Player ends up with shorter stack after winning chips
Professional poker player Jon Borenstein took to Twitter to post a video replay of a hand from WSOP.com, which appears to show chips from a pot being distributed incorrectly.
The hand in question seems to be from the WSOP.com New Jersey’s “$100,000 GTD Sunday [Re-entry]” tournament, with Borenstein referring to it as a “Sunday major.” Playing as “jetsfan14”, the poker pro finished in sixth place, winning $6,279.
Short stack shove, multiple calls create side pot
The hand replay only shows the action graphically, so let’s break down the hand. The table was nine-handed, with blinds of 2,000/4,000 and a 500 chip ante. Borenstein was in the big blind.
It looks like WSOP.com ran into a software glitch.
Action folded to “XcrazylegsX” in the hijack position, who moved all-in for 4,346 chips. It folded to “bewater” in the small blind, who raised to 16,000. Borenstein then re-raised to 44,302 in what looks like a re-isolation move of sorts. It worked, as bewater folded.
To this point, everything was fine. The main pot was 17,538 chips, consisting of 4,500 in antes, and three bets of 4,346 chips each. The side pot of 51,610 chips was between Borenstein and bewater, made up of their raises (44,302 and 16,000, respectively), minus 4,346 from each to match the all-in bet.
The community cards were dealt 2-7-3-4-8 (suits were irrelevant) and XcrazylegsX won the main pot with K-3, while Borenstein won the side pot with A-9.
Table reorganization creates apparent glitch
When the pots were awarded, though, a problem occurred. WSOP.com gave XcrazylegsX 29,192 chips instead of 17,538. Borenstein received 39,956 instead of 51,610.
This matter is being investigated thoroughly.”
Because of this, Borenstein ended up with losing chips in the hand, even though he should have won more chips from bewater than he lost to XcrazylegsX.
Instead of giving 11,654 of bewater’s chips to Borenstein (bewater’s 16,000 chip raise less the 4,346 going to XcrazylegsX), WSOP.com pushed bewater’s entire 16,000-chip raise to XcrazylegsX.
It looks like WSOP.com ran into a software glitch, possibly resulting from bewater being moved to another table before the hand ended.
That 11,654 figure is the exact difference between the pots that were distributed and what the correct pots should have been. The difference is even represented by a third stack in the middle of the table as the hand concludes.
WSOP.com responded to Borenstein’s tweet on Monday, saying, “This matter is being investigated thoroughly.” No further explanation has been given since. WSOP.com has also said it is “not allowed to resolve any player issues via Twitter.”