Chris Hunichen is a tournament high-roller promoting a $15k Gofundme for his family -- does this make any sense?

[Dan Druff]

I didn't realize until now that he's friends with The Saurus. Interesting.

I didn't know Saurus existed until February 2023. My first impression of him was positive. He was very supportive of me during all of the Jami controversy (ironically, another Gofundme situation). I then noticed that he was taking such an interest because one of his buddies had some kind of troubling incident with her in Spokane, but whatever. The guy still seemed cool enough, and was happy to have his support.

Then the Jami stuff died down, and he and I didn't really interact. Since I was following him, I noticed he was very left wing politically. For awhile, I did not interact with any of his political posts.

In early May, I saw him in a political debate with Nick Palma, of all people. Saurus had posted a video of a middle-aged white guy in Riverside County grabbing a bag from a young black woman, while the woman was on her way out of the store. The woman then punched him, and he threw her to the ground. The video was shared as an example of a good samaritan stopping a shoplifting of hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. This had incited some minor controversy on social media at the time, with right wingers praising him as a hero, and left wingers calling him a racist who just wanted an excuse to do something violent to a black woman.

Of course, Saurus was sharing the video to not only criticize this man, but also made some kind of nasty comment about "white male privilege" in the process. (I believe Saurus is at least partially white himself.) Nick Palma did not agree, and was calling the guy a hero. Saurus kept saying that the guy should be in jail, and that he had no right to put his hands on a woman of color, even if he saw her shoplifting. He was asserting that the guy was just a racist asshole who enjoyed the whole thing. Palma was countering that crime against stores has gotten out of control, that he was only grabbing the merchandise back, and the first contact was punch was thrown by her in response.

I googled this and indeed saw that this appeared to really be a "customer attempts to stop shoplifting" video, and I found myself strongly agreeing with Palma. While Palma had his own controversial history, and is not my friend, I politely got involved with the thread. I responded to Saurus and pointed out why this guy was not being racist -- just a guy sick of seeing criminals steal from his local stores, and he was simply trying to grab back the merchandise which was just stolen. I compared it to how he'd feel if he had been away from the poker table, some guy stole chips off his stack and tried to run out the door, and a good samaritan tried to grab the chips back out of the thief's hand. He countered that the guy was "stupid" to put himself in harm's way just to help a big corporation, which I agreed, but I said that it didn't make him racist or out of line in his actions.

Saurus then posted a screen shot of statement from a Riverside County police station, regarding the matter. The statement was from a police captain who was correcting the context of the video. The statement clarified that the young woman seen in the video had actually purchased all of the merchandise, and was not a shoplifter. It stated that the white male attacker in the video grabbed at her stuff simply because he assumed she must have shoplifted it, and was incorrect, leading to the altercation. I didn't read it closely -- just skimmed it.

This, of course, changed everything. Now this guy hadn't witnessed a shoplifting -- he was assuming a black girl was a shoplifter just because she was walking out with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, which indeed would make him racist!

Saurus took a victory lap, tweeting it to me with the question, "What's it like to be so laughably wrong?"

I decided to read the actual statement in full, rather than just skim it. One thing jumped out at me immediately. The police officer was supposedly from the "Jarupa Valley" station. The problem? There is no "Jarupa Valley" in Riverside County -- only JURUPA Valley. What was the chance that a police captain would misspell his own station's name? Not only that, but the statement had absolutely no source anywhere on the web, except for one random guy on Facebook.

Indeed, the entire police statement was a hoax put out by a left wing Facebook troll, and Saurus had fallen for it. This video actually was what it appeared to be -- a man trying to stop a shoplifter by grabbing at the property she was taking out of the store.

I pointed out to Saurus that he had fallen for a hoax, and had prematurely taken a victory lap. He was obviously embarrassed, and the conversation died at that point.

Just one day later, the Lindsey controversy broke out, regarding me. I'm not sure if Saurus knew her well (they're both Vegas locals), but the reason he came at me so aggressively was at least partially because I made him look foolish the day before. I've ignored him since then, and aside from one snide comment about me on Twitter a few weeks later, he's ignored me as well.

I've never met him in person.

You can read the thread about the shopiliftng thing here: https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...itting-assault

[Dan Druff]

Hunichen messaged me privately and told me a ton of personal stuff. Of course, I'm not going to share any of that.

