Gold fesses up: 'Maybe I was lucky'

A revealing new interview with the New York Times has exposed even more about Jamie Gold and his surprising run to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event title last year: He flashed a card to a competitor, tipped off a friend mid-hand, he has a few regrets. His request: "People are just going to have to forgive me."

In his first interview since settling his dispute with Crispin Leyser over the proceeds of his $12 million victory, Gold professed to reporter Steve Friess a number of previously undisclosed etiquette breaches that may explain, at least in part, some of the furor directed towards him from fellow players.

Among the more significant: Flashing a card to a competitor in the middle of playing a hand, and tipping off a friend to his holding so not to bust him out of the tournament, both of which he apologized for.

"You should never flash a card," he told Friess. "I wasn't thinking, 'Wow, I'm going to bend the rules.' I was just so caught up in the excitement of what was happening and I kind of just lost myself and I regret doing that.

"And I basically told a friend of mine what I had because I didn't want him to bust out and that was also really inappropriate. And I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen again.

"People are just going to have to forgive me."

Gold also suggested there was, indeed, some luck involved in his victory:

"I'm lucky in life, my whole life has been fortunate," he said. "Every single great thing that's happened to me I've been really grateful. Maybe I was lucky. I don't know how you can beat 9,000 people without being lucky."

Gold claims the recently concluded legal proceedings with former partner Leyser were not particularly difficult to resolve ("The first moment we actually got into a room together, we settled it," he said), although the terms of the agreement forbid him from revealing the details.

courtesy of Christopher Hunt

News Added: 26 February, 2007

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