PokerNews’ Connor Richards grabbed an unique interview with embattled poker professional Brad Sales space, who mentioned on the Life Outdoors Poker podcast that he will do his finest going ahead to pay again excellent years-old money owed, together with the $21,000 he nonetheless owes Doug Polk.
The as soon as distinguished high-stakes poker professional has owed Polk $28,000 for greater than a decade, a debt that has been trimmed down by about one-third because of sporadic funds over time. Sales space had gone eight years with out making any funds till he started sending some small funds each couple of weeks beginning in January, based on a spreadsheet Polk shared with PokerNews.
Polk is not the one poker participant Sales space nonetheless owes. However he mentioned on the Life Outdoors Poker podcast, which dropped on Tuesday on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify, that he is able to make amends and do what he can to repay the excellent money owed.
Poker Professional Vows to Change His Methods
Sales space infamously went from being “up a Ferrari, down a Ferrari” every day at Bellagio to broke, and in 2020, lacking for months earlier than being positioned. The Canadian poker professional who as soon as bluffed Phil Ivey in some of the memorable Excessive Stakes Poker palms ever is now grinding low-stakes money video games in Oregon, and he gave PokerNews permission to ask any and all questions associated to his poker background, excellent money owed and fall from high-stakes grace.
“I received caught up in all of it and all I can attempt to do is make proper now,” he advised PokerNews of paying again his money owed.
However he acknowledged paying off 1000’s price of money owed will not occur in a single day, particularly not within the $1/$3 and $5/$5 video games he is enjoying.
“Whenever you’re attempting to start out off from floor zero once more, it simply makes it loads more durable. So all I’ve to do now with the individuals who I owe, as a result of Doug’s not the one one, is strive my finest to remain in communication,” Sales space mentioned.
Sales space, nicknamed “Yukon Brad,” went as far as to supply an e mail deal with ([email protected]) in order that anybody he owes cash to can attain out to him.
He As soon as Lived a Glamorous Life-style
Sales space’s obsession with poker started at a younger age because of his grandfather who labored as a barber. “When he had no shoppers, (he) would give me the deck of playing cards and chips and kind of play 5-card draw … on my own. So I needed to envision that there (had been) different individuals there. So I sort of fell in love with playing cards at a very younger age.”
As an adolescent, Sales space would hitchhike an hour to play within the closest Canadian card rooms. “After which if I had a bit rating I might take a bus again.”
Quick ahead a couple of years and Sales space had progressed from $1/$2 to $10/$20 after which to the most important video games in Las Vegas — $300/$600 and $500/$100 no-limit — contained in the fabled Bobby’s Room at Bellagio in opposition to poker legends like Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese.
In one of many “proudest moments,” Sales space claims to have began the primary low-stakes no-limit poker recreation in all of Las Vegas in 1998, a $1/$2 money recreation at The Mirage with a most and minimal buy-in of $100. “I took Seat 1 and performed for 3 days straight.”
On the peak of the Poker Growth, Sales space was spending a lot time at Bellagio that he moved in. He lived in a collection for 18 months, paying round $25,000 a month in numerous bills and rarely stepping foot out of the poker site.
“I believe there was one stretch the place I went exterior only a few instances in like three, 4 months,” Sales space mentioned. “I used to be simply completely satisfied that I might (go from) enjoying in a blue-chip-red-chip recreation … to enjoying in Bobby’s Room and stuff.”
Watch the Full Interview
“You Get One Life”
Issues took a flip for Sales space within the late 2000s as he started shedding hundreds of thousands in on-line poker. It did not assist that he was being cheated on Final Wager in a scandal that took years to unravel. Not realizing whether or not he was being cheated or working dangerous despatched him in a downward spiral.
By 2012, he had a full-fledged playing drawback exacerbated by alcohol and owed money owed to a number of poker gamers. He continued enjoying excessive stakes in Bobby’s Room and Ivey’s Room at Aria and made a “little little bit of headway” on his money owed however “that did not work out too effectively.”
“I believe someplace alongside the road I simply ended up being sort of a sicko degenerate once more,” he mentioned.
Sales space left Vegas and moved to Arizona after which California, spending the higher a part of the subsequent decade “simply attempting to play catch-up” as he dropped stakes.
“It was very humbling and really difficult to go from flags and cranberries and all these kind of issues all the way down to a blue-chip-red-chip-green-chip-occasional-black-chip sort of recreation.”
However Sales space’s playing “illness” caught up with him as soon as once more in 2020, when he was reported lacking earlier than turning up secure months later. Sales space had taken his roommate’s truck and advised him he was going tenting earlier than dropping contact and spending weeks within the woods. “All roads led as much as that,” he mentioned. “Typically in life you simply should take a timeout.”
Sales space mentioned he “actually tried to make amends” with the roommate however that however “as a result of my previous behaviors it might have come throughout simply as one other bullshit lie.”
“I had a complete lot of time within the woods to re-evaluate my previous behaviors,” he mentioned. “And a whole lot of them derived from a illness.”
Finally, Sales space determined he wished to overcome his demons for good. “You have to get up. You get one life.”
Sales space’s now dwelling within the Pacific Northwest alongside the Columbia River — a 10-hour drive from the Calgary video games he got here up in — enjoying in low-stakes money video games round Oregon and “making good religion funds,” nonetheless small, to these he owes.
“It is not like I am enjoying within the huge video games anymore, so delivery someone $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000 is simply not a factor. Now it is received to be loads smaller … double-digit or three-digit sort of numbers simply as a token of respect whereas I sort of get shit collectively.”
Although he is by no means been a lot of a event participant, he could strive his luck on the upcoming World Poker Tour (WPT) Thunder Valley cease or this summer time’s World Sequence of Poker (WSOP).
Does Sales space aspire to play in Bobby’s Room (now the Legends Room) once more at some point?
“I might like to get again into the excessive stakes once more,” he mentioned. “Whether or not that occurs or not I am not too positive. It is not my foremost drive prefer it was up to now. My foremost drive is to make individuals entire who helped me all through these years.”
He shall be a distinct participant ought to he make it again to the Bellagio high-stakes room. “I might wish to strive poker once more with out my previous degeneracies. I might wish to strive poker once more as an grownup.”
*Photographs courtesy Brad Sales space
WATCH: Embattled Poker Professional Brad Sales space Vows to Make Amends
Connor Richards
Editor & Reside Reporter U.S.
