Gossip Column: Pierre Kauert Erroneously Eliminated From WSOP Circuit King’s Main Event in Fifth Place in a Chop Pot

As the saying goes, ‘to err is human.’ But when the stakes are high, and the error robs someone of a bigger payout, said mistake becomes a hard pill to swallow. On Tuesday, January 24, Pierre Kauert discovered how costly a seemingly small error could be.

The German player had made the final table of the 2023 WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event at the King’s Casino in the Czech Republic. He was fifth in chips among the nine finalists and busted fifth for €58,350.

Now you must be wondering how any of this is a mistake. You see, Kauert’s elimination hand should have been a chop pot. Yes, that’s right, he became the first player ever, at least on a live stream, to be eliminated from a tournament in a hand he didn’t actually lose!

The Elimination Hand That Never Was

Here is how the ‘elimination hand’ played out.

With five players remaining in the Main Event, Kauert jammed for 1 Million with . He was up against the of Lupo, who had him covered. The pot was at 2.2 Million, a significant amount considering there were only about 35 Million chips in play.

The flop came out , giving both players a gut-shot straight draw. But the on the turn gave them both a pair, with Lupo’s kicker being superior. Kauert needed a king for a straight to win the hand outright or either a six or queen to chop. The board did pair when the appeared on the river, but apparently, no one noticed it was a chop pot.

Kauert immediately hopped up, gave his handshakes, and accepted his fifth-place exit.

Twitterati Investigates

Nothing escapes the hawk-eyed scrutiny of Twitter, and sure enough, the poker Twitterati realized the mistake. A video was tweeted by EyDuBrot about 45 minutes after the elimination.

Hand from the @WSOPC FT @PokerroomKings just 45 mins ago (+ stream delay). JTo player busts, no one including the dealer notices(?????), game and stream move on ???@PokerNews @ChadAHolloway pic.twitter.com/Geudu01fHP

— EyDu? (@EyDuBrot) January 24, 2023

The poker Twitterati was quick to catch the mistake, but it wasn’t quick enough. At that point, it was too late to fix the hand in question. Still, an overwhelming sense of injustice began to develop in the poker community.

“It does fall under player and dealer responsibility, and cannot really do anything about it at this point. If it wasn’t live streamed it would never have been realized, and so we just move on,” WPT’s Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, who was not associated with the event, explained to PokerNews when asked how he would have proceeded.

King’s Casino Responds

Federico Brunato, King’s Resort poker director, issued the following public statement regarding the hand:

“Dear poker community,

I am sharing with you a very interesting situation that has occurred on one of our annual WSOPC events.

I am glad to have it documented on the livestream as it is something that happens very often during the games and is not talked so much about. With this post I want to raise awareness and give official piece of advice to our poker community.

To start with, our poker dealers are very highly trained professionals that undergo a six-week training course before entering their career paths at King’s. I myself have started as a poker dealer at King’s and know the work ethics. The dealer in the clip is our dear Sona that has been a member of our family for the last six years. When it comes to the standard of our streams we do our maximum to ensure that it is at the highest possible level, and accordingly, Sona has been a constant member of our TV crew since her first steps in our team.

When it comes to Hand number 35 of the final day of the WSOPC ME where Mr. Pierre Kauert was eliminated and cashed a stunning 58,000€ incl., a WSOPE ME ticket.

I would like to refer to one of the most important rules of poker – always read your hand. At the end of the day, we are all humans, and we all can make mistakes; Sona is no exception. Even though she has dealt thousands of successful hands in her life, this hand, unfortunately, she misread. Nonetheless, alongside Sona, Mr. Pierre Kauert and all other competitors at the table misread the hand as well, which of course, is very unfortunate. The hand was supposed to be a split and we can now only guess how it would turn out in the Main Event path of Pierre Kauert, perhaps he would now be crowned a champion with a Golden Ring, perhaps he would be eliminated in the next hand.

At the end of the day, I would like to refer to rule number 76. Of WSOP, which states: The right to dispute a hand ends when a new hand begins. This applies not only to WSOP, but also to nearly all regular poker games that are played.

To take from this I strongly advise the poker community to not criticise other peoples mistake and not to try and find guilty, instead learn from this, know your rights and follow your game as every single occasion is individual in its own way.”

Brunato later added the following:

“I would like to stress that my intention was not to instruct anyone, but rather to highlight that such incidents happen frequently even outside of streamed tables. And how is important for all players to be vigilant and to not forget how crucial it is to monitor the game and be aware of the rules.

Nonetheless, we will remain vigilant in our efforts to improve communication within the team, so that we can avoid similar situations in the future.

I take full responsibility for any mistakes that may occur within my team, as the individuals I have chosen to work with reflect on me and my commitment to carrying out my duties in a highly professional manner.”

While the error cannot be fixed, it must be acknowledged that it was still a big mistake that should not have happened, especially in a Main Event. Nevertheless, the story’s moral stands that players should be more attuned to the happenings on the table.