It's time for an emergency Savage Rules! A player shared a video about the horrible situation at the WSOP Harrah’s Cherokee, North Carolina, with me this past Sunday.
In the video, a person is seen flipping over multiple poker tables, one after the other, during the Circuit event. It created a complete nightmare for the tournament director. The video I posted from the event has garnered more than 1,700,000 views as well as a ton of responses and questions. PokerOrg was also on the scene to capture a recap of the action.
First off, I applaud the staff at Harrah’s. They did a great job. The reconstruction of the chip stacks for each player is next to impossible. Yet I heard that they got it back going in under two hours, which is incredible to me.
They could only do this arduous task with the assistance of the floor staff, dealers, and players. Of course, they also have the use of the cameras as well as gathering honest feedback from each player regarding their chip stack.
My decision: No chop
Many people suggested they should have chopped it up evenly with the remaining players. I am absolutely against that.
Hopefully, this situation won't happen again. But if it does, you must do what's best for the players. It’s one of those situations you never want to see as a tournament director. I've had similar situations where a player sits in the wrong seat and plays the wrong stack. Again, it's one of those things where you need to do the best you can as a tournament director to reconstruct the stacks.
The most common question is: What should the penalty be for something like this? Again, my decision is that this person must be banned from all casinos nationwide and worldwide.
Of course, only Phil Hellmuth would get away with just a warning on this one – for everyone else it's an instant DQ and lifetime ban.
Is there a circulated blacklist?
There is not a physical blacklist, but we would not want to see this player in any card room or casino around the country again.
The members of the Tournament Directors Association do discuss problem players from time to time, but it’s up to each casino to decide if they will allow that player to play at their venue. In a situation like the WSOP Harrah’s Cherokee, we would want to ban that player from playing in all casinos.
But, as the World Poker Tour, it is not up to us to make that decision. It's up to the individual casinos to decide whether they want to bar that player.
Reach out to me
I’m asking players and fans to submit interesting situations and videos to my X account. It’s entirely possible your issue will make the next Savage Rules!
Matt Savage is the WPT Executive Tour Director, founder of the Tournament Directors Association, and a respected member of the poker community. Matt is a five-time GPI award winner and a nine-time Poker Hall of Fame nominee.
For more info, visit PokerTDA.com and WPT.com.