I will say that the guy has gone through some pretty hard times over the past few years, and has also been the one bearing the burden of a lot of help for family members. Apparently he has been generous with others in poker in the past, when he was doing well.

This was basically a case of his mom setting up the Gofundme without his knowledge, coming to him and asking for him to promote it to his poker friends, and then doing so after some hesitation due to the reaction he knew he'd receive.

In this context, it makes a little more sense. Picture yourself constantly opening up your wallet for your family, and then your mom is running a gofundme which isn't raising much, they ask you, "Hey, I know you have a lot of followers who are generous, can you share this and see if any of them want to help?"

Also, it's hard to say no to your mom.

So I get it, but I understand how this looks bad to some people, especially with Huni being seen attending UFC matches and stuff like that.

[Sloppy Joe]

Hunichen messaged me privately and told me a ton of personal stuff. Of course, I'm not going to share any of that.

I will say that the guy has gone through some pretty hard times over the past few years, and has also been the one bearing the burden of a lot of help for family members. Apparently he has been generous with others in poker in the past, when he was doing well.

This was basically a case of his mom setting up the Gofundme without his knowledge, coming to him and asking for him to promote it to his poker friends, and then doing so after some hesitation due to the reaction he knew he'd receive.

In this context, it makes a little more sense. Picture yourself constantly opening up your wallet for your family, and then your mom is running a gofundme which isn't raising much, they ask you, "Hey, I know you have a lot of followers who are generous, can you share this and see if any of them want to help?"

Also, it's hard to say no to your mom.

So I get it, but I understand how this looks bad to some people, especially with Huni being seen attending UFC matches and stuff like that.

Just when you think poker players cannot be more pathetic this faggot goes and blames his mom for begging on his behalf?

[ReformDorm]

I didn't realize until now that he's friends with The Saurus. Interesting.

I didn't know Saurus existed until February 2023. My first impression of him was positive. He was very supportive of me during all of the Jami controversy (ironically, another Gofundme situation). I then noticed that he was taking such an interest because one of his buddies had some kind of troubling incident with her in Spokane, but whatever. The guy still seemed cool enough, and was happy to have his support.

Then the Jami stuff died down, and he and I didn't really interact. Since I was following him, I noticed he was very left wing politically. For awhile, I did not interact with any of his political posts.

In early May, I saw him in a political debate with Nick Palma, of all people. Saurus had posted a video of a middle-aged white guy in Riverside County grabbing a bag from a young black woman, while the woman was on her way out of the store. The woman then punched him, and he threw her to the ground. The video was shared as an example of a good samaritan stopping a shoplifting of hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. This had incited some minor controversy on social media at the time, with right wingers praising him as a hero, and left wingers calling him a racist who just wanted an excuse to do something violent to a black woman.

Of course, Saurus was sharing the video to not only criticize this man, but also made some kind of nasty comment about "white male privilege" in the process. (I believe Saurus is at least partially white himself.) Nick Palma did not agree, and was calling the guy a hero. Saurus kept saying that the guy should be in jail, and that he had no right to put his hands on a woman of color, even if he saw her shoplifting. He was asserting that the guy was just a racist asshole who enjoyed the whole thing. Palma was countering that crime against stores has gotten out of control, that he was only grabbing the merchandise back, and the first contact was punch was thrown by her in response.

I googled this and indeed saw that this appeared to really be a "customer attempts to stop shoplifting" video, and I found myself strongly agreeing with Palma. While Palma had his own controversial history, and is not my friend, I politely got involved with the thread. I responded to Saurus and pointed out why this guy was not being racist -- just a guy sick of seeing criminals steal from his local stores, and he was simply trying to grab back the merchandise which was just stolen. I compared it to how he'd feel if he had been away from the poker table, some guy stole chips off his stack and tried to run out the door, and a good samaritan tried to grab the chips back out of the thief's hand. He countered that the guy was "stupid" to put himself in harm's way just to help a big corporation, which I agreed, but I said that it didn't make him racist or out of line in his actions.

Saurus then posted a screen shot of statement from a Riverside County police station, regarding the matter. The statement was from a police captain who was correcting the context of the video. The statement clarified that the young woman seen in the video had actually purchased all of the merchandise, and was not a shoplifter. It stated that the white male attacker in the video grabbed at her stuff simply because he assumed she must have shoplifted it, and was incorrect, leading to the altercation. I didn't read it closely -- just skimmed it.

