In the latest episode of the PokerStars Big Game, Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl played a hand that is creating a lot of buzz on the poker forums. Tony G and Negreanu have been heavily critizised for their behaviour towards the young pro while Robl has posted his response on his latest blog on Coinflip.com.

To start with, you can watch the hand below. Negreanu and Robl go to the river on a board of Ah Kh 2s Td Th with Negreanu holding nothing but a busted flush draw while Robl has Ace-Jack. When Negreanu bets $18,500 into a pot of $31,800 and Robl goes into the tank, Tony G suddenly goes ballistic and starts berating Robl for taking too much time for decisions, calling him a "fucking nit" and threatening to walk out. When Robl finally folds, Negreanu seems to find it immensely funny that his bluff succeeded, and him and Tony G start ridiculing Robl.

All in all it makes an unsavoury scene with two well-established pros ganging up on their young colleague, and Negreanu and Tony G have received a lot of critizism for it on the poker forums. "Class and poker dont seem to go hand and hand these days unfortunately," says one poster, while another one remarks, "Funny how the young internet kid is the only one who showed any class."

For his part, Tony G has apologized - of at least we think it can be called an apology - on his blog which you can read here. Tony says he crossed the line in calling the clock on Robl, but adds, "Though I apologize to Robl, I still think I had a point about his nittish waiting at a bus stop behaviour – it drove me to distraction – it made me mad!"

Negreanu has responded on the 2+2 forum, claiming that Robl doesn't understand what this kind of a tv game is about and that his tanking is costing money for the production company.

"Tony called the clock on him not based solely on how long he took on that particular hand, but Robl's habitual abuse of the amount of time he takes on every hand," Negreanu writes and says that when players receive $1,250 per hour for playing, they should realise what's expected of them. "Bill (Reynolds) was witty, limped, straddled, and did the best he could to be entertaining. Robl did absolutely nothing to add to the show, in fact, he burned up production dollars, not to the extent of a Phil Hellmuth, but with Hellmuth, at least you have the entertainment factor," Negreanu writes.

What irked Negreanu most was the fact that Robl wouldn't straddle even when everyone else at the table did. "Robl's decision not to straddle is just plain wrong when EVERYONE else in the game was willing to create some more action by making a -EV move... This game wasn't created so 5 guys would give extra action so we can pad Robl's pockets. Straddles and loose action are good for the game, and that's why it needs to remain nit proof," he writes.

Fair enough, Daniel, but what has angered viewers was the way this message was related to Robl. Frankly it looked like schoolyard bullying and made for some very bad tv.

Robl responds via his blog here on Coinflip.com. He says the needling started as soon as he sat down at the table. "Prior to the hand vs him and Tony G I did not take over 30 seconds to make any decisions. I personally feel Daniel has a personal vendetta against me and is trying to justify his attacks on me with half true facts and I feel I need to defend myself," Andrew writes.

According to Robl, Negreanu later apologised to him for his behaviour, so he is very surprised at Negreanu's response on the forum: "I saw him and talked to him recently at WSOP Europe - and he apologized for what he said on the Big Game and said he wasn't attacking me and it wasn't personal. Then he goes on 2+2 and basically attacks me (at least this is how I feel)."

Robl says that Negreanu was one of his childhood heroes but adds: "After the last few years since I met Daniel, I can no longer say I see him as humble and down to earth. Which is ironic because during these years I feel that the game of poker has passed him by. The moment he sits down in a game online - at any stakes - the game instantly fills with a 20 person waitlist. More than that pros (both online and live) constantly lick their chops when he is at their table in both tournaments and cash games (I hear the talk)."

What comes to straddling, Robl says that Daniel always wants to have them when he is losing and tilted. "I dispute his claims that straddling is good for the game. It does create bigger pots - after all the stakes are doubled but it also halves effective stacks - making the game less strategically deep. More than that it also makes certain players play tighter as the stakes are significantly higher and the money means more to them. I think all of these things are not only bad for me - but bad for the game."

"If he really thinks straddling is great for the game why doesn't he just make it mandatory? This would be more fair to everyone that is playing as they would know before hand they were playing 400/800 instead of 200/400, and could get more money together accordingly," Robl says and continues:

"I think many players who play on TV agree with me - but they are afraid to stand up to someone like Daniel who is a poker icon - and who has a lot of say about who gets on some shows. After all he flat out says if you don't straddle you won't be invited back."

Robl finishes by throwing a little barb in the direction of Negreanu: "So, Daniel, since it's unlikely I'll be able to earn money playing on the Big Game in the future, please start playing again online. I need to line my pockets somehow."

Read Andrew's blog here.

The video of the hand is below, and you can also watch the argument about straddling here.

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