CardsChat

Tag: Voulgaris

  • Million-Dollar Bracelet Bet: Durr vs. Polk?

    Million-Dollar Bracelet Bet: Durr vs. Polk?

    Doug Polk’s Twitter is never boring, and this week was no exception as the former poker pro, who claims to be retired, welcomed the idea of a bracelet bet or Player of the Year (POY) points race at this year’s World Series Of Poker against Tom “Durrr” Dwan.  

    phil hellmuth tom dwan
    Tom Dwan, seen here in an episode of High Stakes Duel, has been challenged to a WSOP bracelet or Player of the Year bet by Doug Polk. (Image: PokerGO)

    The idea was first floated by well-known pro Shaun Deeb, who is never shy on Twitter. Polk has been very critical of Dwan in the past and, apparently, Deeb thought the retired pro and YouTube personality had taken things too far.

    Polk embraced the idea and expressed an interest in making a bet happen for a million dollars using either a straight bracelet bet for the WSOP or, possibly, for the most Player of the Year points. Polk even took another shot at Dwan by noting that he thought maybe Dwan couldn’t afford the whole million and might need fans or rich Asian businessmen to put up half the money. 

    This set off a storm of questions and replies from the followers of all three pros, with lots of opinions on all sides. Polk has claimed that he is retired from serious poker, but given how active he is in the world of poker streaming and YouTube, many have assumed we would see him back at the tables at some point. Before his retirement, Polk was considered one of the best heads-up players in the world. 

    Polk has been critical of Dwan on a number of occasions in the past. He has attacked Dwan on his YouTube broadcasts for failing to complete his Durrr Challenge match against Dan “Jungleman’ Cates, a match where Durrr is down significantly and would owe an extra 1.5 million dollars if he finishes the match down at least one dollar. 

    Polk also insinuated that Durr was the player referred to in a statement from noted sports bettor and high-stakes poker player Haralabos Voulgaris that a “former NVG superhero” owed him millions and wasn’t paying up. Polk even used the word scammer to refer to Dwan in the headlines of his YouTube channel. 

    The two did play a heads-up match a few years back, which Polk won when Dwan was mostly card dead, and the two were cordial during the match. Since then, Polk has continued to attack Dwan and it appears that Deeb had heard enough when he made his tweet. 

    Most of the high-stakes poker world would assume Deeb would be a big favorite in a bracelet or POY bet against either player, and Deeb seemed to think so too when he suggested that he and others should join the bet at a million dollars each. Could it be that Deeb is just angling to get a massive bracelet bet going, knowing that he would be a big favorite and that he’s planning to play a big schedule at this year’s WSOP? 

    Dwan hasn’t responded to either Polk or Deeb as of this writing. Still, the high-stakes cash game player, famous for his wild and fearlessly aggressive style, has been on a number of high-profile broadcasts recently, but has made almost no public statements. He’s not usually active on Twitter, with his last tweet coming nearly two months ago. He has never spoken publicly about the debt to Voulgaris and has rarely responded to Polk’s attacks. 

    We would all love to see millions on the line in a huge bracelet bet, but whether Dwan will have any interest, or if he will simply stick with the ultra-high-stakes cash games for the series is tough to predict. Certainly, seeing Polk and Dwan back at the WSOP for a large number of events would make for some excellent drama, and we know Deeb is hoping for just that.

  • Haralabos Voulgaris Named in Alleged Rift Between Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic

    Haralabos Voulgaris Named in Alleged Rift Between Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic

    An NBA season full of promise for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks that ended with a Game 7 loss to the LA Clippers in the first round of the Western Conference finals has triggered the usual sort of unrest often typical of an early playoff exit. Yet according to The Athletic, some of the unrest between the Mavericks and their superstar, Luka Doncic, is aimed at a team exec with a notable poker past, Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris.

