After making his TV poker debut on Episode 1 of High Stakes Poker back in December, former MLB pitcher Michael Schwimer returned for three more episodes with an entirely new line-up of players.
Schwimer was the star in Episode 1 as he traded blows with Tom Dwan, Nick Petrangelo, Rick Salomon, Brandon Steven, Bryn Kenney, and Jean-Robert Bellande. When he returned for Episodes 6 to 8, Schwimer now faced some new players, including Sean Perry, Damian LeForbes, and John Andress. Unfortunately for Schwimer, his Episode 1 no-hitter couldn’t be replicated in his next appearance as he rode a roller-coaster of ups and downs throughout the latest three episodes of play.
Explore Jean-Robert Bellande's biography, personal life, family and real age. Discover the real story, facts, and details of Jean-Robert Bellande. Jean-Robert Bellande can’t seem to catch a break on Season 8 of High Stakes Poker. Two weeks ago we saw the man known by his @BrokeLivingJRB Twitter handle somehow lose all three runs of a nearly $1 million pot, despite having ace-king suited against Tom Dwan’s pocket queens and Lynne Ji’s queen-ten suited. Jean-Robert Bellande can’t seem to catch a break on Season 8 of High Stakes Poker. Two weeks ago we saw the man known by his @BrokeLivingJRB Twitter handle somehow lose all three runs of a nearly $1 million pot, despite having ace-king suited against Tom Dwan’s pocket queens and Lynne Ji’s queen-ten suited. Jean-Robert Bellande is a contestant from Survivor: China. He was the primary source of conflict within the Fei Long tribe, irritating tribemates with his habits around camp, directly calling out players that he deemed threats, and denigrating players that he viewed as weak. At the final 9, he tried to target James Clement for having Hidden Immunity Idols, but this caused his ally Todd Herzog. Jean-Robert Bellande, Self: Survivor. Jean-Robert Bellande was born on September 17, 1970 in Long Island, New York, USA.
Catch up on Season 8 of High Stakes Poker now as new episodes air every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET!
After making his debut on High Stakes Poker, Schwimer discussed the comparison between poker and baseball and which one he feels more pressure from.
“Way less pressure! The Major Leagues, that’s my job. This is just fun,” Schwimer said. “If I go sit down there and lose everything, it’s no problem at all for me. But the Major Leagues at the time, that’s my livelihood. That’s a lot more pressure.”
When Schwimer returned for his next session of High Stakes Poker, he knew that the players might be coming for him following his big win the previous night.
“I’m expecting to have a lot of fun. I’m a very LAG player, and when you play as loose as I play and as much action as you want,” Schwimer said. “They will show me less respect probably, which I deserve. I like to see a lot of flops and try to make moves from there. So I think that they have probably seen that, and they are going to be doing a lot more calling and seeing more flops with me. I ran into a lot of one-on-one situations, but I think it’ll probably be a bit more 3 or 4-way situations, which I don’t think is a bad thing for me. So I do think they’ll do that, but it’s going to work to my advantage, I hope.”
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Although Schwimer is new to poker from the general public’s perspective, his poker experience extends all the way through his days in the MLB as a former pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies.
“There were some big games on the team plane with the Phillies, and with Jonathan Papelbon, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley,” Schwimer said about poker while on the road in the Major Leagues. “Those guys like to play. It’s the craziest game. Papelbon’s number was 58, and he would go all-in with 5-8 no matter what. Stuff like that happens, it’s not like poker, but still was a lot of fun.”
Some of the teammates mentioned by Schwimer earned millions of dollars during their career, so poker games on the road could very easily get out of hand.
“People would go in there with half a million dollars in cash on the plane, and I would have like 4 grand,” Schwimer said about the amount of money they were playing for. “It’s a very sporadic game, and there’s not like a minimum or anything. My salary was $450,000 before tax so, that’s where I was able to buy-in for small. They don’t care in the beginning, so I could run it from 4 grand to 50 grand in the first 25 minutes. You could lose a couple, but you can just keep rebuying and get it up there.”
“I would guess that I made more money playing poker on those airplanes than I did actually playing baseball.”
With his debut on High Stakes Poker behind him, what is next for Schwimer when it comes to poker? When Season 9 of High Stakes Poker happens, Schwimer will most likely be on the list of players, and high stakes tournaments in 2021 are a realistic possibility.
