In July 2025, WSOP Tournament Director Dennis Jones did something no one had done before: he banned William Kassouf from the rest of the World Series of Poker mid-series. A few months later, Jordan Cristos was sentenced to up to four years in prison for threatening a poker executive and a judge.
At the 2026 WSOP, Martin Kabrhel torched a $25,000 buy-in in a single hand. The year before, opponents at his table wore earplugs just to block him out. Poker has always had its villains, but the line between entertaining and genuinely dangerous has never been harder to draw.
Some players on this list built careers out of bad behavior. Others face criminal charges. This is the complete ranking of the most toxic poker players in the game’s history, updated for 2026.
| Player | Category | Signature Incident |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Hellmuth | Tantrums | 17 bracelets, 30+ years of blowups |
| Tony G | Trash Talk | “Of course I lied! It’s poker, Phil” |
| Mike Matusow | Outbursts | “The Mouth” since 2004 WSOP |
| Eric Persson | Trash Talk | Double middle finger at Hellmuth |
| Martin Kabrhel | Misconduct | Card-marking accusation, serial tanking |
| Shaun Deeb | Feuds | Perry, Cristos, Hellmuth clashes |
| Nik Airball | Agitation | HCL ban, Foxen trash talk |
| William Kassouf | Misconduct | “Nine high like a boss,” 2025 WSOP ban |
| Dan Bilzerian | Legal | Family indictment, Congress run |
| Wesley Fei | Threats | HCL physical confrontation |
| Garrett Adelstein | Controversy | J-4 hand vs Robbi Jade Lew |
The Loudest Voices at the Table
These are the players who turned bad behavior into a brand. Their tantrums, trash talk, and angry table antics have made them some of the most recognizable names in poker. None of them are subtle about it.
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth holds the all-time record with 17 WSOP bracelets and has spent over three decades proving that being the best and being the worst behaved aren’t mutually exclusive. His nickname, “The Poker Brat,” isn’t ironic. He earned it one dealer tirade at a time.
The most infamous moment came on Day 5 of the 2008 WSOP Main Event. After folding A-K face up, Hellmuth watched amateur Cristian Dragomir reveal he’d called a reraise with 10-4 of diamonds. Hellmuth erupted: “You’re the worst player in history!”
He received a one-round penalty, later overruled after a private meeting with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.
“I am an idiot with a stack. You don’t have a stack.”
Cristian Dragomir’s response to Hellmuth
That same year, Hellmuth told Tom Dwan at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship: “Son, you are the sucker. We’ll see if you’re still around in five years.” Dwan is still around. Still winning.
The meltdowns never stopped. In June 2026, after busting 37th in the $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo Championship on a river bad beat, Hellmuth posted a profane rant video declaring: “I’m getting sick of this s**t” and vowing to win bracelets 18 and 19.
In late 2025, he publicly campaigned that WSOP bracelets are “becoming meaningless,” calling for a cap at 100 events per year. Shaun Deeb has repeatedly predicted Hellmuth will never win another bracelet. As of mid-2026, #18 hasn’t arrived.
The WSOP knows exactly what it has. Hellmuth’s entrances, his rants, his white-magic declarations are all part of the broadcast product. He’s toxic in the way a reality TV villain is toxic: the show wouldn’t be the same without him.
Tony G
Before there was a trash-talk meta in poker, there was Tony G. The Lithuanian-Australian businessman built his poker reputation almost entirely on verbal warfare, deliberately tilting opponents into making mistakes and then mocking them for it.
The most replayed moment came on PokerStars’ The Big Game (2010). Tony G announced he was going all-in “blind,” Hellmuth called, and Tony G flipped over a dominating A-K. When Hellmuth protested the lie, Tony G didn’t flinch.
“Of course I lied! It’s poker, Phil.”
Tony G
He tormented Hellmuth across multiple seasons of partypoker’s Premier League Poker too, turning their rivalry into must-watch television.
His cruelest on-camera moment had nothing to do with Hellmuth. At the 2006 Intercontinental Poker Championship, Tony G ridiculed Ralph Perry after eliminating him, shouting across the table while Perry sat in stunned silence. It was uncomfortable to watch then and hasn’t aged well since.
Off the table, Tony G has built a business empire. In a February 2025 interview filmed in Dubai, he claimed a net worth of $300 million, attributing much of it to blockchain firm Sol Strategies, of which he reportedly owns 34.55%. His live tournament earnings sit at roughly $11.3 million.
