Daniel Negreanu: “Ray Bitar is a Buffoon”

In an interview with PokerStrategy.com this week, outspoken poker pro Daniel Negreanu called out Full Tilt Poker boss Raymond Bitar as a “buffoon”.  

Negreanu made the comment when asked how aware he thought other Team Full Tilt Poker pros might have been about what was going on with that company, which has since been charged with money laundering while some of its principals were implicated by the US Government of running a “ponzi scheme”.

“My opinion is, outside of the board and Ray Bitar, who is a complete buffoon, I don't think anybody had a clue. I can say with almost certainty that a lot of the friends I have there didn’t have a clue, otherwise they would have been mortified at what was happening.”

Negreanu also called the poker community a “bunch of spineless wimps”.

“On the Internet everyone says ‘they owe us money!’ but to their faces they say nothing. Russ Hamilton (implicated in a well publicized online poker cheating scandal involving Absolute Poker/UB.com) is still playing in Florida right now and nobody is saying anything to him. I think they might be embarrassed to show up but I honestly think that as a community, we are a bunch of spineless cowards that run.

“Everyone is so afraid to rock the boat and say anything publicly. That's why a lot of these guys are allowed to get away with what they're getting away with. Not them specifically but others like the UB guys. We give them a second chance but what the f##k for? WHY? This isn't a 13 year-old boy who made a boo-boo. These guys are adults that made mistakes that should ostracise them from the poker community forever.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com