24
Another Day, Another Controversy
I hate to beat a dead horse, but this year’s World Series continues to solidify its reputation as one of the worst run poker tournaments in history. While watching Day Two of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys event, I happened upon this incredible scene. With five tables left a dealer notified the floor man on duty, Chris Held, that James Van Alstyne had a $5,000 chip on top of his stack when they had yet to be officially introduced into the game.
The floor man held up the game in order to investigate the origin of the mysterious chip. Some players, unaware of the exact details of the controversy or even who was involved, blindly threw out accusations of cheating. Tony G, never one to muzzle his strong opinions, shouted from one table over, “Throw him in jail.”
Van Alstyne was quick to defend himself. He claimed that the floor man on duty the night before, a man only identified as Tim, had colored him up as he was bagging Van Alstyne’s chips for the night. Held went ahead and removed the $5,000 chip from play, replacing it with five yellows, but continued to hold up play as he tried to get Tim on the phone to confirm what happened. Meanwhile, Van Alstyne’s table was short-handed and the players were overdue to be reseated. They were not and play continued. Short-stacked, Van Alstyne grew visibly upset as the blinds approached. He got into a heated argument with Held and called him “incompetent” as well as “an idiot.” For this he was given a ten-minute penalty, during which his stack was severely eroded by the blinds and antes.
Gavin Smith stumbled upon the scene, heard what had happened, and came to Van Alstyne’s defense. “James has a good reputation,” he said to Held. “You better be sure before you start accusing him of anything. If he’s telling the truth, he’s got every right to go off like that.”
“I was protecting the integrity of the tournament,” Held said in his own defense. Dennis Jones, a tournament director, appeared on the floor to give the official word: “We made a mistake.”
Yes, they did, but they didn’t have to suffer for it. Van Alstyne did. He was reduced to one tactical move when the players returned from their break, going all in with pocket jacks. They lost to Hoa Nguyen’s A-Q.
