Ben Grise completed second in consecutive days on the PokerGO Cup in Las Vegas, simply someday after his buddy and fellow poker participant, Matt Lushin, was murdered.
Lushin, a beloved member of the Indiana poker neighborhood, in accordance with police, was discovered useless in his Indiana residence on Thursday. Investigators initially dominated the dying as “suspicious,” earlier than later reclassifying it as a murder, FOX59 Information reported.
Particulars in regards to the murder have not but been launched. What has been reported is the Westfield Police Division acquired a name about an unresponsive particular person inside a Westlake, Indiana residence at round 7:30 p.m. Medics arrived on the scene and pronounced the 47-year-old achieved poker participant useless.
No suspect has been arrested, and the incident is beneath investigation. Police consider this was an remoted incident and that there is no such thing as a further risk to the general public.
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Lushin, in accordance with The Hendon Mob, had $511,000 in stay match cashes, together with fourth-place end for $69,542 in a 2025 World Collection of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Principal Occasion in Amsterdam. He final cashed simply two weeks in the past within the $600 WSOPC Mini Principal Occasion in Hammond, Indiana, a 61st-place end for $2,276.
The late poker participant traveled around the globe to compete in tournaments. He has PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) and WSOPC cashes in Spain and the Netherlands up to now yr.
Grise, Lushin’s shut buddy, performed with a heavy coronary heart on the PokerGO Studio this weekend. He took second place for $136,500 on Friday in Occasion $8: $10,000 No-Restrict Maintain’em, earlier than then once more ending in the identical place on Saturday in Occasion #9: $10,000 No-Restrict Maintain’em, that one additionally paying $136,500.
A teary-eyed Grise, who additionally lives in Westfield and met Lushin by means of poker, gave a heartfelt interview with PokerNews following his second runner-up end to discuss his late buddy.
“You all the time knew you could possibly hangout with him and he’d put a smile in your face,” Grise stated. “It was powerful to seek out that out after the primary last desk yesterday, I discovered. However all of our poker pals saved it from me the entire time as a result of they knew attempting to hold that, all that emotion on the desk can be arduous for me to focus.”
Grise spoke glowing praises of Lushin and the way a lot he meant to him. He referred to Lushin as a “humorous man” he may depend on to maintain his spirits up on breaks throughout tournaments when he was struggling.
The tragic information Grise acquired after he was already deep within the second PokerGO Cup match he entered on Friday triggered him to stand up from the desk for a bit so he may course of all of it. He missed “loads of palms” whereas he collected himself earlier than returning to the felt, the place he would go on to bag the Day 1 chip lead over Sean Winter, who would finally received the match.
“Yesterday felt num, however then in the present day the emotion hits you after which I’ve to come back to the ultimate desk and collect myself. And simply feeling indignant now as a result of it is simply not going to be the identical for any of us again in Indy with out him,” Grise stated.
Grise continued to say he’ll miss taking part in poker and golf along with his buddy. He is nonetheless processing the dying and stated “it nonetheless would not really feel actual.”
“I am simply actually enthusiastic about his son. He is received a son (the identical age as my son), and I felt heartbroken for his son.”
Grise stated he is most going to overlook Lushin’s humorousness and referred to his pal as “so witty and so humorous, and all the time simply may make everyone snicker.”
“He nearly felt to me like a giant brother that all the time picked on his little brother, in a enjoyable approach,” Grise defined.
He then started to smile as he reminisced about poker tales involving Lushin.
“It was simply such a pleasure to compete in opposition to him and be pals with him,” Grise stated.
PokerNews wish to ship our condolences to Grise, and all of the family and friends of James “Matt” Lushin.
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