Erik123 might finally win a bracelet

[Dan Druff]

Eri123 was one of the original online crushers, obliterating the limit holdem scene in the early 2000s, at the age of 18.

He memorably won an epic heads up match against "bobcards", also one of the top limit holdem online guys at the time, who turned out to be Brock Parker aka t_soprano.

Here was Erik sometime in the 2000s:




Here was Erik in 2016:




Anyway, he's leading $10k Razz at the WSOP (yes, that's still going on) with 5 left:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1461575775346315270


He has only 4 cahses (all in high buyin events), and one ring, but no bracelet.

[garrett]

who that Joe McKeehen winning another bracelet

[Kalam]

What happened to him that he seemingly disappeared for 15 years and popped up playing high limit events in the World Series?

[Dan Druff]

What happened to him that he seemingly disappeared for 15 years and popped up playing high limit events in the World Series?

Not sure.

He was DIN_FRU on Full Tlit, but I lost track of what he was doing online after 2011 or so.

Anyone remember that cringe heads up match he did with Liz Lieu in 2006, supposedly because he called her a "fisk" (fish) online, and then she supposedly challenged her heads up in Vegas? Whole thing was staged because they both were repping the same site, and some moron thought this would be an exciting thing which would draw lots of attention. Instead, everyone collectively yawned, and nobody gave a shit. They still played out the match anyway, presumably not for real money (or maybe very reduced compared to what was supposedly being played).

Liz Lieu is another 2000s poker figure who vanished. Never got along with her. Neverwin always thought she was super hot and wanted to fuck her, but I don't think it ever happened. I think Liz is my age (and if not, very close), though she liked to pretend she was much younger.

[BCR]

What happened to him that he seemingly disappeared for 15 years and popped up playing high limit events in the World Series?

Don’t quote me on this, but I recall someone saying he became a businessman of some sort. Possibly a high bend restaurant? Don’t recall. Whatever it was when mentioned years ago, it was doing well at that time according to people who knew him.

[simpdog]

TID Erik!

[Jayjami]

What happened to him that he seemingly disappeared for 15 years and popped up playing high limit events in the World Series?

Not sure.

He was DIN_FRU on Full Tlit, but I lost track of what he was doing online after 2011 or so.

Anyone remember that cringe heads up match he did with Liz Lieu in 2006, supposedly because he called her a "fisk" (fish) online, and then she supposedly challenged her heads up in Vegas? Whole thing was staged because they both were repping the same site, and some moron thought this would be an exciting thing which would draw lots of attention. Instead, everyone collectively yawned, and nobody gave a shit. They still played out the match anyway, presumably not for real money (or maybe very reduced compared to what was supposedly being played).

Liz Lieu is another 2000s poker figure who vanished. Never got along with her. Neverwin always thought she was super hot and wanted to fuck her, but I don't think it ever happened. I think Liz is my age (and if not, very close), though she liked to pretend she was much younger.

Liz Lieu reminded me of Mason. She always had a sour look on her face.

[Dan Druff]

Not sure.

He was DIN_FRU on Full Tlit, but I lost track of what he was doing online after 2011 or so.

Anyone remember that cringe heads up match he did with Liz Lieu in 2006, supposedly because he called her a "fisk" (fish) online, and then she supposedly challenged her heads up in Vegas? Whole thing was staged because they both were repping the same site, and some moron thought this would be an exciting thing which would draw lots of attention. Instead, everyone collectively yawned, and nobody gave a shit. They still played out the match anyway, presumably not for real money (or maybe very reduced compared to what was supposedly being played).

Liz Lieu is another 2000s poker figure who vanished. Never got along with her. Neverwin always thought she was super hot and wanted to fuck her, but I don't think it ever happened. I think Liz is my age (and if not, very close), though she liked to pretend she was much younger.

Liz Lieu reminded me of Mason. She always had a sour look on her face.

Yup.

Also for some reason she just wasn't nice to me from the start. She appeared out of nowhere in the high stakes limit holdem games at Commerce, around 2005. Just acted really bitchy to me for no reason, especially one time when I was arguing with the floorman about something (away from the table) and she yelled at me to "shut the fuck up and sit down", even though I wasn't loud nor arguing for very long.

I think she just had an attitude because she was a spoiled rich chick and a lot of horny poker dudes kissed her ass, so she felt she could treat people like shit. There were no altercations between us prior to her bitchy attitude toward me (and of course, there was no social media then), so I had no idea what her problem was.

Anyway, she really came to hate me when I exposed on NWP a deal she made at a Commerce limit holdem tournament, where she literally bought first place. I had been paying attention to it because I was at the final table (I finished 8th), and the writeup of the article showed that they ended it with a deal where she was officially crowned winner heads up, despite having 40% of the chips! She gave the guy extra money over ICM so she could officially be crowned winner, presumably for sponsorship purposes, as she hadn't actually won any tournaments yet. While it was in the writeup, nobody paid attention because it was an LOL limit holdem tournament. However, I put a spotlight on this via NWP, and this looked pretty bad for her, and she was furious at me for it. She told neverwin (whom she was kinda friends with at the time) that "Dan Druff is a fucking asshole", and had other choice words for me. I told neverwin to tell her back that I said, "This is what happens when you mistreat people at the cardroom."

I guess it worked, though, because whenever I saw her going forward, she gave me angry looks, but never said another word to me.

[BCR]

What was her background for you to refer to her as a spoiled rich kid? I’m sure it’s accurate, but had never heard that despite her being fairly high profile at one time. I thought she was some limit grinder who made her way up the stakes in Az or Co or somewhere out west. I also recall her visiting family in Vietnam frequently and little else about her.

Given her age, was she like a Vietnamese child in 1974 who was adopted by some wealthy American family after the war?

[Dan Druff]

What was her background for you to refer to her as a spoiled rich kid? I’m sure it’s accurate, but had never heard that despite her being fairly high profile at one time. I thought she was some limit grinder who made her way up the stakes in Az or Co or somewhere out west. I also recall her visiting family in Vietnam frequently and little else about her.

Given her age, was she like a Vietnamese child in 1974 who was adopted by some wealthy American family after the war?

That was always a mystery, at least to me. Maybe people who knew her better have more info on this.

I was very active in both the live limit holdem scene (both Vegas and LA) and online limit holdem scene at the time. I never saw her grind up stakes. Maybe she did run it up in Colorado (I did hear she was from that area), but from what I remember, she claimed to have run it up online, though I didn't see her grinding online, nor did anyone else I know.

She just kinda popped up in the high stakes Commerce limit holdem games, and people guessed she was either the recipient of a big divorce settlement or had family money. I know she did have family back in Vietnam, but it's possible her parents came over decades prior and did well for themselves. She was very high maintenance and had the look of someone who was used to having money, rather than someone who just recently ran up a bankroll. But nobody I knew had her full story, so we were left to guess.

That's not to say she was a bad player. She wasn't, and she held her own in those games. Shortly after the "bought 1st place" controversy, she legitimately won a Commerce NL tournament, so the story died quickly after that.

She just wasn't a nice person, at least back then. Maybe she's mellowed with age and is different now, but back then she was one of the more unpleasant people to play with at Commerce, and that's saying a lot. I can't stress enough that I was never confrontational or rude to her in any way, and she basically started right off being nasty to me for no reason.