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This Guy Is Bad Karma Walking

An amateur poker player in California has admitted to lying about having colon cancer in order to collect thousands of dollars in donations so that he could play in a…

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An amateur poker player in California has admitted to lying about having colon cancer in order to collect thousands of dollars in donations so that he could play in a World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas.

Rob Mercer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he made up a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis for his GoFundMe page in June because he needed to meet the $10,000 buy-in for the No-limit Hold'em World Championship. He ended up collecting more than $30,000 and a free hotel stay at the Bellagio in Vegas. But then he all of a sudden he was stricken with guilt and decided to come clean.

He said, "I did lie about having colon cancer. I don't have colon cancer. I used that to cover my situation. What I did was wrong. I shouldn't have told people I have colon cancer. I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had." But just because he admitted to lying doesn't mean he wants to give the money back. In fact, he says still intends to keep the money because he believes he has undiagnosed breast cancer. However, GoFundMe has informed him that he is in violation of its terms of service, and everyone who donated has received an email telling them they are going to be refunded.

Hot Takes:

  • He may not have cancer, but he's a real sicko.
  • I know he likes poker, but this was more of a crap shoot.
  • You never lie about having a disease like cancer, unless you want to invite some really bad karma.
Jim O'Brien is the Host of "Big Jim's House" Morning Show at 94.7 WCSX in Detroit. Jim spent eight years in the U.S. Naval Submarine Service, has appeared on Shark Tank (Man Medals Season 5 Ep. 2), raised over two million dollars for local charities and is responsible for Glenn Frey Drive and Bob Seger Blvd in the Motor City. Jim's relationship with Classic Rock includes considering Bob Seger, Phil Collen from Def Leppard, Wally Palmer of the Romantics and many others good friends. Jim writes about ‘80s movies, cars, weird food trends and “as seen on TikTok” content.