What’s done is done
A few days after the conclusion of the inaugural WSOP Paradise, bit of disappointing news has emerged from the Main Event final table. Shortly before his ouster in 3rd place, Australian pro Daniel Neilson ended up forking over 10 million chips too many in a key all-in hand that likely played a significant role in his eventual elimination.
Here’s how our very own Earl Burton described the hand between Neilson and eventual winner Stanislav Zegal:
Now down to three-handed, the tournament took a stunning turn, one that was the pivotal point of the tournament. Neilson’s elimination of Glantz pushed him into the lead, but another push did not work out so well for the Australian. After Zegal opened, Neilson three bet the action and Zegal called to see a Q-K-5 flop. Neilson put up a continuation bet, which Zegal also called, and a nine came on the turn. Neilson decided that he was done playing and moved all in, which was met immediately with a call from Zegal. Why? Zegal had flopped two pair with his K-Q, while Neilson’s A-K was outflopped. Needing an Ace to take the hand, Neilson saw a blank on the river ten as he doubled up Zegal to 110 million; he would depart on the next hand in third place, with Sklenicka getting the leftover chips.
Now for some added detail: the dealer counted 48 million chips in Zegal’s stack, but he only had 38 million. The miscount was never corrected before the pot was sorted out, so rather than having 15.2 million chips left after losing the hand, Neilson had just 5.2 million.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done at this point, as the tournament is over.
“The official position in any tournament is that if action was accepted by all parties there would be no recourse once tournament play has concluded,” WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart told PokerMedia Australia.
Neilson obviously not happy
While 15.2 million chips isn’t much when the blinds are at 500,000/1,000,000, it’s still a lot better than 5.2 million. Neilson very well might have still gone out in 3rd place, but those extra 10 million chips also might have changed everything.
PokerNews contacted Neilson about the matter and needless to say, he expressed his disappointment. He said he did question the count, but the dealer assured him Zegal had 48 million, so Neilson took her word for it and assumed that with just three players remaining in such a big tournament, there were other safeguards in place to be sure counts were correct.
“For all the other all-ins a supervisor was double-checking the counts,” Neilson said. “I have no idea why they didn’t for this one, the biggest pot of the entire tournament. In general, the dealers were great, and I didn’t notice this dealer make any other mistakes.”
He added that another dealer at the final table was inexperienced and should not have been in such an important position. Neilson did not fault the dealer, but also said that the dealer “was making many errors and announced the wrong bet size nearly every time.”
On top of everything, the live stream reflected the chip counts after the hand as they should have been, not as they were, so Neilson said it made his play from there on out look horrible to anyone watching, including the announcers and his friends.
