The 2 Million 2006 WSOP Poker Chips Mystery

Saw this on another site and thought I would repost it here. On a side note, how does a player come back from a break and NOT notice he has an EXTRA million in chips.


The 2 Million 2006 WSOP Poker Chips Mystery
by PokerPages.com
Wed, Feb 14th,

A professionally researched article reporting investigations into the extra 2 million poker chips which mysteriously appeared during the final stages of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event was recently published by Poker News.

Since the broadcast of the final table when ESPN first acknowledged there were 2 million extra chips, not only was the $12 million prize pool at stake. Also at stake were the reputation of the players, the premiere event itself, as well as the reputation of poker that many have worked hard to elevate to a respected sport.

It is no wonder everyone is concerned whether this was an innocent mistake or intentional.

Thanks to Poker News we now know why there has been such a lack of available information about the extra chips. The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) put a gag on Harrah's until the NGC could complete their investigations. Apparently their criminal investigations are done and their enforcement review will be complete within the week. So NGC will soon be releasing their findings, at which time Harrah's will be free to speak.

So what did happen? Many people jumped to the conclusion that the chip leaders benefited from the extra chips. PokerNews concluded that neither WSOP winner Jamie Gold nor finalist Allen Cunningham received extra chips during the color up process, since Gold and Cunningham were colored up separately prior to the official color-up. Also, neither player was designated at their table to buy-up chips. So they had no opportunity to benefit from any color-up miscount.

Based on close chip count, Poker News reported that Kevin O'Donnell is one of the two players to receive extra chips, 1.05 million extra chips to be exact. He received them during the color-up, but he had no idea it had occurred. O'Donnell and all the other players were away from the table during the color-up. On top of that, less than 30 minutes after the color-up O'Donnell busted out of the tournament in 21st place. Afterwards, O'Donnell was genuinely shocked that he might have received extra chips when he was interviewed.

Poker News said the second player to receive an extra million chips was not the second player they had identified through chip counts. At this time, they are choosing not to reveal who they think the second player is, "nor the name of the player our research shows may be the other recipient." But they feel assured that "some form of limited viewing of the surveillance tapes will put this matter to rest."

We look forward to the mystery being solved when the Nevada Gaming Commission's findings are made public and Harrah's finally gets to speak freely about it.

Comments

  • wow. thats insane did not know about that.

    cant wait to find out what happens nice post voodoo
  • I'd like to see how this plays out. This is definitely a huge oversight and just goes to show how much is taken for granted at these tournaments. Having said that I would not want to be the person responsible.
  • This seems like a excellent idea, if you follow through i think this site may be going somewhere
  • I remember Negreanu talking on full contact poker in his blog about the problems at the WSOP, I could imagine Harrah's being more thorough in the future, cuz they basically own Vegas and any mishaps like that again will really jeoprodize their reputation, and now is not the best time when their talks about making that multi-gillion (exaggerated,not by much tho) casino
    on the strip .
  • Thats a crazy story, but seriously you just don't gain that many chips and not notice.
  • i have to agree with riderr. but nevertheless, that is insane.
  • Insane, can't beleive i never heard about this. Will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals.
  • This mystery looks like one for Scoob and the gang
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