The Lodge Poker Championship Series Main Event final table was marred this week by a blatant angle shoot. Devon Ullman pulling the stunt and earning an extra $55k for his unethical behaviour.
Justin busts in 4th as his A2 loses to A9.
He cashes for $151,727 💰
Everyone has locked up $200K+
Remaining Payouts:
1st – $426,801
2nd – $290,864
3rd – $207,852Watch the 3-handed battle now: https://t.co/TbXtvLPla0 pic.twitter.com/50DipIZ9t3
— The Lodge Card Club (@LodgePokerClub) May 16, 2023
The Lodge Card Club in Austin, co-owned by Doug Polk, Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme, was hosting its Championship series and the Main Event was down to just 4 players.
With the Lodge’s biggest payout ever – $426k – waiting up top, Justin Saliba put his tournament life on the line with an all-in reraise from the button holding A♠ 2♠.
The action folding back to Ullman under the gun, the youngster from Florida decided to get some extra info on whether his A♦ 9♦ was ahead or not.
Eliciting a big “Whoa!” from the commentary booth, Ullman immediately apologised for his ‘chip slip and slide’ technique, but it didn’t escape poker Twitter’s attention, a selection of comments below.
- Huge angle huge punt
- Obvious angle, if it was actually a mistake he wouldn’t have said anything, he does the Sam Soverel
- @ChancesCards this one of your students?
- Can’t be allowing players to cheat like that
- Carry him out and use his head to open the door.
Angleshooting, for those new to the game or the term, is when a player uses unethical means to gain an unfair advantage.
Though most often not technically illegal, actions such as pretending to push chips forward to get a reaction from an opponent, or hiding big denomination chips from an opponent, are considered very bad form, and will sometimes be punished by the floor.
At the Lodge, Saliba accepted the apology with grace, but the damage may already have been done, Ullman choosing to call with his marginal hand, which held up to KO Saliba and bag the bad guy an extra $55k.
The reference above to Chance Kornuth (@chancescards) was for last year’s WSOP “horseshit” angleshooting against an amateur…
This is horseshit. There are clearly things you are allowed to do within the rules, that you just shouldn’t do. He wouldn’t do this vs Jason Koon. Just a cheap trick only worth trying vs an amateur. Surprised he’d do this on a televised broadcast. https://t.co/YikjcTyclY
— Jason Strasser (strassa2.eth) (@strassa2) November 14, 2021
Kornuth is far from the only big-name player to resort to unsavoury gamesmanship, with Phil Hellmuth also accused of angleshooting last year.
You might think televised poker on the big stage would deter such behaviour, but the PokerStars EPT Main Event of 2019 proved that wrong.
Chinese pro Quan Zhou sparked controversy on the feature table when he pulled an angle that made Kornuth and Ullman look like beginners at the unethical game…
You’ve seen the hand, was this angle shooting by Quan Zhou?
— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) August 28, 2019
Let us know what you think of this angle shoot in the comments on our social media!
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