World Series of Poker Commissioner Wants Apology from Joan Rivers

In a bizarre new twist to the Joan Rivers/Annie Duke Celebrity Apprentice feud, World Series of Poker Commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack, has come out demanding an apology from both Joan and her daughter Melissa Rivers. 

Joan, in particular, has been attacking the poker community as a whole during recent installments of the series.

After calling poker pro Annie Duke a "piece of s***", Joan Rivers went on to attack the poker community.

"I don't want to hear this charity nonsense," she said to Duke.  "Your people, you give money with blood on it.  And you're a poker player - a poker player!  That's beyond white trash.  Poker players are trash, darling, trash."

Pollack told the Las Vegas Review Journal that he resented the comments.

"I think Annie (Duke) as a participant has played the game masterfully and strategically and is showing the world just how smart great poker players are."

The Las Vegas Review Journal does go on to say that Duke is considered among the most "cut throat" players on the poker circuit today.

Duke told Gambling911.com's Jenny Woo after Episode 2 that she refuses to say anything venomous to another person on the show.  The ill-feelings between Joan and Annie were already beginning to stir at this point in the show.

"Obviously, they're trying to paint me as the antagonist.  In order to paint that picture, they would have taken anything I had said.  So I don't say anything bad about other people and I don't say anything venomous or intentionally hurtful.  That's not to say that apparently I didn't hurt some feelings.  I hurt Joan's feelings but not intentionally.  That's one thing that I think that is very important to me as a person is that I want the way of being able to hold my head up high.  Whatever happened on that show, I didn't intentionally hurt anybody and that's something that's extremely important to me."

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher