Brandi Hawbaker, a 24-year old wannabe poker pro, is enjoying her 15 minutes of fame in an epic thread on the two plus two forums. There's more drama in this story than in a complete season of Days of our Lives. The story begins with Brandi meeting Captain Tom's penis (sorry) and ends (for now?) with Brandi donking away $30k playing unsupervised from the PokerStars account of some Internet Poker Pro. Oh and did we mention the part where she writes the words "I will fly one day" on a bathroom mirror using her own blood?
The story is attracting a lot of attention to the point where the 2plus2 server is now crashing under it's heavy load. Anyway assuming they will get the server running again here's the link so you can check it out for yourself:
Brandi Hawbaker 15 minutes of fame 2plus2 thread
Some quotes from Brandi's initial post:
After Festa Al Lago, I was approached by various people who wanted to back me. Some of them wanted two year deals, which I did not want to take. Others were complete sleaze bags who wanted to put me in tournaments as long as I slept with them ~ I'm not that sort of girl. Then, I was approached by Captain Tom Franklin...
[...]
The next night, he crawled into bed with me naked. His penis on my back, frighten me, and woke me in the middle of the night. I freaked out and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom. I crawled to sleep on the floor and used the towels as blankets. I was traumatized.
When I got to Foxwoods, everything had changed. He had a young 22 year old girl with him, named Amanda. We were all supposed to meet at the airport but his flight was delayed, so we shared a cab. My friend was still with me at the time, and she confronted Amanda. Amanda came out and said that she met him two years ago when she was with her mom and that for two years Tom has promised her a job in his company ~ which was still yet to happen, as Tom does not have a company. She talked about how he makes her skin crawl and that she has turned into an alcoholic and that she dropped out of school and is now taking care of her mom and dad with the little money that Tom is giving her to have sex with him.
Now, everyone that knows Tom Franklin, I hope is obviously aware that he is married! Anyway ~ we all ended up sharing a room that first night in Foxwoods because the casino was booked. My friend and I slept in one bed. Tom and his "daughter" as he claims her to be ~ slept in the other. Tom was in a very bad mood because he was not getting laid. She had a cold or bronchitis or something. The next night Tom got another room so him and his "daughter" could have some alone time so she could make him happy. He blamed all of us sharing a room as the reason she would not perform, since she was afraid of us walking in at any moment.
[...]
Mark Newhouse bought my ticket home, along with my friend's. When I got home, I thought of things I could do to straighten the situation out. I tried calling Tom and asking nicely. I talked to the press. I even talked to Todd and Doyle Brunson (who sponsor him on their site). They both said they would talk to him when he got into town.
During that time, no one helped me except Phil Gordon. I filmed something with him for his show and he gave me 1k. That is how I managed to pay my rent and phone bill. Thanksgiving for me was horrible. I spent the day in bed with only a microwavable Turkey dinner ~ since I did not have enough money to go anywhere or see friends. I didn't even have a car by this point in time because my BMW had been repossessed. I was absolutely miserable.
Tom was supposed to be in town on the 28th. He did not end up showing up till this week. When I talked to Doyle, he ended up giving me 2k, and I was incredibly appreciative. I thought I would get my money back and that everything would be okay.
But Tom is a very good liar. I'm not sure what he said to Todd or Doyle. All I can say is that I met them both once and I did nothing crazy except tell them what he did to me. I don't have relationships with either of them and have not had contact with them outside of one time since then. I called Doyle and asked him what had happened. He said that Tom told him a different story and that there was nothing he could do for me. I said "Okay, thank you for trying." and hung up.
What I wanted to do was scream!! Of course he would tell a different story! Of course he would try to cover his own ass! Did Doyle really expect him to tell the truth?
I've been incredibly upset lately. And perhaps I have been acting crazy. Every day I want to die. I have no money. I have no car. I don't know where I am going to live in two weeks ~ since I can't pay rent. I don't know what I am going to do for work ~ and NO I'm not going to [censored] strip! sorry.
Here's some quotes from (Internet) Poker Pro Mark Newhouse's reply hundreds of posts deep in the thread:
ok, so i wasnt going to post anything, i dont like spreading drama, but a friend told me that brandi is for some reason spreading lies abotu me and she apparently even told him that i was in the room when she busted my accoutn watching it happen, thats [censored], shes also been sending me threatening text messages and telling me to get on here and say that this never happened, im not one to lie about [censored], so thats clearly not going to happen, so i guess ill go ahead and bloodbath the bitch
im not sure of the amoutn thaty she lost, it was somewhere between 25 and 30k, anyway, i went out to la with her and i was teaching her sitngoes, i let her play my account while i was getting burried downstairs at commerce, the nigth that this happened, i was playing 4/8, stuck like 40 or 50k or so, and i was texting her while playing to check up on how she was doing, she told me that she was winning
at first she was just supposed to be playing sitngoes, one of the nigths before, she got stuck a lot and started playing 15/30 and got stuck more, she has a way of making people feel really bad for her, so i didnt really get mad, but i told her not to play that big anymore and to stick to sitngoes while i wasnt around, and that some time i would teach her limit, but id prefer she didnt play 15/30 because she basically had no limit experience, another night, she started playing 5/10 NL without asking me first and she said she was winning, but i told her id rather she play lower and she said shed stick to 3/6, what nigth different [censored] happened is kind of a blur, i was in a total frenzy for the whole trip, dealing with a lot of [censored] from her and losing a lot of money, defiantely playing bad
the nigth she busted it, she was texting me and said she was doing very well, i was getting burried and definately not thinking clearly and for some reason i gave her permission to play 10/20 NL, but on the condition that she was very careful and that she only played if it was a very good game(not a chance she could possibly know what a good game is btw), but that i would prefer that she stick to 5/10 anyway(really, i was in a frenzy, im [censored] stupid for telling her she could play anywhere near that big)
we were texting back and forth and she kept telling me that she was winning a lot, so i wasnt too worried, when i got done playing, i went up and she was still playing, and she ended up playing a very long session, i was exausted, so i was like whatever
the next day when i got up, i tried to get onto stars, and my password was changed, i asked her wtf is going on, and she said she wanted it to be a surprise how much she was up, i was basically like, [censored] that, get me on my account, and she told me she busted it, i obviously got pissed, but she has a way of making me feel so bad for her that i couldnt stay mad for that long(yes, im a [censored] idiot)
she called a few people to try to get money back for me, but she couldnt get anything, she told me straight up to keep quiet while she was on the phone with them because the only way that she could get money from guys is if they think that she wants to [censored] them, that pretty much changed my perspective of her, now i realzed that she was a scandalous bitch
anyway, she got all depressed and locked herself in the bathroom that nigth, and i heard a glass break while she was in there(she has cuts on her arms from cutting herself, she gets extreamly depressed) i got really worried about her and knocked on the door and asked if everything was ok and if i could come in, she said she was taking a bath and to leave her alone, i shouldnt be listening outside the door, i was in a complete frenzy hoping that she wasnt going to kill herself and my friend called me and told me that mr. foo(90% VPIP full ring and quite possibly the best poker player ever, he was up easily 200k in like 3 days of destroying all the pros) was downstairs, so i went to go play poker and get the [censored] away from the room
when i got back up, she was passed out in the bath, using towels as blankets and on the bathroom wall, written in blood, it said, "i will fly one day" so now im freaking out and i wake her up, she had made a pretty deep cut in her leg
so while i should have been pissed about [censored], i couldnt help but be very worried for her, i didnt know what to do, i felt really bad, i cared about her and didnt like to see her like that, and couldnt really stay mad for long, i am a very forgiving person, and im definately too trusting.
Anyway here's the link to the full thread again:
Brandi Hawbaker 15 minutes of fame 2plus2 thread
And this story wouldn't be complete without pictures of Miss Hawbaker. In the first picture she's endorsing Full Tilt Poker and in the second she's working at one of her previous jobs:
