William Kassouf Accused of Shorting Pots at the Irish Open

This account was corroborated by Keith Littlewood, who mentioned he was one of many gamers shorted within the pot: 

Gone with no hint 

VegasSlotsOnline Information reached out to Littlewood, who defined how the hand went down intimately: 

“Not one of the stacks have been counted or introduced within the center. Kassouf requested the seller to only depart it and kind it after the river. He had high set AA with no re-draws versus my straight with coronary heart flush re-draw. Seat 4 had straight with diamond flush re-draw.”

At this level, Kassouf pleaded to each gamers to run it twice, however neither participant agreed. Then he requested if two rivers may very well be dealt and each gamers begrudgingly acquiesced. The primary river card was a diamond and the second river was a brick. 

He had disappeared with out hint.”

Littlewood described the next motion which ensued: 

“The seller counted seat 4’s stack and gave him the €725 from mine (1 / 4 of the pot). Then the seller went to calculate the primary pot as simply the pre-flop chips have been within the center… Kassouf’s stack had disappeared and so had Kassouf.  Everybody was saying ‘the place is Will’s stack?’… The seller known as the ground who then bought the safety guards to go and discover him. He had disappeared with no hint.”

Littlewood added the next caveat:

“I didn’t see Kassouf choose up the chips and depart nor did anybody else – they each simply vanished. I’m not saying he picked them up and left, the one information are that his stack disappeared and so did he!”

Palming

Kassouf has been embroiled in scandal all through his poker profession. His antics and “speech-play” on the desk are typically unpopular, however solely sometimes meet the definition of angle-shooting. 

Kassouf finally bought his comeuppance on the large stage of the WSOP Important Occasion in 2016. After a deep run throughout which he was continuously entangled in debate and argument with flooring employees over the permissible limits of his speech-play and tanking, he was advised to “test his privilege” by Griffin Benger earlier than a memorable Kings into Aces collision with 17 gamers left:

In September 2018, Kassouf made a public assertion in regards to the occasions surrounding his expulsion from the Grosvenor On line casino in Leeds. He had stolen a £100 ($124) chip off the roulette stack of his good friend Ryan Mandara utilizing a sleight of hand maneuver generally known as “palming.” 

Within the assertion, Kassouf mentioned that he was drunk and that he made an error of judgement which he vastly regretted and because of this, he and Grosvenor, his then sponsor, had mutually agreed to half methods. It was a pathetically insufficient assertion which lacked regret and provided no clarification or perhaps a correct admission of what he had carried out. 

Going south

Suffice to say, many gamers have been watching Kassouf like a hawk however, wanting catching anyone red-handed, it’s a really murky state of affairs to accuse them of theft as to take action places your individual fame on the road. 

Nonetheless, I’m prepared to go on file with the next story, from the 2022 Irish Open:

On two events throughout Day 1, I noticed Kassouf “go south” with chips. It initially made no sense to me why somebody would pocket their very own event chips, however I later realized that he had bagged up a stack from a previous Day 1 flight. Seeing this in no small means contributed to my willingness to talk about my mistrust of him in an interview with Laura Cornelius: 

For the file, I additionally introduced my issues to event employees, who pledged to observe him carefully on Day 2. Whether or not they did or not I can’t say, however he did spin up the stack that I predicted to them he would through the first hour of play. 

Written throughout his face

Just a few hours earlier than Kassouf allegedly scurried from Dublin’s RDS on Monday evening, poker legend Barny Boatman witnessed him try the angle I described on the outset:

VSO Information reached out to Boatman who added extra element:

“He made a really unsubtle try and brief the pot. I waited lengthy sufficient to make sure he was by no means gonna put the cash in, though it was written throughout his face that he didn’t intend to. Once I known as it out, he did, as you may count on from him, a really unhealthy appearing job, pretending he had forgotten and didn’t understand how a lot he owed.”

my very robust conviction that it was a deliberate stroke”

Boatman added: “Clearly I’m not a thoughts reader. however I’m telling you what I noticed, and my very robust conviction that it was a deliberate stroke.”

This transfer by Kassouf has simply sufficient believable deniability baked into the cake that, by itself, like a lot of his habits, it might be arduous to name out. Nevertheless, given what allegedly adopted a number of hours later, it looks as if effective context because it speaks to the possibly kleptomaniacal mind set of the person in query. 

Kleptomaniac or playing addict? 

Kleptomania is a recurrent failure to withstand the urge to steal, often gadgets of little to no worth which can be simply inexpensive. Individuals with kleptomania really feel a powerful urge to steal, experiencing arousal main as much as the theft after which pleasure and reduction through the act. Kassouf has gained some huge cash from poker and brags about his lavish life-style, so it might actually look like each the cash he has stolen prior to now and the alleged cash he has stolen this time can be of little worth to him. Nevertheless, one other chance for what can be downright weird habits was provided by Max Silver:

VSO Information reached out to Irish Open organizer JP McCann who mentioned that his investigation had up to now led him to 2 gamers, one who was on the identical desk and one who was at an adjoining desk. Poker participant Nikolay Ponomarev advised McCann that Kassouf got here as much as him after the hand to rearrange the subsequent day’s journey plans, whereas Alex Zeligman advised him that Kassouf had spoken to him earlier than he left the constructing. 

The accounts of Ponomarev and Zeligman would seem to contradict these of Leese and Littlewood, so hopefully there’s digicam footage which may clear issues up. PokerStars has taken motion towards cheaters within the latest previous, so one would assume they’d not shirk away from issuing a ban ought to the allegations show to be true. 

Kassouf was final seen in Dublin airport immediately, issuing a vehement denial of wrongdoing when probed in regards to the scurrilous habits.