Off Topic: Las Vegas going wild during the WSOP

Marijuana legalised in Las Vegas

Las Vegas has brought pot limits to an end this week, in a move which is bound to have joint benefits for casinos and food businesses. We are, of course not talking about game varieties here, but about the legalisation of marijuana. While people have been enjoying green paper and a bud light for a long time in Vegas, people wrapping green bud in paper and looking for a light is entirely new to Nevada, which is the fifth state to allow recreational use of the drug. It remains to be seen whether stoned players will be as profitable as drunk ones, whether they will slow the game down or even whether they will be distracted by all the bright lights and forget they were supposed to be going into a casino to play cards. One thing is for sure though – expect to see plenty more high cards and pot committed players in Las Vegas from now on.

Marked cards fallout continues

Bad Cards @WSOP
Week 1: Mistakes happen, no problem.
Week 2: Come on already.
Week 3: Completely unacceptable.
Week 4: Are u FKN kidding me! pic.twitter.com/BKcVIFcyRw

— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) June 28, 2017

The $111K buy in event at the WSOP is supposed to be a showpiece event at the series, and so using a dodgy deck of cards is perhaps not the best advertisement. The cards in question were designed especially for the WSOP and pictures of the backs of the cards appear to show dents in them. Some players, including the eventual winner Doug Polk raised the issue on Twitter as we mentioned in a previous article.

More: WSOP: Negreanu misses the gold again; Marked cards an issue at the One Drop

We would expect that this would be an isolated incident, and perhaps the manufacturer simply thought designing cards for ‘one drop’ was simply a slang term for them having to design cards that would only last one hand.

Unfortunately, “Card Gate” kept unfolding, with several players complaining about the fact that the issue hadn’t been correctly taken care of by the WSOP Team, with several players tweeting their anger on the topic. Among them were Allen Kessler, Matt Glantz, Connor Drinan and others.

If the poor quality of the cards seems to have been clearly established, what remains under question is whether some player have been trying to benefit from that to intentionally cheat…

yes we went the entire stud 8 event without a bad card. Day 1 omaha mixed 0 cards replaced. Day 2 https://t.co/Kpob2D1Cjk.

— Allen Kessler (@AllenKessler) June 23, 2017

Fists Fly (almost) in Bobby’s Room

In an unusual report from the Bellagio, it emerged that an altercation took place during a card game in Bobby’s Room this week. Phil Ivey is used to getting the best of his battles against players, but this time, it was his giant of a bodyguard who undertook the task, somewhat literally. One of the players in the game is said to have stood and squared up to Ivey’s bodyguard, clearly not realising this play was very -EV. According to witnesses he was then checked, before being raised up and then flopped, “like a rag doll” into a heap on the floor after a big shove. The player apparently then found his chair again and was soon sat back down wondering what the hell had just happened to him. Sounds like standard procedure for any pot played against Phil Ivey, really.