Wow, baby, wow...

Yikes. I'd vaguely remembered assorted coverage mentioning Scotty's drunken shenanigans in this year's $50K HORSE, but I wasn't at all expecting THAT particular streak of mean-ass, belligerent drunk that emerged (at least in the ESPN coverage).

I can't pretend to have much inside knowledge of either the situation or Scotty, so maybe that's just par for the course when he's pounding beers. Maybe DiMichele was asking for it based on douchebaggery behavior that wasn't shown on the ESPN broadcast. I dunno.

But that was pretty painful to watch. Interesting, don't get me wrong (and I'd argue that episodes like that are actually better for poker's popularity in the grand scheme of things than yet another slick, instantly-forgettable ten minutes later final table where everyone acts gentlemanly and some unknown person wins). But man, Scotty, that was a fucking poor performance, on all streets.

You know you've stepped over the line when Lindgren of all people goes from casting you occasional baffled, slightly amused looks to outright telling you to fuck off, in no uncertain terms. Very justified, no doubt, especially when Scotty was openly alluding to collusion, or lack thereof.

Equally sad (again, just based on the hands that were shown) is the fact that Scotty was playing like he was hammered, as well. I'm making no claims to be a better HORSE player than Scotty (I'd probably struggle to outplay one of his monkeys), but I have no clue what he was even doing in half the hands they showed, much less what the hell he was doing when he'd somehow river some junky two pair to scoop and then suddenly decide to check-raise.

Aside from seeing Scotty live up to his general perception as one of the better ambassadors to poker at event after event when he'd always take time to stop and talk to the adoring masses (even if it meant it took him a half hour to get the hell out of the hallway outside the Amazon room0, my one personal encounter with him at the 2007 WPT Legends event was pretty positive. I was working in the joke of a media room they'd set up in the sushi bar, huddled on a piano bench, and for no reason whatsoever he stopped to talk to me, asking me why the hell they made us work there, shot the shit for 15 minutes or so, and bought me a beer.

Just a weird, weird display. I guess the take-away is to never underestimate the power of alcohol to turn some people into raging assholes. Or, you know, something much deeper about demons that we all carry around, lurking under the surface, yada yada yada.