UB.com pro Joe Sebok has issued an apology to Jon “FatalError” Aguiar and the poker community after sending a threatening Direct Message (DM) to Aguiar via Twitter last week. The DM came shortly after Aguiar verbally attacked UB.com pro Prahlad Friedman on Twitter after Friedman accused Isaac Haxton and Justin Bonomo of account sharing.
Sebok’s DM to Aguiar read, “Might wanna chill on the UB hate a little, man. You + your gf may have a skeleton or two that you wouldn’t want public, no? Chill out.”
Aguiar claimed that Sebok was attempting to blackmail him and posted the DM on TwoPlusTwo, which added further repulsion toward the UB.com pro. Sebok had already been under the microscope for his involvement with the site since joining it in 2009 and even more so following his interviews regarding the revelations made by Travis Makar earlier this year. Sebok has taken the brunt of the criticism for the company after vowing to get to the bottom of what really happened with the site’s super user scandal.
On Tuesday, Sebok created a TwoPlusTwo account and posted a public apology to Aguiar: “First of all, I take full responsibility that my initial DM was overly aggressive and out of line. For that I apologize.”
He then explained some of his reasoning behind joining UB and his actions in defending the site: “When I signed on with UB almost two years ago, I saw it as an opportunity to help turn a company around. I’ve been called everything from naive to a douche for thinking I could help change the company and the perception there, but I still feel like I have done my best, and am still making positive steps with UB. I have put a ton of work into those efforts.”
Sebok continued, “And because I have, I take the continued knocks against UB personally. Sometimes I act or say things in reaction that I wish I could take back. And given the way Aguiar was bashing UB with the Prahlad/Ike incident, even though it had nothing to do with UB, I reacted quickly and made a bad decision. No escaping that.”
He concluded, “Now, did I view that DM to Jon as private? Absolutely. Do I think taking a private message and asking for a public apology is strange? That’s irrelevant. I shouldn’t have sent it, plain and simple. Jon made his decisions after that, and over 700+ posts later, here we are.”
The apology didn’t go over well with most of the community. While Shane “shaniac” Schleger thanked Sebok for coming forward, most were eager to shoot UB.com-related questions at Sebok, who hung around to answer many of the responses. After more than 20 pages of posts, Sebok had become the target of a TwoPlusTwo firing squad and ceased posting. He later wrote on Twitter, “Oh well, I tried.”
Aguiar wasn’t impressed with Sebok’s apology, either. He replied in the thread, “I notice you still refuse to address the inclusion of my girlfriend in this. It’s a huge point to just ignore in such a lengthy thought out response.”
Sebok didn’t help matters with his reply: “Jon, I am perfectly happy to let everyone know why I brought up your gf. That’s your call. You know exactly why I mentioned her. That’s your business… Also wanted to add that by posting our private message publicly, you have brought her into this publicly, not me. I feel very badly for any stress that it may have caused her.”
Incidents like this are why I’ll never play at UB.com again. Prahlad and Sebok and their crappy morality can DIAF for all I care.
Could really care less what Joe had to say about Prahlad. He deserved it! Love you Joe!
The “UB scandal” aside, I kind of agree with Sebok. Aguiar posted a PM and is in essence responsible for putting his own gf’s business out on the street. I am not a huge devote of the poker community and all of its peccadillo’s but this is another example of why people need to realize if it is on the net there is no privacy.
No opinion on Sebok but I agree that Prahlad is a douche.