknell all since September. That’s not to mention such names as Mike Sexton, Marcel Luske, Johnny Lodden, and Sam Trickett that were already on the roster.

Provided that author Dan Katz is correct about this, it means that Bicknell signed with Party sometime between September 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018. Since her tweet referred to "four years", it seems likely her signing was closer to mid-late 2017.


But even if she signed in early September, that still would leave her a bit short of 4 years. So why is she departing now?

My guess is that Party wasn't thrilled about the anti-vax stuff, and asked her to quit with the public statements about it. She probably refused, stating that she felt strongly about the matter. She and Party probably got into a stalemate about this, and decided to end her contract a few weeks early, and to say nice things about each other on the way out.

This is all speculation, but when someone's sponsorship contract seemingly ends early, and when that person has been involved in recent controversy, it's not hard to connect the dots.

Also, there was no other reason for them to part ways. She's Canadian (within Party's market), is still very marketable right now, and on her end it's basically free money. Unless she had another offer (which we'll know soon), it wouldn't make sense for either party to want to terminate association, unless it's about this COVID issue.

We will probably never get confirmation either way, unless an insider comes forward at some point.

[TheXFactor]

I think most of the poker community have no idea who she is.

She has a better record than Annie Duke who won $2.2 million in tournament winnings during her "poker career".

Kristen Bicknell has $5.6 million in tournament winnings.

She's Canadian. Did she get a lot of Canadians to play poker on PartyPoker?

She won $172K at the WSOP ladies event in 2013. Then about 3 years later, she starts playing professionally.

Look days of the sponsored poker pro are over. These poker sites don't need them anymore.

Legalized poker in America is still a fucking joke.

[JoeD]

Jason Koon left Party Poker a few weeks ago and I as far as I know, I don't think he has expressed strong anti-vax sentiments.

https://f5poker.com/poker-news/2021/...ye-partypoker/

So most likely this has to do more with either Party Poker cutting back on its live poker ambassadors and/or reducing it's budget, or maybe some other expanding online company offering a better deal (such as the company rumored to have purchased PokerGo).

[limitles]

Option #2. Nope. Not even related

[JeffDime]

She has the looks and the game to make a good ambassador, but I don’t think she got herself out there enough for Party to see a decent return on investment. Seems like her and Foxen kind of live in their own bubble. They are just one of those couples. Foxen seems like a bit of an intense dude both on and off the felt.

Both of them have been ranked number one on the GPI Male/Female for the better part of the last two years. I always found it a bit puzzling he didn’t get a sponsorship. I saw him on Joe Ingram’s podcast a while ago and it answered that question for me. He’s just not a very engaging guy. Great tournament player but not a salesman/ambassador.

My guess is Foxen probably got in Krissy’s ear here. I guess she’s young enough that she hasn’t thought existentially yet. I don’t know if Party was already going to end this anyways, but it for sure shows a lack of self awareness that being vocal on this stance wouldn’t be well received and could actually cost her the sponsorship. Maybe the writing was on the wall anyways.

Party has really gotten hosed lately with GG taking over that second place behind stars. My money is she doesn’t get signed by them.

[nunbeater]

Kristen Bicknell seems to have signed with Party Poker in the latter portion of 2017.

Here's a picture from a Party Poker event in May 2017. Notice she isn't wearing the patch, but the guy next to her is. This would imply that she wasn't yet a sponsored pro.

lol the guy next to her, yeah that random unknown dude

[BCR]

That she’s been playing online since 2006, has three bracelets, has a fiancée who used to play college football and appears also successful at poker, and I’ve never heard either’s name despite semi-following poker is the more likely problem. There’s a reason we have Hellmuth, Ted Cruz, Doyle, and some youtuber playing poker on tv.

[Sidewinder]

Hilarious you boot-lickers equate not wanting the covid vax to being anti-vax.

Equally hilarious she couldn't come to this conclusion herself - it's a result of her subjugation to her man, or osmosis from her man, or something.

She's an anti-vaxxer; brainwashed by her fiancee!!!!!!!!

You people are pathetic.

[BCR]

Hilarious you boot-lickers equate not wanting the covid vax to being anti-vax.

Equally hilarious she couldn't come to this conclusion herself - it's a result of her subjugation to her man, or osmosis from her man, or something.

She's an anti-vaxxer; brainwashed by her fiancee!!!!!!!!

You people are pathetic.

Obviously you’re referring to Druff as he’s the only one who voiced that opinion here, but I hate to break this to you, but if you can’t change your girls opinion on pretty much any subject as often as you like, you really suck at sex.

