Lee Davy sits down with Sam Trickett to talk about the recent incident involving Jeff Lisandro and Brandon Cantu, and to explore how this negative aspect of the game has affected Trickett in his career.
Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you won the lottery?
Would you keep your mouth shut?
Would your ego make your mouth erupt and tell the whole world?
What would you do with all of the money?
How much would you give to your family and friends?
Sam Trickett has won the lottery. He didn’t walk into a newsagents and put his faith on a tumble of balls. Instead, he put his faith in balls of his own. Two of them to be exact, and each time he has laid them on the line, he has walked away with a fortune of dreams.
So just how difficult is it when you have money?
The recent clash between Jeff Lisandro and Brandon Cantu shows that the pass the parcel life of poker money is still causing upset amongst the establishment.
How does Trickett deal with it all?
“I have had some good experiences, and bad experiences. The obvious one I went public with was my issues with Andrew Feldman, who just straight out knocked me for 25k euros. We had done a lot of business before, only this time he just told me that he wasn’t going to pay me back. He said that so many people had never paid him back before, so he wasn’t going to pay me, and that he was getting out of poker.”
Now if that was to happen to me, I would have to track him down and beat the crap out of him.
How did it make Trickett feel?
“I felt so owned. I was writing to him, on Twitter, trying to be nice, and he would send me tweets with funny comments with winking faces; like he had gotten one over on me, and it really hurt my pride.”
I guess it hurts even more when he is a supposed friend?
“The truth is, with Feldman, he wasn’t even a friend. It was mutual friend of ours that repeatedly told me that he was a good guy. This is why I am so mad, because my gut instinct was to not trust him, and I didn’t really like him that much anyway. I just looked out for him. Even when he annoyed me I would just think, ‘He’s only a kid – with no friends,’ and I would do him some favors. So to do those nice things for him, and then for him to turn around and screw me – I felt so owned. I was like wow!
“He just had me so good, and it really does wind me up. It’s so annoying, especially if you have opened up to someone and trusted them; it just came out of nowhere and I didn’t see it coming.”
“Feldman is just a dishonest guy. It’s the pride, not the money. I don’t want to think that this little guy is sitting somewhere, on the other side of the world, thinking he’s owned me, and every time he sees me on the TV saying , ‘I got you mate.’
Is the incident with Feldman an isolated case?
“There are so many people who owe me money now, that I wish they didn’t, because I can’t see them even having money in the near future. But it’s very hard to say no to your mates, and the people you like and want to see do well. It’s difficult to say no when they are struggling to pay bills and stuff.
“Someone did something to me recently, where I was staking him and he was lying about the results, so effectively I was being free rolled every time I took a piece in the session. I didn’t see that coming either, perhaps I’m a bit of as bit of sucker? I eventually cornered him, and got him to admit it. I asked him why he did it? He’s got money, so it’s not like he’s broke. I said, “What’s wrong with you?” If they are broke you might understand it. This kid had money, and was just stealing from me – and he admitted it. The truth is he couldn’t even justify why he was stealing from me?”
Was Trickett being lax because the money didn’t mean as much to him as it once did? Does having a lot of money do this to you?
“I think with the Feldman one, my read was fine and I should never have trusted him, but I never saw the recent one coming. I didn’t want to go telling everyone and ruin his life. Maybe I’m a little bit lazy, when collected debts, and not saying no when I asked for money, but I do find it difficult to say no.
“Hundreds of people ask me for money every week. I have even had to say no to long distance family over loans as well. I have also lost some friends over it. It’s such a negative free roll for me anyway, because best case scenario: I get my money back, and worse case scenario: I fall out with a family member or friend.
“I’m stopping it now, but I always look after my close family and friends. I have bought all of my family a house each, and my close friends are looked after, but just don’t get carried away with it because you do get stung.
“Another thing that happens when you have success is people begrudge paying you back. You end up at the back of the queue, and it’s hard for me to say come on I need it because I don’t need it. It’s a horrible spot really.”
So what do you look for in a poker player before you loan them money?
“Reputation is everything. A lot of time do you don’t think these people are going to knock you because of they’re reputation is on the line. Take Feldman for example, he loved poker. He wanted to be a big TV star, and be in every game, and then suddenly he doesn’t want to be in poker anymore and I’ve just loaned him 25k euros. I guess it was just a bead beat.”