    Haralabos Voulgaris
    In 2018, famed sports bettor and high-stakes poker player Haralabos Voulgaris put his analytical skills to use for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. (Image: Twitter/Haralabob)

    Doncic, according to multiple (but unnamed) sources within the Mavericks’ clubhouse, has a dislike for Voulgaris, the former elite pro-basketball sports bettor and occasional high-stakes poker player. Voulgaris made history of sorts when he was hired in 2018 by the Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, as the team’s Director of Quantitative Research and Development. Voulgaris was regarded as one of the sharpest NBA bettors, which led to Cuban hiring him to work on the Mavericks’ behalf.

    Voulgaris also logged some impressive poker results prior to 2018, when he decided to work for the Mavs and put his professional gambling careers on ice. He’s posted nearly $3.1 million in recorded tournament cashes, including a fourth-place finish in the 2019 WSOP High Roller for One Drop event. That finish was worth $1,158,883, his largest single cash.

    In Dallas, Voulgaris was tasked with using his analytical expertise of the NBA and its players to improve the Mavs’ roster, including in-game rotations and matchups against opponents. But according to The Athletic (subscription req.), Voulgaris has become a “shadow GM,” wielding too much power in the eyes of players such as Doncic and others within the organization. The alleged disagreements involving Voulgaris emerged as the Mavericks and Doncic continue negotiations on the “supermax” contract Doncic is expected to sign this offseason.

    Voulgaris alleged to have raised Doncic’s ire

    NBA superstars wield outsized power in influencing how their teams are built and coached, and that’s true even in the case of Cuban’s Dallas operation, where Cuban himself maintains a much higher profile than other NBA owners. Whether garnering increased influence is part of Doncic’s plans for his presumptive future years in Dallas isn’t specified in The Athletic piece, which instead just paints a tale of internal strife between Doncic and Voulgaris in the face of the pending contract negotiations.

    The feature cites a specific incident from a Dallas game in February against the Golden State Warriors to illustrate the alleged tension between Doncic and Voulgaris. “Voulgaris,” the feature offers, “sitting with an open laptop in his typical courtside seat across from the Mavericks’ bench, motioned downward with his hands, which Doncic specifically interpreted as Voulgaris telling him to calm down, multiple team and league sources tell The Athletic. Doncic snapped back, telling Voulgaris, according to one source’s recollection, ‘Don’t fucking tell me to calm down.’ The same sources say Voulgaris later professed that his motion wasn’t solely directed at Doncic, but regardless of intent, it only worsened an already inflamed relationship between the two.”

    The feature’s writers, Tim Cato and Sam Amick, then went on to detail how others in the organization believe Voulgaris has garnered too much power. Such anecdotes included Voulgaris allegedly making the calls on the Mavericks’ draft picks in 2020 without sufficiently consulting other members of the Dallas front office, and even dictating in-game player rotations for head coach Rick Carlisle to follow.

    The same source who complained to The Athletic writers about the Mavs’ 2020 draft process — the largest rift seemed to be over the Voulgaris-led selection of Tyrell Terry — also asserted that Voulgaris isn’t a people person. “He doesn’t know how to talk to people,” that same source is reported as saying.

    Cuban declares Athletic story false

    While Voulgaris stayed radio silent following the feature’s publication, the same couldn’t be said for Cuban. His tweets included his affirming a reader’s comment that the feature might have been designed to benefit some other team or teams, to the detriment of the Mavericks, during this offseason:

    https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1404487874695806982

    https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1404499463117410308

    This writer contacted Voulgaris, who intends to stay out of the limelight. Conflicts with players — even if invented out of whole cloth for the sake of online clicks — never go a front-office person’s way. When asked if he’d made any formal comments about the story, Voulgaris replied, “I haven’t commented on anything at all.” That’s likely the wisest course.

    The claims as to whether or not Voulgaris is sufficiently a “people person” may also indicate an inherent bias within The Athletic’s report, as Voulgaris was hired specifically for his analytical skills. Nonetheless, the tale adds an intriguing new element for what promises to be a turbulent offseason in Dallas.