There are nearly 70 events at the World Series of Poker this year. We will touch on most of them to some extent on this site, but in the end, most readers aren’t going to really care to read about the final hand of event 30-something that allowed a 20-something to win a gold bracelet. Every WSOP win is a hell of an accomplishment, but aside from Main Event champs, most of us don’t pay attention to who won a random bracelet event.
On Sunday, though, Ryan Laplante received his bracelet for winning the $565 Pot-Limit Omaha Event and, in turn, made himself someone that we will have trouble forgetting, even if he never wins anything ever again. Laplante is openly gay and, moved by the tragic shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando the night before, decided he needed to make a speech, rather than just accept his bracelet, pose for a picture, and move along.
“June is gay pride month in the United States,” he said, “and last night, at a gay dance club in Orlando, the largest shooting massacre in U.S. history occurred…so even though I wasn’t going to speak, I have four things I wanted to say.”
Unsuccessfully trying to hold back tears, Laplante thanked the many people who supported him over the years, specifically his fiancé, Chris Katona, who presented him with his gold bracelet.
“I’m so grateful. I love him so, so much,” Laplante said through the crowd’s applause.
After raising the bracelet above his head and saying how proud he was to be a World Series of Poker champion, Laplante continued, “Thirdly, I’m proud to call myself an openly gay man and encourage all of you to be proud of who you are and be comfortable loving yourself, to be open with who you are with those around you if you so desire to do so.”
“And finally,” Laplante urged, needing to pause as his voice cracked through his tears, “please treat each other with love and respect, as there’s too much hate and anger in this world.”
With that, he left the podium, held up his bracelet once more, and embraced Chris.
It was an emotional moment at an event in which most people in the room are typically closed off, thinking only about how they are going to accumulate more chips and win money. Hopefully most of the players stopped to listen. In big tournament poker, we usually just think about who has how many chips, which celebrity players are still in the mix, and how much money someone won. We can forget, just as we do with professional athletes, musicians, and actors, that these players against whom we are competing or about whom we are writing, are people. Ryan Laplante displayed a humanity that is not often revealed in a poker room; hopefully it was not forgotten as soon as the cards were in the air.
*Featured image courtesy WSOP.com.