{"id":38896,"date":"2025-11-26T13:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/?p=38896"},"modified":"2025-11-26T13:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:03:00","slug":"controversial-squid-game-the-challenge-player-183-originally-applied-for-love-is-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/11\/26\/controversial-squid-game-the-challenge-player-183-originally-applied-for-love-is-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Squid Game: The Challenge Player 183 originally applied for Love Is Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven aka Player 183 quickly became one of the most controversial cast members in Squid Game: The Challenge<\/a>, after it emerges he was a professional poker player.<\/p>\n

And not just a bad one either, as according to The Hendon Mob<\/a>, he\u2019s now won almost $7.3 million from professional poker competitions in total.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Via Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, it turns out Steven wasn’t originally planning on appearing on Squid Game: The Challenge, as Player 183 originally applied for Love Is Blind.<\/p>\n

He revealed during an appearing on the Reality Alert podcast<\/a> that he’d originally applied for Love Is Blind, and got rejected, but as a result the casting team reached out to tell him about Squid Game: The Challenge.<\/p>\n

He revealed: “I actually applied for Love Is Blind, and then I never got an email or casting, I don’t even think they ended up filming in Phoenix, but that was the call to action.<\/p>\n

“And because I emailed them and applied for Love Is Blind, I got another email saying ‘we’re also casting for Squid Game’, and at that time I hadn’t even watched the challenge but I was like, ‘alright well I’m here, let me just apply for that.’<\/p>\n

“And I got a call within a week so I was like, ‘I gotta watch this show before I get cast on here.'”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Via Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The host then asked him: “So you were interested in reality shows period, not necessarily competition shows?”<\/p>\n

Steven replied: “Yeah, looking for love. I’m already financially successful so i wasn’t necessarily looking for that.”<\/p>\n

Well, if he had appeared on the newest season of Love Is Blind, maybe he and Sparkle Megan would have hit it off…<\/p>\n

For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates \u2013 like\u00a0<\/i>Reality Shrine<\/a><\/i>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/a><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel like him and Sparkle Megan would have hit it off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249734183,"featured_media":38903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358],"tags":[1528,1438,2171],"class_list":["post-38896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-love-is-blind","tag-netflix","tag-squid-game-the-challenge"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/11\/26\/controversial-squid-game-the-challenge-player-183-originally-applied-for-love-is-blind\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Controversial Squid Game: The Challenge Player 183 originally applied for Love Is Blind","url":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/11\/26\/controversial-squid-game-the-challenge-player-183-originally-applied-for-love-is-blind\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/11\/26\/controversial-squid-game-the-challenge-player-183-originally-applied-for-love-is-blind\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2025-11-26T125939.468-150x150.png","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2025-11-26T125939.468.png"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ellie Ring"}],"creator":["Ellie Ring"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Reality Shrine","logo":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png"},"keywords":["love is blind","netflix","squid game: the challenge"],"dateCreated":"2025-11-26T13:03:00Z","datePublished":"2025-11-26T13:03:00Z","dateModified":"2025-11-26T13:03:00Z"},"rendered":"