This, of course, changed everything. Now this guy hadn't witnessed a shoplifting -- he was assuming a black girl was a shoplifter just because she was walking out with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, which indeed would make him racist!

Saurus took a victory lap, tweeting it to me with the question, "What's it like to be so laughably wrong?"

I decided to read the actual statement in full, rather than just skim it. One thing jumped out at me immediately. The police officer was supposedly from the "Jarupa Valley" station. The problem? There is no "Jarupa Valley" in Riverside County -- only JURUPA Valley. What was the chance that a police captain would misspell his own station's name? Not only that, but the statement had absolutely no source anywhere on the web, except for one random guy on Facebook.

Indeed, the entire police statement was a hoax put out by a left wing Facebook troll, and Saurus had fallen for it. This video actually was what it appeared to be -- a man trying to stop a shoplifter by grabbing at the property she was taking out of the store.

I pointed out to Saurus that he had fallen for a hoax, and had prematurely taken a victory lap. He was obviously embarrassed, and the conversation died at that point.

Just one day later, the Lindsey controversy broke out, regarding me. I'm not sure if Saurus knew her well (they're both Vegas locals), but the reason he came at me so aggressively was at least partially because I made him look foolish the day before. I've ignored him since then, and aside from one snide comment about me on Twitter a few weeks later, he's ignored me as well.

I've never met him in person.

You can read the thread about the shopiliftng thing here: https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...itting-assault

That's cool Huni told you a bunch of personal stuff but in my opinion the whole thing is a really bad look. Bottom line is this guy has won more money than 99.9% of the population will ever see in their lifetimes. He's still playing super high roller tournaments where buyins can buy new cars and houses. So for him or anyone associated with him to have this Gofundme is absolutely ridiculous and extremely short-sighted. It's not like his last recorded cash was 6 years ago or something and had disappeared from the poker scene.

The whole thing for me doesn't pass the smell test and is absurd. Hendon Mob being accurate or not, dude has won over 10 million dollars and was recently this year playing enormous buyin events. Anyone donating to this needs to have their head examined.

[Dan Druff]

I didn't realize until now that he's friends with The Saurus. Interesting.

I didn't know Saurus existed until February 2023. My first impression of him was positive. He was very supportive of me during all of the Jami controversy (ironically, another Gofundme situation). I then noticed that he was taking such an interest because one of his buddies had some kind of troubling incident with her in Spokane, but whatever. The guy still seemed cool enough, and was happy to have his support.

Then the Jami stuff died down, and he and I didn't really interact. Since I was following him, I noticed he was very left wing politically. For awhile, I did not interact with any of his political posts.

In early May, I saw him in a political debate with Nick Palma, of all people. Saurus had posted a video of a middle-aged white guy in Riverside County grabbing a bag from a young black woman, while the woman was on her way out of the store. The woman then punched him, and he threw her to the ground. The video was shared as an example of a good samaritan stopping a shoplifting of hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise. This had incited some minor controversy on social media at the time, with right wingers praising him as a hero, and left wingers calling him a racist who just wanted an excuse to do something violent to a black woman.

Of course, Saurus was sharing the video to not only criticize this man, but also made some kind of nasty comment about "white male privilege" in the process. (I believe Saurus is at least partially white himself.) Nick Palma did not agree, and was calling the guy a hero. Saurus kept saying that the guy should be in jail, and that he had no right to put his hands on a woman of color, even if he saw her shoplifting. He was asserting that the guy was just a racist asshole who enjoyed the whole thing. Palma was countering that crime against stores has gotten out of control, that he was only grabbing the merchandise back, and the first contact was punch was thrown by her in response.

I googled this and indeed saw that this appeared to really be a "customer attempts to stop shoplifting" video, and I found myself strongly agreeing with Palma. While Palma had his own controversial history, and is not my friend, I politely got involved with the thread. I responded to Saurus and pointed out why this guy was not being racist -- just a guy sick of seeing criminals steal from his local stores, and he was simply trying to grab back the merchandise which was just stolen. I compared it to how he'd feel if he had been away from the poker table, some guy stole chips off his stack and tried to run out the door, and a good samaritan tried to grab the chips back out of the thief's hand. He countered that the guy was "stupid" to put himself in harm's way just to help a big corporation, which I agreed, but I said that it didn't make him racist or out of line in his actions.