He served as a Member of the European Parliament (2014 to 2019) and a Lithuanian Seimas member (elected 2020).
Tony G still appears at Triton Poker cash games and high-roller events, but is no longer a full-time grinder. His legacy in this space is secure: he proved that weaponized trash talk could be a legitimate poker strategy, and everyone who came after him owes something to the blueprint he built.
Mike Matusow
“The Mouth” earned his nickname the old-fashioned way: he never learned when to stop talking. Mike Matusow has been erupting at poker tables since the early 2000s, and his outbursts are fueled by genuine emotion rather than calculated strategy. Where Tony G weaponizes trash talk, Matusow simply can’t help himself.
The defining moment came at the 2004 WSOP Main Event. Matusow confronted eventual champion Greg Raymer at the table, telling him: “I got big cajones, you got little cajones. You better stop f***ing with me.” The feud lasted years, and Raymer never softened his stance.
“Basically, I don’t like Mike.”
Greg Raymer on Matusow
A decade later, Matusow received an “excessive celebration” penalty at the 2014 WSOP Event #25 ($2,500 Omaha/Stud Hi-Low) that he blamed for derailing his run. He finished 19th. Daniel Negreanu publicly defended him, saying Matusow deserved an apology from the tournament staff.
That defence didn’t last. In 2016, Negreanu told Matusow he had a “fried brain from years of drug abuse.” By 2020, after a string of conspiracy-theory tweets, Negreanu labelled him “too far gone.”
The two have cycled between friendship and feuds for over a decade, and neither seems capable of leaving the other alone.
Matusow still plays the WSOP and remains one of poker’s most volatile personalities. His 2005 autobiography, “Check-Raising the Devil,” documented his struggles with addiction, depression, and self-destruction alongside his four WSOP bracelets. He’s the rare player whose toxicity comes from vulnerability rather than ego, which makes him harder to dismiss and harder to watch.
Eric Persson
Eric Persson doesn’t just talk trash. He funds the game, owns the casinos, and then tells the pros they’re not good enough to sit at his table. As founder and CEO of Maverick Gaming, Persson brought a boardroom ego to the poker felt and made no effort to dial it down.
The signature moment came at the $25,000 PokerGO Tour Heads-Up Showdown in April 2022. Persson flipped Hellmuth a double middle finger and unloaded in a moment of pure table rage.
“You’re full of s**t. You wouldn’t last one day in my game. You’re a fish, Phil.”
Eric Persson to Phil Hellmuth
Hellmuth called over ARIA Tournament Director Paul Campbell asking for “a little protection.” Both players were warned. Persson won the match when his pocket aces held against Hellmuth’s K-3.
On PokerGO’s No Gamble, No Future and High Stakes Poker, Persson became a recurring abrasive presence. He lost a $1,978,000 pot to Patrik Antonius at the Cash of the Titans in February 2023, one of the biggest poker cash game pots ever played on camera. Negreanu mocked him by dressing up as Persson for their High Stakes Duel 4 match.
Off the felt, Persson’s empire took a hit. Maverick Gaming filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 14, 2025, listing between $100M and $500M in assets and roughly $306M in secured debt. Persson’s entity later won back four Washington cardrooms through the bankruptcy sale process.
Persson is polarizing because he’s not pretending. He genuinely believes he belongs at nosebleed stakes, backs it with his own money, and doesn’t care if the pros resent him for it. That combination makes him one of the most watchable and most irritating players in modern poker.
The Players Poker Loves to Hate
The players above built their reputations in an era when poker cameras were new and bad behavior was almost expected. The names below operate in a different environment: livestreams with 50,000 viewers, poker drama going viral within minutes, and tournament directors who are finally starting to enforce consequences.
Martin Kabrhel
Martin Kabrhel has 5 WSOP bracelets and roughly $19 million in live earnings. He is also the player most likely to make an entire table miserable. His offences range from excessive tanking to card-marking accusations, and the list keeps growing every summer.
Here is every major Kabrhel controversy since 2023:
The WSOP has never banned Kabrhel. They put him on a shot clock, gave him penalties, and let the cameras roll.
The reality is that Kabrhel generates content, and content generates viewers. Until the cost of keeping him outweighs the value, he’ll keep showing up and the complaints will keep piling up.
“I would have banned him five years ago.”
