Gossip Column: Phil Hellmuth Makes Peace With James Campbell & Adrian Soren Banned From WSOP For Racially Abusing Maurice Hawkins
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- PG News July 11, 2018
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8 mins Read
The drama at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is endless. In this edition of the PokerGuru Gossip Column, we bring you to truly shocking incidents that happened on the felts at the ongoing WSOP. In out first story we have Phil ‘Poker Brat’ Hellmuth, who showed us his bratty behaviour once again when he began ranting at a fellow Main Event tablemate James Campbell that eventually resulted in the latter’s elimination. Hellmuth eventually offered him a Main Event seat for WSOP 2019 to make amends which was accepted.
In the second and last story, African-American player Maurice Hawkins claimed that he was racial abused by Romanian-Italian player Adrian Soren who was thereafter disqualified by the WSOP Tournament Director Jack Eiffel and subsequently banned from the rest of the tournament series.
As the chaos and tension continues, lets delve into the juicy gossip!
Phil Hellmuth Offers An Olive Branch to James Campbell Through 2019 Main Event Seat
The 14-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is quite a character indeed! Whether its showing up late to tournaments, selling his action at steep mark-ups or making dramatic entrances, the ‘Poker Brat’ does not fail to amuse his fan base. However, the latest controversy that he was embroiled in, seems to have irked his followers more than usual.
During Day 2C of the WSOP Main Event World Championship, Hellmuth was in a three-way hand that included Alex Kuzmin and James “Camby” Campbell. With the blinds at 800/1,600/200, Kuzmin raised 3,200 from middle position holding and Hellmuth flat-called from the cutoff with pocket sevens. Campbell, who was short-stacked, also called with @1d from the small blind. After the flop :10s was dealt, Campbell checked, Kuzmin continued for 3,000 and Hellmuth snap min-raised to 6,000. Thereafter, Campbell moved all-in for 26,200. But before Kuzmin could act, Hellmuth viciously spoke out, “This mother f***ing guy … f***cking got away with murder all day against me. How in the f*** does this happen?”
After Hellmuth quietened down, Kuzmin called and Hellmuth folded. With the turn bringing , Kuzmin found a pair of deuces and the river missed both players, resulting in Campbell’s elimination.
Hellmuth’s uncalled for verbal spat was heavily criticized by Shaun Deeb, who was commentating the final table.
“This is so wrong by Phil. This is where Phil deserves penalties. You cannot talk in a multi-way pot and give away your weakness with an opponent still to act. It’s so wrong he gets away with stuff like this. If I’m sitting with a king-high flush draw I know that Phil is not continuing if I call. That totally affects this action and totally hurts his opponent’s equity.”
Campbell posted his view on the incident on Twitter.
I had some fun even though I got tortured all day in the WSOP main event. I busted in brutal fashion a9dd vs k2dd on 1034dd flop…turn black 2. @phil_hellmuth save your rant until after other players fold. That player would have not called without your antics @WSOP
— James Campbell (@JCamby33) July 7, 2018
Hellmuth responded to the tweet while expressing his apologies.
I apologize for swearing. It was a 3-way pot and I shouldn’t have lost it. It was the 15th time you moved all in on me, and my emotions got the better of me. But you were never winning that hand. You snap moved all in, and I was never folding 7-7 on draw heavy board of 10-4d-3d https://t.co/CgwL4ivoRb
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 7, 2018
Many players took to Twitter to discuss the incident and Hellmuth’s past antics.
Every time I play with @phil_hellmuth he talks about his hands in multiway pots, acts out of turn, or talks about what he folded while a hand is still in progress. Players need to step up, call the floor, demand penalties every time. TDs need to give those penalties. @wsoptd
— Isaac Haxton (@ikepoker) July 7, 2018
Please consider giving @phil_hellmuth a retroactive penalty today.
He didn’t like Camby and gave away the weakness of his hand to allow Kuzmin to call his all-in lighter than normal.
This behavior is FAR beyond what is acceptable and he’s gotten enough warnings
— Justin Bonomo (@JustinBonomo) July 7, 2018
This plays into Hellmuth’s strategy in an unfair pattern we’ve seen for years
He doesn’t like aggressive players after him (especially shortstacks who can move in on him)
This isn’t an isolated accident
He gains a huge edge by influencing action to bust the 3rd player
— Justin Bonomo (@JustinBonomo) July 7, 2018
Campbell spoke to PokerNews regarding the incident and stated, “I think he deserved a penalty for sure and I think only because he was Phil Helmuth he got away with it with the floor standing right behind us. I was very upset at the time but I didn’t want to give away any information as to the strength of my hand. If I had won the hand, Phil would have got a piece of my mind. Busting the main sucks so at that point I thought it was better I left without getting into it with him when I was very upset about the situation.”
