Polarizing poker participant William Kassouf was escorted out of the Horseshoe by safety after busting the Fundamental Occasion in thirty third place to a refrain of “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye,” boos, and smattering of cheers.
The strolling abdomen ulcer from the U.Okay. caught the ban from WSOP Senior Vice President of Poker Operations Jack Effel after berating match chip chief Kenny Hallaert for knocking him out with Kh5h in opposition to his pocket sevens (“I knew a king was coming,” mentioned Halbert later that evening).
“King 5. King 5. Yeah, nicely performed. Effectively performed. Absolute fucking joke, absolute fucking joke. Shame. You’re pathetic. You’re pathetic. Unhealthy and pathetic. I hope you’re happy with your self. You’re pathetic.”
The 43 year-old then targeted his vitriol on WSOP workers, claiming he was handled unfairly and focused all through the occasion, accusing match director Dennis Jones and Effel of being “completely out of line” by threatening him with a ban earlier within the day after he acquired a one-round penalty for calling a participant a “prick.”
He later acquired one other one-round penalty after calling your entire desk “little bitches.”
Effel wasn’t bluffing.
It was the ultimate straw for WSOP organizers, who, over the past two weeks, needed to always remind Kassouf to easily cease appearing like a privileged jerk to all people.
The video of Kassouf berating match workers standing apart from the desk the place he one had chips as the sport moved ahead appears like watching a person who was put into the grinder that’s the Fundamental Occasion and become mush.
He merely wouldn’t shut his mouth, promising the gamers that he could be again subsequent 12 months for revenge, and made it some extent to stare down all of them and once more calling them “little bitches” and “pathetic,” because the rail — who was weirdly quiet everything of Day 7 — started to boo and jeer Kassouf.
In fact, Kassouf took a bow and hammed it up when he ultimately walked off the characteristic stage.
In a post-match interview, Kassouf denied his lack of sleep or consuming nicely had something to do along with his seemingly irrational and unchecked verbal outbursts that received worst and extra insulting because the Fundamental Occasion went on and his chip-stack grew smaller. A participant who takes delight in waging verbal psychological warfare on the poker desk, he mentioned it’s all about technique he wants to make use of taking part in in “dog-eat-dog” occasions just like the Fundamental Occasion.
“That is me on two hours of sleep. I’m like buzzing. I’m pondering clearly. I had two hours sleep the evening earlier than. I’ve been late to each single day,” he mentioned.
The $300,000 he gained is his third largest rating, solely behind the $338,288 he cashed for ending seventeenth within the 2016 Fundamental Occasion the identical 12 months he gained the EPT Excessive Curler occasion for $555,619.
As he was about to conduct post-match interviews, Jones knowledgeable him that safety is right here to escort him from the property and that he was banned from the remainder of the 2025 WSOP, which ends subsequent week. Kassouf, a lawyer, once more went into orbit with one other verbal blast that wavered from assault to victimhood.
“We’re carried out with it,” Jones mentioned. “You’ve been very disruptive” after Kassouf requested what he had carried out to deserve being 86ed.
Jones made it completely clear to the distraught Englishman — “There can be no extra occasions for you this 12 months.”
Poker.org’s instagram has this knockout in full, and it’s apparent that Kassouf nonetheless didn’t perceive why was trespassed. “What have I carried out fallacious,” he says, persevering with to plead his case to safety, who solely cared about getting him out of there.
“God bless America,” he mentioned, surrounded by armed officers.
And sure, his mouth by no means stopped because the poker press adopted him down the hallway and out into the Las Vegas evening, hanging on each phrase.
