ShareRob Mercer has been publicly accused of scamming the poker community after allegedly faking a terminal cancer diagnosis in order to solicit donations so he could play the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event for free.
The possible scam came to light after Todd Witteles tweeted a reply to an old message from Mike Matusow where he apologised for a tweet that might have offended Rob Mercer, unaware that he was telling people he had stage 4 cancer. Witteles then posted a detailed thread on why his story does not add up.
Mercer first showed up in early 2023 when he was criticising another poker player called Jami Lafay, who was herself accused of scamming the community over a cancer diagnosis, although it was believed she did have the disease.
Mercer spoke out to say that his cancer was terminal and hers was not and she was exploiting a manageable form of the illness for monetary gain.
At this stage, people started to offer Mercer buy-ins to events in Northern California but he repeatedly refused and took nothing from anybody.
Soon, as with all internet spats, it all died down and went quiet. But then Mercer reappeared in the run up to the 2023 World Series of Poker after starting a GoFundMe page.
“Hey Everyone, my name is Rob, I am a 37 year old semi professional Poker Player with Terminal Cancer…my dream has always been to play the World Series of Poker Main Event, I've never really had the sustainable bankroll to outright buy into the Event and I was conflicted on whether I would ever play it in my lifetime, but in August of last year I was diagnosed with Terminal Cancer and I was told that my timetable wasn't very promising, anywhere from 6 months to 18 months depending on how rapidly it progresses.”
Mercer ended his statement asking for $12,000.
“...the entry fee for the Main event is $10,000, and the extra $2000 is to cover travel expenses, lodging, food, miscellaneous expenses.”
The $12,000 was quickly raised with Nick Vertucci pushing hard with his platform and Mercer got to live out his dream.
But fast-forward a couple of months and Snoopdoug, a Twitter user from Northern California posted his suspicions that the whole episode was a charade. Todd Witteles wrote that he had doubts beforehand but kept his thoughts to himself and now it’s all coming out, although, it has to be said, no proof either way has been posted yet.
Todd Witteles wrote that Snoopdoug said Mercer couldn’t provide any proof of his diagnosis and acted evasive when asked. It also came to light that his doctor was a general practitioner and not an oncologist, which raised suspicions..
On top of this, there was also an episode where Mercer tweeted about a liaison with an adult movie star during his trip to Las Vegas. Not what one would expect from a man who claimed to be bed bound most days on his GoFundMe page.
After initially being accused of running a scam, Mercer closed his Twitter account and there was no more word from him until a week ago when he posted a statement that didn’t appear to convince many.
We don’t have any proof one way or the other but Rob Mercer is certainly lacking support in the poker community right now.