Saurus then posted a screen shot of statement from a Riverside County police station, regarding the matter. The statement was from a police captain who was correcting the context of the video. The statement clarified that the young woman seen in the video had actually purchased all of the merchandise, and was not a shoplifter. It stated that the white male attacker in the video grabbed at her stuff simply because he assumed she must have shoplifted it, and was incorrect, leading to the altercation. I didn't read it closely -- just skimmed it.

This, of course, changed everything. Now this guy hadn't witnessed a shoplifting -- he was assuming a black girl was a shoplifter just because she was walking out with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, which indeed would make him racist!

Saurus took a victory lap, tweeting it to me with the question, "What's it like to be so laughably wrong?"

I decided to read the actual statement in full, rather than just skim it. One thing jumped out at me immediately. The police officer was supposedly from the "Jarupa Valley" station. The problem? There is no "Jarupa Valley" in Riverside County -- only JURUPA Valley. What was the chance that a police captain would misspell his own station's name? Not only that, but the statement had absolutely no source anywhere on the web, except for one random guy on Facebook.

Indeed, the entire police statement was a hoax put out by a left wing Facebook troll, and Saurus had fallen for it. This video actually was what it appeared to be -- a man trying to stop a shoplifter by grabbing at the property she was taking out of the store.

I pointed out to Saurus that he had fallen for a hoax, and had prematurely taken a victory lap. He was obviously embarrassed, and the conversation died at that point.

Just one day later, the Lindsey controversy broke out, regarding me. I'm not sure if Saurus knew her well (they're both Vegas locals), but the reason he came at me so aggressively was at least partially because I made him look foolish the day before. I've ignored him since then, and aside from one snide comment about me on Twitter a few weeks later, he's ignored me as well.

I've never met him in person.

You can read the thread about the shopiliftng thing here: https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...itting-assault

That's cool Huni told you a bunch of personal stuff but in my opinion the whole thing is a really bad look. Bottom line is this guy has won more money than 99.9% of the population will ever see in their lifetimes. He's still playing super high roller tournaments where buyins can buy new cars and houses. So for him or anyone associated with him to have this Gofundme is absolutely ridiculous and extremely short-sighted. It's not like his last recorded cash was 6 years ago or something and had disappeared from the poker scene.

The whole thing for me doesn't pass the smell test and is absurd. Hendon Mob being accurate or not, dude has won over 10 million dollars and was recently this year playing enormous buyin events. Anyone donating to this needs to have their head examined.

I agree it's a bad look.

The $10.8m Hendon Mob thing, while eye-popping, doesn't mean much, because he could still be down overall, given the number of high rollers he played. He also could be up, but short on funds anyway, due to backing deals, bankroll management issues, cash losses, etc.

You'd be surprised how many people in these high rollers actually have very little to their name, and are playing on someone else's dime.

However, as I said before, due to the bad optics here, he really should be transparent with the public if he's going to promote a family gofundme for $15k. This transparency is important given Huni's (accurate) reputation of a high stakes player.

My feeling is that he's not scamming anyone, and not lying about anything, but he probably should have skipped the gofundme promotion due to the bad optics.

Similarly, if I ran a gofundme for $15k, and people pointed out I played the $10k WSOP Main completely on my own dime (which I did), people would also have the right to be asking some questions.

[ReformDorm]

That's cool Huni told you a bunch of personal stuff but in my opinion the whole thing is a really bad look. Bottom line is this guy has won more money than 99.9% of the population will ever see in their lifetimes. He's still playing super high roller tournaments where buyins can buy new cars and houses. So for him or anyone associated with him to have this Gofundme is absolutely ridiculous and extremely short-sighted. It's not like his last recorded cash was 6 years ago or something and had disappeared from the poker scene.

The whole thing for me doesn't pass the smell test and is absurd. Hendon Mob being accurate or not, dude has won over 10 million dollars and was recently this year playing enormous buyin events. Anyone donating to this needs to have their head examined.

I agree it's a bad look.

The $10.8m Hendon Mob thing, while eye-popping, doesn't mean much, because he could still be down overall, given the number of high rollers he played. He also could be up, but short on funds anyway, due to backing deals, bankroll management issues, cash losses, etc.

You'd be surprised how many people in these high rollers actually have very little to their name, and are playing on someone else's dime.

