Early on in the WSOP 2025, the chatter was all about Martin Kabrhel’s weirdness and how he might actually be good for the game. Fast-forward to the Main Event and Will Kassouf was dominating the headlines, but this was on a totally different level.
Kassouf seems to be doing his utmost to annoy everyone he comes into contact with at the Horseshoe & Paris Las Vegas.
Finally, after Day 7 of the Main Event was underway, the floor staff did something about it all and gave the loudmouth a multiple-round penalty, much to his disbelief.
With around 50 players left in contention, Kassouf was pulled aside and told a penalty started right now for calling one of the players at his table a “prick”. Incredibly, Kassouf’s reaction was to inform the floor that this is how the game is played!
While this argument was ongoing, Jack Effel, WSOP Senior Vice President of Poker Operations, arrived on the scene, marching speedily as he knew who he was dealing with.
Eiffel said to Kassouf “this is over”, warning him that he was on the verge of getting disqualified. But Kassouf just wouldn’t let it go, leading Effel to make it clear that he talks too much and he needs to move to the rail immediately.
Finally, as Effel tries to walk away, he is forced to give a warning to Kassouf that if he follows him then he will disqualify him on the spot.
Kassouf’s parting shot was to say “Americans can’t take it. There’s a method to my madness.”
Will Kassouf Escorted from the Horseshoe & Paris Las Vegas
At the time of Kassouf receiving his penalty, he already had $200,000 locked up, with the promise of much more if he could spin up his final 14 big blinds.
It all came to a head with only 33 players remaining when Kassouf clashed with chip leader Kenny Hallaert.
The Belgian opened to 850,000 in the cutoff and Kassouf went into his standard time-wasting mode, offering a $10,000 side bet to Pedro Padilha. Eventually he made his move, jamming in the rest of his 2,700,000 chips which was promptly called by Hallaert.
Kassouf flipped over 7♠ 7♦ and Hallaert K♥ 5♥, leaving Kassouf a little shocked. Well, he was either genuinely surprised or just trying to act like Phil Hellmuth having one of his blow-ups.
The flop came down A♣ J♠ 10♦ to leave the Brit in the lead, but the K♣ turn left Hallaert as a big favourite.
Kassouf begged “queen on the river. Disgusting. Seven or a queen, dealer’s choice,” but the J♥ ended his run.
What happened next seemed unnecessary. Kassouf’s general tone was a bit darker as he told the players at his table “I’ll remember all of your faces”.
He was then escorted by security to the cage for his $300,000 prize money where WSOP US Circuit Tournament Director Dennis Jones would tell him that he was no longer welcome at the WSOP 2025.
Quite where this puts Will Kassouf in terms of the World Series of Poker in future years, we just don’t know. What we do know, however, is that there will be discussions about his behaviour at the tables.
People save all year to be able to afford to travel to Las Vegas to play in these events and, whatever you think of Will Kassouf, he is ruining the experience for many of those people.
It doesn’t matter how many fans think he’s entertaining if he’s damaging the image of the WSOP in the eyes of the majority of players and viewers.
