Master of Ceremonies Vince Vaughn Suffers Bad Beat in His First WSOP Tournament

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Nov 17, 2021 3 min read

Hollywood actor Vince Vaughn, the star of Swingers, Old School, Wedding Crashers, and Dodgeball, was recently announced as the "Master of Ceremonies" for the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Yesterday, he gave the traditional "shuffle up and deal" announcement at the final table of the WSOP Main Event, and on Wednesday he returned for several other promotional endeavors. Once finished, he took the opportunity to enter his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet tournament, Event #79: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty where every Poker Hal of Famer had a bounty on their head.

While not a member of the PHoF, Vaughn, too, had a target on his back as Jack Effel revealed the WSOP was putting a $10,000 bounty on the actor, much to the delight of players sat with him at Table 2 in the Brasilia Room.

Vaughn took his seat in Level 6 (300/600/600) with 7:10 remaining in the level. In his first-ever WSOP hand, action folded to the player in the small blind who tossed in chips. He had meant to call but because of the amount it actually constituted a raise to 1,200. That did the trick as Vaughn released his hand.

Over the next few hands, Vaughn continued to fold as several Poker Hall of Famers interacted with the star of The Break-Up.

"I want a table change," said Eli Elezra, who was earlier in the day inducted into the PHoF as its 60th member. Elezra was no doubt hoping to get a shot at the $10,000 bounty.

GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu swung by as well offering some advice to Vaughn on how to deal with the target on his back: "Do not try to bluff these people."

Eventually, the break rolled around, and then Vaughn disappeared for the entirety of Level 7 as he was blinded off. Rumor had it he was busy either in the commentary booth or living up to some other obligations. He returned in Level 8 (500/1,000/1,000) and folded four more hands before finally getting involved.

It began when he limped from middle position and action folded to the player in the small blind, who also limped. Kunal Patni then raised to 4,000 from the big blind. Vaughn, who was calm, cool, and collected, grabbed his entire stack of approximately 25,000 and spiked them in the middle. The player in the small blind folded, and everyone seemed to know that with a $10,000 bounty on the line, Patni was prone to call. Indeed he did just that.

Vince Vaughn: A?J?
Kunal Patni: Q?J?

According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Vaughn was a 67.55% favorite while Patni would come from behind 31.05% of the time. Unfortunately for the WSOP Master of Ceremonies, this was one of those times as the flop came down Q?3?8? to pair Patni's queen.

Neither the 5? turn nor 10? river helped Vaughn, and Patni offered a consolatory, "Sorry."

"No worries, good suck out," Vaughn said with a smile before shaking hands with everyone at the table. "We'll see you down the road."

Vaughn really only played one hand in the tournament and it proved to be a bad beat. As they say, that's poker!

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PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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