‘Johnnie Vibes’ Moreno Triggers Poker Moral Police

YouTube vlogger Johnnie Vibes  - real name Johnnie Moreno - has set off a rant on Twitter over his mark up pricing for this year’s World Series of Poker. Doug Polk and Shaun Deeb both joined in with the diatribe, claiming that some kind of moral code was being breached.

When people start to use the noun scammer in relation to somebody involved in gambling we usually expect there to be some solid evidence behind it. In this case though, it looks as if Moreno has been hard done by regardless of what people might think about his mark up pricing. 

A little background: Moreno is a well-known cash game player who vlogs his exploits on his YouTube channel. While playing at a respectable level, he freely admits that he has very little experience as a tournament player. With less than $67,000 worth of live tournament winnings, not many will disagree. 

So why would he then decide to charge 1.38 make up for a $43,000 WSOP package?

This is a free market, after all. People can always vote with their feet. We should also consider that this offer is directed at Moreno’s subscribers who enjoy following his career.

“Bottom line is I’m confident in the value I bring to the table. I’ve already provided my buyers immense value before buying my first tourney slip. Provide people sick value for free and of course they are going to want to support me.”

Once the thread really got going it became clear that people weren’t happy with the way Polk and Deeb were trying to publicly humiliate Moreno and many more came out to show their support - one even claiming that he would back at 2.0 because of how much quality content he gets for free.

Unfortunately, poker on Twitter seems to bring out the worst in people. Things that could be solved with a quiet word often turn into something that would be more at place in a children’s nursery. Johnnie Vibes can sell his packages at whatever mark up he wants to, and shouldn’t be castigated if some feel it’ is overpriced. It’s not fair to do potential harm to somebody’s reputation by throwing around terms such as scammer.