If you’re any good at it you can change it and change it back again the next week and convince them they’re crazy, not you, that’s always what you thought. Then fuck it, change it back again the next week just for fun. Any dude is aware of this, and if they aren’t, it’s possible all hope isn’t lost for you yet and you can seek out some instructional manuals and maybe a book on Tantra or something. Lmao at not controlling your woman’s opinion. Dude, that’s no way to live.

Props to this dude. He’s a football player and clearly he worked some magic. Glad he spun a Canadian and got her to go all Magtarded. At least she can’t vote. Could have been worse.

[Dan Druff]

I didn't say that Alex brainwashed her. I said that one probably influenced another. It could easily have been her influencing him.

[JeffDime]

Hilarious you boot-lickers equate not wanting the covid vax to being anti-vax.

Equally hilarious she couldn't come to this conclusion herself - it's a result of her subjugation to her man, or osmosis from her man, or something.

She's an anti-vaxxer; brainwashed by her fiancee!!!!!!!!

You people are pathetic.

Not sure whose boots were licking? This is a forum, we can’t speculate? I don’t think we are going out on a limb here thinking these two people didn’t end up together because of a mutual disdain over vaccinations. It’s also perfectly reasonable to deduce the American guy from a upper middle class suburb of Long Island, who is more vocal publicly than his Canadian girlfriend, is mostly likely the one in the relationship steering the ship on this issue in particular.

No need to get your tits all in a twist here. At the end of the day who really gives a shit. You are way over the top here.

[BCR]

Hilarious you boot-lickers equate not wanting the covid vax to being anti-vax.

Equally hilarious she couldn't come to this conclusion herself - it's a result of her subjugation to her man, or osmosis from her man, or something.

She's an anti-vaxxer; brainwashed by her fiancee!!!!!!!!

You people are pathetic.

Not sure whose boots were licking? This is a forum, we can’t speculate? I don’t think we are going out on a limb here thinking these two people didn’t end up together because of a mutual disdain over vaccinations. It’s also perfectly reasonable to deduce the American guy from a upper middle class suburb of Long Island, who is more vocal publicly than his Canadian girlfriend, is mostly likely the one in the relationship steering the ship on this issue in particular.

No need to get your tits all in a twist here. At the end of the day who really gives a shit. You are way over the top here.

This is politics and big picture shit we are talking about here. If you don’t control you girls opinion on shit like politics and who should bomb who, you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing in the bedroom and you really don’t deserve a dick.

On the flip side, if you don’t find yourself wandering aimlessly down the aisle of some horrible place like a Michaels craft store, or attending some pottery festival or discussing what they put in the muffins to make them so delicious, when all you want to do is get home and watch a game, she isn’t attractive enough.

If they can’t put you in a few spots a week where you absolutely want to blow your fucking brains out, and babbling to yourself, “ how does this bitch rope me into this shit every time?” you are with the wrong girl.

They win almost every little battle. They always will. The day to day shit they own. You have to win something? If you can’t at least control her vote and opinion on this type of shit, you’re just roadkill and might as well put on a skirt.

[Sidewinder]

It's amazing your(s) inability to give women credit for thinking for themself.

It's almost as if any female that comes around to the anti-authoritarian viewpoint was coerced into thinking this way.

Imagine trusting the government and then thinking any female that doesn't trust the government was somehow tricked or manipulated by a man - otherwise, she would also ALSO TRUST THE GOVERNMENT as you bootlickers do.

Hilarious.

[JeffDime]

It's amazing your(s) inability to give women credit for thinking for themself.

It's almost as if any female that comes around to the anti-authoritarian viewpoint was coerced into thinking this way.

Imagine trusting the government and then thinking any female that doesn't trust the government was somehow tricked or manipulated by a man - otherwise, she would also ALSO TRUST THE GOVERNMENT as you bootlickers do.

Hilarious.

This is one particular situation where I believe the man held the stronger beliefs. That does not mean as a rule that I am going to find that is the case in every situation. Go look at her Twitter profile. It’s mostly re-tweets about party poker stuff. She is not generally a very out spoken person. She was late to the game when the whole Vanessa Kade shit went down

So yes, in this situation I think Foxen held the stronger beliefs and perhaps she would not have even take a public position if it wasn’t for her boyfriend. This is one fucking case. You are doing the same thing 100X by generalizing my thoughts on women in general over one opinion.

[JeffDime]

I guess despite being vaccinated Bill Perkins is still boycotting the WSOP. Krissy was all over it.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/krissyb24poker/status/1431418722695061509