Earlier this week, Ryan Depaulo announced on Twitter/X that ACR Poker had fired him from his role as an ACR Pro. The decision seemingly stemmed from Depaulo's acceptance and partial completion of a promotional role offered to him by the World Series of Poker - a direct competitor in ACR's eyes.
In his initial post, Depaulo sarcastically categorized his firing as a "smart move" but later softened his stance. He has now deleted all his posts on the matter. PokerOrg reached out to Depaulo to hear more on his side of the story.
Ryan, talk us through what happened.
Ryan Depaulo: I had a three-year deal [with ACR] and it was ending January 1st of this year. It was late November or early December and we were in the dark about when we were going to start talking about the new contract. I knew they were going to sign me and that we had a good relationship, but I didn't know if that offer would be an inflation level raise or something that I might have turned down. I didn't know for sure if I had a job with them.
In late November, I get an offer to do ads in some YouTube videos for the WSOP play money app. The ads would run in February and March, but they needed an answer from me near the end of November. At first, I thought, 'Ah, I don't know,' - thinking of ACR - and then, 'Wait, I'm not going to turn down work. What if I don't have a job? You never know.'
I agreed to do it. I didn't tell ACR because we only verbally agreed to a contract and I thought to myself that when I actually got a written one - if I see that it violates this one - I will tell them, but they just kicked that can down the road. They never gave the new written ones, I didn't even have a new job description.
It sounds like the re-signing process wasn't made entirely clear.
RD: I should have told them. The main thing in the contract, the last one, was: no doing ads for competitors. It was a hybrid of knowing they may not like it, but I also partially thought that it's a play money app - like the same as me doing an ad for Clash of Clans. It just happens that WSOP owns it, so it was a little naive of me. And I saw that after the fact, once I put the first ad out.
My thinking was that ACR doesn't even offer play money. I didn't think it was a conflict of interest, but that's a little disingenuous of me because I knew they wouldn't be thrilled with it. Ultimately, part of me was dumb and part of me just thought I could get one through. I thought I would just be forgiven and we could work it out. I didn't think they'd never see the YouTube videos, but I thought they would just give me a slap on the wrist.
Did they make the decision to let you go after that first video promo aired?
RD: Yeah, I took it down for a bit too, I made it private - this is what's crazy. I think Phil [Nagy] was upset that I didn't mention this when we agreed to a new contract. I knew I had agreed to do these at WSOP Bahamas when we were negotiating the new deals and I think he felt hurt that I didn't mention it then, but I didn't know if it would violate the new contract. So, I told them, 'I'll make it right, I won't do the rest. I'll delete this video, I'll do whatever to make it work for you guys.' But they stuck with it.
Do you think there's anything else going on behind the scenes?
RD: I wonder. I was shocked when I first got the call and they said, 'We're terminating your contract.' You're not going to have a conversation with me on how to fix this? It seems like a bad move, maybe there is more going on. Maybe there was a lot of pressure - I really don't know.
It's a shame because it felt like you guys had a good thing going and now this isn't good for either party.
RD: I agree. I don't want to not take accountability for a mistake I made and trying to get greedy, but it's 100% fixable.
It's a bummer for all of us as fans - it's not what anybody wants.
RD: Yeah, it sucks, but I don't want to come off like I'm a victim or something. I know it's my fuck up.
What's next for you?
RD: I'm about to go to The Cage, actually. It's still part of my deal, so it's like breakup sex or whatever.
I'm going to try to be a degenerate slot streamer. I'm going to go pro in slots (laughs). No, I'm working with Stake.us and I did my first stream last night, it went well. I'm never going to leave poker, I'm still going to be at the WSOP. It's sad, as I say this I realize I'm not going to be at Punter's Pad.
I'm still going to make vlogs, but as far as the next sponsor it's Stake.us. What if I just make a trillion dollars and become friends with Drake?
Images Courtesy of World Poker Tour
