Originally Posted by kk<<trupqq
I played with Sam for about 6 hours last week, and without knowing anything else about him besides what I saw, he's a stand-up guy in my book.
Soon after I sat at the table with him, two new players who were friends, recognized him and instantly started hating on him. One of them said "Not only is he mean, he intends to hurt people." Sam took it in stride, and made some semi-mean but clearly good natured remarks to other people who clearly knew him, and he told some lady walking by (who I later confirmed is a long-time pro), about how cold the AC was and how she should put a jacket on, and without missing a beat she laughed back and said "Sam I think that's the first time you've ever recommended I put ON clothes."
A few hours in, with the two guys continuing the insults, I piped up and said that I've only been playing with Sam for a few hours, but so far he hasn't said or done anything that didn't deserve to be said or done, while on the other hand you two guys (who I confirmed had not met/played with him before either) have been continually insulting a man you don't know. They were quiet for a bit, but started up again later, but Sam instantly started chatting with me from then on.
More than once he mentioned how the Bible just says to ignore people like that, and how the Bible has lots of good advice, and he also talked a lot about his kids and how one of them is married and his kid and his kid's wife are both super young, but he's really proud of them blah blah blah being a dad is great.
So Seattle Times article or no, I think from the way he was talking about his kids that he's a good dad. And with only my experience with him, and all his Bible quotes, and how he acted at the table I was at, I consider him to be a decent guy. The two guys ridiculing him brought up him punching Hellmuth, and his only response was "what can I say, he had it coming".
So with a grand total of six hours sitting next to and chatting with Sam Grizzle, I consider him a stand-up guy. He did hint at me that staking him for an event would be a good investment, so I'm guessing all the amazing degen stories are true, but he was never pressuring or out of line to me or anybody else.
Def a degen, but a decent enough guy imo.