The controversial hand went down in the $10K Dealer’s Choice event between Matt Glantz and Samuel Touil.
No-limit Texas Hold’em was the dealer’s game of choice in the hand at the WSOP mixed game tournament that caused some controversy. Glantz 3-bet Touil’s raise pre-flop who in return 4-bet all-in – or at least so everyone thought.
Touil held all of his chips in his two hands and reached his arms out into the pot but he never released his chips from his hands and never said he’s going all-in either. Glanzt evidently took the action as an all-in, however, called and turned over his cards – AK off. Much to his surprise, Touil did not show down his cards and get ready to see the flop, but claimed he never went all-in since his chips did not touch the felt on the table.
Obviously, the floor had to be called over to settle the issue. The ruling had to be pretty frustrating for Glantz: Touil all-in didn’t stand rather he was forced to call, so now the two players were gonna see the flop with Touil knowing his opponent’s hole cards.
The flop came QT9, two clubs to which Touil moved actually all-in this time out of position, Glantz called. Touil turned over AJ off with the Ace of clubs, meaning that both men had a gutshot straight draw, with Touil having a backdoor flush draw to go along with it, but Glantz was the one who got it in ahead with his K high.
But Touil’s gut shot got their on the river, so the cruel poker gods ended up rewarding the angle shooter.
You can watch Matt Glantz’s and eye witness Mike Matusow’s account below.
At some point in the video Matusow says "this is the same scumbag that fucked Phil Galfond out of $300 thousand", referring to the case where Touil failed to repay the $250K loan given to him by Galfond for a long time – however, the debt had been paid in full since according to both parties.
Glanzt in his interview did not seem to be upset at the WSOP officials who ruled, he says they acted according to the rules, as there’s no "forward motion rule" at the WSOP. The offical World Series of Poker Texas Hold’em rulebook states "when a player releases chips into the pot, they are committed to completing the bet and must complete the amount", although there’s nothing specifically about touching the felt, one could argue that Touil’s chips were never released since he was holding them the whole time – this how the floor saw it too, apparently.
What would have helped Glanzt’s case if they had been playing limit hold’em, since the rulebook says "in a limit poker game, if you push forward with your chips and another player acts in response to your move, you are committed to completing the bet".
Recently there has been another angle shooting case in a high-profile poker event, although a lot less evident one. On Poker Night in America, Alec Torelli had his big denomination chips behind his small ones when he got jammed on by Daniel Wolf. It is plausible that Torelli did not try to angle shoot on purpose that time, especiallly given the fact that he knew he was being recorded for TV – but there were cases where the trickery was a lot more obvious and infuriating. Take a look at how Venezuelan poker player Ivan Freitez played his boat at the EPT Grand Final.
