There are always arguments here and there between tournament players at the WSOP, but seldom does one player accuse another of cheating at the poker table. Yesterday at table 77 during the Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event 46, a shouting match ensued when Fabio Coppola insisted he should have won the low half of the pot that was awarded to John Juanda. With four cards on the board Juanda had two pair with a bad low but was awarded the pot when Coppola mucked his cards. Coppola insisted he had Ace-deuce which would have given him the low and that half the pot was his.
The dealer, Juanda and most of the table argued that it did not matter what Coppola may have had in his hands, when he did not show his cards his hand was dead. Coppola refused to concede and the floor was called. “It’s real simple,” the floorman told Coppola. “If you don’t table your cards, you don’t have a live hand. You must table your cards. The whole pot goes to John.”
When moved to table 80 Coppola accused the dealer of cold-decking him. “It’s obvious you’re setting me up. I haven’t won a hand since you sat down,” he yelled. The dealer insisted he was not cold-decking or cheating in any other way but it was not enough. Coppola soon started mucking every hand dealt to him and did not let up until a new dealer took a seat at the table.
Later at table 72, the issue of tabling hands came up again. A player claimed he was entitled to half the pot, but the dealer insisted the hand was dead because the player did not table the cards. The floor was again called and this time took to reviewing the tapes to determine if the player had tabled the cards. In the end the floor ruled the cards had not been tabled and the hand was dead. Like Coppola, the player was not awarded half the pot he claimed to have won.
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