Poker pro Ryan Eriquezzo was disqualified from the $1,600 buy-in PARX Poker Big Stax tournament because he crumpled his cards after a bad beat in which his opponent’s pocket queens beat his pocket aces.
Eriquezzo had become the champion of the $10k World Series of Poker (WSOP) National Championship in 2012 and had taken home a large first-place prize of $416,051 for his accomplishments. But it appears as if the poker pro was not that lucky in Philadelphia as he was in Las Vegas. Referring to the managers of Parx Poker Room as “scumbags,” a disappointed Eriquezzo declared in his latest tweet that he will never play at this venue again.
Although Eriquezzo lost a lot because of his bad beat, he still had a good enough stack with 85,000 chips in it. But the bad beat upset him so much that crumpled up his cards and allegedly insulted the dealer. A tournament committee had to step in to seize the rest of his chip stack and request him to leave the game.
Subsequently, the professional poker player urged Matt Glantz, the ambassador of the PARX Poker Room, to consider the case. But Glantz spoke in favor of the poker room in his tweet:
@RyanEriquezzo I am being told u were DQ'd for crumpling the cards, throwing the cards, & berating the floor & dealer.
— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) May 18, 2014
@RyanEriquezzo the floor said he would have prob only have given u a 2 orbit penalty if u didn't threaten to "blow torch the place."
— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) May 18, 2014
Eriquezzo was far from pleased by Glantz’s tweet. He responded by stating that he did not threaten anyone, but was only swearing because it was too hot. He also accused the floor of now attempting to save himself. Although Eriquezzo lost the $1,600 he had used to buy-in to the tournament as well as the opportunity to win the championship title, he got the nickname of “The Card Crumpler” for taking part in the event.
After Eriquezzo was disqualified from the tournament, several poker pros commented on Twitter. Matt Glantz tweeted: “actually it’s prob good long term for Ryan. Bet he doesn’t crumple cards again in a big event.”
Matt Salsberg expressed his opinion that disqualification was a bit too much and that Eriquezzo could have been given a Xanax and two orbits. Ronnie Bardah said that disqualification “is absolutely ridiculous” and that he should have been banned for one month and given a three-round penalty.
