PokerStars player Belragazo, who went out of his way to trash talk , has surrendered to the pressure and has apologized to Greg Raymer. During the World Championship of Online Poker, Belragazo made aggressive statements such as “Kill Him!” and “yes!!!!” when Raymer was eliminated. He actually succeeded in upsetting the Fossilman, as Raymer responded to the taunts with “bel, you’re a jerk, jerks always lose in the end” in the PokerStars chat. However, his once-ballsy demeanor evaporated as the atmosphere of his home country of France seeped into him and resulted in him backing down and apologizing. In a post on the PokerListings forum, he states his apology:

“First of all, I would like to apologize to all of you. I think my behavior was excessive and I did not want to hurt anybody. It was very early in the morning at 8 am and I was extremely tired when the controversy happened about my ‘kill him‘” writes Belragazo.

Contrary to his previous assessments, he claims that he has a lot of respect for the Fossilman as a poker player. He further justifies his comments by degrading himself and admitting that he was shaking in fear like a French soldier: “I did say that I was happy that Greg was out because I felt that I was scared of him and that it made me hesitate to play in situations I would usually win the hands.”

He further states that he became frustrated when Raymer got lucky in a few pots. Rather than apologizing in the chat, he saw fit to wait and post it in a forum for fear of “losing his concentration”. All of this was for naught, however, as he was eliminated, as Frenchman always are.

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