You can chalk this one up in the “never seen that before” poker category. Pierre Kauert busted in sixth place in the WSOP Circuit Main Event at King’s Casino on…get this…a heads-up chop pot.
Yes, that’s right, he became the first player ever, at least on a live stream, to be eliminated from a tournament in a hand he didn’t actually lose. No one, not even the announcers, caught the mistake, and by the time it was discovered the pot should have been chopped, it was too late.
“It does fall under player and dealer responsibility and cannot really do anything about it at this point. If it wasn’t live streamed it would never have been realized and so we just move on,” World Poker Tour’s Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, who was not associated with the event, explained to PokerNews when asked how he would have proceeded.
Hand from the @WSOPC FT @PokerroomKings just 45 mins ago (+ stream delay). JTo player busts, no one including the d… https://t.co/fl90pJNGg9
King’s Resort Responds
Federico Brunato, King’s Resort poker director, issued the following public statement in regards to the hand:
Dear poker community,
I am sharing with you a very interesting situation that has occurred on one of our annual WSOPC events.
I am glad to have it documented on the livestream as it is something that happens very often during the games and is not talked so much about. With this post I want to raise awareness and give official piece of advice to our poker community.
To start with our poker dealers are very highly trained professionals that undergo a 6 week training course before entering their career paths at King’s. I myself have started as a poker dealer at King’s and know the work ethics. The dealer in the clip is our dear Sona that has been a member of our family for the last 6 years. When it comes to the standard of our streams we do our maximum to ensure that it is at the highest possible level and accordingly Sona has been a constant member of our TV crew since her first steps in our team.
When it comes to the Hand number 35 of the final day of the WSOPC ME where Mr. Pierre Kauert was eliminated and cashed a stunning 58,000€ incl. a WSOPE ME ticket.
I would like to refer to one of the most important rules of poker – always read your hand. At the end of the day we are all humans and we all can make mistakes, Sona is no exception. Even though she has dealt thousands of successful hands in her life, this hand unfortunately she misread. Nonetheless alongside with Sona, Mr. Pierre Kauert and all other competitors at the table misread the hand as well which of course is very unfortunate. The hand was supposed to be a split and we can now only guess how it would turn out in the Main Event path of Pierre Kauert, perhaps he would now be crowned a champion with a Golden Ring, perhaps he would be eliminated in the next hand.
At the end of the day I would like to refer to rule number 76. Of WSOP which states: The right to dispute a hand ends when a new hand begins. This applies not only to WSOP, but also to nearly all regular poker games that are played.
To take from this I strongly advise the poker community to not criticise other peoples mistake and not to try and find guilty, instead learn from this, know your rights and follow your game as every single occasion is individual in its own way.
Biggest Poker Error Ever?
With five players in the €1,700 buy-in Main Event remaining on Tuesday, and €171,000 to the winner, Kauert, a German player with only about $20,000 in previous Hendon Mob results, was all in for his remaining 1 million chips with 
.
He was up against the 
of Lupo, who easily had him covered. The pot was at 2.2 million, a significant amount considering there was only about 35 million total chips in play.
A poker fan on Twitter (@EyDuBrot) sent us the video, which was removed from the live-stream feed on YouTube. The flop came out 
, giving both players a gut-shot straight draw. But the 
on the turn gave them both a pair, with Lupo’s kicker being superior.
Kauert needed a king for a straight to win the hand outright or either a six or queen to chop. The board did pair when the 
appeared on the river, but apparently, no one even noticed that it was a chop pot.
Kauert shook hands with the others at the table and went to collect his winnings (€58,350) at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. Even the announcers didn’t catch it, although the live-stream graphics did show “split” on the screen.
According to sources on-site, it was ruled that a player can only dispute a hand before another hand is dealt. This is similar to an NFL coach failing to challenge a play before the other team snaps the ball. In that case, the game continues and the previous play stands.
This story will be updated with any developments if and when they happen.