Daniel Negreanu on Kabrhel, 2026 WSOP
Shaun Deeb
Shaun Deeb has 8 WSOP bracelets, the 2025 WSOP Player of the Year title, and roughly $18 million in live earnings. He is also involved in more active feuds than any other player in the game.
Deeb doesn’t start fights for the cameras. He starts them because he genuinely doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him.
Here are Deeb’s most notable feuds since 2023:
- Sean Perry feud (2025 WSOP): During Event #14 ($25,000 PLO/NLH High Roller), Deeb repeatedly called Perry a “scammer” and “not trustworthy for money,” referencing claims that Perry had stiffed people for seven figures. Perry had previously doxxed Deeb’s family in 2024. Deeb taunted him again after Perry’s second elimination.
- Jordan Cristos death threats (Sept 2023): After a disagreement over markup, Cristos DM’d Deeb on X threatening he’d “end up at the bottom of the ocean with cement shoes.” Cristos was later sentenced to 14–48 months in prison on November 5, 2025, for threatening WPT CEO Adam Pliska and a family-court judge.
- Jesse Lonis war of words (Dec 2025): At WSOP Paradise, Deeb fired shots at Lonis over a controversial fold in the $25K Super Main Event, telling his former admirer he’s “no longer the best player from that area.” This was a social media dispute, not a physical confrontation.
- Hellmuth POY feud (2025): After Deeb won Player of the Year in a photo finish over Benny Glaser, Hellmuth attacked the scoring system as unfair. Deeb responded that the formula change “hurt me more than it helped.” Most pros sided with Deeb.
What makes Deeb unusual on this list is that he’s rarely wrong about the facts. Perry’s reputation issues were widely known. Cristos was a documented serial threatener and the POY scoring dispute was legitimate.
Deeb’s toxicity isn’t about being dishonest. It’s about delivering honest opinions in the most abrasive way possible and enjoying the chaos that follows.
“He knows deep down I’ll pass him in bracelets.”
Shaun Deeb on Phil Hellmuth, December 2025
Nik Airball
Nik Airball is the self-styled “King of LA” and Hustler Casino Live’s most polarizing regular. Over 1,300+ hours of livestreamed play and roughly $4.2 million in profit, he has turned hyper-aggressive poker and relentless table talk into a personal brand that people either love or can’t stand.
HCL banned him from the property for approximately a year for undisclosed reasons. He returned on March 28, 2025, with a hype video narrated by Lon McEachern, as if a villain had been written back into a TV series.
The most publicized blowup came in February 2026. Ahead of HCL sessions on February 12-14, Airball tweeted that “tourney players all suck, this is free money.” Chance Kornuth bet him $10K that Kristen Foxen would win more.
Airball lost the session by $399,900 while Kristen won $17,100 and six-bet bluffed him off a hand on camera. For the full story, see our breakdown of the Airball vs Foxen trash talk saga.
- October 2025: Slow-rolled Martin Kabrhel in a $400K pot.
- October 2025: Table blow-up with Nick Palma during an HCL stream.
- 2024: Named as a co-defendant in Arnaud Mattern’s defamation lawsuit alongside Wesley Fei.
Airball occupies a unique spot on this list. He’s not violent, he’s not accused of cheating, and he’s not breaking rules.
He’s just genuinely annoying at a volume that makes him impossible to ignore. HCL knows this, which is why they brought him back with a hype video instead of a quiet reinstatement.
William Kassouf
William Kassouf turned “speech play” into a poker strategy and then pushed it so far that the WSOP banned him from its own tournament. The British lawyer built his entire table presence around talking opponents into mistakes, and he is very good at it. The problem is that nobody wants to sit at his table for eight hours.
The defining moment came on Day 5 of the 2016 WSOP Main Event. Holding 9-6 against Stacy Matuson’s pocket queens on a 5-3-2-8-10 board, Kassouf talked her into folding face up. Then he flipped his cards.
“Nine high like a boss.”
William Kassouf, 2016 WSOP Main Event
He received a one-round penalty for the celebration. He finished 17th ($338,288), busting when his kings ran into Griffin Benger’s aces in a confrontation that had been building for hours. The run made Kassouf one of the most talked-about players at the 2016 WSOP, for all the wrong reasons.
The 2025 WSOP ended his welcome entirely. After another deep Main Event run (33rd, $300,000), Kassouf was placed on an individual 10-second shot clock and received multiple penalties for tanking, verbal abuse, and calling a player a “prick.”
“Take your one-round penalty and shut up. I will have security escort you out of here and you will be disqualified.”
