Florida Poker Tournament with 340 Players Ends in 15-Way Chop
A $300 buy-in poker tournament in Florida ended in one of the largest chops you'll probably ever see.
The no-limit hold'em event at bestbet St. Augustine began on March 22. Players signed up quickly for the $30,000 guaranteed tournament, which attracted 340 entrants, creating a prize pool of $83,200 in what was dubbed the St. Augustine Championship.
Strange Ending to a Poker Tournament
Paul Mitchell, not the hairstylist, busted in 16th place for $933, putting an end to the tournament. Yes, that is correct. The final 15 players agreed to evenly chop the remainder of the prize pool. Each player received $4,461.
It isn't the only time 15 players have chopped a poker tournament in the past year, however. The exact same scenario played out in a $600 buy-in Ladies Event last summer at Wynn Las Vegas, each taking home $4,032. The poker community heavily criticized the players for chopping 15 ways in the Wynn tournament, and will likely do the same in response to the bestbet chop.
There was one player involved in the recent chop who is no stranger to controversies. David Hughes, a Floridian, infamously won a $250 Ladies Event for $5,555 at Seminole Hard Rock in South Florida two years ago. The win sparked anger from many within the poker community over a man winning a tournament intended to be exclusively for women.
Hughes, who has over $180,000 in The Hendon Mob cashes, was back in the middle of a wild poker story this week as he was involved in a 15-way chop.
It's unclear if tax reasons were a deciding factor in chopping it up so early, but poker tournament wins over $5,000 minus the buy-ins trigger a 24% federal tax withholding. In this case, the $4,461 payout, plus the $300 buy-in, leaves the players under that threshold.
Only 14 of the players involved in the chop were willing to be included in the "winner" photo. The chops at bestbet St. Augustine and Wynn are the largest known in recently history. But there have been some bigger ones, including a 23-way chop in 2010 in a $400 buy-in deepstack tournament during the Foxwoods Poker Finals.
PokerNews reported on an 11-way chop at Canterbury Park in Minnesota earlier this year. But the players involved in that one didn't agree to an even chop. Carl Carodenuto, aka "Crazy Carl," a well-known pro in the area, took the biggest share of $44,000 out of the $368,280 prize pool. The lowest payout among the 11 choppers received $15,450.
15-Way Chop in Wynn Ladies Event Sparks Debate
