{"id":290696,"date":"2023-09-21T11:29:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=290696"},"modified":"2023-09-23T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T02:29:07","slug":"poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Poker Player Bluffed Terminal Cancer to Get WSOP Buy-In"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Vallejo, California man has admitted that he lied about having terminal colon cancer to raise the $10K buy-in to the World Series of Poker Main Event.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rob
Rob Mercer, at the WSOP above, is a feel-good story turned sour as he admitted to lying about having a terminal condition Wednesday. (Image: LVRJ<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Poker player Rob Mercer, 37, made $12,500 from a GoFundMe page and is believed to have received an additional $18K from private donations. And in an extraordinary interview<\/a> with The Las Vegas Review-Journal <\/em>on Wednesday, Mercer says he isn\u2019t going to give any of it back.<\/p>\n

\n

The Review-Journal<\/em> contacted Mercer Wednesday because it originally ran a feel-good piece<\/a> about his experiences at the WSOP. But since that piece was published in July, some of those who donated to the cause became suspicious and turned against Mercer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“I did lie about having colon cancer. I don\u2019t have colon cancer. I used that to cover my situation,\u201d Mercer told the newspaper. \u201cWhat I did was wrong. I shouldn\u2019t have told people I have colon cancer. I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Dying\u2019 Wish<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In his GoFundMe page, Mercer described himself as a semi-professional player who had never had the bankroll to buy into the Main Event outright and wondered if he would ever fulfill his dream.<\/p>\n

I found myself going back and forth wondering if I was ever going to do this [fundraiser] because my pride means a lot to me and I never like asking people for help,\u201d Mercer wrote on GoFundMe. \u201cBut my dream has always been to play the World Series of Poker Main Event.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He claimed he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in August 2022 and had been given between six to 18 months to live, and suddenly, the need to fulfill his dream had become more pressing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Vindictive Villain\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mercer told the Review-Journal<\/em> that he lied because he believes he has breast cancer, although he admitted this hasn’t been diagnosed. He claimed he had colon cancer because he believed this was the least \u201cembarrassing\u201d of the two conditions.<\/p>\n

Mercer added there was no need to repay the money since it had been given to him because he was ill, which he claims he is.<\/p>\n

Among those who donated was Cody Daniels, a poker player who actually does have a terminal illness. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re making me out to be some kind of monster, like this vindictive villain who planned this months in advance,\u201d Mercer told the Review-Journal.<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s just crazy. But I understand. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercer was eliminated from the World Series Main Event within a few hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Vallejo, California man has admitted that he lied about having terminal colon cancer to raise the $10K buy-in to the World Series of Poker Main Event. Poker player Rob Mercer, 37, made $12,500 from a GoFundMe page and is believed to have received an additional $18K from private donations. And in an extraordinary interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":290699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,83771,14,84511],"tags":[85808,88062,81909],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoker Player Bluffed Terminal Cancer to Get WSOP Buy-in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Poker player Rob Mercer lied about having stage 4 colon cancer to raise money for a World Series of Poker main event buy-in.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poker Player Bluffed Terminal Cancer to Get WSOP Buy-in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Poker player Rob Mercer lied about having stage 4 colon cancer to raise money for a World Series of Poker main event buy-in.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-21T16:29:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-24T02:29:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mercer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1035\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"790\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/\",\"name\":\"Poker Player Bluffed Terminal Cancer to Get WSOP Buy-in\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mercer.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-21T16:29:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-24T02:29:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Poker player Rob Mercer lied about having stage 4 colon cancer to raise money for a World Series of Poker main event buy-in.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-player-bluffed-terminal-cancer-to-get-wsop-buy-in\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mercer.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mercer.jpg\",\"width\":1035,\"height\":790,\"caption\":\"Rob Mercer, at the WSOP above, is a feelgood story turned sour as he admitted to lying about having a terminal condition Wednesday. 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