Poker News

Earlier this week, we relayed the story of popular poker blogger and photographer Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum, who was arrested on December 16th, 2013, for allegedly stealing $700 from dealer tip boxes at Foxwoods. The initial report was made last Wednesday by Billy Shea, president of the Local 2121 union, on the Facebook page for Foxwoods Assistant Supervisors & Dealers and later further investigated by PokerFuse.com. In the days since, quite a storm has erupted over the incident with many in the poker community expressing their views, but one voice had not been heard: Newnum’s.

On Tuesday, Jay Newnum broke his silence, though as you will see, he did not shed any light on the matter.

On his blog site, whojedi.com, Newnum began by saying that it has been difficult for him to not comment. He did not say why he had remained silent, but advice from an attorney is likely a good guess. He may have hinted at that slightly (reading between the lines, sure, but it does make sense) when he wrote, “The Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge ended early in the morning on December 16th. After flying home that same day, I agreed that I would not discuss anything with anyone.”

He added that he will continue to keep his lips sealed on the details of what happened, but he felt compelled to at least say a little something because of how the poker community has reacted to the story. Specifically, he said, “I would like to address the negative reaction against certain third parties, particularly Billy Shea, the union president who originally posted the story.”

Newnum continued, “I want to state clearly that any negative reaction against him or attacks against his character has not been condoned by me.

“Yesterday, I called Mr. Shea personally. We spoke at length, not about what he had posted, but instead about the reactions from the community. I hold no ill will against him, as he simply did what he felt he needed to do as union president. It was a great conversation with Billy and I do appreciate him taking the time to speak with me.”

To that end, Shea posted on Two Plus Two (as well as Facebook), “Today Jay Newnum contacted me concerning the situation at Foxwoods. Jay was openly apologetic for the harassment and negativity that has been placed upon me ever since my posting last week.”

There is some confusion as to exactly what comprised this “harassment and negativity,” as the primary discussion of the matter on Two Plus Two included no harsh comments directed at Shea. There was apparently one friend and colleague of Newnum’s who posted on the Local 2121 Facebook page criticizing Shea’s report, but that post has been deleted. I suppose there were some nitpicks shortly after Shea made the original Facebook post regarding things like his misspelling of Newnum’s name, but they were pretty minor and faded quickly. That all said, there is no reason to believe that what Shea said is a fabrication; any harassment was likely done privately.

In his Two Plus Two post, Shea also added, “We did not discuss the incident in question nor did I ask any questions. I expressed to Jay that with my position as President of Local 2121 I had an obligation to inform our members. He was very clear that he holds no anger or animosity towards me or the content of the message.”

Newnum concluded his own statement, by saying, in part, “…it seems for the best that I step away from the poker world indefinitely,” something that should surprise no one.

One Comment

  1. Arie641 says:

    Sounds very shady to me.

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