Massive Pot and Controversy On Table 360 (Part 2)
With the request coming from Shaun Deeb that he wanted an official ruling from World Series of Poker Tournament Director Jack Effel, the lead floor supervisor was called in and arrived on the scene within a few minutes to try and solve the issue as Effel was no longer in the building.
This floor first needed to hear things from the dealer upon arriving on the scene. By this time it had been over 20 minutes since it all began. The dealer ran through the actions to the floor, what had happened, what was said and how it ended. The floor then heard from the players again before making the final ruling.
The ruling was reversed in that it was deemed "accepted action" by all parties that all of the money was in the middle, even though Abe Mosseri had only said, "I call." Nikolai Yakovenko would have only committed about 60% of his stack by putting in the pot-sized reraise, but it was now ruled that he had to pay off Mosseri's entire lot.
There was a lot of back and forth between the players, even the ones not directly involved in the hand. All were trying to get the entire story straight and the pot set so play could move forward. Because of the time this had taken, which was around 30 minutes at this point, the players requested something be done about putting time back on the clock. Although the other tables in the tournament weren't directly involved in the hand, all tables had suffered because everyone was paying attention to the commotion rather than playing at a normal speed.
While the back and forth between Mosseri, Yakovenko and the floor was going on, Yakovenko had told the floor about Mosseri talking about his hand, showing them when he looked back at them and also about how he himself said to Mosseri that he reraised the pot, but was not actually all in. There was also a little bit of back story between the two that Ali Eslami filled us in on.
Early in the night, a hand happened where Yakovenko made a wheel, but turned over the two cards he wasn't using for the wheel first. A few seconds later, he turned over the cards that showed he had a wheel and scooped the pot after slowrolling Mosseri. Mosseri was upset and picked up the chips he owed to Yakovenko and tossed them across the table. Yakovenko had pulled this move because prior to this, Mosseri was doing some unpleasant joking towards Yakovenko's play in the event.
Eventually, Mosseri said he didn't want Yakovenko to ever talk to him again and the two got quiet. Yakovenko now directed most of his attention to the floor because he was rather upset with the ruling and having to pay Mosseri's entire amount. Mosseri, on the other hand, was busy stacking up his new stack of over 600,000 in chips. Mosseri also added that he thought the players were all in and said he would have just left if he had lost the pot. Deeb was also busy stacking up his chips as he had more than tripled his stack.
It took a few minutes to actually sort out the pot and get it correct before play resumed at the table. The players seated at Table 360 did ask the floor if there was something they could do about the time they had missed. The floor went to work on that, if possible, while the dealer dealt the next hand.
Yakovenko was left with just under 15,000 in chips and got them all in on the next hand in a hand of Limit Hold'em. He was all in preflop against Viktor Blom and Roland Israelashvili. At the showdown on the 
board, Yakovenko's 
couldn't beat Blom's 
. Israelashvili had the 
. Yakvenko was eliminated, but that only brought up another issue.
With everything taking so long with the big hand, a table needed to be broken, but it was held up. The table was eventually broken and Phil Ivey took the seat once claimed by Yakovenko. The players at the table wanted more time because of the issue, but it had just been announced that there was only four hands left in the day and the clock was paused. Because Ivey had now joined the table, the floor said they couldn't play extra time as Ivey would be playing double because he came from an active table.
The table came up with a solution on the behalf of Eslami to finish out the four hands with Ivey, then remove him from the table and play an extra 15-20 minutes on their own. They believed it would be like they were "going back in time to fill the space," as Eslami put it. Problem was, Ivey said he wanted to be a part of it as he had missed some hands at the other table due to the slow play and the table not breaking because of the controversy that had happened. In the end, though, it was ruled that no time would be added and the players would simply finish their four hands for the night and then bag up their chips.
After it was all over some 40-45 minutes after the first limp from Charles Pacheco, Yakovenko did some debating with the floor staff on the side, which lasted a few minutes. After he was done, Mosseri talked to the floor to give his final thoughts. Eslami also spoked with the floor and said what he felt on the situation and the final ruling.
While many of the players were leaving the tournament area following the completion of the day, many of them complimented the floor on the correct ruling given all that had happened. It seemed to be well understood by all that it was a very difficult situation and something that hadn't been seen before, making it truly a unique issue.