Will Kassouf Banned from WSOP for Disrupting Main Event
Posted on: July 13, 2025, 12:02h.
Last updated on: July 13, 2025, 12:02h.
Following his elimination Saturday night from this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event at Paris & Horseshoe Las Vegas, Will Kassouf was escorted off the premises and banned from the remainder of the series, which includes five more tournaments. According to officials, the controversial British poker pro trash-talked his opponents and slow-played so excessively, it violated WSOP rules governing player conduct.
Kassouf began Day 6 in the Top 10 with nearly 7 million chips, but his 2025 Main Event run will be remembered only for his WWE-like table talk, which included taunting opponents — one of whom he called “a prick” — and making provocative comments after eliminations.
Kassouf was also penalized several times for taking an inordinate amount of time to act (tanking). On Day 2, for example, he took more than 10 minutes to decide how to play a strong hand (king-high flush).
Rule 40 in the 2025 WSOP regulations prohibits behavior that disrupts the game or creates an unfair advantage, and Rule 107 requires players to act in a timely manner to maintain game flow.
On Friday, Kassouf received a one-round penalty for arguing with a player that the clock was called on him too quickly. After play concluded, Kassouf argued with WSOP VP Jeck Effel, who told him to “take your one-round penalty and shut up,” adding that if his disruptions continued, “I will have security escort you out of here and you will be disqualified.”
On Saturday, after his pocket sevens were defeated by chip leader Kenny Hallaert’s king-five on the turn, Kassouf was eliminated in 33rd place with $300,000.
“He’s a PokerStars professional sponsored player,” Kassouf then announced to the crowd and livestream audience. “King-five, well played. What an absolute disgrace — a fucking joke.”
As he proceeded to call everyone at the table “little bitches,” a chorus of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” erupted from the rails.
Kassouf was then informed of his ban and escorted to the payout desk by security with two Las Vegas police officers in tow.
Poker Community Split
Kassouf’s play was both vilified and celebrated on social media. Supporters argued that it made the game more entertaining and exposed the monotony of silent play, while detractors found it disruptive and unprofessional.
Sam Coe tweeted: “This is without a doubt the most entertaining few days of poker I have ever watched. Will Kassouf should be cherished, but of course the poker nerds are seething because they can’t muster even 1% of the charisma. The WSOP is completely out of line with some of these rulings.”
Poker pro Derek Kwan strongly disagreed, tweeting: “Anyone defending Kassouf right now need to watch the stream. He gets dealt a hand, and instead of acting, he’s just arguing with everyone, table mates, floor, anyone, even though no one is looking at him or addressing him. He’s burning 30-40 secs pre with 85o just yelling at the air. He’s been warned a million times, the floor has to spend all their time at his table, table mates are playing prob 20% less hands and prob all playing worse *against each other* because of this insanity. It’s all just way way out of line.”
Kassouf’s ban prevents him from entering the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (Event #91), the $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty (Event #92), the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship (Event #94) the $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack (Event #95) and the $1,500 The Closer (Event #97).
It is unclear whether he will be allowed to play in the WSOP Paradise, taking place in the Bahamas from Dec. 4-18.
The WSOP Main Event is scheduled to end on Wednesday.
Last Comment ( 1 )
Like Nick S on the PokerGo livestream, after watching him for hours over the day I too am genuinely concerned about Will's mental health and hope that he is OK. Trying to throw people off their game? Deploying a new version of what used to be called "coffeehousing"? Pushing the limits? Those are all OK by me - reminiscent of Andy Kaufmann's comedy - but he wasn't able to pull himself back from falling into the abyss. The orbit penalties and missed hands and tilting himself were all self-owns. Getting repetitive / boring and truly nasty with his mocking was not OK. Generally making it extremely painful to be in his vicinity was not OK. I hope for his sake he is able to re-tune to a rule-abiding and tolerable playing style as he could both be successful and entertaining with a few modifications. There's a difference between hating him as competitor and hating him as a person and I believe he put the vast majority of people in the 2nd camp. The rest of the 2025 series ban was entirely appropriate. Hope you get it together Will.