Ben Mintz is deep in a $2,500 buy-in Moneymaker Tour event, but his Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy is none too thrilled he’s skipping out on a corporate outing to play poker.
Barstool is currently hosting its annual Barstool Combine, which is a spinoff of the NFL Combine, a test of physical and mental skills for college football athletes who want to showcase their skills to scouts ahead of the NFL Draft. Employees and personalities of Barstool Sports compete in a series of drills to see who is the best athlete at the company.
Poker Tournament Gets Barstool Employee in Trouble
“Mintzy,” as an employee of Barstool, was supposed to compete in the Combine. But he’s first in chips with 14 players remaining at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Palm Beach, Florida, and the winner is set to receive $121,485. The longtime poker player and sports radio personality is guaranteed at least $9,000 entering Monday’s final session, but with over 100 big blinds to start the day, anything less than a final table appearance would be a disappointment.
His boss, however, isn’t exactly enthusiastic about the deep run in the $500,000 guaranteed no-limit hold’em tournament. Portnoy posted a video on X of a somewhat heated phone call with the poker player.
“Mintzy, are you at the Combine today?” Portnoy asked Mintz to begin the call.
Mintz, of course, informed his boss that he is instead in Florida preparing for his final day of play in the poker tournament. He explained that first place comes with a six-figure payout. But Portnoy, who has always supported Mintz as a poker player and Barstool personality, didn’t give his employee the “go get ’em, Tiger” response.
“I’d say that’s your salary because what’s the point of me paying you?” Portnoy asked in response to Mintz informing him that he has a shot at winning $120,000. “You have a jersey, you’re written up in the thing, and you’re just skipping, like we don’t do that much, and you’re just skipping it?”
Portnoy then continued questioning why he’s paying Mintzy if he’s going to miss out on a corporate event in favor of poker. Mintz, a co-host of the former Cracking Aces poker podcast presented by Barstool Sports, was fired from Barstool last May over some rap lyrics he recited on-air. He was then re-hired in August after Portnoy bought back the company from PENN.
After Mintzy was fired last year, Portnoy went to bat for him. This time around, he isn’t sticking up for him.
“If you’re a professional poker player, go do that,” Portnoy told his popular employee. “We have a major sponsored event that you have a jersey for, that you’re supposed to be part of, and you’re just f*****g skipping it because you’re doing well in a poker tournament. Great, well, go make your money playing poker then.”
The Barstool founder then continued to rip on the poker player, questioning why he chose to play in the tournament when the company has “a major event in Chicago.”
“Let me say this clearly, when you have a committed company event that we have sponsored money for, that you’ve committed to, you go to that event. It’s a Monday,” a defiant Portnoy said.
“Okay, this will never happen again,” Mintzy promised.
That promise didn’t fully appease Portnoy, who then informed him that he’d deduct the amount won in the poker tournament from Mintzy’s salary. Mintz, who appeared on the live stream on Sunday, played a memorable pot when he flopped a set-under-set, but rivered a one-outer for quads to bust his opponent and build his way to the top stack.
Dave Portnoy Buys Back Barstool Sports from Penn; Fired Ben Mintz to Return
