It’s usually a pleasure to see fellow poker players appear on mainstream TV, but English pro Jeraint ‘JJ’ Hazan rubbed viewers up the wrong way with his ‘arrogance’ when he took to popular quiz show The Chase…
The Londoner boasted of his $673,137 in tournament winnings when he was asked by host Bradley Walsh:
“In your professional poker career Jeraint are you up or are you down?”
His reply:
“Well I’d better not be down, otherwise no-one eats and 17 children get nothing. No I’m up I’ve won a total of $680,000.”
That didn’t endear him to quiz fans, many of whom took to Twitter to share their views…
Mick Davies tweeted:
“#TheChase Wow. that guy was so arrogant Cock Sure,” while C0uch-p0tat0 tweeted: “Professional poker player = sits on his a*** all day on gambling websites #thechase.”
Hazan’s Hendon Mob listing shows him as having bagged a massive first cash back in 2006 at the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam.
His runner-up finish there was worth €355,000 ($452,997) although in the 14 years since he has come nowhere near repeating that early feat, though he has had small cashes from the WSOP and Aussie Millions.
None of these experiences proved helpful when Jeraint faced Anne ‘The Governess’ Hegerty ‘heads-up’, the poker pro hoping to reach the final, but being easily caught by the Chaser.
The final question saw him fail to answer correctly: ‘One light year is roughly equivalent to how many miles?’ with his answer of ‘6 million miles’ being off by a factor of 1 million!
That cost the ‘arrogant’ pro the chance to win a share of $5000, and his exit had Twitter fans laughing, Kevin Jones tweeting out:
“Ha ha ha, Jeraint is out. Don’t like him.” Steve Lowe added: “Welcome to the real world, Jeraint! If you gamble, you’re gonna lose anyway!”
It’s not the first time Hazan has failed to complete his mission on TV, with his plea to Dragons Den bosses to back his poker career falling on deaf ears.
In 2009, Hazan entered the Den with a plan to secure staking for professional tournament play, offering the business-savvy Dragons a 40% profit share.
Claiming he would cash in 8 of the 24 events he planned to enter, Hazan didn’t impress the panel, with Deborah Meaden stating:
"If I was going to gamble, I wouldn't do it by proxy."
Whether these sorry tales of Hazan’s TV efforts show his own lack of abilities, or just that the general public doesn’t understand the differences between poker and gambling, isn’t clear! Perhaps both?
- Want poker news as it breaks? Join the Poker News and Gossip Telegram channel!