Tell Erik Seidel to Know When to Fold ‘Em
On a segment of NBC’s “Poker After Dark” that ran late last night, the conversation around the table turned to politics. It was an interesting debate, the highlight undoubtedly being when poker legend Doyle Brunson responded to Antonio Esfandiari’s comment that “I kind of like America” by saying, “Yeah I think so….but not when the Republicans are in office.” He added: “I’m a stone cold Democrat now, Erik.”
That second comment was directed to another poker idol, Erik Seidel, also at the table. The conversation then turned to Sen. Obama, who seemed to be generally well-regarded by the other players…until Seidel called him an atheist.
DailyKos diarist SlackerInc captured the exchange:
Eric Seidel wondered if Obama could actually win; Brunson countered that Obama is “smart”. Seidel agreed that he was smart, but claimed “He’s an atheist, though…I think he’s an atheist”. [Poker star Jennifer] Harman chimed in “I actually like him”; Brunson responded to Seidel with audible alarm, “he’s an atheist?!?” and Harman hadn’t apparently heard it the first time, as she then sighed, “He is? Never mind.”
To see the video for yourself, go here and then click on “Tuesday, Segment 3.” The exchange is at about the 4:25 mark. It’s worth noting that Brunson won that hand.
It’s also worth noting, just for clarification, that Sen. Obama and his family are Christians and members of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Whether it’s the claim that he’s a Muslim or that he’s an atheist, it’s alarming to see this misinformation being spread on network television. Obviously the conversation was impromptu and not scripted by NBC — but that doesn’t make the national broadcasting of a negative misrepresentation of a presidential candidate any less unfortunate. (It was negative in the sense that all of the other players responded negatively to it, casting Sen. Obama in an undeservedly poor light.)
It may seem unimportant, and it’s certainly not the end of the world, but the fact is that this is precisely the sort of casual inaccurate speculation that wheedles its way into the consciousness of the public.
One good way to address it may be by going right to the source. Erik Seidel seems like a reasonable guy. Why not let him know that he’s mistaken about Sen. Obama’s religious beliefs, and that he just spread that mistakenness to the entire country? If presented respectfully, I’m sure he’ll realize it’s something he probably shouldn’t have done, and with any luck he’ll take steps to correct it.
You can contact him through his agency, Poker Royalty, at this page. Just premise the message by asking that they pass it on to Mr. Seidel.
UPDATE: Here is an artist’s rendering of the event, pretty much:
January 31st, 2007 at 6:41 pm EST
I think the basic problem here is that good poker players are SUPPOSED to say things that aren’t true. Like, “man, I got another crap hand.” Or, “you really think you can beat my pocket rockets? I wouldn’t risk it.” Seidel was probably just claiming that Obama is an atheist to get inside the heads of his oppenents, getting them to fold. And Brunson and Harman probably just went along with Seidel’s claim to establish that they are apparently gullible — a tactic that could pay dividends when they appear to be letting him string them along with raises on the next hand.The thing is, when you watch poker on TV, you get to see if they are lying about the cards in their hand. So it would make sense to have on-screen text showing that they are lying about Obama, too.