ANZPT6 Perth Day 1A: Controversy over common sense

American Jim Collopy is well known in Australia. He’s an online crusher. A WSOP APAC bracelet winner. And he’s also becoming known for getting himself tangled in some rather controversial moments down under.

At the Aussie Millions last month, Collopy was on the final table of a side event when his elimination sparked a heated debate with tournament staff. Another player had walked a few metres from the table in the middle of the hand. The player was allowed to keep his cards, and it was those very cards that ended Collopy’s tournament. The American was rightly ropable but once the hand was over, there wasn’t much that could be done, despite Collopy’s complaints.

Now here at the ANZPT Perth, Collopy’s tournament has again been touched with controversy.

Our ears were pricked when it was announced that the tournament would be paused for a “situation”.

A situation? What?

Before we even had a chance to stand up to investigate, a fuming Collopy approached our desk, demanding Danny McDonagh come to the table to rule on the situation.

We asked Collopy what happened.

“I checked. She checked. I turned my hand over,” said Collopy.

Hmmm. Clearly something else was up so we headed to his table where by that stage a large crowd had gathered around. The pot was significant, the board read 6♥10♥5♦2♦10♦ and two black queens were sitting underneath Collopy’s stack.

“These cards are NOT getting mucked!” shouted Collopy as he buried his cards under the rail of the table.

Apparently the situation was quite simple, but it was a local rule, or an interpretation of that rule, that would ultimately crush Collopy.

In attempting to reveal his cards at showdown, it sounded like Collopy fumbled enough for the cards to move forward no more than a few inches before he was able to cleanly turn them over. That forward motion was enough for the dealer to rule them a muck and send Collopy a little crazy. Collopy’s opponent said nothing and her cards were sitting face down in front of her. It was safe to assume that Collopy held the best hand.

It seemed absurd, and everyone who stood around to watch the farce unfold shook their heads in collective dismay at what was happening. McDonagh advised that he wasn’t licensed to make a ruling here in Perth, but helped to calm the situation while the surveillance cameras were checked.

Crown Perth Poker Room Manager Deb Wyatt returned to the table to confirm that the video footage showed a forward motion of a muck without any clear evidence of Collopy attempting to turn the cards over, despite everyone acknowledging that was his intention.

The local rule that was quoted was as follows:

9.1: Any player at the showdown may pass their cards to the Dealer without disclosing them, in such circumstances that player shall not be eligible to win the pot.

In addition to this rule, the following definition was applied:

fold means to surrender a hand facedown towards the Dealer or refuse to call a wager

This rule doesn’t exactly mention forward motion, but that was the rule that was given to us to explain the situation. Wyatt also explained that there is a “best interest” rule that can be applied, but that is only in the extreme circumstance that no other rule can be applied.

It’s also worth noting that this rule was announced before play started, and there have been several instances where players have been stung by it in side events during the week.

PokerNews blogger Joshua Bell is reknowned for his strong opinions on rule interpretations on the ANZPT, but even Bell was at a loss for words over this one.

“I don’t want to offend anyone,” was all Bell could offer. Sitting on the fence? Wow, this was serious.

Jokes aside, let’s be clear about this. Everyone involved agreed that this decision was not a good one. There is too much room for interpretation versus intention in the ruling, and clearly there was a case for common sense to prevail here. Sadly it did not, and that’s not good for the game. Instead, we had a hand that went check-check on the river, that caused a significant delay in the entire tournament and created completely unnecessary controversy. Not only that, a player was severely hampered in his efforts to win this tournament.

Deb Wyatt was empathetic with Collopy’s situation and explained that they are working with the gaming regulators in Western Australia to amend this rule for the future.

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.