However, as I said before, due to the bad optics here, he really should be transparent with the public if he's going to promote a family gofundme for $15k. This transparency is important given Huni's (accurate) reputation of a high stakes player.

My feeling is that he's not scamming anyone, and not lying about anything, but he probably should have skipped the gofundme promotion due to the bad optics.

Similarly, if I ran a gofundme for $15k, and people pointed out I played the $10k WSOP Main completely on my own dime (which I did), people would also have the right to be asking some questions.

Good points Todd

[Mission146]

Hunichen messaged me privately and told me a ton of personal stuff. Of course, I'm not going to share any of that.

I will say that the guy has gone through some pretty hard times over the past few years, and has also been the one bearing the burden of a lot of help for family members. Apparently he has been generous with others in poker in the past, when he was doing well.

This was basically a case of his mom setting up the Gofundme without his knowledge, coming to him and asking for him to promote it to his poker friends, and then doing so after some hesitation due to the reaction he knew he'd receive.

In this context, it makes a little more sense. Picture yourself constantly opening up your wallet for your family, and then your mom is running a gofundme which isn't raising much, they ask you, "Hey, I know you have a lot of followers who are generous, can you share this and see if any of them want to help?"

Also, it's hard to say no to your mom.

So I get it, but I understand how this looks bad to some people, especially with Huni being seen attending UFC matches and stuff like that.

Meh. I think he should have asked her to take it down, or just flatly refused to promote it to his friends, if he is not imminently hurting for money.

Of course, I would have just looked at it, shrugged (but for the thread here) and went on about my day. Poker player needs donated money? Nah, I'm good. I really don't see any particular reason for people to call him out over it; if you don't want to donate to it, then just don't donate to it.

[JeffDime]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/TeeitupW/status/1686716010789736448

[Sanlmar]

Meh. I think he should have asked her to take it down, or just flatly refused to promote it to his friends, if he is not imminently hurting for money.

Of course, I would have just looked at it, shrugged (but for the thread here) and went on about my day. Poker player needs donated money? Nah, I'm good. I really don't see any particular reason for people to call him out over it; if you don't want to donate to it, then just don't donate to it.

The Hendon Mob announced it will be posting social credit scores in 2024. Poker players rejoice

[JeffDime]

Whatever with Big Huni. He’s got close to a million dollar score a few days ago on ACR. Posting about vacations & UFC with a gofundme still up. I don’t care what sob stories he sends to Druff. It’s all just absurd. Not taking it down. Nothing about reimbursing those who donate if they wish.

The Saurus has the most nauseating Twitter feed I’ve ever seen. Virtue signaling bullshit & all stuff about how he loves women. He is either a total phony or the most insufferable human being alive. Battle Rapper? Lol. He also calls himself a legend. Had to mute him. Just nauseating to read.

God bless these guys. This is the world we live in.

[DJ_Chaps]

Whatever with Big Huni. He’s got close to a million dollar score a few days ago on ACR. Posting about vacations & UFC with a gofundme still up. I don’t care what sob stories he sends to Druff. It’s all just absurd. Not taking it down. Nothing about reimbursing those who donate if they wish.

The Saurus has the most nauseating Twitter feed I’ve ever seen. Virtue signaling bullshit & all stuff about how he loves women. He is either a total phony or the most insufferable human being alive. Battle Rapper? Lol. He also calls himself a legend. Had to mute him. Just nauseating to read.

God bless these guys. This is the world we live in.

Meh, most in battle rap scene consider him a legend.

[JeffDime]

Whatever with Big Huni. He’s got close to a million dollar score a few days ago on ACR. Posting about vacations & UFC with a gofundme still up. I don’t care what sob stories he sends to Druff. It’s all just absurd. Not taking it down. Nothing about reimbursing those who donate if they wish.

The Saurus has the most nauseating Twitter feed I’ve ever seen. Virtue signaling bullshit & all stuff about how he loves women. He is either a total phony or the most insufferable human being alive. Battle Rapper? Lol. He also calls himself a legend. Had to mute him. Just nauseating to read.

God bless these guys. This is the world we live in.

Meh, most in battle rap scene consider him a legend.

Being considered a legend by your peers and fans is one thing. Constantly referring to yourself as a legend is a different thing. Man rap has changed.

