Cat Valdes Apologizes For Accidentally Cheating In Poker Tournament

YouTube vlogger Catherine “Catrific” Valdes saw herself in the middle of a Twitter storm after uploading a video describing how she cheated in a poker tournament, seemingly without knowing what she was saying. 

Catrific’s YouTube channel has over 500,000 subscribers and it’s mostly a personal vlog with stories about her life. Recently, she pivoted to poker and moved to Vegas to pursue the poker dream. 

On March 30th, she uploaded a video on a bad experience at a WSOP Circuit event. She bought in for a $400 event and was lead by the tournament staff to be seated in the $1700 Main Event. Realizing the mistake, she decided to not speak up about it but continue playing, figuring she could just pay the difference later. Those who know a thing or two about tournament poker can immediately see what she did wrong. 

After a while, having busted another player and getting a nice stack, a Floor came and informed her she was in the wrong event, to which she answered: “I know.”  What followed was an interaction that Catrific qualified as “rude” but to most poker players listening seemed almost too lenient. 

Perhaps sensing her inexperience, the Floor allowed her to continue playing in the $400 event she was supposed to play instead of continuing in the Main Event. This was a slap on the wrist but Catrific, not knowing that, protested and the matter was eventually escalated to a higher casino official, leading her to make the vlog.

While the Floor was understanding, given the circumstances, poker Twitter was not quite as forgiving. Reactions ranged from scolding her for not speaking up to outright accusing her of malicious intent. 

Following the overwhelming response, she took down her video and set her social media accounts to private before uploading an apology video, which you can watch below. 

In the video, she makes the good point that had she known she was cheating, she wouldn’t have uploaded a video describing what she did.

It’s not uncommon for poker players to have an immediate aggressive reaction against cheating, but there’s a point when we are just biting a new player’s head off for not understanding the game. In the myriad of reactions this video provoked, David “ODB” Baker’s was the most productive.