PokerGreed Poker Blog - The Greedy Gecko

The WSOP has been continuing with all manner of amazing performances and brilliant poker action. However, a slightly more controversial incident took place the other night when European poker player Harry Demetriou was ejected from the $2000 No Limit Hold’Em event.

Harry Demetriou is a massively successful British and European player, and finished 6th in WSOP $2,500 No Limit Hold 'Em 6-Handed Freezout just one day before. However, he was ejected from Sunday’s event for apparently protesting with the tournament officials about a sudden rule change in the event.

It seems that Demetriou was unhappy when the event was changed after 15 minutes of play from a 9,10 or 11 handed shootout to a 6-handed shootout. Despite Harry being suited to the short-handed games, he was obviously annoyed at the sudden change of structure after paying the $2000 entry fee.

Demetriou asked to speak to a floor person and demanded a refund, stating that the terms were unfair and disrespectful to the players. He was denied and refund, but continued his protest and then was ejected from the tournament. He was obviously extremely annoyed by this and continued his protest. He was seen shouting at the floor person and demanded to speak to the WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

Despite having to wait 45 minutes to speak to Pollack, he did eventually get his money back, and it was acknowledged that a mistake was made in ejecting him. There is no suggestion that Demetriou was abusive or threatening, just genuinely aggrieved at the actions of the tournament officials.

The officials suggested that the events rules were changed because there were a number of empty seats and so the chips needed to be put away, and that this was a modification stated in the rules. However, Demetriou argues that the rules were highly ambiguous and did not specifically mention such a possible change.

Although somewhat unhappy with the way the whole situation was handled, Demetriou said that he did have the backing of other players and that some issues had been resolved after a meeting involving himself and tournament officials.

Although suggesting he would play again in the WSOP and that he thought tournament organisers Harrah’s had done a good job overall, he did think that more needed to be done. Demetriou says that players are not receiving enough information, and that with the rumours of the amount of money that the organisers are being paid, that the players deserve to be treated more fairly. Whether Demetriou plays in the WSOP again or sticks to the World Poker Tour is unknown, but what is known is that this incident is definitely one of the most controversial so far from the world’s biggest poker tournament.

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