Poker news tagged with 'drugs'

Anthony "holdplz" Spinella, an American poker pro with almost $2.5 million in online and live winnings, has got himself into some serious trouble. Spinella and two friends (Jared Joseph Roberge and Daniel Karabchievsky) were arrested on a Framingham street last Saturday with more than 20,000 hits of LSD, Ecstasy and nitrous oxide in a case with apparent ties to a California drug dealer, a prosecutor said Monday.

Read more » American Poker Star Arrested with Large Amount of Drugs

Greg Merson's road to this year's main event final table has probably been the toughest of all 9 finalists. About 5 years ago he finally managed to put an end to his drug addiction, and ever since he has been very open about his addicition in interviews.

For example: In a recent interview with ESPN, Merson said that he financed his addiction by playing poker in the beginning of his career and that he stopped caring about school and other things in life. However, he managed to quit drugs after getting professional help and then started taking poker more seriously. The kick he got from playing poker drug-free helped him fill the gap after he stopped with, for example, cocaine.

Read more » Many Pitfalls Along Greg Merson's Way to the 2012 WSOP Main Event Final Table

In a recent interview with QuadJack's Poker Radio, Phil Hellmuth, 11-time WSOP Bracelet winner, talked about the drug addiction many famous poker players have/have had.

"There's a drug, I don't know the name of it, but it's something like speed. I'm talking about a really heavy drug. Many poker players have taken this drug in the past 10 years. Almost all players who took this drug has won 1 or 2 million dollars over a 6-8 month period. But then the effect of the drug stopped working, which left many of them with a drug addiction. I smoked weed about 25 years ago or something like that. But I'm not a person who's into drugs at all."

Read more » Phil Hellmuth: "Many poker players have taken drugs"

The American poker player Al Krux was recently arrested due to drug possession after the police found 25 pounds of marijuana in his car. Also his son Adam was arrested with almost 15 pounds of marijuana, and at his home the police also found 90 marijuana plants. The police decided to take a closer look at Al Krux and his son after that neighbors had contacted them regarding "suspicious activity" going on in Krux's house. In total, Krux and his son had drugs with a street value of about 140-150k euro. But instead of enjoying that money they can now expect to spend many years in prison.

Read more » Poker pro arrested with 25 pounds of marijuana