Things got out of hand at the Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick Casino in Scottsdale, Arizona on Sunday. Pro Justin Pechie captured the incident on his phone when two poker players were involved in fisticuffs. As expected, chips went flying everywhere before security stepped in.
Another day, another poker fight. It's never a dull day in the poker room. Doesn't matter if it's in Las Vegas or Atlantic City or at your local Native American card room. Things can get ugly fast. Especially when there's stress, booze, and lots of degen action.
Losing seems to put everyone in a bad mood, especially in the bad beat department. Poker rooms are not the healthiest places on the planet, especially mental health. It seems like all your mental issues get exacerbated inside a poker room. There's a weird vortex that takes over where the entire mood can quickly shift into a scene of sadness, despair, and desperation.
Sometimes you can sense something is off and it's only a matter of time before someone goes off the deep end.
Poker players are usually in a sour mood, so it's not uncommon to hear a little shouting in a poker room. It's not weird for someone to walk around screaming stuff like he was giving a soliloquy like Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction.
However, it's been a while since I saw a poker player clotheslined another poker player in Arizona while he carried a couple of racks of chips.
The incident occurred on Sunday at the Arena Poker Room at Talking Stick Casino in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Arena is the largest poker room in the entire state of Arizona. They have up to 47 tables with 24/7 action. Talking Stick hosts the Arizona State Poker Championship every August.
Justin Pechie posted about the incident at the Arena Poker room on Twitter. In a series of two tweets, each containing parts of a video, Pechie tweeted what went down.
"Wild times at Walking Stick," tweeted Pechie under his moniker @looshle.
Part 1 of Pechie's video includes a visibly irked man shouting at the top of his lungs in the middle of the poker room. He seems to be shouting at no one in particular, but rather venting his anger about something. It seems like he was complaining about getting kicked out of the casino.
As he walked back to his table to get the rest of his chips, he continued his verbal tirade. He dropped a few F-bombs and said something about "fuck tequila" or "fuck the dealer."
When he pointed to a female player at a different table on the other side of the room, he screamed at her and dropped the B-word. At the moment, someone had enough. Another player jumped into the frame and clotheslined him.
No word on what exactly happened, or why someone jumped the original screamer.
Wild times at Talking Stick Part 1 pic.twitter.com/tE0N7QOz1c
— Justin Pechie (@looshle) March 3, 2019
Part 2 includes the ensuing fracas. The two men struggle as chips went flying everywhere. Security and staff try to jump in to stop it and it gets even uglier. More security staff jumped in and sort of pushed the pile back toward the middle of the poker room. Both men fell onto the casino floor, while others tried to restrain him.
Part 2 pic.twitter.com/K78uamWGCu
— Justin Pechie (@looshle) March 3, 2019