As for Huni…look this isn’t a 900K score on some big high roller 50K buyin where he may have a small piece of himself. This is on a $2,650 buyin. Even if he fired a few bullets this is a huge score. To still have the godundme up is a total embarrassment. It’s his gofundme. I don’t care who technically started it. It’s his platform and his community that donated to help offset his costs. It’s his GoFundMe..

[JeffDime]

Bump Polk. I did see the private jet tweet and it did make me wince a bit. But I got my own problems. Polk let him have it. I agree with Polk here.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1720871914447528284

[Dan Druff]

Yeah this blew up into a big thing today, mainly because Polk got involved. I will post the entire exchange a bit later.

Basically it went like this:

- Huni posted the now-infamous private jet tweet

- Matt Salsberg (Hollywood writer/producer who also plays poker) then make a snarky remark in response

- Tons of people piled on and started mocking Huni

- Doug Polk got involved, quote-tweeted Huni, and took him to task

- Huni and Polk started fighting back and forth

- Charlie Carrel, who was behind the May 2023 semi-cancellation of Polk on poker Twitter, smelled blood in the water, and came after Doug


I'll give my opinion of this shortly.

[JeffDime]

Yeah this blew up into a big thing today, mainly because Polk got involved. I will post the entire exchange a bit later.

Basically it went like this:

- Huni posted the now-infamous private jet tweet

- Matt Salsberg (Hollywood writer/producer who also plays poker) then make a snarky remark in response

- Tons of people piled on and started mocking Huni

- Doug Polk got involved, quote-tweeted Huni, and took him to task

- Huni and Polk started fighting back and forth

- Charlie Carrel, who was behind the May 2023 semi-cancellation of Polk on poker Twitter, smelled blood in the water, and came after Doug


I'll give my opinion of this shortly.

Huni deserves this. Look, I get it. He was probably down to the felt when he reposted the gofundme. The part about it not being his godundme and his mom & sister did it is total semantics. He is the “known” person and the community in which he was “known” would be the ones giving money to offset costs associated with his father’s death. The gofundme even uses semantics when talking about this private autopsy (which I am very skeptical was done here) and then talking about home repair. It’s a mess.

Huni provides no receipts when he claims he put his family through college and this absurd claim that he has donated a half a million dollars of his own money to the homeless.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/BigHuni/status/1720908018949538016

None of this even matters but it just goes to his pattern. He likes to flaunt his wealth and then all of a sudden puts his hand out for “collateral” costs associated with the death of his father. Now he had the 800K score. Instead of talking about private jets and all this “supposed” money he spent on his family he should be tweeting that anyone who wants their money back for donating to his gofundme to contact him. That’s the correct thing to do. Instead he’s asking about chartering a private jet to go gamble in the Bahamas. Come on dude. He’s really just made a fool out of himself.

Really what we are continuing to see on social media are guys doing all they can to stay in action. With social media and new ways to leverage money from it we see started to see the MO of guys like Huni. What was done mostly in the dark is now for all to see. Much easier for Huni to tweet about a gofundme or a Private jet or whatever than actually dealing with this stuff in person.

As for Doug, my opinion on him is complicated because I think he has changed a lot over the years. He certainly is not a very empathetic guy but that’s part of his success. He doesn’t really worry about how his content will effect others. But I don’t think he’s a bad person. Complicated. Huni just being an insiufferable douche. Just like The Saurus. Doesn’t make them bad guys either. But insufferable for sure.

Huni could have saved this whole thing and his reputation. After he hit the 800K if he did explain that things were tight, it happens in poker and he had a a bad run. Now that he is flush again he would like to return any donations made to the gofundme. Really would have cost him very little and rehabilitated his reputation. Missed opportunity.

[JeffDime]

It’s always hard to speculate as to someone motivations. For Doug, because of the size of his following, it’s basically an automatic response from anyone he calls out to say Doug is doing this for clicks. You see plenty in Huni’s camp saying that.

I don’t think so. I think Doug held his tongue during the gofundme probably in large part to the fact it was involving the death of Huni’s father. However, I think just like many have, Doug grew increasingly annoyed by Huni’s Twitter feed in the last few months. The Private Jet tweet just made him say fuck it, I have to call this guy out. I can’t say I blame him.

Negreanu also had a somewhat befuddling take here and took Huni’s side. The more I thought of it he actually has some reason to be biased here. He is the face of this WSOP in Paradise. He did that commercial for it and GG is heavily involved. It’s been a total disaster so far with GG taking tons of money out of satellites for rooms and food in a deceptive fashion.

