Just a couple days ago, Maurice Hawkins made World Series of Poker Circuit history when he took down the Horseshoe Baltimore main event for $140,752.
The victory gave Hawkins 18 Circuit titles, tying him with Ari Engel atop the all-time ring leaderboard.
Days later, social media is still talking about the event, but for all the wrong reasons.
Hawkins’ victory is now secondary to the controversy surrounding the third-place elimination.
Divyam Satyarthi moved all in from the small blind with Q
10
and Hawkins called from the big blind with A
3
.
The board ran out K10245. It gave Satyarthi a flush and Hawkins a straight. In most situations, Satyarthi would double up and three-handed play would continue.
However, nobody involved realized Satyarthi rivered a flush. The dealer mucked the cards, pushed the pot to Hawkins and Satyarthi peacefully walked to the payout desk to collect his $64,458 payout.
None of the remaining players, the dealer, media, nor any staff in the area noticed that Satyarthi held a club in his hand.
“Satyarthi did not initially realize the straight had been hit, but quickly realized that he had been eliminated in 3rd place, collecting the second largest score of his career,” read the update for the event on Poker.org.
After everything was squared away and heads-up play already commenced, live reporters were alerted to the error. Initially believed to be a typo, they then checked raw video footage of the hand to corroborate the mistake.
By the time the tournament staff was alerted, it was too late to fix anything. Hawkins took a slight chip lead into heads-up play against Dan Chalifour and went on to battle for five hours before taking home the hardware.
Did Tournament Staff Make The Right Decision?
In poker, if “significant action” takes place, then even if there is a mistake, the hand must be played out as is. Significant action means there have been at least two actions, either betting, raising, or calling.
Card Player spoke with two prominent tournament directors who were willing to comment on the condition of anonymity. Both basically reiterated the same ruling. Once the next hand starts, the error is official and the player is eliminated.
“The rule of thumb is once the shuffle starts on the next hand, nothing can be done,” said one source. “In an extreme situation like what happened, I would do something up until action takes place in the next hand… but not beyond that.”
“I think sadly that a tournament player loses recourse at the start of the next hand,” said the other tournament director.
This isn’t the first time that a board misread has cost someone their tournament life in a big money situation. Back in January 2023, Pierre Kauert suffered a similar fate in Europe.
The German was eliminated from the WSOP Circuit final table at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. He moved all in with J-10 and was called by his opponent’s K-J.
The board ran out A-Q-6-J-6 and both players made two pair with an ace kicker. But neither the dealer nor players at the table realized their kickers were no longer relevant. Kauert shook hands and collected his payout.
The only reason the mistake was discovered was thanks to the event’s live stream on the casino’s Twitch channel.
Screenshots via Poker.Org.