July 2, 2022 | by Crouse Linwood

Poker’s small slothoki world

 

…just a brief entry to freak out a little.

A few weeks ago, I sat in a poker tournament across from a guy I’d never met before. He was a friend of a fellow poker blogger. He came along to pony up the $50 buy-in, have a little fun, and bust out of the tourney first.

In case you don’t know, when I’m not a poker playing Otis, I’m a journalist who often covers the court system.

Flash forward to a criminal trial I covered all of last week: The last slothoki on the stand (and perhaps the one that convinced the defendant to cop a plea) was a guy by the same name as the guy who played in the tourney.

2004 WSOP Episodes #5 & #6

Turns out, he did not only have the same name, but also the same DNA.

Now, I’m fully aware of how small a world it is, but it freaks me out a little bit that a poker blogger I only met a month or so ago also happens to be friends with a guy who played a major role in a case I’ve been covering for the past year and a …