Poker Player Ben Mintz Fired from Barstool Sports Despite Portnoy’s Plea

Poker Player Ben Mintz Fired from Barstool Sports Despite Portnoy's Plea



Ben Mintz, a poker player and regular co-host on the Cracking Aces poker podcast, was fired from Barstool Sports Wednesday after a video surfaced of him singing rap lyrics that included the n-word.

Barstool’s founder Dave Portnoy immediately hosted an “Emergency Press Conference” on Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the decision. But after he sold full control of the company to Penn Entertainment earlier this year, he no longer has a say in the matter, which he explained in the six-minute video.

Costly Mistake

Mintz, aka “Mintzy,” was a popular figure both at Barstool and within the poker community. Portnoy has taken some heat from the Barstool community — the “Stoolies” — over the firing for, as the fans claim, “selling out” when he sold the company. But, as he explained in a separate video, his goal was always to build Barstool from the ground up and then sell it off for an absurd amount of money. He’s now worth nine figures, but he did stick up for the employee he hired away from ESPN Baton Rouge in 2020.

The issue, as Portnoy explained, was that Penn’s board demanded the firing of Mintz after the proud southerner was captured on camera during a live-stream singing a rap lyric that included the n-word. He immediately tweeted out an apology.

But, according to Portnoy, the damage was done in the minds of those in power at Penn Entertainment. No apology was going to change their minds, even with the plea to let him stay from Portnoy and Barstool CEO Erika Nardini.

Portnoy originally sold 36% of the company he founded to Penn, a major casino and gambling brand, in 2020 for $163 million. He then sold off the rest of Barstool in February. In doing so, he gave up control of the day-to-day operations and couldn’t influence Penn to give Mintzy another chance.

Ben Mintz the Poker Player

ben mintz poker barstool
Ben Mintz and Phil Ivey

Mintz is best known as a lovable sports enthusiast with a southern charm. But he’s also a skilled poker player with some impressive results. According to Hendon Mob, he has over $620,000 in live tournament cashes, which includes a 327th place finish in the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $37,705. Last year, he spent some time on the PokerGO televised feature table seated next to Phil Ivey during the Main Event.

Thousands of Stoolies defended Mintz on social media, as did many of those who know him personally.

“I think anybody watching the clip was like there’s no way he meant to do that,” Portnoy said in his Twitter video on Mintzy’s misstep.

Portnoy isn’t the only one who shares that opinion. Mintz is a talented entertainer and will land on his feet again soon, but it won’t be at Barstool Sports.





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Caesars Shares Plan for Updates Following Earnings Report

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Caesars releases earnings, unveils new approach

Caesars Entertainment reported first-quarter revenues of $2.8bn, a 21% increase year-to-year, but is still rolling out a new plan to boost its earnings in the near future.

The global entertainment brand is aiming to hit $500m in digital earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) within the next one to two years. It plans to do this in part by updating its product catalog for customers.

President of Caesars Sports & Online Gaming Eric Hession revealed that the updates will come in three waves. The first will be the launch of a new casino app that prioritizes gaming content. 

our existing iCasino business leans toward tables more than our peers”

“We’re particularly excited about that,” said Caesars CEO Tom Reeg. “That’s going to improve in particular our slot business in iGaming because our existing portal is through a sports betting app, our existing iCasino business leans toward tables more than our peers and the iGaming forward app is going to change that for us.”

The second development will be the unification of player wallets across Caesars gaming platforms, such as the casino app, mobile sportsbook, and more. The third and final update will be the migration of its business to its Liberty tech stack. 

Caesars’ earnings reveal also saw it take on a net loss of $136m, down significantly from the $680m it took the year prior. The hope is that the updates will also make an impact here and turn the red into black. 

Notably, 1Q 2023 digital revenue already soared to $238m in profit after being negative $53m a year ago.

The post Caesars Shares Plan for Updates Following Earnings Report appeared first on VegasSlotsOnline News.

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Alan Keating Misreads Hand, Torches Off Six Figures on High Stakes Poker

Alan Keating Misreads Hand, Torches Off Six Figures on High Stakes Poker



Alan Keating made his High Stakes Poker debut on Tuesday — Episode 13 of Season 10 — where he did some punting, including a huge misstep misreading his hand in a monster pot.

High Stakes Poker returned to its regularly scheduled taped version, five days after PokerGO hosted what turned out to be a controversial live-streamed show.

