From Bing Blang Blaow to Tuff_Fish, PokerPlayer presents the 10 greatest poker virals ever
Everyone loves a viral. You know, those hilarious emails that pop up in your inbox showing stupid roadsigns, NSFW images of scantily-clad ladies, and, of course, the classic ‘Wasssuppp’ ads? You watch them, have a laugh, and then immediately forward to just about everyone you know.
And that’s the point of course – virals are meant to spread. But what started out life as a marketing strategy to promote brands through amusing, often low-budget video clips or pictures, has quickly branched out to include everything from a kid singing his self-penned ‘Chocolate Rain’ (over 40 million views and rising) to You’ve Been Framed-style personal accidents. These office time-stealers have become so big that dedicated viral sites like Kontraband.com have sprung up, and even national newspapers like The Sun and Daily Mail have viral sections on their websites!
Unsurprisingly, the humble viral has permeated the poker world too. Poker forum communities are predominantly comprised of young, computer-savvy males – exactly the kind of audience the viral is targeted at. This has naturally led to scores of funny threads, pictures, Photoshop jobs, and videos being created and shared on forums and in email inboxes across the world.
Trouble is, you can trawl the web for ages looking for the best. But don’t worry, we’ve done the hard work for you, sifting through some classics you might have seen and unearthing some recent gems you probably haven’t. Here are our ten favourites. Enjoy!
10. Hevad Khan Playing 26 Sit-and-gos
Hevad Khan is known for two things in poker: acting like a wired maniac on his run to the 2007 WSOP Main Event final table, and this video of him multi-tabling 26 tables. Taken a few years before his WSOP histrionics, the former videogame star was able to play so many tables at once that PokerStars suspended his account believing he was a bot. This is his proof that it was in fact him playing.
While Khan might have been the first to post a multi-tabling vid online lots of players have done it since – and even more impressively. Take Boku87, for example, who played over 7,000 SNGs in less than 15 days to win a prop bet. His video (tinyurl.com/ldvb9m) shows him playing an incredible 51 SNGs at once!
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/hevadkhan
9. Chocolate Rain by Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott
A strange phenomenon swept across the web in 2007 when Tay Zonday’s song ‘Chocolate Rain’ (tinyurl.com/2h2pwe) became one of the most watched YouTube videos of all time (41.2m views and counting). The deep-voiced man-child not only became an overnight sensation, but also spawned a horde of imitators, including Britain’s Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott.
Devilfish has never been shy about showing off his musical ‘talents’ on the tournament circuit and must have been in his element performing this viral as a plug for his poker site. Complete with comedy old-man dancing, lines like ‘from Hull back streets to Vegas and back again’ and even a piano solo, there’s plenty of unintentional laughs to be had.
While Britain’s most successful tournament player ever won’t be winning any Grammy awards for his performance, it’s good to see that the man from Hull hasn’t lost the ability to laugh at himself.
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/devilfishrain
8. Hitler Banned From Full Tilt Poker
Acclaimed 2004 German film Downfall told the story of Adolf Hitler’s final 12 days inside his bunker. While the movie enjoyed critical success its greater legacy may be in the amount of online ‘mash-ups’ of the film’s most famous scene. Hitler is surrounded by generals, furious as they break the news that the war is all but lost – or, in this version, that he’s been banned from Full Tilt Poker.
The subtitles are a work of genius as Hitler (Bruno Ganz) weeps at the thought of losing the 24,000 Full Tilt points that he was going to buy a personalised basketball jersey with. But this viral sensation wasn’t just limited to poker. Other spoofs include Hitler’s fury at being scammed on eBay, his disappointment with The Phantom Menace and his annoyance with Windows Vista. The only problem is that for some reason the FTP spoof was removed from YouTube just as we were going to press. Watch it quick before this link goes!
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/hitlerftpban
7. This Is What I Imagine The Tournament Circuit Is Like
The Two Plus Two Poker Forum’s News, Views and Gossip section is responsible for some cringe-worthy threads, but every so often a moment of genius can emerge. In late 2008, a 2+2 member set his creative mind at work and came up with this GIF of what life on the tournament circuit might be like. The result: an hilarious image of Daniel Negreanu, durrrr, Barry Greenstein and Jimmy Fricke bopping away in a jeep.
The original poster wasn’t that original though. He updated it for the poker community after other versions had been done, most notably featuring Arsenal players (see p10 of the thread). If you’re ever having a bad day, just click this link and giggle at the sight of Gobboboy’s doughy face and Barry G’s frat-boy dancing in the back seat.
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/tourneycircuit
6. T.J. Cookier
With six WSOP bracelets and almost $10m in live tournament winnings to his name, T.J. Cloutier is one of poker’s most respected players. But after this piece of Photoshop genius from another 2+2 forumite, it’s going to be difficult to take the Texan seriously again.
In July 2008 a thread emerged depicting a chocolate chip cookie that looked amazingly like T.J. Cloutier. It was quickly labelled ‘T.J. Cookier’ and became a sensation in the poker world. Numerous Photoshop wizards then transposed Cookier’s face onto numerous film posters and a legendary viral was born.
