Please share. Guy seemed like quite a character.

The guys at PokerRoad Radio did a thing where they started having their own people on as the interview guest. It was an opportunity for the listeners to get to know them, rather than their guests. Gavin's turn was October 16, 2008.

Here is that episode:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7r2rbw5kj5...15-08.mp3?dl=0

Whether or not it's what you're looking for, who knows, but perhaps that gets the ball rolling.

Ran into him in the elevator during one of the Borgata Winter Opens. Talked to him for maybe a minute, seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

Never met him but beating Phil Ivey HU while drunk is to this day, one of the most underrated achievements in poker history

Fair number of them here:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...assed-1733573/

I saw Gavin quite a bit since I did the pokerroad show with him, didn't hang out with him outside of the context of the show generally but he was a very generous, open guy who struggled a lot with drinking. There was a show where he showed up completely wasted and it was so bad they had to rerecord it without him there, but they had to use the guest interview with him there because they didn't get a chance to rerecord it. Gavin was so embarrassed of that show that it was lost to time.

I was playing some NL bracelet event with him at the Rio and he was having a convo with one of the other players. The dealer chimed into their conversation and Gavin said he had a book recommendation for him. When the dealer asked what the book was called Gavin told him “It’s called stfu and deal”. Everyone had a good laugh including the dealer.

Wow, two years ago now. My sense of time has been thrown off by COVID, as things that seemed like last year are actually two years ago, etc., etc.,

The tribute from Nolan Dolla, shared in that thread, is a particularly good one:
https://www.nolandalla.com/the-windm...g-gavin-smith/

I spoke with Gavin about 2 weeks before his passing, we were trying to track down the disappeared Yukon Brad Booth (both are/were good friends). Gavin was back in Vegas with a moving truck relocating his new girlfriend from there to his place in Texas. He was so happy - new woman, had custody of his kids finally, and was thriving.

I was so gutted when I heard he passed. He was genuine, funny, and had a heart of gold.

I've been on an archiving kick and drudged out some old "The Circuit" shows which was before PokerRoad.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...rFfw5mqwvWRHI0


A story I recall is someone on the forums catfished Gavin on Stars which ended up with the person sharing dick pics to the forum.

He played at foxwoods a few times back in the day and I found him to be a complete dick. Always drinking and drunk and for me he was a nasty drunk. Couldn't stand the guy.

https://youtu.be/OiPV5GQVTt8
No stories but this video is still my favorite meme from the poker boom days.

I almost posted this. Legendary.

I went drinking with Gavin one night (and a few other folks… including Layne Flack if I recall correctly).

Big mistake.

yeah, that's not a good post. spill the beans!

I went drinking with Gavin Smith and Layne Flack…what makes you think I remember anything?

I meant it to be a throwaway post, but fine, Here’s what I remember from the night I was referencing.

(Warning before TL;DR - The story ain’t gonna be great. At the time, I genuinely *thought* I could keep up with them…alcohol wise at least. Spoiler Alert: I could not.):

We went to some fish restaurant, or at least a place that had good fish.I had at least 4 Moscow mules. Then we drank more someplace else. Then at some point we were playing poker. And drinking. I got mad at Layne for some reason. Gavin told me not to be mad at Layne, so I stopped being mad at Layne. Someone had a weird jacket they were telling me to wear so that was probably Donkey Bomber, but could have been someone else. For some reason we were passing around each other’s hats/glasses/jackets and trying them on. I don’t know why.

Eventually, I puked.

I think we ate again at whatever the 24-hour casino diner was. The next morning sucked.

Also at some point Erick Lindgren stopped by and gave me $600 he said he owed me and I said he didn’t but he insisted he did so I took it.



I have better Gavin Smith stories, but nothing as good as what’s already out there. I was “friends” in the sense he was friends with a lot of my friends. We never really made a point to hang out together, but he popped up a lot, and I always enjoyed when he was around.

He seemed a genuinely good guy who had some demons, and faced them head on. I didn’t know him that well, but I miss him.

fair enough
if you would have kept up on all fronts you probably would have been able to keep up better alcohol-wise.

thanks for responding! i always enjoyed seeing the man on tv and would have loved a night out with the guy.

wow I almost believed your story until you said Erick Lindgren paid you some money that he owed you

Hahaha, he's really funny here.

I never met Gavin personally but I did bust him in a tourney back in the day when Full Tilt was operational. I even got one of those I busted a pro at FTP t-shirts. I was really sad to hear about his death

I recall him losing to Ivey in that TV sit n go when he was obviously drunk.

I remember him in Aruba. He was playing a 9 man sit and got in a hand against this young Russian guy named Igor. Gavin Smith was really drunk at the time. He is the big stack and Igor was 2nd in chips. Gavin opens and Igor jammed all in. Gavin tanks and says "It's the second cold war, I call." Igor turns over KK and Gavin turns over a trashy hand like 25 or something like that to spike two pair and knocks the Russian kid out of the sit n go.

And now Flack is gone, too. RIP

This part of the story seems made up.

I just saw this. Really ****ing sad . RIP.

When the stuff about Lindgren’s debts came out I was shocked. Not excusing what happened in any way, but will gladly go on the record that Erick was amazingly kind and generous to me, especially when I was just starting out.

Based on my interactions with him, I can’t (and won’t) say a bad thing about the guy.