Taking Flight: Rapper ‘Hoodie Allen’ Bags on Day 2, Flies to NY for Wedding

Legendary heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali once said: “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

One poker player apparently made a real gesture of friendship on Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Rapper Steven “Hoodie Allen” Markowitz faced quite a dilemma. A friend’s wedding was set for Saturday, and he was on the other side of the country and building a decent chip stack. 

Some might be tempted to skip out on the nuptials, but Markowitz chose to support his friend. He left early in the night on Friday to catch a red-eye flight back home, abandoning his stack of about 145,000 chips with almost two hours left in the day. He’s hoping everything lines up where he’ll be back in the Horseshoe tomorrow to continue his Main Event run.

“Currently running to the airport so I can be at my boy’s wedding tomorrow in New York,” he noted on Twitter. “I left all my chips at the table and will have to fly at 7 a.m. on Sunday to make Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event. If I make the final table, this is the best story ever.”

That might be an understatement. Poker player and PokerGO personality Ben “Mintzy” Mintz was seated at the same table as Markowitz yesterday and added: “This better be a damn good friend.” That appears to be the case.

“It’s a wedding for one of my closest friends and when they confirmed their date I knew it would be likely I’d forgo playing the Main Event to be there for them,” Markowitz told PokerGO on Saturday. “But then I realized there was a crazy, but possible way to make it work where I would still be in for Day 3.

“I don’t think he even realized I was flying in from Vegas until last week. He’s the most easy-going person and for me it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. But this is my first time entering Day 3 with actual chips, so I am hoping to not pass out at the table tomorrow.”

made the wedding 💒 pic.twitter.com/Xw2gqGnd8y

— Hoodie Allen (@HoodieAllen) July 8, 2023

On Friday, Markowitz reached out on Twitter later in the evening to make sure his chips were safe and to see how many were left. He’ll still have 124,500 going into Day 3 on Sunday after getting blinded off for almost the last two hours of play on Friday.

At the tables, Markowitz has $67,248 in live tournament winnings and hopes his cross-country trip comes with a nice payday – barring any setbacks, flight delays, and other potential problems that can come along with travel.

Things didn’t start out well on Sunday morning when his flight faced a delay of three and a half hours. He quickly found another flight and was looking to take his seat on Day 3 in the Horseshoe on Sunday as planned.

as i was pulling up to the airport my flight got delayed 3.5 hours. i snapped found and booked the last seat on another flight to get us back to @WSOP on time

the story must continue on to day 3

— Hoodie Allen (@HoodieAllen) July 9, 2023

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