The one thing Daniel Negreanu will never be accused of is keeping things bottled up. Negreanu spends most of his time trying to right the wrongs in the poker world, and taking certain people to task over their conduct; even his half-hearted defense of good friend Erick Lindgren’s gambling debts was more on an admonishment than a defense.

That said, yesterday on the Full ContactPoker.com forums Negreanu came to the defense of two players who have been tied to the Full Tilt Poker scandal: His friend Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel, who Daniel says he has never been friendly with.

In the thread, titled ‘Ask Daniel’, a poster using the screen-name “rasmer” asked a two-part question:

“What is your view of Erik Seidel as a person ?

“On your FTP scumbag rants you never mention Ivey, is that because he is your friend or you seriously think he is totally clean ? Most of the poker world would disagree with that”

The Team PokerStars Pro answered the questions in reverse order, spending most of his words on Phil Ivey:

“The Ivey hate truly boggles my mind. Anyone who knows this guy knows he didn’t have the first clue what was going on. Here is a guy, great poker player, but not interested in any of that crap. He has a bevvy of assistants, doesn’t answer phone calls or texts, despite having several phones, loses his phones regularly. Up until a few years ago he didn’t know how to use e-mail, before that, he didn’t know how to turn on a computer, but once it was on, he sure knew how to beat the crap out of anyone who chose to play online poker against him.

“ Why does anyone differentiate Ivey from the rest of team FTP? Cause he was the best? Cause he was used in ads? Cause he was black? I don’t get it! He wasn’t on the board of directors and didn’t care much at all what happened with daily operations. He was too busy either flying around the country hustling craps, or busting bankrolls online and at the Bellagio.

“ Was it because he chose to sue FTP? Wouldn’t that decision, along with his statement tell you that he was NOT happy with the board and the decisions they were making? Shouldn’t that separate him from the mess conducted by those at fault? The reasons for his lawsuit were legitimate. Those idiots called his bluff, and just like he would at the poker table, he showed them the nuts and they cowered.”

Strangely enough, the more we learn about Phil Ivey the more we realize he has a lot more Stu Ungar in him than Doyle Brunson (just without the drug problems). Since Black Friday, when Ivey’s day-to-day doings started receiving more scrutiny a picture has been painted of a gifted, but degenerate, gambler, with Negreanu now inadvertently adding he “…doesn’t answer phone calls or texts, despite having several phones, loses his phones regularly. Up until a few years ago he didn’t know how to use e-mail, before that, he didn’t know how to turn on a computer,” to Ivey’s traits.

Daniel then went on to answer the poster’s question about Erik Seidel, to which Daniel explains he doesn’t know Erik very well, but also suspects he had no idea what was taking place at Full Tilt Poker:

“As for Erik Seidel, we aren’t friends and never really have been. I don’t think he is shady in the least, we just rub each other the wrong way. Annie Duke is a good friend of his, and I can’t say that I have a good relationship with anyone that chooses to be good friends with that woman.”

Tags: Admonishment, Answer Phone, bellagio, Crap, Daniel Negreanu, E Mail, Erik Seidel, First Clue, Friend Phil, Full tilt Poker, Gambling Debts, Good Friend, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, Phone Calls, Play Poker, Poker Player, Poker World, Scandal, Screen Name

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2012 at 9:04 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.