Winning the WSOP Main Event is supposed to be the high point in the career of any poker player, but for Jonathan Tamayo, crowned almost a week ago in Las Vegas, the controversy surrounding his victory rumbles on.
All the talk since Tamayo won $10 million and the Main Event bracelet has been around the help he was receiving on the rail from fellow pros Dominik Nitsche (who had a laptop open on the front row) and Joe McKeehen (himself a former Main Event winner), and whether this was against the rules or just the spirit of the game.
GGPoker pro Daniel Negreanu made his views very clear on the Doug Polk podcast on Monday (see full video above), saying, “It's not cheating [but] it's unethical and it's wrong”, and added he was "shocked" that none of the other players on the rail did anything while it was happening.
“I'm shocked, frankly, that there were so many pros railing... and no one seemed to take issue,” Negreanu said. “If I was there and I heard any rumor of it, I would have stopped it immediately.”
The WSOP has yet to comment on the issue, while runner-up Jordan Griff has said he wasn’t aware of what was going on in the moment and is leaving any potential future legal avenues open.
Negreanu said he hoped Griff wouldn’t go down this route but said it’s important that clear guidelines are set for the future.
Tamayo and his rail celebrateClear rules need to be set and understood
“It’s less about specifically the laptop,” said Negreanu, “because laptops have been around at the final table for a decade. What the team would be doing is watching the stream. What's new now that didn't exist for the last decade is the tools available today. I think it's probably a good thing this happened on the biggest stage because now it's a conversation we all have to have and ask, is this the direction we're going in or are we going to do something to fix it?”
The answer for Negreanu is “more aggressive enforcement of rules that already exist.”
He said the WSOP needs to “make these rules as clear as possible... something to the effect of no use of solvers at any point in the tournament area, which is defined by the entire room and any use of this could lead to disqualification. And when you put in use of a solver, that includes getting text messages or information from somebody using one and relaying that to you.”
Negreanu went on to say that players know that you can’t use tools like this when you’re playing online and that what’s needed is unequivocal rules for policing the issue in the live arena.
Griff and Tamayo after the Main Event was over
Hey! Leave that kid alone
Negreanu also had a measure of sympathy for Tamayo.
“I want to be careful that we don't rake this kid over the coals,” he said, “because he seems like a nice guy. I think he was caught up in the moment. The fact that they did it out in the open lends me to believe that he didn't think anything he was doing was wrong.
“I don't think there should be any repercussions whatsoever at this point... I think we’ve got to prepare for the future and better handle these situations when they come up. I think a statement should come [from the WSOP] when they have a resolution.”
It seems very unlikely, given the very public fallout, that the WSOP will ignore the issue. It means that all eyes will now be on WSOP Paradise in December, where the showcase tournament is the $25K buy-in Super Main Event with $50 million guaranteed, the biggest guarantee in poker history.
