Poker Player Fighting Decision
July 23, 2009
The United States Golf Association or USGA has a problem with the fact
that Dusty Schmidt is trying to compete as an amateur. The online poker
player put a bet out there that he would pay anyone who could beat him at 72
holes of golf and poker one million dollars. He did it for fun, but now it
seems that the USGA believes that he has given up his amateur status in
doing so.
Schmidt disagrees and says that he has been playing both online poker and
golf and that one has nothing to do with the other. It was a fun bet, and
that the USGA is blowing it out of proportion. Schmidt filed a temporary
restraining order against the association that would allow him to keep his
status as an amateur, and would allow him to compete in the upcoming events
out in the Pacific Northwest.
But the USGA says that Schmidt is trying to portray himself as an innocent,
as a victim of their rules and regulations, when really he is the one who
“flouted the rules for amateur status” with the poker and golf bet that he
put out there. They say that he is a “self promoter” who has lost his
amateur status and that if he wanted to keep it he should not have put the
poker and golf bet out there.
Schmidt originally had a promising career not as a poker player but as a
golfer who turned pro after a year at UC Irvine. However, he had a heart
attack at age 23 which put him out of commission and introduced him to
online poker. He played poker during his rehab and found that he was really
good at it and that he really enjoyed it.