This week’s episode featured a brand new roster, except for Jean-Robert Bellande who appeared in Episode 12 last week. Joining JRB at the table were Keating, Stanley Tang, Stanley Choi, Eric Hicks, and Jeremy Stein.

Here’s a look at the starting stack sizes when the episode began:

Player Stack
Alan Keating $500,000
Jean-Robert Bellande $200,000
Stanley Choi $200,000
Eric Hicks $200,000
Jeremy Stein $100,000
Stanley Tang $100,000

Keating, perhaps the loosest player on the Hustler Casino Live stream, had everyone at the table covered in the $200/$400 cash game, as he usually does.

Tang Bluffs Choi Off Jacks to Get the Show Started

stanley choi poker
Stanley Choi

On the first hand of Episode 13, Choi opened to $1,200 with JJ and then Tang three-bet to $6,000 from the button with AJ. A call was made and the flop came out K36.

After action checked to the button, Tang continued telling the story that he had something decent as he wagered $4,000. Again, he received a call and both players saw the 10 on the turn. Following a check, Tang wagered $30,000, more than the size of the pot, on ace-high with the nut flush draw. That semi-bluff got through as the pocket jacks were sent into the muck.

On the ensuing hand, Bellande found a more favorable result with pocket jacks on a board of Q93QQ when Hicks bet $20,000 with 98. Bellande, with a better full house, raised it to $45,000, which convinced his opponent to fold.

Keating Doesn’t Believe JRB’s Story

jean-robert bellande
Jean-Robert Bellande

In one of the best hands from the thrilling show, Keating put the double straddle on to $1,600 and looked down at A8 and was facing Bellande’s raise to $4,000 from the button with 97. He made the call and heads up to the flop they went.

The first three community cards were 333, nothing exciting for either player. Bellande bet $5,000, which didn’t convince ace-high to fold. After the 7 was turned over on the turn, JRB had top pair and bet it, this time for $18,000.

Keating continued being stingy and made the call to see the uneventful 5 on the river. He checked for a third time and then faced a bet of $60,000. He just wasn’t believing Bellande’s story, so he called only to find out the story JRB was telling wasn’t actually a load of B.S. as he had top pair, which of course beats ace-high.

Alan Keating Wins $1.2 Million Pot on Hustler Casino Live

Tang’s Turn to Take from Keating

stanley tang doordash founder
Stanley Tang

It didn’t take long following the ace-high call to lose some more chips. In the next major hand of note, with Tang in the straddle and holding QQ, Keating raised from late position to $4,000 with KQ.

Tang bumped it up to $20,000 before Keating went for a four-bet to $49,000. That led to the DoorDash delivery app founder to move all in for $104,000. The pot-committed Keating made the call and both players agreed to run it twice.

With $213,000 in the pot, the first board came J3533, guaranteeing at least a chop for Tang. He’d then collect the entire pot after the second run out was 631042.

On the next hand, Tang was all in preflop for a $189,600 pot with AQ against Stein, who was holding QQ. For the second straight time, the dealer would turn over two boards, and once again the pocket queens won the whole pot. Tang gave back nearly as much as he’d won from the previous all in hand.

Keating Misreads Hand

alan keating high stakes poker
Alan Keating

Keating attempted another play with ace-high, the second time A2, against Stein, who had AK. Neither player had a pair on the turn – both with a flush draw – and Keating bet $40,000 into an already bloated pot before his opponent jammed all in for $160,000 total with the nut flush draw.

This time around, the Hustler Casino Live fan favorite wisely chose to fold his ace-high but he still lost a large pot. He then had another misstep with 55 on a board of 63962 when he over-bet $45,000 into a pot of just $15,000.

Bellande, who had the nut flush with A7, raised to $100,000 and Keating then made a loose call. But it really wasn’t a bad call if you take into consideration that he apparently thought he had a full house.

“I thought I had deuces,” a shocked Keating said as he turned over his cards.

Even commentator Nick Schulman said he believed that Keating simply misread his hand. The usually mellow and upbeat Keating was not in a good mood following that misstep. He expressed frustration with his mistake, an emotion rarely seen from the high-stakes poker player on a televised poker show.

He’d calm down and collect a couple of smaller pots to pick up some momentum, however. But then Bellande would river a better top pair to crack his flopped top pair in a $101,000 pot to end the show. Calling Episode 13 a bad session for Alan Keating would be quite the understatement.

Past High Stakes Poker Recaps

High Stakes Poker

Check out our past recaps from Season 10 of High Stakes Poker on PokerGO:

*Images courtesy of PokerGO.





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