June is Delight Month. Devoted to celebrating and commemorating LGBTQ+ delight, Delight Month is over 50 years outdated and began after the Stonewall riots, a collection of homosexual liberation protests in 1969.
PokerNews will launch a collection of articles to mark Delight Month, showcasing the position LGBTQ+ people play in our business and the discrimination they’ve confronted. They will even spotlight what they really feel will be executed to foster higher inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood in poker.
Poker is a recreation for everybody, and everybody ought to really feel protected, welcomed, and included, irrespective of how they establish.
As a part of our Delight Month collection, at the moment we’re talking with WSOP bracelet winner Alexandre Vuilleumier. The Swiss participant, who’s homosexual, began enjoying poker in early 2005 however did not begin enjoying full-time till a few years later.
“Coming from chess it was a pure development and I instantly revered the sport,” he advised PokerNews. “I revered it a lot that I knew I did not need to simply play it on the facet. So I finished till 2017, which is once I began enjoying full-time.
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Vuilleumier’s Poker Profession
Vuilleumier’s first recorded money got here on the 2018 World Sequence of Poker — a good 1,554th place within the $565 Colossus. Since then, Vuilleumier has amassed over $2.2 million in dwell earnings, adequate for second on the Swiss all-time cash record behind Linus Loeliger.
In 2022, Vuilleumier final-tabled the EPT London Primary Occasion, ending third for £296,150 ($334,784). The next yr he grabbed his first WSOP bracelet in Occasion #2: $25,000 Excessive Curler 6-Handed for $1,215,864.
“To win a bracelet is simply the epitome of a poker profession for certain,” he advised PokerNews after profitable.
“To win a bracelet is simply the epitome of a poker profession “
Nevertheless, reactions to his win weren’t solely optimistic, one thing that Vuilleumier felt was “to be anticipated”, particularly on social media.
“I used to be so proud once I received my bracelet final yr,” Vuilleumier stated. “The one dangerous reactions have been after I received, throughout delight month, that some individuals wrote some shit on Twitter.
“On the desk, individuals do not see that I am homosexual. So something adverse tends to occur on Twitter, which is to be anticipated.”
Vuilleumier isn’t the primary homosexual bracelet winner, with Vanessa Selbst and Ryan Laplante having received lately, two gamers that Vuilleumier he considers his two fundamental heroes.
“They deserve a number of credit score for having fought the great struggle. They definitely impressed me to have fun final yr the way in which I did.”
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Though by his personal admission, Vuilleumier is “new to poker,” he says that the neighborhood as an entire has been welcoming.
“I’ve by no means had issues with youthful individuals, and the older ones definitely have begun to be extra open with the years.”
He additionally feels that regardless of homosexual individuals and gamers in the neighborhood being on the receiving finish of abuse and discrimination, there are others who’re additionally worthy of being regarded out for.
“As homosexual individuals we’re fairly naturally drawn to the struggle vs the outdated white cis straight wealthy fats man, so I particularly at all times strive to concentrate to girls, who in all probability undergo essentially the most on the felt. Generally foreigners will be attacked. That is why I attempt to converse to everybody in their very own language and the opposite approach round, make them perceive that it is impolite to speak about somebody in a language they do not grasp.”
Vuilleumier says that extra will be executed at occasions to guard those that are discriminated towards. He singled out sellers who’re generally impacted the toughest.
“Particularly those the place it is slightly bit extra apparent they’re homosexual. For the older white man who needs to show energy, there is a ‘double dosis’ of their thoughts, and I think about it is a larger downside than for gamers.
“I might like to see some particular poker occasions held for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, possibly incorporating charities or lined by PokerNews.”
Managing Editor
Primarily based in the UK, Will began working for PokerNews as a contract dwell reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time workers in 2019.
He graduated from the College of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He additionally holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports activities Journalism.
