According to reports from not only the poker world but the mainstream press, U. K. poker pro Sam Trickett was attacked and beaten following one of the brightest moments of his poker career.
The stunning attack was first revealed by Trickett over his Twitter account late last night with accompanying pictures. “Was having a great day until 6 guys did this to me,” Trickett chirped to his fans, adding in a picture of his bruised and cut face to show the damage. “Is this what happens if (you’re) successful?”
Sam Trickett is a British professional poker player who had his first live-event cash in 2007. In the first 4 years of his career, Sam cashed 41 times (including 10 at the WSOP), made 29 final tables, won 11 events, and earned over $6.3 million. Sam was born on July 2, 1986 in East Retford in the United Kingdom. Sam Trickett began playing poker in 2005 when he incurred an injury as a footballer. Then, he became a regular player in Sheffield. He won several poker competitions such as Grosvenor UK Poker Tour and Premier League Poker. Sam Trickett was born on July 2, 1986 in East Retford, United Kingdom. In 2013, he is engaged to Natasha Sandu.
The attack apparently occurred following Trickett’s participation at the final table of “The Big One For One Drop,” the million dollar buy in event that he performed well at. Trickett would work his way to heads up action against Antonio Esfandiari but could never get past Esfandiari, settling for second place and a $10.112 million payday for his runner up finish.
Once that tournament had completed, a naturally elated Trickett wanted to celebrate. “Time to go drink until my organs hurt,” he Tweeted as he and girlfriend Natasha Sandhu headed out with friends to revel in the achievement. It was apparently during this celebration that the six men not only attacked Trickett but also spat in the face of Sandhu. PokerNews UK stated that the ignition for the incident might have been due to verbal harassment of Sandhu and that Trickett was defending his lady’s honor, calling her berators and his attackers “cowards.”
- Biography-Sam Trickett, a British poker player, has emerged as the new young face of international poker. Born and brought up in UK, he completed his studies from the same place. Sam had a great passion for football game and always wanted to.
- Sam Trickett Eliminated in 6th Place ($15,843) Special Events WPT World Championship Shooting Stars for Charity Season 2019-2020 2 37.5K/150K/300K Mikolaj Zawadzki Eliminated in 8th Place ($8,161) Special Events WPT World Championship Shooting Stars for Charity Season 2019-2020 2 25K/100K-200K Lucky Break for Timo Kamphues Against Sam Trickett Special Events WPT World Championship Shooting.
Although it has been stated that Trickett’s newfound money wasn’t the cause of the attack, there has been plenty of speculation that it might have. No reports state that Trickett had any of the $10-plus million on him to celebrate with and he himself hasn’t stated if he was carrying a large amount of cash on him.
This attack comes on the heels of former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel’s beating around Christmas 2011. In that incident, Duhamel’s home was violated by two men who stole his WSOP Championship Event bracelet, a watch awarded to him for his WSOP win by his sponsor PokerStars, and tens of thousands in cash, both in dollars and Euros. It was quickly discovered that a former girlfriend was the ringleader of the robbery and her and her accomplices are still awaiting trial in a Canadian court after their arrest in January.
In 2010, a group of poker players were attacked outside a nightclub in Barcelona, Spain, while they were playing in the European Poker Tour stop in that country. Carter Phillips, William Reynolds, Kevin Stani and Kayvan Payman were enjoying a night on the town when Payman was pickpocketed by three men after leaving a club. The foursome attempted to get the money back but, once one of the assailants started swinging a machete, they decided that discretion was the better part of valor and backed off.
Other former World Champions have also had their issues with potential thieves. Greg Raymer famously fought off two men at the Bellagio in 2004 who attempted to steal approximately $150,000 in chips off of him (they were later convicted and are now serving time in the Nevada prison system), and Doyle Brunson detailed in his autobiography several robberies throughout his career.
A former football (soccer) player in excellent shape, Trickett seems to be in good health following the attack, other than the cuts and bruises associated with the beating, and is using the help of friends and Sandhu to get over the incident and prepare for the upcoming WSOP Championship Event, which begins on Saturday. “Sam is fine,” Sandhu tweeted after Trickett had talked about the incident on his own Twitter feed. “Gonna spend some quality time together now.”*
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- »Sam Trickett Wins First MTT in Seven Years
British superstar Sam Trickett won his first live poker tournament in almost seven years earlier this week. He finished on top of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Super High Roller Series Sochi $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em. The popular Brit walked away with $435,000 as a result.
Sam Trickett Wins Super High Roller Series Sochi $25,000 NLHE Event
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | $435,000 |
| 2 | Ivan Leow | Malaysia | $290,000 |
| 3 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $203,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $145,000 |
| 5 | Timothy Adams | Canada | $116,000 |
| 6 | Artur Martirosyan | Russia | $87,000 |
| 7 | Phil Ivey | United States | $72,500 |
| 8 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | $58,000 |
| 9 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | $43,500 |
It may have been almost seven years since Trickett tasted victory in a live event, but that’s only half the story. Trickett prefers playing high stakes cash games to tournaments but appears to be back on the MTT trail.
A runner-up finish at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe €25,500 Super High Roller netted Trickett €368,899 ($412,256). Only Kahle Burns finished ahead of Trickett that day and it denied him a gold bracelet. Nobody finished in front of Trickett this time around.
Trickett Outlasts 57 Opponents
Fifty-eight players bought into this event at the Sochi Casino, Russia, for $25,000. Day 1 saw those 58 whittled to the unofficial final table of nine.
Aleksey Gortikov busted in 10th place to burst the bubble and end the day’s proceedings. Gortikov chose Ah-7h to move all-in with. Fellow Russian Artur Martirosyan looked him with with 4s-4c and went on to flop a set. Gortikov was drawing dead by the turn.
Chin Wei Lim was the first player eliminated on the second day’s action. Lim got his chips in with the best of it. His Ah-Jh being in front of Phil Ivey’s Ks-Qs. His hand remained best until the river where Ivey improved to a straight.
Sam Trickett Broke
Paul Phua exited when a clash with the then chip leader Ivan Leow didn’t go to plan.
The final table grew less shark-infested with the elimination of Ivey. Ivey raised preflop with Qs-Qh and called when Matthias Eibinger moved all-in with Ks-Ts. Eibinger flopped a ten, turned a king and Ivey headed for the exits.
Trickett now upped his aggression with the table being six-handed. Martirosyan pushed his short stack into the middle with Jc-Tc and Trickett called with Ad-4h. Neither player paired either of their hole cards and Trickett’s ace-kicker won him the pot.
Timothy Adams, winner of the recent Super High Roller Bowl Australia, fell in fifth-place. Adams’ top pair lost to the turned two pair of Leow.
The Deadly Mateos Busts
Adrian Mateos was having a torrid time at the table but managed to double his stack. He committed his final 11 big blinds with Kh-8d on a king-high flop only to run into the pocket aces in the hand of Trickett. Bricks appeared on the turn and rail and Mateos had to make do with a fourth-place finish.
Another rivered straight came to the rescue of Trickett, which also sent Eibinger to the showers. Eibinger shoved with Kh-4h and Trickett called with Jh-Th. A jack and king on the flop were followed by an ace and queen to gift the Brit a straight.
That hand put Trickett into a 4,030,000 to 3,225,000 lead over Leow but Leow clawed his way in front. The chip lead exchanged hands several times before this happened to end the tournament.
Blinds were 40,000/80,000/80,000a and Leow raised to 250,000. Trickett decided to jam all-in and Leow called. The dealer counted both stacks and Trickett was narrowly ahead.
Leow showed Ah-Qh and Trickett the Ad-4s. The final board of Qs-7s-5s-Td-6s four-flushed with spades, busting Leow in second-place.
Sam Trickett Poker
This victory takes Trickett’s live tournament winnings to $21,782,558. We wouldn’t bet against him adding more to that impressive total in the coming months.