I just saw on PokerFraudAlert that Mark passed away on July 24th in AC. I was actually staying at Caesar's. How sad

Druff/Kilowatt, do we know how? I assuming the worst.

No, we don't have any information on that.

It's not likely due to natural causes, though, for obvious reasons.

Mental illness is a very serious thing, and I feel very bad for Mark's family. He's now the second mentally ill poker pro we've lost in 2020, the first being Charles "Chao" Jiang who passed in January (not the same person as Chau Giang, by the way).

In the US in 2018, for the age groups
10-14, 15-24, and 25-34
the second leading cause of death was suicide.

Source ?

Did the #1 cause vary among those age groups ?

CDC source



Did not vary. #1 from age 1 to 44 is unintentional injury.

Thanks.

(I take it that automobile and any other accidents are lumped in that cause. Does it include drug overdoses ?)

Yes. "Accidental discharge of firearms" too.

“Unintentional poisoning deaths” is by far #1 among unintentional injury deaths. Followed by motor vehicle deaths and accidental falls.

Mark was not and never claimed to be a "poker pro". He was a youtube channel personality. His videos were filled with "fear and loathing" of just about everyone, including his immediate family members. Videos now gone, would be study gems for professionals in psychiatry and psychologists.

Rest in peace Mark

He was never a poker pro? I thought he was a successful poker player, not that necessarily makes one a pro, but I guess I didn't know much about him.

Always a tricky distinction to me. Obviously, a "pro" in any activity simply means said activity provides the primary source of income, and enough to sustain the person.

Thus, if someone makes their living off of being a YouTube or Twitch content creator, but that content is poker, can they be considered a poker pro? Some would say yes, because they're earning money by playing poker. Others would say no, that making videos is what is bringing in the money.

I generally lean toward the latter camp, but I can see the other side, in the same way that I wouldn't protest if someone called the 2007 version of Bo Burnham a professional comedian or musician.

Regardless of if earning your living off twitch streaming yourself lose at poker makes you a pro poker player or teitch streamer, Mark certainly wasnt making a living off of his 200 youtube views so moot point.

FWIW, I brought up Mark Ari in a podcast interview I did about mental health, and asked a psychiatrist for this thoughts. I did not mention Mark's name in the podcast, out of privacy concerns, and hopefully me posting this here is not thought disrespectful, as my intent is to help us all understand mental issues better.

Links: https://www.readingpokertells.video/...-rob-tarzwell/

Mark I hope you are in a better place now. Knew you were having mental health problems but didn't think you'd actually be gone. Mental health is no joke and life is so fragile. Sorry for trolling you in the youtube chat at times. May god bless your mother father and your brother. Deepest condolences. You made me laugh many times. Sorry we never got to have the "Mark Ari" poker retreat. Loved watching you do stand up and having red balls thrown at you even know people didn't understand the poker lingo. Loved how you challenged people HU at Denny's for $500. You were a one of a kind Mr. Bietman. I guess I didn't know how bad you were really suffering or maybe something bad must have happened after you deleted your youtube and went awol. We will talk again and play poker. See you in heaven brother RIP.

I'd like to share what I know about this sad event to provide clarity to his fans.

Sadly, Mark's mental illness led to him taking his own life. He did so by jumping off the parking garage at the Borgata. Based on his obituary, that was the 24th of July (Friday), which was just 2 days before the Borgata reopened. He had been planning this suicide for like a month or perhaps longer (he documented this in emails to himself).

My understanding is that he never used hard drugs. He had smoked some weed and had a drink or two here or there but wasn't a drinker. This was just a case of severe mental illness (which we witnessed in his most recent videos) and there is no reason to believe that drugs played a role in him developing mental illness.

The pandemic was quite brutal on him too. He was no longer able to drive (due to previous legal issues) and with the pandemic going on he was pretty much cooped up in the condo everyday his last 2 months. From what we've seen Mark was a man about town, who traveled throughout the country and previously had traveled around the world. I can only speculate that staying cooped up was very tough for him.

RIP Mark. You were definitely one of a kind.

Thanks for sharing those details Dream.

What a tragedy. Rest in peace Mark.

u should come out to choctaw and introduce yourself between 4am and 10am wednesday morning. going to sleep now so i can play the right hours for the promotion

You should have some respect and not talk about unrelated issues in a thread that has zero to do with bullshit promotions, and everything to do with a tragic situation.

The sheer ignorance of people never ceases to amaze me.