Big Bet Poker Issues Statement Condemning Player’s Violent Threats (NSFW)

17:53
22 Aug

Big Bet Poker LIVE has condemned the actions of a player who used menacing language on a live stream, earlier this month. Austin Yoo and Jason Liu verbally clashed multiple times during the show, with the former making violent threats towards Liu’s family.

The tweet below contains language that isn’t suitable for broadcasting in public.

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NSFW

Big Bet Poker LIVE later issued a statement to PokerNews to address the controversy.

“We regret this confrontation happened on stream and shut the stream down as soon as we saw it escalating to such a level. Our goal is to provide a safe atmosphere for high stakes poker players from all walks of life to come, have fun and celebrate the game of poker.
The two players involved have been banned from our stream at this time. We hope to be making future headlines with new ideas, big pots and great competition. Poker trash talking is one thing, but it crossed a line that doesn’t represent the spirit of what Big Bet Poker is trying to achieve.”

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Unpredictable Behaviour
Big Bet Poker LIVE — the reboot of the classic Live at the Bike— is one of the most popular poker streams out there today. So, it’s all the more surprising to see an episode such as this.

Jason Liu is a Stanford University graduate, so clearly a bright kid, and one who was hired by Facebook and Twitter, but he has built a reputation as being somewhat unpredictable. In fact, in the clip above he can be heard saying “I’m bipolar, I’m f***ing insane,” which gives some explanation.

He also posted a tweet alleging that the show’s producers asked him to “create a character” for views.

“Alex the producer of Big Bet asked me to create a character before the stream despite my mental health struggles. Great people at BigBetPoker blocked and banned me after exploiting me for views. I’ll let the lawyers find justice in the courts since they’re unresponsive to texts.”

Last month he appeared in several tweets containing videos from Las Vegas, including one by Dr. Hash “Wesley” of Hustler Casino Live fame. Wesley says he was accosted by Liu for four hours in which he never stopped talking, leading to ask the community if he was on drugs or had mental problems.

He later added that Liu had been booted from the Aria, leading to a standard poker retort amongst other insults..

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When Trash Talking Escalates

During the show, Liu claimed that he was a reg in "underground Italian mob games” and turned his $500 stake into $50,000. Then after mouthing off at Yoo he was told to calm down, leading Liu to claim that he could “beat the s**t” out of him and offered to take the matter outside.

Well over the top but nothing compared to what came next.

Yoo started his own tirade by glaring at Liu, asking him if he remembered who he was in a menacing tone, clearly unsettling his young opponent.

Once Liu started to back down, Yoo threaten to rape and torture Liu’s mother in front of him, leading to audible gasps from outside of the camera view.

After threatening to remove one of Liu’s fingers, Yoo then threatens to kill him and his mother, leading the producers to end the game and show prematurely.

It later transpired that the pair came to blows after the cameras were turned off with security forced to step in and separate them.

Liu later made out it was much about nothing really, revealing that Yoo made even more threats about killing his whole family.

“Nothing much to see. Security restrained him and sent him packing. He kept saying crazier shit like killing my whole family. He was a low IQ poor gangster. Hope he likes prison and dropping that soap”