Ike Haxton calls for Soverel's DQ after controversial hand in WSOP $50K - do you agree?

It didn’t take long for the first controversialhand from the 2019 World Series of Poker $50,000 High Roller to cause a outburst in poker community, with opinions being split both ways.

The hand in question took place with four players remaining in Event #5: 50th Annual High Roller $50,000 NLH, where $1,484,085 was waiting for the winner. The runner-up would get $917,232, third place $640,924, and fourth place $458,138 - the payout differences were huge.

The hand took place in Level 22 (100,000/200,000/200,000) when Sam Soverel opened for 400,000 first to act and Dmitry Yurasov shoved for 4.93 million right next to him. Andrew Lichtenberger quickly folded his small blind but Ben Heath, who sat second in chips, asked for a count from the big blind. Heath asked Soverel for a count of his stack. Once Soverel counted it Heath tossed in a time bank chip to gain 30 seconds of extra time to think before taking his decision. Soverel looked back at his hole cards and immediately mucked out of turn after Heath tossed in the time bank card, making the decision to call the all-in way easier.

With now just facing Yurasov's shove and not having to worry about Soverel, Heath called right away and eliminated Yurasov.

Watch the video here:


Ike Haxton commented straight away: "If this is reported accurately, anything less than disqualification and fourth place money for Sam is insufficient. You absolutely can't let people get away with shit like this at the final table of a $50k.

Haxton continue: “I think he should be disqualified, his chips should come out of play, and he should get fourth place money. And 1yr ban from WSOP events. Realistically, I don't think a floor would be likely to do that. A long enough penalty that he is blinded in 3rd is realistic and fair.???

When asked by Platt if he had watched the replay, Haxton responded "Yes I just watched it and I'm 99% certain it was intentional. It's a respectable acting performance but he notices his mistake too quickly and all of his movements from the moment the time bank card hits the felt are unnatural and overacted."

Haxton stated: “I've never seen anything this egregious before, but yeah he certainly has a reputation for getting lost on his way to a new table if he's about to be big blind, mucking losers in mandatory showdown AI spots, demanding new set ups as a stalling tactic, etc.”

Just Bonomo adds his comment as well: "You can make up your own mind on Sam, but just know he has a history of pulling this shit. He will just straight flip over someone’s hand from the muck and then laugh about it. I’ve seen him do this 5+ times.

Few well respected tournamnet directors present the other perspective: Matt Savage : “The way you are so insistent seems like this kind of thing has happened before?” he tweeted. “No way someone gets DQ’ed for mistake but it does seem like a careless and maybe convenient error. How can you DQ the ‘High Roller Player of the Year?’”

Fellow tournament director Kenny Hallaert offered his two cents: “That's seems a hard decision to me. I would go with 3 orbits. I can see the timebank card being taken as a chip. However he should still pay attention and for sure get a penalty and I don't see any mention of that … Three orbits is the maximum penalty I give someone before DQ.”

I mean the WSOP can't really take their word for his "history" of such behaviour... obv he deserves DQ and ban, but objectively I wouldn't make that call either if I were a WSOP rep.

sam is definitely scummy and has done way worse. cant say whether or not this was intentional but this kind of stuff is very in his range.

haha, for sure on purpose

nvm, im stupid*

lol pwned

this guys just ROFLing at everyone

It's a part of poker imo. The deception goes deep to push the small edges!

But as soon as it becomes blatant and an issue for the game, he should get the worst punishment.

hahaha no way this was on accident. His acting is terrible. It's so over the top fake.

On June 05 2019 00:01 Defrag wrote: btw, I think Yurasovs reaction to Sams mistake and his behaviour at 1:37 made the call WAAAAAAY easier then Sams fold out of turn itself. Opinion?

Call is made at 1:31.

lololol

Wtf, don’t shake his hand afterward.

On June 05 2019 05:18 Nitewin wrote: It's a part of poker imo. The deception goes deep to push the small edges! But as soon as it becomes blatant and an issue for the game, he should get the worst punishment.

angleshooting isn't part of the game, is cheating -_-

That looked so on purpose lol

"...How can you DQ the ‘High Roller Player of the Year?’”

Fuck you

Lol,

Couldnt be more blatant with all that acting that came afterwards.

I'd guess that Sam at first thought the time card was a real fold, but then while glancing at his hand and Ben and the dealer realized it wasn't but went through with the fold anyway. I don't think it was premeditated, but think he subconsciously decided to just fold anyway on the fly. And then afterwards he tried to overdo it to express his sympathy and regret. Think a two round penalty would have been sufficient.

boy it looks like hes acting. hand played out fine... make him miss a few orbits.