Controversy Emerges as 2024 WSOP Main Event Champ Accused of Using Computer Aids
- WSOP main event winner accused of using poker aids.
- A laptop was clearly open on the rails.
- Questions as to whether WSOP rules prohibit this type of assistance.
- Runner up speaks on allegations.
Jonathan Tamayo is alleged to have potentially received assistance in-between hands from his rail, according to reports that began emerging shortly after his World Series of Poker main event win last week.
Tamayo, an avid daily fantasy sports aficionado, has had 64 cashes to date in live poker tournament. The $10,000 win at this year's WSOP main event was his biggest. He's now amassed over $12 million in live tournament wins.
"Not real life. My roommate's picture is right there from 2015. We both have banners now. What in the world just happened," the newly-crowned champion from Humble, Texas said.
He mentioned throughout the final table how this felt like it wasn't real life, that his experience over the past two weeks was nothing more than a dream. But it was reality, and he's $10,000,000 richer after all of it.
"I'm just kind of taking it in right now. Because this perspective, and actually, let's take a perspective photo just so I can have one for myself. This is what it looks like from here," Tamayo said
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The Allegations
The 38-year-old Tamayo often confided in his rail, which included Joe McKeehen and Dominik Nitsche. A laptop, which some claim was used to assist Tamayo at the final table, in front of the poker pros was open and visible on the PokerGO livestream. In other words, software programs assisted him in winning, according to a number of folks from the poker community.
Most vocal, those on the long established TwoPlusTwo.com poker forum.
"What a disgrace for the entire poker world. It seems actually enforcing dem rules is missing out here."
One person wrote: "I wouldn't go as far as to call it cheating but when I was watching them pull up the laptop live i was flabbergasted. It's a terrible look for poker from the recreational perspective and should 100% be banned. Hello?"
"I don't care if this is legal, ethical , morally right etc... the optics of it are terrible for the game," another individual offered.
Others defended the practice, while understanding the concerns.
manateepower wrote:
I've talked to DOM, and he said that he spoke with WSOP officials to ensure that he was within the rules.
I think the detractors know that it was perfectly legal. They are just trying to pretend that it isn't because they know just saying "I hate solvers and this hurts my feelings", makes them sound really stupid (not that this red herring fixes that problem)
The rule is clearly about not pulling up a solver when you are in the middle of a hand to look up the best play, and it says nothing about having someone do a line check for you after a hand, to see if you played it correctly.
If it's banned next year, then neither he or anyone is obviously going to do it, but stop acting like he was breaking a rule, when we all know damn well that he wasn't.
Another wrote:
"The WSOP officials clearly knew this was happening and allowed it. If you want to discuss whether a specific rule should be added in the future to clearly prohibit this, that’s totally legit. But calling it 'cheating' is really absurd and unfair to Tamayo."
Doug Polk released a video showing what transpired.
What the Runner Up Had to Say
This year's main event runner up, Jordan Griff, offered his voice to the controversy, courtesy of PokerNews.com.
“I saw him calling things out, I saw him going to the rail, but you know, at no point did I see what was on the laptop or try to eavesdrop on what he was saying," Griff answered. "In any sport, you don’t go over to the other team’s sideline, the other team’s dugout and say, ‘hey, what film are you guys looking at? You know, can I take a look?’ So, now, there may have been suspicions in my mind, you know, I thought that if there was anything nefarious going on, as we saw, there was cameras that caught it.”
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