What is the price of a WSOP bracelet? Thomas James “T.J.” Cloutier, one of the best known tournament poker players in the world, gave us this information, when he sold one of his six bracelets on eBay through the Plano Pawn Shop for $4,006.
Is this man really broke?
The bracelet which was sold is from a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event in 2005. The reason why Cloutier needed to sell the bracelet is still unknown, but people are saying that he has lost more money playing craps than he ever made from playing poker.
For example, a fellow poker pro, Terrance Chan, wrote in his blog in 2006, that “T.J. has lost more money at craps than possibly any human being alive. Obviously he’s just a poor craps player and one should bet against him, not with him.”
Also, Grayson “the_dean22″ Nichols is another pro who recalled at PocketFives forum that Cloutier has had problems with money before:
“I remember a couple years ago, going to play in a $100 rebuy at the Orleans Hotel with Steve ‘gboro780’ Gross and Ari Engel. We get registered for the maybe 60 person field and we see Cloutier just hanging around, bumming the free hot dogs asking for a stake in the tournament. (It) looks like this isn’t a new development.”
Another PocketFives user “resilient” remembers, that he saw TJ hanging out at Winstar a couple of months ago, on the waitlist for $1/$2 No Limit Hold’Em table with $200 maximum buyin.
It sure seems like 70-years-old Poker Hall of Famer is in a serious need of money. Still, it is hard to understand how you can lose almost $10 million playing craps?
Sources: PND, PocketFives