Yo, Adrian
Adrian Peterson can't help find controversy, whether in football or poker
Like everyone else in poker who dares to search for the word “poker” in Google News, I saw the latest controversy involving retired NFL star Adrian Peterson and his occasional forays at the poker table. Should you somehow have missed it, Peterson generated a lot of headlines on celebrity clickbait sites after getting into a haymaker match with what was reported to be a close, longtime friend at Houston’s Jokerstars Social Club, one of numerous poker clubs in the busy Upper Westheimer district on Houston’s west side.
Peterson lives in the Houston area these days, having last played in the NFL in 2021. He’s never officially retired from the NFL, and he’ll probably be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a few years, having ended up with the fifth most rushing yards in NFL history over his 15-year career. He was with the Minnesota Vikings for the first 10 of those 15 seasons, including his most productive years.
As a Green Bay Packers shareholder, I watched Peterson shred the Pack’s D twice a year most of the time, except for his torn-Achilles season, though in later years Peterson fumbled more and more and the Packers went ball-hawking.
Off the field, though, Peterson was always a hot mess. He blasted through the $103 million he earned on the field during his career, and he remains on the hook for about $12 million, including interest, following a 2021 judgment for $8.3 million connected to a loan he took out in 2016 designed to consolidate his other major debts, that he ended up defaulting on.
Peterson achieved financial-planning infamy in 2015 after blowing millions on his 30th birthday party in 2015. He flew in a reported 300 guests to Houston for the bash, which he arrived at riding a rented camel.
That exceeded an earlier birthday party he hosted, reportedly at a hotel in a southwestern Minneapolis suburb, that included numerous hookers and possibly some illicit drugs as well. In a court case elsewhere, Peterson did acknowledge some drug use, as if that was his only issue. It’s likely a good chunk of his dough went to support payments for his numerous children, which have included at least eight kids by six different women.
Then there were the child-abuse charges he incurred after using a switch on his four-year-old son. That led to him being suspended by the Vikes and losing a lucrative shoe deal.
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Jokerstars tangle seemingly not Peterson’s first poker controversy
Peterson’s latest haymaker duel at Houston’s Jokerstars room probably isn’t his first bit of poor behavior in of that city’s social-poker clubs. See, I met Peterson in early 2023, when I was enlisted to spend three weeks blogging a tourney series at Houston’s Prime Social room.
It was late in the evening and another blogger and I were nearing the end of the night’s coverage when Peterson strolled in, accompanied by a bodyguard. I heard someone mention Peterson’s name and I asked one of the room’s TDs or dealers if that was indeed him, and I was told that yeah, he’d been showing up there occasionally after being bounced from another Houston club for unknown reasons.
Peterson joined a cash game — I think PLO — over on the opposite side of the aisle where I was monitoring a handful of tourney tables. I didn’t think much or it. A little while later, I had to check on a couple of bustouts at the TD desk, which was also from where the cash-game seating was run, and when I turned back to return to the tourney tables, here came Peterson walking up to me.
He looked to still be in football shape, quite fit, though he seemed inches shorter than the 6’1” he’s officially listed as. “Hi, I’m Adrain,” he said, extending a hand and smiling.
“Hi, I’m Haley,” I responded. “Nice to meet you.” I didn’t mention that I was a Green Bay fan. He likely mistook me for one of Prime Social’s permanent TD crew, and though I was doing an occasional TD chore in addition to the blogging — this being Texas, where there aren’t any regulations — I was almost done with my gig.
A couple of weeks later, in a chat with a colleague, I heard that Peterson had been excused from Prime Social. This is all hearsay, but I was told that he’d been accused of palming one or more chips. If that was indeed true, I have no idea how he was caught, but given his later NFL years, he probably fumbled the chip(s).
The Prime Social segue continues
Prime Social, though, was just about to have its own and far greater scandal. That was the one involving an allegedly rigged shuffling machine in use at a back table in a smaller room used as the high-stakes area, with the alleged victims including Landon Tice, who had come to Houston for the big tourney series.
The scandal, which was allegedly traced back to one of Prime Social’s many part-owners, resulted in the room’s traffic crashing. And, all the reputable TDs and dealers and others who had worked the series as third-party service providers quickly severed their ties with the room.
I can’t say for sure that cheating via a rigged machine occurred. I can say, however, that I played at that specific high-stakes table during the series’ ladies event, and I never caught cards like that in my life. In my first orbit, I caught pocket kings, and in the next two hours, I was dealt pocket aces six times. They all held up except for the last time, and I ran deep but missed the money. Still, six pairs of pocket aces in 60 or so hands! It was ridiculous.
Do I think I was temporarily the accidental beneficiary of something hinky going on? Well, yeah, probably.
Returning to the latest Adrian Peterson situation. You know what surprised me the most about the fistfight? Neither combatant was ejected from the room. Then again, it is Texas.