I just watched this Joey Ingram video highlighting a recent hand from Live At The Bike, in which Armenian Mike, a regular on the show, attempts a pretty blatant angle in a hand with Ryan Feldman, one of the show's producers.
On his action, Armenian Mike said "all in" and slid his rack of chips into the pot. Ryan insta-called with the second nuts, and Mike pulled his rack out of the pot and announced he was just kidding. It became pretty clear from the ensuing conversation that Mike had done this a couple times earlier, but this was the first time somebody called his "joke". The situation was handled poorly by the floor, and they told Ryan it was up to him whether Armenian Mike's bet would stand. That put Ryan in a bad spot, and never should have happened.
It was a mess.
Fortunately, Sean McCormack, the Poker Director at the Aria, was willing to take a firm stance on this type of behavior. He tweeted that Mike should take off his Aria hat and 86'd him from the Aria.
I like the decisive action to protect the players of the Aria, but I can also totally get the other side of the coin. Armenian Mike is a regular player on the show, and is either a losing player or somehow good for the game, based on some of the banter. Especially at those stakes, it is vitally important to retain those types of players.
What do you think should have been done in the situation?
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