Poker is undoubtedly the king of all card gambling games. It began assuming its modern shape in the 19th century on Louisiana and Mississippi riverboats. In the 1950s, it slowly became a staple in various land-based casino venues across North America. Yet, the advent of the chapter of tournaments known as the World Series of Poker was the launching pad responsible for this gambling genre reaching the current level of popularity it now enjoys.
The roots of the World Series of Poker, more famously known under the acronym the WSOP, date back to 1970, when the Horseshoe Casino on Las Vegas’ Fremont Street hosted Benny Binion and seven players he invited in a single tournament. The event featured six different competition styles, leading to Texan Johnny Moss getting crowned the first World Champion of Poker.
Today, the WSOP has grown into a global phenomenon, and it still gets hosted at the Horseshoe (which owned the rights to it until 2004) and tables at the Paris Las Vegas casino in Nevada’s capital. It is a brand recently sold to the NSUS Group for half a billion dollars, and its Main Event sees over ten thousand entrants. Below, we rattle off four scandals connected to this series of tournaments that have shaken up the card gambling landscape.
The 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Mix-Up
The 2019 WSOP Player of the Year was viewed by many as an unpredictable and intense race that concluded at the WSOP Europe event in Rozvadov (the Czech Republic) at the King’s Casino, the largest poker room on the Old Continent. At that moment, it looked like Daniel Negreanu, one of the faces of the game, was poised to capture his third POY title. That was so, given that he had gone into the last stage of the competition with a slim lead over Shaun Deeb and Robert Campbell.
These two were the only two competitors that stood a theoretical shot to surpass the Canadian, who the Global Poker Index ranked as the top player of the 2010s.
Negreanu exited the competition in the 195th spot, Campbell landed in 148th place when it was all said and done, and Deeb had to get a fifth-place finish or better to become the player of the year. Unfortunately for him, he busted in eleventh place, seemingly giving Negreanu his third POY crown. That is what everyone thought. But, on November 8, the WSOP admitted to making a data entry error, discovered by journalist Alexander Elenskiy, as they incorrectly credited Negreanu with unearned points in a previous event. Thus, they removed two hundred and thirteen points from his end tally, landing him in second place and giving Campbell the top 2019 crown.
The 2024 WSOP Laptop Scandal
Veteran Jonathan Tamayo came up on top in the WSOP 2024 season, snagging a prize of $10 million following a superb final table showing. Sadly, his stunning win got marred in a WSOP Main Event controversy now known as LaptopGate. The incident that sparked this media tailspin was the presence of Joe McKeehan, an ex-WSOP champ, and Dominik Nitsch, a high-stakes pro, in Tamayo’s corner, who could be seen using a smartphone and laptop near the main table.
Moreover, at one point, Tamayo was spotted glancing in their direction at the laptop, which was captured featuring charts and grids on its screen. There has been no evidence that computer support was used in Tamayo’s play. Nonetheless, the mere suggestion of this nefarious activity that was only backed with inconclusive evidence was enough for conspiracy theories to run wild regarding real-time assistance or simulation use by the 2024 champ.
The 2006 WSOP Ante Gate
Without argument, one of the most memorable WSOP scenes ever happened during the 2006 Main Event at Vegas’ Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. It was a confrontation between a then-young Prahlad Friedman and Australian-born Jeff Lisandro, arising from a dispute concerning who threw a 5K chip on the table. Prahalad believed it was Dustin Holmes, while Lisandro claimed it was him.
Holmes added another 5K chip, but Prahalad would not stop laying allegations that Lisandro was cheating, and these assertions reached a boiling point when Lisandro returned fire by making threats that he would take Prahalad’s head off. In the end, video footage showed that Lisandro did throw in the 5K ante, and Prahalad was in the wrong all along. Their heated duel remains a much-enjoyed clip by poker fans worldwide.
2009 Final Table Delay – November Nine
In 2009, the WSOP chose to delay its final table from July to November, giving ESPN loads of time to air edited episodes of past events as a tool to build anticipation for the Main Event. While many thought this was a good idea from a publicity and commercial stand-point, it got met with lots of hate from lovers of the game, as many believe it disrupted the momentum of the tournament, that some players unfairly benefited from the hiatus by getting extra coaching, and that overall it prioritized ratings over the integrity of the game.
Despite the massive criticism, November Nine, as it was called, went through as planned, and this format stayed alive until 2016 when the traditional schedule reverted in place.