He added, “As far as rectifying the situation the WSOP should have at least addressed the issue. Phil knows the truth as far as actions affecting the hand. His ego gets in the way of his sense a lot of times including this time so of course he tried justifying his actions instead of admitting his mistake. He was 100% folding as the whole world saw that on the live stream and therefore his antics gave the Russian a great price on gambling with a flush draw knowing that Phil was never raising and always folding. The whole situation is really messed up. It cost me my WSOP main event and a chance at spinning up my stack Day 3.”
Hellmuth responded to the reaction by missing out on the first hour of play at the Main Event on Day 3.
Nursing my usual social media thrashing: reserved for when I do something wrong (a Poker Brat rant in a 3-way hand). Still in bed w wifey listening to 70s music; resting. I wish I wasn’t so emotional at the tables! My chips are in play, being ante’d off, BUT I’ll come in STRONG!
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 7, 2018
He even explained his outburst and apologised for the same on the YouTube channel pokernewsdotcom.
On July 8, as a show of goodwill, Hellmuth offered to buy Campbell’s entry into the 2019 WSOP Main Event.
@JCamby33 I lost some sleep over my outburst. I believe you lose the hand anyway, but maybe I am wrong. You handled yourself well, and played well. As a gesture of goodwill, and because I respect policeman and firefighters: I’m going to buy you into 2019 $10,000 @WSOP Main Event
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 8, 2018
Campbell appreciated the gesture and accepted the offer.
That’s a real stand up thing to do @phil_hellmuth! After I watched the telecast last night I do think you realized the mistake you made after the initial outburst as @shaundeeb pointed out. This means a lot to me and I’m very thankful for the opportunity
— James Campbell (@JCamby33) July 8, 2018
Maurice Hawkins Suffers Racial Abuse At WSOP, Offender Banned
In the sidelines of the spellbinding action on the WSOP felts is high drama and incidents that can only be termed as shocking to say the least. Another such incident involving African American player Maurice Hawkins who was reportedly subjected to racial slur during a bust out hand in a WSOP event grabbed attention recently and has the Twitterati talking about what really happened.
Even as the tournament director adopted the ‘no-tolerance’ policy and outrightly banned the Romanian-Italian player Adrian Soren from other upcoming events, doubts started floating around on whether the player really meant to abuse Hawkins or was it a cultural and lingual difference that was wrongly interpreted.
It was during a $1,500 side event where the incident occurred. Hawkins and Soren ended up in a pot together and by the end of it Soren beat Hawkins. While collecting the chips, Soren said to Hawkins, “Thank you,” after which followed an exchange of words between the two where Hawkins claimed that Soren said “what’s up?” though Soren claimed he had said “Shut up”. There was the use of the ‘N’ word by Soren during the chat and that’s when things went downhill.
On this, Soren received a penalty where he had to leave the table for a couple of rounds and was blinded out.
The following day when he returned to the WSOP, he was confronted by Tournament Director Jack Eiffel who disqualified him from the event and banned him from all Caesar’s properties.
Hawkins narrated the incident on his Twitter handle, later thanking the WSOP for their quick reaction to the incident.
Can’t see myself playing in a tournament where a man can, call me a racial slur. Then just get a penalty. Wonder if that’s the rules.Can’t respond, Because it’s against the Law and on camera. #HawksView
— Maurice Hawkins (@mauricehawkins) July 6, 2018
Update on on the Racist guy from the WSOP.Jack Effel just showed America how to deal with Racism, and that’s Zero tolerance. I am proud to play in @Wsop and be apart of their brand. (Thankyou) He Perped walked the racist guy out of the Tournament Area and DQ”ed him.#HawksView
— Maurice Hawkins (@mauricehawkins) July 6, 2018
Poker commentator and Vlogger Doug Polk also talked about the incident.
Well that’s it for this edition folks! We’ll be back soon with more spicy and sensational news. Stay tuned!
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- KeywordsTags: James Campbell, Adrian Soren, Phil Hellmuth, Maurice Hawkins, World Series of Poker, Gossip Column, Live Poker, WSOP
