He might not be widely loved in the poker community, but you can’t say Dutch Boyd can’t play poker. On Tuesday, Boyd won his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet, taking the hardware in 2014 WSOP Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
Boyd has been under a lot of scrutiny for over a decade, starting with the debacle with PokerSpot, a poker room which he co-founded. In short, when the poker room closed in 2001, it failed to return $400,000 in player deposits. Boyd said it was a problem with the credit card processor being weeks late in sending funds to the site, but regardless, PokerSpot was a mess and not everyone has been paid back yet.
He became known to the general poker public in 2003, when he finished 12th in the World Series of Poker Main Event, becoming the defacto leader of a group of young players, largely seen as obnoxious at the time, known as “The Crew.” He had actually said that if he won the Main Event, he’d use the money to pay back PokerSpot customers, but he didn’t win and didn’t pay.
In 2009, Boyd was sued by Two Plus Two publishing for taking actions that “have disrupted or are intended to disrupt Two Plus Two’s business by, among other things, diverting web users away from Two Plus Two’s Web sites and forums.” Boyd had registered the domain TwoPlusTwopoker.com and turned it into a poker portal, an action most reasonable people see as a way to profit off of Two Plus Two’s name. A summary judgment was granted in 2012. Boyd appealed, but the judgment was upheld earlier this year.
That all gets us back to this week. Boyd, while certainly not without checkers on his past, can still play poker. He won a $2,500 Short-Handed Limit Hold’em Event in 2006 for his first bracelet, a $2,500 Six-Handed Limit Hold’em Event in 2010 for his second, and now triumphed over a field of 1,687 opponents for this third. And he is very appreciative of the moment.
“It’s not like this win is going to change my life, or anything,” he told the WSOP’s Nolan Dalla after the victory. “It’s not life-changing money for me, but it’s good to come here in the summer and prove to everyone over and over that you’re a relevant player again. Three bracelets is a pretty big accomplishment. There really is a difference between one and two, and two and three.”
Even if he hadn’t have won, Boyd was still having a solid WSOP this year, with three cashes before this week. The nearly $300,000 first prize takes his lifetime live tournament earnings up to $2,462,881.
Just before the start of the 2014 WSOP, Boyd published an autobiography, Poker Tilt. “After this,” he said, “I might have to write a whole new book.”
2014 World Series of Poker Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Dutch Boyd – $288,744
2. Steven Norden – $178,490
3. Paul Cogliano – $117,464
4. Will Givens – $84,680
5. Pok Kim – $61,983
6. Christopher Sensoli – $46,031
7. Vinny Pahuja – $34,668
8. Gabriel Nassif – $26,464
9. Chad Dixon – $20,463
