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During the final table of the WSOP Main event, Darvin Moon laid down pocket queens to Steve Begleiter and then told his wife he held king queen. Dennis Phillips asked Moon about this hand recently and Moon pointed out something during that I am sure many of us have wondered about.

Moon claimed that he was concerned that information was being potentially passed on to the other coaches during the event and he intentionally lied to throw them off.

Darvin Moon - Conspiracy Theorist (Photo Courtesy of LasVegasVegas.com Photo by FlipChip)

While this may be paranoia or conspiracy theory talk to some, I can see where he could be concerned. In reality, the possibility of ESPN passing on information is slim to none as they would be destroying their own product. However, the technology does exist for others to eavesdrop in on the conversation.

One does not need to be wearing a mic to have their conversation picked up. You can find assisted hearing devices as cheap as $20 in some spots.

Of course, if someone is going to bypass the rules, they are going to use something a little more expensive, but those devices are still lightweight, portable, and can pick up the same info as a mic that you wear.

In a way, I am cut from the same cloth as Moon. I don’t typically trust people when I play poker, especially in a home game. I go into a home game assuming it is crooked in some aspect until I can prove otherwise. Usually I am right.

There are varying degrees of crookedness as well. Some people may run a decent game, but not enforce rules properly. While that is still a crooked game, unless someone is intentionally going out of their way to break the rules, the game is usually playable.

Personally, if I were in Moon’s spot, I just would not have said what I had in my hand. Of course, there are times I may have folded those queens face up. There are so many layers to a NL Holdem game that you can never “always” do or say something. In either event, the interview with Moon brought up an interesting point regarding information sharing.

If he is really concerned about it, maybe he should have a talk with Jack Effel about it. While I am sure that ESPN wouldn’t share information, it may produce some discussions about how to prevent others from doing so.