Well-known poker personality and podcaster Joey Ingram finds himself once again at the center of controversy after a heated public exchange with poker player Ebony Kenney.
Kenney appeared on Ingram's YouTube show Wednesday fresh off a $1.7 million 5th place finish at the Coin Rivet Invitational in Cyprus. An an Americas Cardroom (ACR) Team Pro, Kenney--who is also a dedicated women's advocate--received her $200,000 Cypress buy-in from ACR CEO Phil Nagy.
Kenney had appeared on Ingram's show three times prior to her Wednesday appearance and tweeted later that she did not expect the interview to end as it did.
After two hours of relatively friendly conversation, the interview became contentious after a moderator in Ingram's chat referred to women as "bitches."
The moderator quickly deleted the comment and posted the message "apologies." Ingram avoided taking a position, citing his desire to avoid "censoring" his community.
Kenney countered, "You're allowing bad behavior in your house" and ended the interview shortly after the exchange. She followed up the interview with a Twitter thread in which she criticized Ingram's behavior.
"When you allow your community to attack your guests/supposed friend," she wrote, "you are co-creating toxic behavior."
Building tensions
While the moderator's comment might have been the final straw for Kenney, it was not the first time the interview had gotten awkward. At one point, Ingram questioned Kenney about Nagy's prior behavior around women.
In the interview, Kenney pointed out that Nagy had acknowledged his poor behavior and apologized, but in her post-interview thread, Kenney criticized Ingram for the question.
"The idea that women have to answer for men at all times is a ridiculous double standard demanding women to do the emotional labor for the behavior of men," Kenney wrote.
The moderator's comment came right at the end of the Nagy discussion.
"You can't have people saying, 'women need to stop being bitches and fighting each other,'" Kenney told Ingram. "That's exactly why the poker environment is as toxic as it is, because we allow comments like this to live."
In her post-interview thread, Kenney added, "Me asking your community to stop calling women bitches isn’t censorship. Intention matters."
Ingram responded later during a nearly seven-hour Twitch stream. He discussed what he has taken away from Kenney's critique and seemed open to her criticism. On that stream, which Ingram referred to as an investigation into himself, he acknowledged Kenney's points, saying, "It's fair. I see where Ebony is coming from, and I really care what she's got to say."
Featured image source: Joe Giron via Triton Poker
