Poker Web Watch / Matthew Pitt / 07 October 2009 / Leave a Comment

For some reason poker seems to create some amazing characters. If you read any stories by the old guard such as Doyle Brunson or TJ Cloutier, it seems Las Vegas was full colourful, often trash talking men. In more recent times we have Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow who you either love or hate and the seemingly obnoxious but actually rather charming away from the table, Tony G.

Online poker also breeds these players and in February this year one player seemingly appeared from nowhere and started crushing the nosebleed stakes, winning huge sums of money off the likes of Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond and David 'Raptor' Benefield.

Railbirds around the world were not only amazed that their heroes were being well and truly beaten but they were also in shock at some of the abuse a player named 'FullFlush' was giving out in the chat box. After much deliberation on various forums it turned out that FullFlush was a 25-year old British player called Luke Schwartz.

Schwartz actually started playing online poker around three years ago and was mainly a tournament player, even winning the biggest weekly online poker tournament on the net at one point. It was at this time that he was becoming increasingly better at cash games and made in excess of $1,000,000 playing on Betfair Poker.

Earlier this year he decided to take on the big names in online cash games and give them a lot of stick in the process. He is the self proclaimed best heads-up cash player in the world and has even said he will bust durrrr's bankroll before the end of 2010 and also referred to Patrik Antonius as "goldilocks!"

It seems that his confidence, or some may say down right arrogance, has followed him into the live scene as he recently received a ban from The Vic Casino in London after refusing to remove his hat when asked to by the staff there. He has said in a number of interviews that there were other players at the table wearing hats yet they were allowed to keep theirs on so he did the same. Maybe the table were afraid of his skills and knew he'd make a scene so asked for the ruling? Who knows.

Well this ban was lifted recently after his friend and poker promoter Eddie Hearn spoke with the auhorities at The Vic to enable FullFlush to take part in the recent EPT London festival and in particular the £5,000 Main Event that Annette Obrestad finished 17th in.

Schwartz did not do as well as Annette and busted out during Day 2 and after doing so he headed to the hospitality area and ordered what is believed to be a cheese and cucumber sandwich. When his food arrived, it is alledged that he simply walked off without paying for it and when requested to do so said something along the lines of "I am a VIP and should be treated as such!"

Obviously the floor staff had other ideas on his status and demanded payment, which by all accounts they did not receive. Rumours of him being banned from all Grosvenor Casinos in the country, along with a ban for the remainder of the 2009 European Poker Tour hit the forums within minutes though on further investigation it seems he received a warning about his future conduct and has not actually received any sort of ban.

The problem with the character that Luke Schwartz has created for himself is that his reputation will always proceed him. He will always be expected to explode into a tirade of abuse at the smallest thing and anything he does or doesn't do will be thrust into the eye of the poker playing public. He will have as many haters and he does fans and those against him will be looking to help him make a mistake and fall somewhere.

Some may say he acted like a fool by not paying for a sandwich that would not have cost more than £3 when he sits down at the online tables with $50,000 in front of him but on the other side of the coin surely the casino could afford to give him a sandwich for free after he paid £5,000 and the entry fee plus he would have been paying rake at their tables and possible losing money in the pit?

I suppose it depends what side of the Luke 'FullFlush' Schwartz fence you sit on but as a neutral, I think in a world dominated by maths wizards and faceless names on a screen, Mr Schwartz is good for the game and will keep everyone on their toes. Sandwich or no sandwich.

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