Bizarre Poker Disqualification in Atlantic City

In what many poker professionals and media members believe is a first, the chip leader in a major tournament was disqualified at the final table and his chips were removed from play. The bizarre incidents took place during the first event of the World Series of Poker Circuit now running at Caesars in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Reports of players and spectators who were there, relate a story even more bizarre than the tournament report given here, this release comes from Nolan Dalla, the WSOP Director of Media. The report has been edited to include only the outlandish actions.

8th Place – Next, an odd thing happened when “Karate Mike” Santoro got chopped off the final table under the most unusual circumstances. Committing every poker player’s nightmare blunder, he admittedly misread his hand when four diamonds were on board, and (mistakenly) thought he held the king of diamonds.

7th Place – Don Mercer was one of two North Carolinians at the final table. On what proved to be his last hand, he took a tough beat when his A-J was crushed by the chip leader’s Q-4, resulting in a seventh-place finish. Mercer had A-J suited but Andy Santiago managed to flop two pair – queens over fours.

Then, the real drama began. One of the biggest hands of the tournament unfolded when the eccentric and boisterous Virginian, Lesley Thornburg got tremendously lucky and survived his first all-in of the day. Thornburg, who had been given two warnings for unsportsmanlike behavior on the previous day, pushed everyone’s patience to the limit with a ceaseless display of loud comments and baiting tactics lasting several hours. Nearing disqualification, opponents breathed a temporary sigh of relief when he called an all-in raise by Andy Santiago – holding a totally dominated hand (Thornburg’s A-7 a huge dog versus A-Q). Kaboom! A seven flopped and the Virginian had seized the chip lead with a cavalier display of luck.

6th Place – Just two hands later, Thornburg the new chip leader caught lightening in a bottle once again. He called an all-in bet by Edward “Yank” Sullivan, who had raised all-in pre-flop with 7-7. Thornburg tabled 4-4 and needed help. Wham! A four flopped, and the huge crowd turned a mental backflip. Thornburg ended up making a full house and all poor Yank could do was walk away with a bad beat story.

5th Place – Then, all hell broke loose. Literally. Holding onto a perilous chip lead, Thornburg lost self-control and began jamming chips into the pot with reckless abandon. Warned by tournament officials (repeatedly) to stack his chips properly and obey the rules, Thornburg crossed the final demarcation of everyone’s patience when he shoved half of his stack into the pot and then later announced, “all in.” Fed up with the annoying and confusing antics, officials announced Thornburg’s immediate disqualification.

Thornburg’s chips were removed from play. By default, Andy Santiago had regained the chip lead. Following the ejection, play was considerably more civil with the remaining four players cordially trading chips and conversation back and forth.

As mentioned before, spectators onsite say that Nolan's description in this report is kind if not overly generous to the antics of the disqualified player. One veteran player and sometimes poker writer told me:
"I am surprised he was not tossed out of the building the day before and I am equally surprised that someone didn't deck the obnoxious bastard on several occasions. Hell, I would have taken a poke at him, if the story hadn't been so good."