I use to play with/against him a few days a week in local cardrooms around greater London in 2008-2011 ish before his Main Event run. Was always a character trying to find an edge at the table, but never pushed it beyond the limits. Loved to needle, but was polite in the way he went about it. Seems his character has changed since then...

The incident seems to have happened as described. Confirmed on Twitter by the player who won the pot.

Like wal_mbn I also played with him on some tournament tables in the 2010 - 2012 period. He was okay, yes a big character at the table but we were in London and there are a lot of characters, it's part of who we are as Londoners.

Very sad if he stole the chips and there are zero mitigating circumstances. The only thing I can I think of that is a small possibility is if he thought he was angled or something like that. Even then, you don't storm off with the chips, you call the floor for a ruling.

I think we should wait for his side of story, if indeed there is a story that is not just plain theft, before casting judgement.

He's a lawyer, there are witnesses, there may be CCTV in the room, I am not sure. So it seems odd that he would do this. I hope there is some explanation as to why, one which is not pure theft.

I doubt we hear his side of the story. One other thing I can say is he tried his F'ing hardest to look like a "baller" - really tried hard in this aspect. I remember he hit some 50k score and first thing he did was buy a used M3 and some shitty used 10 year old Rolex datejust. Degens gonna degen

He must be skint.

I’m not sure but this thing happens and I believe the end result is that they can only get banned from card room? They can’t get arrested for theft.

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

This is probably accurate.
There is a big difference, legally speaking, between theft and not paying a debt.
As the chips never left his person he hasn't technically "stolen" them he has simply refused to honour the debt.
Ban worthy (hopefully from any casino within a 500mile radius) but not a police matter

Probably wasn’t premeditated then. It’s a move you can only do once. Thus should be done with a big stack and have lots of big denominations you can quickly palm and get out. Not three stacks of reds lol

Casinos don't give a **** if you steal chips from a player. Stealing from the casino itself (like the dealer's chips) will get you arrested immediately.

this aged incredibly well

Someone can easily be both a thief and fun to play with

And as long as those weren’t my chips he ran off I would have liked to be at table for entertainment of it all

Kassouf clearly not checking his privilege!

Not remotely surprising from this loud mouth dbag.

15 years of living on the edge of poverty as a degenerate mtt grinder will do that to a man.

Trying to imagine how bad off I'd have to be to steal $400 in a poker game. Maybe took a loan from some pipe hitting bros running out the basement of a pawn shop? Which hotels have atriums at least 10 floors high?

He denies it, said he was all in on turn. Walked away from table and spoke with two separate individuals for around 3-5 minutes in room. At least one of them corroborated that.

So maybe he just left table in middle of hand because he saw he was drawing dead, but without chips? I will say that joker who posted that TikTok vid or whatever describing the situation seemed more focused on the fact Kassouf was drawing dead than whether he took his chips with him lol.

Story really doesn’t check out as reported by that guy. Someone might have got shorted in pot but it sounds like possible dealer error. He was in room nearby for several minutes talking to people

True, true. I'm not hanging around waiting for 5 minutes for the dealer to figure out how to split 2 side pots on two boards after I bust.

You don't understand what Kasouf is like there is zero chance he would just quietly leave without bemoaning his luck for a good 2 minutes making sure anyone within 30 feet can hear it. He may have done it he may not have but he admitted stealing a £100 chip in 2018 and i can confirm there was zero CCTV and very light security in the venue.

Given that the story of him “running out of the card room” doesn’t check out at all I’m less likely to believe he took his chips back

Kassouf is a scumbag. Have personal experiences and know 1st hand in the chip stealing incident.

However his version of events just seems more likely to be true all things considered.

1. Bearing in mind they are all in on turn, at the very worst his chips would need to be over the line before the river is dealt. Its 3 way and experience tells you that there is going to be a decent amount of time spent clarifying that everyone is all in before continuing.
2. its PLO so the dealer would have to be pretty experienced at handling a game as new dealers or inexperienced dealers simply dont deal PLO.
3. He would have had to very noticeably reach forward over the line to pick the chips back up if the original version of events is to be believed. From everyones version there seems to be a big delay before thinking that he has taken chips back from the table.
4. Its been confirmed by multiple credible sources that he didnt run out of the room.

While I agree that it is unlikely to have happened as initially posted, 3 of your your points are not accurate or simply do not matter. You state them as facts wh3n they are far from such. At least not in the US.

1. While I agree the chips should be in the middle, especially since multi-way. But the reality is that if there is no more action, it is very likely the chips are not moved in. Not right but it is the reality.

2. Ability to deal PLO is generally a min requirement for dealers. If only dealers who are good at dealing PLO are allowed to deal PLO then it will necessarily die. Now maybe some rooms will alter rotation to keep new dealers out of high stakes PLO (though this is likely a bad idea in reality) games. But generally dealers are expected to deal the games spread, at least for PLO.

BTW, the new dealer is actually FAR more likely to ensure the pots are right than the experienced dealers.

3. Again I don’t think he did it, but who cares if there is a delay. We all know of times players have reached into the pot and pulled out chips. The consequ3nces for this may be more severe against the player doing it but the impacts to the winning player is the same. So the differ3nt doesn’t matter.

Fact is once chips are in a persons hands, pockets, purse, whatever, the casino will very rarely if ever physically take the chips. They may demand perp do so. They may hold you for the police. But even police are not going to physically take them and hand them to casino or shorted player. They will be take custody of chips, voucher them and then held until resolution. I am ignoring the tiny chance the police subsequently steal the chips

For those giving Will sympathy and suggesting he is simply a 'problem gambler' and should be shown remorse, I'll repeat what I tweeted in regards to this very poor take. Go and check check Will's Companies House directorship. Him and his brother’s company financials suggest they’re comfortable millionaires. Will drives a ****ing McLaren sports car worth over 100k. This is not a gambling addict. With someone like Will, it’s about his ego. He can’t face losing, or not being the centre of attention. He had the absolute lot back when he stole a few ponies off the roulette table (from my friend).

Furthermore, I've spoken to two people who were on the table during the hand. Will's version of events simply cannot be true based on their recollection of events. While Will 'running out of the card room' seems as though it was probably an exaggeration, I'm willing to bet he sure as hell knew what he was doing when he slithered away with his chips as the pot concluded and was being chopped up and worked out at the other end of the table to him.

Who’s giving him sympathy?

Story of him “running out of the room” doesn’t check out at all, therefore it’s much less likely he “slithered away” with chips.

Clearly, we need some self appointed moral warrior to put Mr Kassouf back in his place!