WSOP SVP Jack Effel to Kassouf
US Circuit Tournament Director Dennis Jones banned Kassouf from the remainder of the 2025 WSOP. He was escorted off the property. Whether the ban extends to future series remains unclear, but Kassouf has zero WSOP bracelets and increasingly fewer places willing to let him play.
Controversy Beyond the Cards
The players above are loud, abrasive, and difficult to share a table with. The names below crossed into territory that goes beyond bad etiquette: federal indictments, threats of violence, cheating accusations that ended up in court, and controversies that divided the entire poker community.
Dan Bilzerian
Dan Bilzerian is the only player on this list whose poker ability is genuinely disputed. The “King of Instagram” built a 30-million-follower brand on private jets, firearms, and claims of $50 million+ in private-game winnings that most of the poker world does not believe.
He served as a GGPoker ambassador from December 2020 until March 2022, when he was dropped on International Women’s Day after calling poker players “f***ing nerds” and facing sustained backlash over misogynistic comments. He lasted two hands in the 2024 WSOP Main Event.
The legal problems are more serious than the poker ones. On September 26, 2024, a federal grand jury indicted his father Paul Bilzerian and his cannabis company Ignite on nine counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and tax fraud. The DOJ alleged Paul used Ignite to hide money owed to the SEC since the 1990s, with Dan listed as a “figurehead” CEO.
“The indictment alleges a long-running pattern of criminal behavior to avoid a regulator’s judgment, mislead investors, and cheat the IRS.”
US Attorney Martin Estrada
Dan Bilzerian was not charged, though the indictment references a roughly $1.5 million tax loss tied to his returns. In November 2024, he sued his father and Ignite for $50 million over misuse of his name and likeness.
In April 2026, Bilzerian filed FEC paperwork to run for Congress in Florida (FL-6) as a Republican. He listed his $25 million Las Vegas mansion for sale around the same time. Whether anyone at a poker table takes him seriously is a separate question from whether voters will.
Wesley Fei
Wesley Fei went from winning one of the biggest pots in poker history to being at the center of two separate controversies involving threats of violence. His talent at the table has never been in question. His behavior away from the cards is a different story.
The first incident happened on May 29, 2023, during HCL’s record-breaking Million Dollar Game with roughly $11.5 million in play and 47,000 concurrent viewers. Fei and Hasan “Huss” Onay traded threats of physical violence on the livestream. Floor staff had to step between them.
“Try it, try it, try it. Hit me, you motherf***er!”
Wesley Fei to Huss, HCL Million Dollar Game 2023
Seven months later, things escalated off the felt. In December 2023, Fei and Nik Airball publicly accused a private-game cheating ring led by French pro Arnaud Mattern of using marked cards to steal roughly $3.1 million from games in Yorba Linda. Fei also claimed that convicted felon Shane Hennen, an alleged member of the ring, had sent him death threats.
Mattern denied everything. He said he was in France at the time and filed a defamation lawsuit on February 1, 2024, in Orange County Superior Court against Fei and Nik Arcot, seeking damages over $50,000. The case had not reached a public resolution as of mid-2026.
Fei remains active on HCL and cashed 6th at the 2025 WSOP Mystery Millions for $197,550. But his name now carries an asterisk that has nothing to do with his poker results.
Garrett Adelstein
Garrett Adelstein is the most complicated name on this list. He didn’t berate a dealer, threaten an opponent, or tank for 90 seconds every hand. He accused an amateur of cheating on live television, and the fallout consumed his career and his mental health.
On September 29, 2022, during a Hustler Casino Live stream, amateur Robbi Jade Lew called Adelstein’s all-in with jack-four and won. Adelstein confronted her on camera, got her to return the chips, and left the casino. He then posted on social media accusing her of cheating.
A 10-week third-party investigation by Bulletproof found no evidence of cheating in the J-4 hand or any other. A casino employee, Bryan Sagbigsal, was found to have stolen $15,000 from Lew’s stack and was fired. The hand became widely known as the most controversial moment in poker livestream history.
“That was a colossal mistake.”
Garrett Adelstein on his own “Robbi cheated” tweet, March 2026
In 2026, Adelstein announced a memoir, “Beneath the Cards: A High-Stakes, High-Anxiety Poker Journey” (Simon & Schuster). In promotional videos, he alleged HCL owners Nick Vertucci and Ryan Feldman had lied about him asking Lew for the money back, and said he took Vertucci’s statements as threats.
