ShareDaniel Negreanu has taken a barrage of criticism over events leading up to a structure change in the $50,000 PLO WSOP tournament. The Canadian was said to have contacted WSOP Vice President Jack Effel via text message during the tournament which was changed during level 15, unexpectedly, due to a short field.
Wrong End of the Stick?
Chance Kornuth tweeted that it was unacceptable that any player could have the structure changed when there were many reasons why this might be abused for personal gain. He didn’t explicitly accuse Negreanu of this but the point still stands.It’s absolutely unacceptable that a player can text @JackEffel and get the structure of the 50k PLO changed. What if they had a bad table? What if they were just tired and weren’t going to play as well? This is wrong for so many reasons imo
— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) November 20, 2021
Kornuth also added that he was tired himself and benefitted from the switch but still disagreed with what happened.
“Supposed to play 17 levels. 3min into level 15 they said that we were only going to play 15 levels and that the schedule had been changed. We also found out why as stated above.”
Yeah this isn’t accurate FYI.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 20, 2021
The schedule said 17.
Dennis said we would play 16.
Jack told them since the field wasn’t huge that it’s 15.
They made this decision based on field size.
Negreanu claims that he only sent the text message to clarify what was going to happen, rather than expressly asking for any particular outcome.
Kornuth responded by saying that the players who were present at Negreanu’s table had informed him that he even bragged about getting the switch done, an accusation that the Canadian quickly denied.
I didn’t brag about anything. I did text Jack to find out what was happening.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 20, 2021
Dennis told the floor 16 levels.
Jack told him 15 levels.
The 17 levels on the schedule were there in case the field was excessively large. It wasn’t.
The end.
One thing is for sure: this kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable regardless of if Kornuth got the wrong end of the stick in this particular case.
Interestingly, one poster did point out that Negreanu has form for this kind of influence and even talks about it in one of his vlogs.
“He brags about getting a starting time in one of the main flights changed in one of his blogs. Says he can make a call and it will happen.”
Not Whiter than White Himself
Most readers will be aware that Chance Kornuth himself has been under fire for what was perceived as shady behaviour.The American took some flak for the way he moved his chips around in a way as to deceive an amateur player of his real intention. In other words, trying to make it look like he was betting while not actually moving his chips over the line.
It’s also unacceptable that you angleshoot amateurs by moving chips around but no one ever said life was fair. @ikepoker and @scott_seiver can attest we’ve been laughing at you for years about it
— Alexei Kovalev (@Alexei_Kovalev2) November 20, 2021
