Dale ‘Daleroxxu’ Philip’s Blog Confirms he was Dropped by PokerStars

Last night we published an article about PokerStars terminating their contract with Dale ‘Daleroxxu’ Philip, now former member of the Team Online. The decision was made after the World Cup Match, in which Holland defeated Spain five to one, and the reason was ‘excessive and inappropriate celebration’. Philip was on his way home when he published this on his twitter, but has now tried to explain the situation on his blog in more detail, confirming that he wasn’t joking.

In his blog entry, Philip revealed that his contract with PokerStars required him to play five UKIPT events a year, and while his buy-in was paid for, he would only get £250 towards travel expenses, and this meant he often had to reach into his own pocket. His somewhat negative take on the experience was probably escalated by the entire situation.

Further in the text he explains that he didn’t go to attend the match screening just to troll, as some have suggested, but more to support Holland, which he described as his ‘second team’ (after Scotland) and even posted a picture of himself from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, wrapped in Holland’s flag.

In 2010, Spain defeated Holland in the final, and this was Holland’s chance for the revenge. After Spain took lead in this game, and Robin van Persie scored a great equalizer, he simply let his celebration possibly go a bit too far.

While ‘Daleroxxu’ admits he realizes he wasn’t very polite, he finds it perfectly normal for a football match. All he was trying to do was to have some banter, while smiling and not being aggressive or trying to offend anyone.

On the other hand, he describes that certain Spain supports became very aggressive when they thought Spain had scored a second goal and they tried to escalate the situation into physical violence. He was able to avoid it, but what they did was way worse. After that goal was disallowed, disappointed Spanish supporters started the Twitter discussion described in the earlier article.

Fast forward couple days later, and Philip was contacted by PokerStars representative, urging him to get in touch so they could ‘discuss ramifications of the situation’. It was a short Skype conversation, and it was quite one sided, as he was notified that his behavior was not acceptable for someone representing the brand and that his contract was terminated.

Philip was naturally disappointed that four years of work would be thrown away because of ten seconds of celebration. While he realizes that his behavior was not the best considering he was representing PokerStars, it still feels like a big overreaction on company’s part, as the incident was not even poker related, and this type of banter is perfectly normal and common between football supporters of England and Scotland.

Be that as it may, it is unlikely Stars would go back on their decision at this point, so what’s done is done. PokerStars have always been known to pay special attention to their integrity and public appearance, but did they go a step too far this time? Poker community seems to have very different feelings about this, but in the end it is the company that has a final say in these matters and chips fell on the wrong side of the table for Philip on this one.