The piece de resistance, however, is Tony ‘Bond18’ Dunst’s creation of the comic strip ‘Detective T.J. Cookier & The UltimateBet Scandal’ (tinyurl.com/kw78nd). Photoshopped as a detective-based comic strip and posted on 2+2, the story follows T.J. Cookier investigating the infamous UB superuser crimes, and ‘interviewing’ Annie Duke, Phil Ivey and Freddy Deeb along the way. A work of genius.
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/tjcookier
5. Animated Poker Short Story
If you’ve ever taken a runner-runner bad beat so horrible that you’ve wanted to toss your laptop out the window then watch this brilliant clip and prepare to empathise with the main character. Using an online program that enables you to write dialogue into animated movies, some clever scribe fully encapsulates the pain every poker player frequently feels with this clip. Set inside a sauna (!?) and with one of the protagonists fully clothed, the ‘hero’ embarks on his long foul-mouthed bad beat story in a monotone voice that only serves to heighten the comedy. Be warned, there is a lot of bad language amid the funny banter but in our opinion it just adds to the humour.
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/pokerstory
4.Tuff_fish
We featured Tony ‘tuff_fish’ Sandstrom in HillyTheFish’s very first Poker Icons but we couldn’t leave him out here. The 60-year-old American became an internet cult icon when a series of expletive-laden videos of him playing online at PartyPoker were loaded up on YouTube in 2006.
Watch and laugh as tuff_fish suffers bad beat after bad beat, his commentary getting angrier and more unhinged the longer the video goes on. There are so many clips out there but our favourite is the immortal ‘F***… me to goddamn tears!’ which follows the loss of a big pot. Other classic quotes include ‘Jesus goddamn christ motherf***er’ and ‘Why the cock-sucking-f***…ing hell does this happen every f***…ing time?!’
A viral in the truest sense, his videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times, featured on lots of online pros’ blogs, led to him doing a CardRunners video and even selling a T-shirt range.
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/tuff-fish
3. Annette_15 Blind Tourn Replay
Annette Obrestad was famous in the online world a long time before her historic victory at the 2007 WSOPE. That, of course, was an incredible achievement, but a low stakes 180-man SNG online might yet rival it in the awe stakes. You see, she didn’t just win it, she did it without looking at her cards!
The video, which was featured on poker training site PokerXFactor, ended up on YouTube and the wider world marvelled at her achievement. This replay of Annette’s extraordinary win is a lesson in mastering position, continuation betting and the importance of stack sizes.
With her hole cards shielded from view the Norwegian open-folds Kings preflop and makes plenty of other ‘errors’ that prove she wasn’t cheating. Showing that you don’t need cards to win, she gathers her chips by a brilliant understanding of when other players are weak and using aggression to get them to fold.
Though the young Scandi admitted to peeking at her hole cards once at the final table, the uniqueness of this win has assured her of a place in online poker folklore – and of this video becoming a massive hit online
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/annette-15
2. Full Tilt Poker Adverts
Released exclusively online, Full Tilt Poker’s adverts are the very definition of an effective viral campaign. They’re funny, surprisingly risque, and make both the site and its pros look like the coolest thing in poker.
The most famous one involves Phil Ivey coming home to find ‘Mrs. Ivey’ in bed with another man. We don’t want to spoil it for you but the punchline is well worth the wait. In another one quiet man Erik Seidel shows a deft comic touch when he bluffs a Hell’s Angel who’s interested in his daughter. Original and entertaining, this is how to market a poker site.
WATCH IT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTQSM_pczU
1. Bing Blang Blaow
The Bing Blang Blaow viral started when 2+2 poker forumite ‘Ch3ckraise’ began a thread which detailed the humourous sledging he’d give to opponents after stacking them online: ‘BING BLANG BLAOW, CH3CK RAISE IN THA HOUSE, I JUST WON $50.00 FROM YOU….IMMA CASH IT OUT AND RUB IT ON MY TITT1ES.’
A breach of etiquette for sure, but pretty funny. The post turned into an epic 100-odd page thread getting plenty of laughs, but it wasn’t until a fellow 2+2 poster named ‘DRybes’ turned the rubdown into a three-minute song that the Bing Blang Blaow phenomenon really took off. The music video features the lyrics of the original forum post lip-synched to video footage of Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Chau Giang, Teddy KGB and a whole lot of rubbing money on titties.
We’ve been watching and rewatching it in the office for weeks, crying with laughter at the utterly bizarre but brilliant video. But it looks set to get bigger still after top online pro Jay Rosenkrantz uttered the famous words ‘Bing Blang Blaow’ on American reality television show 2M2MM. And now the poker community is crying out for Barry Greenstein to say it on the next season of High Stakes Poker. This one could run and run….
SEE IT! tinyurl.com/bingblangblaow
WATCH IT! tinyurl.com/ch3ckraise
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