Daniel has an interest in high stakes players showing up down there and therefore a tweet talking about getting a chartered plane from Vegas to the Bahamas is in his interest. I don’t know if that played into Daniel’s strange take, but he certainly has plenty of reasons to be biased here.

It may not even be a conscious thing when he took his position here. But there has to be some pressure on Daniel to at least have these higher buyin events not be total duds. You would think he is doing some lobbying behind the scenes to make sure there is at least a sufficient amount of bigger players down there.

This is not a huge deal in the scheme of everything going on today. No one is scamming anyone. It was transparently a very weird gofundme and those that gave should have easily seen that this wasn’t very straightforward. In essence, the father had passed away and you were essentially donating money to the family to use as they so fit. The issue was in how Huni handled it and his social media since.

I am not attacking Negreanu. I like Daniel and tend to agree with a lot of his current opinions and I respect the way he conducts himself and represents the game of poker. It’s just interesting to see the takes. But most of the time I just follow the money.

[dmndkutr]

Huni to Druff - yeah money is really tight



Also Huni: I needs me a private charter flight, fools.

[Karen Nathan]

It makes sense that Chris Hunichen is a tournament high roller promoting a $15,000 GoFundMe for his Family. Terry Watanabe blew around 127 Million gambling, ended up suddenly getting Cancer or something like that and did a GoFundMe begging for Cancer removal surgery and treatments or something like that and didn't even raise half his GoFundMe goal. People were probably thinking,"Terry should have saved some of that 127 million he blew gambling for a rainy day, and he would have had all the money he needed for his cancer removal surgery and treatments." So Chris Hunichen GoFundMe does make sense to me.

[Dan Druff]

Here's the Twitter exchange with Doug:

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https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1720871914447528284

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https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1720887389617344779

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https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1720942673471660486

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https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1720916988011139460

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https://twitter.com/BigHuni/status/1720943096664625599




Here was Negreanu's take:

I’m gonna chime in for a different perspective

I have friends and family who often ask me for help, not always money, and in some cases they are very uncomfortable taking any money from me

Sometimes they will ask, not for me to pay for something, but to share their initiative with my following

Sometimes it’s as little as a $2500 raise that I could easily pay for myself, but they don’t want me to

I also just spent $15k on a golf cart

I understand why it looks bad to be a rich guy saying “hey go help my family and give them money” followed up by getting a private jet, but it’s not actually nefarious

If my kid wanted to raise $2500 for a charity and felt good about doing it, me just paying for it takes away from that joy to some degree

Seems pretty clear his family wanted to take ownership of some part of it, similar to when I take people to dinner and they insist on covering the tip, etc

After a deeper look it’s pretty obvious that’s what occurred here

If I just read your post on it without context I would have a pretty shitty opinion on it, but after his explanation, I totally get it.

[Dan Druff]

The current controversy is an extension of the previous one.

It boils down to whether a high roller poker pro (who also lives somewhat of a lavish lifestyle) should be sharing a "family needs help" Gofundme, even if he didn't start the Gofundme, and even if he's already given a lot to the family members prior to the Gofundme existing.

It's a matter of optics. It's not a scam or a fraud, but rather something which simply looks bad to ask.

However, this recent controversy makes it look even worse, as Huni is openly asking about a very expensive mode of transportation to the Bahamas (a private jet), shortly after asking strangers on Twitter to help chip in for his sister renovating their dad's old house.

So of course, the obvious question here is, "Why not just fly a regular airline like the rest of us, and give the savings (versus flying a private jet) to your sister?"

And that's a good question.

Imagine if I promoted a Gofundme for my sister, and then a few months later, I was asking on Twitter where I could buy a $5,000 bottle of wine for an upcoming dinner I'm hosting. There would be questions, and rightfully so.

Huni was more sympathetic in the situation at the beginning, when it appeared he might be struggling, despite still being in the high roller tournament scene. It was easy to excuse this as, "Well, maybe he's being staked, but otherwise has little money."

But now if he's asking to fly on a private jet, you do have to wonder why that money can't go to his sister if she really needs it so badly. While I concede that supporting his adult sister isn't his obligation, it's much less the obligation of strangers on the internet to support her.

Honestly I'm surprised that Huni posted that. He seemed legitimately surprised he got the backlash, while to everyone else, the backlash was obvious and expected.