When people think of those who wear the tinfoil hat common to conspiracy theory nuts, rarely are poker players somewhere in the vision. Usually we imagine backwoods hicks who have the body of Bigfoot hidden in their freezer, desert dwellers who think ET crashed in American wastelands, or other such people and places far removed from the World Series of Poker. With that said, the WSOP final table player and pseudo poker pro, Darvin Moon, seems to be favoring tin foil this season instead of a smart wool hat or a stocking cap. He is now explaining away his classic WSOP laydown of King/Queen, one that he publically lied to his wife about, as a strategy to ferret out the people backstage who were supposedly influencing what was happening at the table.
What happened was that he was involved in a hand where there was over 45 million on the table; he was holding a King/Queen with a 3/4/2 on the board. With the poker math giving him 7:1 to call a 6 million dollar bet, he folded…then, on camera, told his wife that he folded pocket Queens. While there are very few poker lessons that include lying to your wife on international television, he is now massaging history to include that World Series of Poker moment being something to throw off those enigmatic forces that were trying to keep him from winning and funnel the bracelet to another poker player.
While most people chalk the whole thing up to bad judgment on the part of Moon, he refuses to admit it was a mistake. Here is what he had to say about it during a recent radio interview, "No, that wasn't a mistake. Because I felt that the people backstage were listening on those mics and sending stuff out to the coaches. So that was done intentionally. She'll tell you, before we come down there, that was the plan. Because I was miked when we went down to nine and I felt that there was some stuff being sent around. I don't trust nobody when I'm playing cards."
The problem with this theory is that Darvin Moon is a nobody. At least that is his status on the roster of poker pros. Joe Cada was also a nobody until he won the Main Event. Phil Ivey was a big, fat somebody, and by far the biggest name at the table. He was eliminated in 7th place BY Darvin Moon. If there were any shenanigans going on, for the sake of television ratings, the evil corporate forces would have found a way to keep Phil Ivey around until the very end, and get rid of Darvin Moon early. What is probably going on is that Darvin feels embarrassed by not only lying to his wife in front of the entire planet, but also needs to blame somebody for the fact that he blew an absolutely historic chip lead.
If Darvin’s wife settles marital issues in the same manner as Tiger Wood’s spouse, the poker lesson to take from this is either to be straight with your significant other, or learn to duck.
