***RUMOR ALERT***

According to Twitter rumors (no official statement has been released at this point) former PokerRoad.com Radio Host, UB sponsored pro and spokesman, and man with 1,000,000 Twitter followers Joe Sebok has inked a deal with the World Poker Tour. The first hint of Sebok’s signing with the WPT came from WPT Player Development and Casino Manager Jeanine Deeb, who tweeted the news along with a picture of Sebok:” Look who has joined the @WorldPokerTour teaaam!!!! @joesebok WOOHOO!! ? pic.twitter.com/t3yvzA7k” the Tweet has since been removed from Deeb’s Twitter.

The mere mention of Sebok’s name was enough to send the online poker forums into a frenzy –considering prior to Black Friday and the subsequent issues at Full Tilt Poker anyone associated with UB Poker was basically the community whipping boy—with anonymous posters and well-known players chiming in on the WPT’s decision (assuming of course it is more than just rumor).

Perhaps the best known and harshest critic of Sebok was Isaac Haxton, one of the best online poker players in the game and a man who lost a lot of money when UB Poker went belly-up after Black Friday. Haxton posted the following on the 2+2 Poker Forums:

“It’s not like he was an investigative journalist who tried his best to dig up a story and failed. He was a paid representative of UB, spun that role as some sort of “I’m gonna get to the bottom of this!” bull****, learned nothing, and then turned around and assured people that it was safe to play on UB,

“The people who believed him lost every dime they had on the site when the **** hit the fan. He continues to tweet about his awesome life and his sweet house on Hermosa Beach that he pays for with money UB stole and gave to him to tell people they weren’t crooks. He’s never even made a proper public apology or admitted his role in helping UB rob more people.

“If anything, he doesn’t get enough hate. The fact that poker related businesses continue to pay him money to use his name in association with their products is mind-blowing.”

Prior to joining UB Poker as a sponsored pro and spokesman (a role Sebok said would be used to wage a fact-finding mission regarding the Super-User scandal that plagued the site before his time there) Joe was a well-liked and well-respected member of the poker community. However, the taint of UB Poker has followed him since the first press release announcing his role with the company, and the critics became more and more vocal as time wore on.

Despite never cheating anyone himself, people have criticized Sebok’s words compared to his actions during his time at UB, calling upon him to “do the right thing and step down” when any hint of wrongdoing was raised. Since being thrown aside like the rest of Team UB after Black Friday Sebok has found the poker community fairly unforgiving, chastising him for taking what they feel was “Blood Money” and for being a “Good Company Man” during his tenure with site.

What Sebok’s role with the WPT will be is unclear (if it even exists) but with his experience at PokerRoad.com and several other podcast/radio shows he should have all the tools to be an asset for the tour, even if he has to deal with the forum naysayers.

***UPDATE*** As of this minute, the rumor is that there is no deal or the deal has been cancelled according to Kevin “KevMath” Mathers

Tags: Anonymous Posters, Black Friday, Casino Manager, Crooks, Deeb, Full tilt Poker, Investigative Journalist, Isaac Haxton, Joe Sebok, Online Poker, Player Development, Poker Game, poker players, Public Apology, Radio Host, Tweet, Whipping Boy, Woohoo, World Poker Tour, Worldpokertour

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2012 at 8:06 pm 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.