Legendary WSOP commentator Lon McEachern has stirred up a huge row on Twitter by attacking Daniel Negreanu and his GGPoker commentary team. McEachern described their behavior as “Trump-like” and “showing no class” as the high stakes feud hit the headlines yet again…
What a disgusting display of Trump-like behavior from @RealKidPoker @jeffplatt & @BuffaloHanks last night. A different "style" of announcing is one thing- and that's fine- but for these two poker announcers to act like sycophants to the all powerful poker god is beyond the pale.
— Lon McEachern (@lonmceachern) January 31, 2021
Lon McEachern’s Twitter rant
McEachern and his ESPN sidekick Norman Chad made their feelings clear this week after Polk took control of the high stakes grudge match again yet again.
Chad tweeted that he didn’t have to watch the “rout” when another of Negreanu’s foes, David K Lappin, had already produced a post-game compilation…
Like most normal folks, I cannot watch hours & hours of The Feud.
And why should I, given this wonderful @RealKidPoker–@DougPolkVids postgame compilation from @dklappin?
Doug > DNegs here. Rout.
And how can whoever interviewing DNegs ignore his total reversal from Mon to Wed? https://t.co/xnabb1Nhhz
— Norman Chad (@NormanChad) January 28, 2021
Lappin’s video was in reference to the dispute that exploded last week, Polk changing his playing style and Negreanu responding by “tanking every street”. Polk’s poll wasn’t very convincing, the majority believing Negreanu was playing by the rules.
What did you think of @RealKidPoker decision to tank every spot as a response to limping?
— Doug Polk (Code Doug) (@DougPolkVids) January 28, 2021
What happened next was a classic piece of Negreanu meltdown language, the GGPoker ambassador responding to Chad with a mouthful any sailor would have been proud of.
“Hey Norm, go fuck yourself, you stupid loser!” was how it started, and you can listen to the rest below…
Poor choice of language?
As we reported a few months back, Negreanu and Chad fell out over Negreanu’s choice of language. That resulted in DNegs calling Chad “a preachy motherfucker.”
This week’s second attack on Chad had McEachern incensed, standing up for his friend Norm and singled out the GGPoker team, adding more insults after the following day’s play…
Showing no class again tonight @jeffplatt and @BuffaloHanks
— Lon McEachern (@lonmceachern) January 31, 2021
McEachern’s beef seems to be that both Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks are sucking up to DNegs in the post-match interviews, and refusing to call him out for his outbursts against Chad. As pointed out by many Twitter users, however, they all work for the same company.
https://twitter.com/ThalloPoker/status/1355918495217664005?s=20
Platt supported that view, explaining: “Right, have made the comparison 1000 times…we’re the “home broadcast crew”, going to be biased towards Negreanu. (Also, friends with him…so going to be biased towards Negreanu.)”
Hanks made the salient point that this was all a storm in a teacup, and only two men needed to be in the ring…
All fair.
I also totally get Norman and Lon speaking up, as they should.
At its core, this is between Daniel and Norman.
— 🦬 Hanks (@BuffaloHanks) January 31, 2021
We can give the last word to McEachern, who was standing up for his friend: “Look, here’s my point. I saw my long-time friend and broadcast partner being hammered into the ground.
Lon added: “I saw two of his co-workers do nothing to stand up for him when, in my opinion, they should have. There is ribbing, and then there is over-the-top nastiness. I stood up for him.”
The grudge match between Negreanu and Polk is heading towards a conclusion, with less than 4000 hands remaining, but there is still time for another feud to erupt. Who will be involved, however, is anyone’s guess, but you can watch the livestream here to find out.