“I like it as a change-up from my day job,” Schwimer said. “What I do for a living is what I love, and I can do it all day long. It’s all fun, but I do need a mental stimulation change-up, and I think this presents it for me. Just going to play poker, playing with the best in the world, and you know you’re the worst guy at the table, or one of the worst, is extremely stimulating for me, and it makes me think differently, and I think that helps.”
When it comes to cash games versus tournaments for Schwimer, we could eventually see him in both worlds soon.
“I’m a better cash game player than a tournament player. I’m way too aggressive, and I take too many chances in tournament play,” Schwimer said. “I’ll go play probably the WSOP, or if Triton has a big tournament with a huge buy-in, I might go do that. That might be fun. Tom [Dwan] is trying to get me to do those. Of course, he sees the fish and wants more action, so I can’t blame him. So I think that could be in the future.”
Season 8 of High Stakes Poker continues with new episodes every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET. Incredible line-ups, high stakes, and fantastic table banter. What more could you ask for? Make sure to watch all the new season of High Stakes Poker on PokerGO!
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Dan Bilzerian dropped a bombshell about a popular poker player – Jean-Robert Bellande. The social media playboy claims JRB has been cheating in a high-stakes home game, a potential reputation-damaging allegation.
Poker cheating scandals are becoming more prevalent these days. Mike Postle, an accused cheater, escaped legal action, both criminal and civil. But most of the poker community still believes in his guilt.
Postle allegedly had access to his opponent’s hole cards during dozens of Stones Live streams. The accusation is that he played near-perfect poker and thus must have been cheating. That, however, hasn’t been definitively proven.
The same can be said for Bellande, who was accused of cheating by both Bilzerian and hedge fund manager Bill Perkins, both of whom he considers close friends.
All three of them play in the highest stakes private home games you’ll find in Las Vegas. Bellande, who previously played almost daily at Aria, hosts the games. He’s one of the only pros in the games and typically invites recreational players and wealthy businesspeople such as Perkins.
Did JRB cheat?
Bilzerian, a social media icon, claims to have earned his wealth playing high-stakes poker cash games, although that claim has never been verified. He made a bold accusation about Bellande following a recent game they played, a game that JRB actually lost for six figures. Bellande shared a text conversation of the chat with Bilzerian on Twitter after Bilzerian outed him on his Instagram page, which has over 32 million followers.
According to the chat, Bilzerian said he won “only” $287,000 in the $50/$100 game played in Las Vegas. And he straight up called JRB “a cheat,” but didn’t go into details as to the evidence he has to prove cheating occurred. The social media playboy referred to Bellande as “such a f—–g sack of s–t for bringing me to that game.”
“I didn’t lose, I’m not trying to b—h about paying, I have no dog in this fight,” Bilzerian texted.
Bellande defended bringing Bilzerian to the game with the comment, “I thought you’d enjoy.” He then said of Bilzerian’s cheating accusations, “You could never believe that. Very not cool for you to say.”
Perkins, who was also in the game, took to Twitter to pile on. The hedge fund manager and avid poker player polled his audience.
You're the host of a poker game you get paid time/rake and you also play in the game. You have 50 percent of 2 or more players in a sometimes 8/7/9 player game. As the host should you make non staked players aware of the economics? #Poker
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) October 5, 2020
Jean Robert Bellande Net Worth
Bilzerian is so confident that Bellande cheated that he offered to bet that JRB is lying via a lie detector test. JRB hasn’t responded to that side bet. But he did defend his reputation on social media.
loosing 400k+ this week (only 80 in that game) and having my friend, @DanBilzerian turn on me = rough week. funny thing is, i think those guys were only showing off to impress him. i’m super bummed right now. (and would still vouch for that game). #brokeandbummed
— Jean-Robert Bellande (@BrokeLivingJRB) October 5, 2020
Jean Robert Bellande Net Worth
“loosing 400k+ this week (only 80 in that game) and having my friend, @DanBilzerian turn on me = rough week. funny thing is, i think those guys were only showing off to impress him. i’m super bummed right now. (and would still vouch for that game),” Jean-Robert Bellande wrote on Twitter.
Jean Robert Bellande Net Worth
Bellande’s reputation is important given his strategy for making money from poker. He hosts private games and if his reputation isn’t in tact, he’ll have a hard time convincing anyone to join his games.
Featured image source: Instagram