In all the years of watching poker, reading up on events and learning about players, I had never heard his name, let alone met him. Yet just a few days before the tournament he had been made one of the ambassadors for GGPoker. I was also unaware of the controversy that had unfolded with his appointment. It had been set off by an online spat between him and Kade. "The idea that this guy is being validated as the face of poker really sucks," Kade had tweeted. Bilzerian, bolstered by the might of his tens of millions of followers, fired back: "Quiet hoe, nobody knows who you are." So ensued a contentious narrative that would repeatedly flare up and take hold of the poker world for months.