Homosexuality is a very sensitive subject even these days, and it arouses negative feelings in a lot of people. It is no wonder that not too many well-known people admit being gay. WSOP champion Jason Somerville took this step and is relieved about it.
"I’m a poker player. Above anything else that I could identify as, no single label could better describe my life, my personality, my outlook, my desires. In no community do I feel more at home, and I only have a handful of friends who don’t come from the poker world. Reality, and life in general is just…different with poker as your foundation. Our culture, our norms and our experiences as professional poker players are unique, and to various degrees, define us as individuals. I don’t shy away from that label of “poker player” at all – I love the game, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to play poker – a game! – for a living, and being able to compete on the highest levels in tournaments is something I’ve derived a ton of pleasure and pride from in my life".
"[...]I’ve struggled with how to discuss this, with how to balance my desire for privacy with the fact that I do want to be myself publicly – and the fact that I think it’s overdue for a guy to be open about it in poker. I’m no Daniel Negreanu, the royalty of real talk, but I do pride myself on saying what I think and simply being who I am; but I suppose you could say in the past being “truly myself” has come with a bit of an asterisk. Privately, amongst friends, I can say I’ve been doing that for some amount of time – but publicly, and in poker, that hasn’t completely been the case. I haven’t exactly always been where I am now, though, and haven’t really been ready to share my story publicly. Privacy reasons excepted, that won’t be the case any more[...]".
"[...]I’ve struggled with how to discuss this, with how to balance my desire for privacy with the fact that I do want to be myself publicly – and the fact that I think it’s overdue for a guy to be open about it in poker. I’m no Daniel Negreanu, the royalty of real talk, but I do pride myself on saying what I think and simply being who I am; but I suppose you could say in the past being “truly myself” has come with a bit of an asterisk. Privately, amongst friends, I can say I’ve been doing that for some amount of time – but publicly, and in poker, that hasn’t completely been the case. I haven’t exactly always been where I am now, though, and haven’t really been ready to share my story publicly. Privacy reasons excepted, that won’t be the case any more[...]".
The above qouotations are from Jason's recent blog entry. You can read the full post here.
Jason's fellow poker players showed full support in these past few days, with many tweets congratulating him for the courage of "coming out".
24 year-old Jason Somerville has accumulated 1-9 million dollars in live tourney winnings so far, and 4 WSOP final tables.
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