I’ve been a (until recently) ceaseless promoter of poker, even though when a new episode last night of HGTV’s My Lottery Dream Home revealed it’s latest subject, my wife said “Oh no! Not a poker player!’ I didn’t recognize the face immediately and was a bit surprised because the intro mentioned a 3rd place cash at the 47th Annual World Series of Poker (2016, the year I worked there as a reporter) and an amount of $4 million dollars.
They certainly made it sound as if it was the Main Event, but Cliff Josephy was 3rd place that year, and this wasn’t Cliff. They mentioned that the subject—Mark—lived in Philadelphia, but there are only seven players on the Hendon Mob rankings for Pennsylvania with anything that could even be rounded up to $4 million, and none of them were named Mark. In fact, the highest-ranked Mark on the list was Mark “@dipthrong” Herm, with $1.7 million in recorded live tournament winnings. And Herm did, in fact, come in 3rd in Event #21 $3,000 NLHE 6-Max, which—though a substantial amount smaller than $4 million.
Typically, the winners on MLDH came into their money through a single big lottery win, and the show’s script certainly tried to make it look that way for Mark Herm, but unless I’m missing something big time, my guess is that Herm gave the show’s staff a number that included winnings from cash games over the years.
Herm was interviewed by Sarah Herring on the PokerNews Podcast this week.
UPDATE: Kevin @kevmath Mathers points out Herm’s PocketFives profile:
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) February 10, 2019
