You guys have posted he is a multiple major tournament winner. If he was really SO obtuse that he did not realize taking a souvenir chip in the current climate was stupid he should immediately produce the "souvenir " chip he took from his other major tournament wins. If he can not it would be really strange. If he can it will bolster his argument. It seems unlikely in his 4th or 5th major win he decided to start collecting souvenirs .

He has a good history:

Nearly One Pound of Marijuana, Cash Found in Bryan Man's Car

"29 year old Chan Earl Pelton was asleep in his car Friday morning, while it was running, when Bryan officers found him in the parking lot of an apartment complex off Broadmoor.

After waking him up and searching the vehicle, they nearly a pound of marijuana, three and a half Xanax pills and $1,760 in cash in the car's console.

According to the probable cause statement, the marijuana found in Pelton's car was packaged in way that suggested re-sale.

Pelton told cops he was going to sell marijuana for money."
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/154069445.html

Public hanging appears to be in order

Haha i was thinking this sounds like something i would do if i won a big tourney! but seeing as he already has 3 rings it doesn't make much sense.

OMG a pothead NO WAY!

Burn him!

25ks don't come into play till super late

He obviously knew that taking a tournament chip for a souvenir would not have been allowed.

They didn't contact him for pot. They contacted him for being asleep at the wheel with the car running. The pound of pot and the xanax that weren't his were just a bonus.

Falling asleep at the weheel of a running car with a pound of weed in your car sounds like the type of guy who makes good decisions.

I know someone who stole a 25 green wsop chip from the rio. Will not name names tho

what a rebel

Woulda said I was going to try to use it at the strip club

While taking one 25k chip is definitely against the rules. By itself I don't know what someone could do it with it (outside of getting one to make fake ones). Putting it in play in a tournament near the bubble or post bubble has some value obviously but not a huge amount. But its glad they are taking these things seriously and they should definitely investigate to see if he took any more.

so a neighborhood kid killed a cat, big deal, it's not like he killed a person. I don't get the big deal, this is clearly not indicative of anything further.

Asleep at the wheel? The dude was sleeping in his car in a parking lot. If you've ever been broke in your life you might know what that feels like. I'm not defending the guy for stealing chips (allegedly) but I think your moral standards are a little too high, especially in this community.

Anyone have more info?

What did TC or the tweet mean "funds have been frozen?" Who did and who didn't get paid?

There is also no gaming commission in Florida. Maybe the PBKC decided not to pay the kid until they figured out what was going on with the chips but it is very unlikely that a regulator has said anything to PBKC about this or that PBKC has spoken to a regulator. Especially if this didn't happen until late Friday.

Isn't the Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering the same thing for the tracks poker games?

http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pmw/index.html

Agreed... They should strip him and let 1st & 2nd Chop his money!

The ONLY reason it wasn't stolen/missing is because the floor WATCHED him put it in his pocket and freaked out on him! I also second the shady nature of the alleged offender as I consider myself a great judge of character. There is NO WAY that chip wasn't coming into play @ the ME.... Which begs the question, how many did he transfer from the PLO WIN to the 1K event? Saying you want a “souvenir” doesn’t cut it… AS IF the ring wasn’t a good enough souvenir??? Fry his ass. No room for that in poker.

I did this in the first WSOP event I played in four years ago.

call the poker police.....I have these 2 chips in my house!!! LOL

I tried to insert 2 pics of wsop chips I have from 2005/2006....one 25 chip...the other a 5K chip....

not sure how to insert a pic???

Anyway....I found the 25 chip in my pocket 1 day...and a dealer friend of mine gave me the $5k chip as a souvenir after I won....I think getting chips from the dealers would be the easiest way????

It may seem like I'm being a nit and arguing over semantics but the division of pari-mutuel wagering functions very differently than a gaming commission like you would see in NJ or NV. There is little enforcement power and the division rarely (never) works with the licensees to investigate patrons. The division is only concerned with whether or not the licensees are doing what the statutes and rules say and can fine them if they aren't.

The recent Spectrum Gaming report about Florida said a lot about how little the DPMW can actually do and pointed out that it is a major problem in Florida. This is why I highly doubted what the OP said is legit or more than rumors being tossed around by people that have no clue what is going on. There is probably nothing pending with the state. If anything is pending it is PBKC holding on to the one person's payment (I doubt even that is happening) This is nothing like what happened at the Borgata.

Everyone got paid except Chan Pelton, who broke the rules.... As for the "regulators", it was leaked that "PBKC takes this very seriously, the gaming commission has been notified, and we will conduct a full investigation to make sure there was fair play throughout the tournement series."

If you guys believe a seasoned poker player took the chip as a "souvenir" I have a bridge to sell you.
I hope that all tournament directors take note and ban this scumbag for life

There is no real Gaming Regulators in Florida. Casino complaints are taken up by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation who has multiple of duties from unlicensed contractors to licensing barbers

http://blog.wsop.com/2014/02/event-9...n-race-update/