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Joy Miller, who is covering the 2010 World Series of Poker for ESPN, might be in a bit of a pickle should Dan Bilzerian continue to excel.
Faithful readers of the Gambling911.com website might recall that Miller left a vulgarities-laden voice mail for Bilzerian after he published a racial joke on his Twitter page. She threatened not to cover Bilzerian or any of his fellow VictoryPoker.com teammates until an apology was offered.
Bilzerian quoted from the movie "Gran Torino," featuring Clint Eastwood: "A Mexican, a Jew and a colored fellow walk into a bar... The bartender looks up and says... Get the **** out of here."
As of Saturday evening, Bilzerian was among the top 30 chip leaders at the 2010 WSOP. Miller, who is covering the tournament on behalf of Bluff Magazine, will likely have no other choice but to cover Bilzerian's performance, especially if he ends up making the final table.
Bilzerian told Poker News Daily: "I was watching ‘Gran Torino' with some buddies, thought it was funny, Tweeted it, and Miller Tweeted something back to me. I didn't know who she was at the time, so I just ignored it, and then she screamed at [Victory Poker CEO] Dan Fleyshman about how Victory Poker pros wouldn't receive exposure on ESPN."
Miller denied she would prevent Bilzerian from getting air time on ESPN.
"He made up that he'd be banned from ESPN because I don't work for them," she told Poker News Daily.
Miller speculates that Bilzerian was simply trying to get publicity for Victory Poker.
"It was shitty of him to get Victory Poker attention and use me as his stomping ground. I'm not wrong. You shouldn't have used the word colored and you shouldn't have posted the joke and not taken credit for it as being from a movie."
Gambling911.com later reported on how Victory Poker itself did not have a single African American poker pro in its stable.
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Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
