New Tabloid Celebrities: Poker Players
It’s not a world I am familiar with. I hardly know any poker superstars but they are apparently living like “rock stars” in the world they are in, thus becoming celebrity fodders for the tabloid media.
I’ve always suspected some professional poker players lead reckless lives. After all, they play dirty for money, they must be reckless in other aspects. Some of them even have sleazy backgrounds, I suppose.
These high rollers are millionaires and they can afford to give in to their whims. So it’s no surprise if we end up reading about their personal lives in the tabloids. That kind of journalism takes no exceptions anyway. With all the stories they can get out of these gambling superstars, tabloid magazines should have enough materials to fill out their juiciest issues.
The Globe, a tabloid magazine, has been following the story of Mike Matusow, said to be very big and popular in the Poker Community, in full detail. Arrested in 2003 for a drug related offence, he was in jail for six months and was released in 2005. The Globe recently did a follow up on him as an ex-con.
Another poker celebrity making headlines at the tabloids is Shahram Sheikhan who has been dubbed the Poker Pervert. And there are even stories of poker players involved in sexual scandals, arrests and other unlawful activities.
These are all printed in the tabloids now. It’s the kind of reading material you have while waiting in line at the supermarket with your little kids peeking at you from behind.
