Bill Perkins Defends $129Billion Valuation In Net Worth Debate

There is nothing that gets poker pros quite so upset as power, politics, money and greed – and there were at least 3 of those factors doing the rounds on Twitter as the likes of Bill Perkins, Cate Hall and Justin ‘Stealthmunk’ Schwartz all waded into an argument on the obscene earnings of Amazon founder and boss Jeff Bezos…

The old adage that ‘money makes the world go round’ has never been more true than in poker, but even though the pros themselves are very wealthy – in multi-billionaire Bill Perkins case, richer than Croesus – the debate about ‘how much is too much?’ was sparked by a revelation this week…

Bezos, who founded the online retailer Amazon in Seattle back in 1994, is reputed to be worth $129.9billion – equal to 2.3million average Americans’ net worth and last year ‘leaping past Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in the Forbes Rich List.

Cate Hall, a feisty socialist by nature, finds it offensive that someone can be worth so much – and the Arizona pro is never shy about letting people know her feelings, hitting the headlines last year not only for great poker, but for Twitter dust-ups and bust-ups with Mike Dentale, Doug Polk and Natasha Mercier to name just three.

Bill Perkins, on the other hand, rarely seems to seriously fall out with anyone, but he wasn’t impressed by Hall or 5-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham’s arguments…

Perkins, of course, is another ‘self-made’ man – a billionaire hedge fund specialist who obviously knows what it takes to get to the top of the money pile – and stay there.

The one person in the ‘discussion’ who might seem out of lace to many, is Justin ‘stealthmunk’ Schwartz – his deep run at the 2015 WSOP Main Event, in which he finished 14th for over $400,000 remarkable for his complete lack of social skills – telling fellow players he doesn’t do handshake and speaking out of turn several times.

His tweets, however, are a mix of intelligent thought and… getting into or causing trouble – which is what makes most poker players fun to follow away from the tables as well as at them!

Of course, one way to limit Bezos’ fortune would be to get him involved in poker – Guy Lailberte and Andy Beal both finding it’s quite easy to lose your money against the pros!