The book also addresses his struggles with depression, body dysmorphia, and perfectionism. It’s the most honest public accounting any player on this list has offered of the personal cost of being at the center of a poker firestorm.
Adelstein has largely stepped away from livestream poker. He lives in Manhattan Beach with his family and has said he plans to play “a bit” in 2026. His place on this list is different from everyone above him: he wasn’t the villain by nature, but his reaction to a single hand created a controversy that he’s still trying to resolve.
FAQs
Who is the most toxic poker player?
The answer depends on how you define toxic. Phil Hellmuth has the longest track record, with over three decades of tantrums, dealer abuse, and on-camera blowups across 17 WSOP bracelet wins. Martin Kabrhel is the most commonly cited name in modern poker, with card-marking accusations, a personal shot clock, and complaints from opponents at virtually every major event since 2023. For sheer consequences, William Kassouf holds the distinction of being the only player banned mid-series from a WSOP in 2025.
Was William Kassouf banned from the WSOP?
Yes. In July 2025, US Circuit Tournament Director Dennis Jones banned Kassouf from the remainder of the 2025 WSOP after multiple penalties for tanking, verbal abuse, and unsportsmanlike conduct. WSOP SVP Jack Effel told him to “take your one-round penalty and shut up” and threatened disqualification. Kassouf was escorted off the property. Whether the ban extends to future WSOP series has not been publicly confirmed.
Did Martin Kabrhel cheat at the WSOP?
In June 2023, Andrew Robl publicly accused Kabrhel of marking cards during the WSOP $250,000 Super High Roller. Several prominent players, including Chance Kornuth, Dan Smith, and Justin Bonomo, backed the accusation. The WSOP conducted an investigation and found no evidence of cheating. Kabrhel denied the allegations and threatened a defamation lawsuit. He has continued to play and win at every WSOP since, including a bracelet at the 2025 WSOP Mini Main Event.
What happened between Garrett Adelstein and Robbi Jade Lew?
On September 29, 2022, during a Hustler Casino Live stream, amateur Robbi Jade Lew called Garrett Adelstein’s all-in with jack-four and won. Adelstein accused her of cheating on camera and on social media. A 10-week investigation by third-party firm Bulletproof found no evidence of cheating. A casino employee, Bryan Sagbigsal, was found to have stolen $15,000 from Lew’s stack and was fired. Adelstein later called his cheating accusation tweet a “colossal mistake” and announced a memoir, “Beneath the Cards,” in 2026.
How many WSOP bracelets does Phil Hellmuth have?
Phil Hellmuth holds the all-time record with 17 WSOP bracelets. His most recent win came on July 2, 2023, in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty for $803,818. He has pursued bracelet #18 at both the 2025 and 2026 WSOPs without success as of mid-2026. Shaun Deeb has publicly predicted Hellmuth will never win another bracelet.
What is Dan Bilzerian's poker controversy?
Bilzerian served as a GGPoker ambassador from December 2020 until March 2022, when he was dropped after calling poker players “f***ing nerds” and facing backlash over misogynistic comments. In September 2024, his father Paul Bilzerian and cannabis company Ignite were federally indicted on nine counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and tax fraud. Dan was not charged but was listed as a “figurehead” CEO. He sued his father for $50 million in November 2024 and filed to run for Congress in Florida in April 2026.
Who are the most hated poker players?
The most commonly cited names are Martin Kabrhel (card-marking accusations, serial tanking, personal shot clock), Phil Hellmuth (decades of tantrums and dealer abuse), William Kassouf (speech play, 2025 WSOP ban), Shaun Deeb (feuds with Perry, Cristos, Hellmuth), and Nik Airball (HCL ban, Foxen trash talk). The distinction between “hated” and “entertaining” is often a matter of personal opinion. Many of poker’s worst behaved players are also its biggest draws.
Have any poker players gotten into physical fights?
Physical confrontations at the poker table are rare but have come close. During HCL’s Million Dollar Game on May 29, 2023, Wesley Fei and Huss traded threats of violence on a livestream with 47,000 viewers, and floor staff had to intervene. Jordan Cristos sent death threats to Shaun Deeb over a markup dispute in September 2023 and was later sentenced to 14–48 months in prison for threatening WPT CEO Adam Pliska and a judge. In April 2026, Dan “Jungleman” Cates was temporarily banned from Hustler Casino after throwing cards that struck a dealer following a bad beat.
