It was a nice story back in September when then-unknown Francesco Garofalo took down the $25,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Online event, outlasting one of the toughest fields of the series.
The fact that Garofalo, who was playing under the name ‘forzaitalia,’ could emerge from a loaded final table that included the likes of high-stakes regulars Ole Schemion, Roman Hrabec, Adrian Mateos, Dimitar Danchev, Patrick Leonard, Bryn Kenney, and Chris Brewer felt almost too good to be true.
As it turns out, it was.
Garofalo has reportedly been disqualified and banned, with his $1.1 million first-place prize confiscated and redistributed to everyone else who made the money.
GGPoker, the site that played host to the international WSOP Online series, did not give a specific reason for Garofalo’s disqualification, but they did notify the victimized players of their additional prize money.
“Please rest assured that the offending players have been permanently banned from playing on the GGPoker Network.”
The most affected player was Brewer who had to settle for the $865,335 runner-up prize. Although moving up one spot was worth $256,866 in additional payout, he did not get the bracelet.
Kenney, who originally took third, added another $198,070 to his $667,265 payout.
Wow just woke up to this. I think my biggest security refund previously was at most $2k.
It’s a beautiful day to have a beautiful day I guess! pic.twitter.com/knZW5ADOMW
— Patrick Leonard (@padspoker) November 4, 2024
I got the difference between 2nd to 1st. But I don’t get the bracelet, quite happy either way
— Chris Brewer (@Chris_D_Brewer) November 4, 2024