ShareBrazilian pro Rafael Caiaffa has been disqualified and suspended from the Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) for adding extra chips to his stack during the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) stop in São Paulo.
Caiaffa, a WSOP online bracelet winner, was participating in the second day of the LAPT’s BSOP Millions when he received two sets of starting chips, each containing 100,000 chips.
Caiaffa confessed to CardPlayer Brasil, saying:
"I entered the Mystery KO max-late and they handed me 200,000 chips: 100,000 at the island [at registration] and another 100,000 at the table".
Despite realising that he had received more chips than he should have, Caiaffa decided to keep the extra chips, feeling that it was the organisers' mistake.
However, his plan was soon discovered by one of his opponents, Eduardo Silva, who noticed the sudden increase in Caiaffa's stack and alerted the tournament directors.
After reviewing the CCTV footage, BSOP Tournament Director, Devanir Campos, confirmed that Caiaffa had indeed cheated.
As a result, Caiaffa was immediately disqualified from the competition and provisionally suspended from participating in any future tournaments.
In a statement, Campos explained:
"A player violated some clauses in the regulations and, because of that, suffered the sanctions that are provided for in the regulations. The tournament management understood that the infraction was serious enough for him to be immediately excluded from the competition"
Following his disqualification and suspension, Caiaffa admitted his mistake and accepted responsibility for his actions. He stated:
"Obviously, I was the one who made the mistake. I’m not taking away my responsibility. A player at my table noticed and spoke up, and he’s more than right. The floor came and saw everything that happened. I also told the truth and he eliminated me".
Despite the incident, it's worth noting that Caiaffa is a prominent figure in the poker world. He won a BSOP PLO title in 2015 and a WSOP bracelet in 2022. However, this incident has undoubtedly tarnished his reputation and raised questions about the integrity of the game.
The BSOP organisers said they plan to meet after the festival ends to discuss the incident further and determine the type and length of Caiaffa's suspension.
Maybe they should also look into their own procedures after it was reported by MundoPoker that several players were handed two starting stacks.
Interestingly, Caiaffa’s live tournament results have been hidden from view on The Hendon Mob database. Is he trying to hide something? Or maybe just sliding out of public view in shame.
