Player Collusion Suspected at Seminole Hard Rock Event: Dentale in Crosshairs

It began with a posting on the popular TwoPlusTwo.com forum last week: “Controversy at Final Table of SHRPO 25k Satty..Allegations of Colluding/Cheating”.

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Like many posting forum threads, this one was difficult to follow with plenty of conjecture and rambling.  But where there is smoke there is usually fire.

The folks at HighStakesDB.com explained the situation more clearly.

At the time the 'incident' occurred there were ten players left with 7 tickets to the $25k to be won, and the remaining $17k from the prizepool for the 8th place finisher, meaning that two players were destined to leave the table with nothing. There were three short stacks at the table, the shortest of whom was Lily Kiletto who, having just folded her big blind, found herself with zero fold-equity in the small blind, with no enough left in her stack to even complete the big blind.

As expected she threw her remaining chips into the pot and as the dealer announced "all-in", journeyman pro Mike Dentale in the big blind announced 'fold' and mucked his cards despite already having Kiletto covered.

This provoked uproar at the table with other players suggesting Dentale had deliberately folded to keep Kiletto alive in the tournament, with Jason Wheeler (another player at the table) saying he'd seen Dentale and Kiletto talking during the break immediately prior to the hand. Obviously it would be in Kiletto's favour to not have to go to showdown in the pot.

For his part, Dentale has vehemently denied the accusations.  Gambling911.com will continue to monitor the matter closely.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com