Poker Pro's Sexism Accusations Lead to Bitter Social Media Feud
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Poker X has been relatively calm since the US presidential election a few weeks ago. Correction: "had" been calm. Tensions are heating up on the social media platform after Vanessa Kade criticized CoinPoker for hiring Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle as an ambassador.
Kade referred to the online poker star as an "overt sexist," and wrote that the site made a "disappointing hire." Ryan Depaulo jumped in to bash his former ACR Poker peer to criticize her comments, and then things spiraled out of control.
Here's some backstory: Kade and Depaulo both previously represented ACR, an unregulated poker site with an apparent bot problem. Rolle was asked a question on Instagram in June about if men had an advantage over women in poker. His answer led to many calling him a sexist.
"Anyone arguing that men have no advantage in poker is simply delusional. Why are there barely any women in the top 100 all time money list?" Rolle answered.
He continued to claim that "men are simply more competitive." Kade was among the many poker players on social media who were quick to call out the online poker pro, and she did it again on Thursday over the CoinPoker hiring.
"I love this industry so much but it's so disheartening to see players can be overt sexists and it carries exactly no consequences whatsoever," Kade tweeted.
Poker Vlogger Jumps In
Depaulo, who was fired from ACR earlier this year over a conflict of interest issue, came at Kade for her response to the Rolle hire.
"You produce no content, you do not stream anymore, and you were a negative toxic life suck as a co worker. You were a horrible force. But luckily not relevant enough to have equal succubus forces on the industry," Depaulo wrote of Kade.
The poker vlogger then claimed Kade has benefited as a poker player from being a woman. He went on to defend Rolle by arguing he only "said one thing not nice," while Kade, in his opinion, is the "essence of not nice."
Kade and Depaulo would then engage in an argument over their interactions while working together at ACR. She claims, before Depaulo signed with ACR, she wasn't familiar with him, and accused the self-proclaimed "degenerate gambler" of calling her "trash and other things openly in group chats," along with allegedly harassing "a number of women including other female streamers." Depaulo then posted two short response videos to address the accusations.
"Send any and all receipts, any and all receipts you have. This is not true, total lie. The biggest lie is that you haven't heard of me, but, no, you got fired. You got fired, bro. You got fired because you said 'me or him' and I hadn't done anything wrong, and they said 'you, dummy, you re-re, you, you're out, you're toxic, go,'" Depaulo told Kade in the first video.
Depaulo, in the second video, did fess up to one thing: "I'm guilty of, upon reflection, being not nice to you when you came to join ACR."
Kade Fires Back
Kade responded to Depaulo's request for receipts by posting a series of group chat messages from when she joined the ACR Poker (Americas Cardroom at the time) team in 2021. They paint a picture of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner being insulting to his fellow ambassador.
"stop being a clown you can't have it both ways- be popular solely because you are a woman yet play the SJW and blast etc," Depaulo wrote in a group chat directed at Kade.
Kade, shortly after signing with ACR, won $1.5 million in a 69,000-entry PokerStars online tournament, and she had just lost her GGPoker affiliate account apparently over contract disagreements. The Canadian poker pro had become a prominent figure within the poker industry, hence why poker sites were offering sponsorship deals. But Depaulo wasn't exactly welcoming to her.
"I'm sorry it's three days after women's day after all," he sarcastically said when apologizing in the ACR Team Pro group chat.
Kade added numerous other screenshots from the group chat. She claims that on a team video call, Depaulo "grudgingly" apologized and she was "awkwardly forced into accepting it." The apology apparently didn't hold any merit as she wrote that the bracelet winner insulted her again multiple times.
The responses to the Kade-Depaulo feud were mixed. One X user wrote, "This bro texts like an unhinged ex." Another tweeted in response, "Stop. You're making me like him even more."
