Poker Legend Penalized Over Verbal Spat Deep in WSOP Seniors Event

A profanity-laden verbal spat between two players over some table talk during an all-in situation deep in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event resulted in both players receiving one-round penalties.

The incident occurred on Day 3 of Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship with less than 40 players remaining and involved four-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi and Buck Bucceri. Bucceri was facing an all-in bet and wanted his opponent to show his hand if he folded. But Bonyadi and other players at the table weren’t having it.

Table Talk Leads to Penalties

As captured by PokerNews live reporter Jerome Solomon, Bucceri played a heads-up pot against Ablahad Salim, and things got interesting even before the spat with Bonyadi.

With the board reading 7♣8♣3♠3♦, Salim announced all-in out of turn, leading to a discussion over how to handle the situation. After it was determined that the bet would not be binding, Bucceri was first to act and bet 120,000, leading Salim to just call instead of moving all in.

Bucceri then checked on the 7♥ river and Salim immediately moved all in with nearly 3,000,000 chips.

Bucceri asked Salim if he would show his hand if he folded, it started an argument between him and others at the table, including Bonyadi. The loud exchange led to the floor coming over to lower tensions.

Meanwhile, Bucceri still had not said whether he was calling the all-in. At some point during the shouting, he apparently tossed in a chip to call.

Salim showed J♠10♠ for a pure bluff. Bucceri had A♦Q♦ giving him the win with just ace-high to go with the two pair on the board.

He then got up and squeezed the shoulder of Bonyadi, saying he was not mad at him for calling him out on the table talk.

“Don’t touch me,” Bonyadi said.

Bucceri started walking away, then glanced back at Bonyadi and said “pussy.”

“F*** you,” Bonyadi responded, which resulted in both players receiving one-round penalties.

Bonyadi is a four-time bracelet winner with $4.7 million in live earnings. He won his first bracelet in 1998 and most recently won the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship in 2021 for $297,051.

Both players are still in the Seniors event on the last level of the day with just 26 players remaining. Each remaining player is guaranteed a payday of $28,000, while $660,000 awaits the winner.

There have already been some heated moment this year at the WSOP. Martin Kabrhel and Martin Zamani were filmed by WSOP getting into at the table, and PokerNews caught a verbal confrontation between James Heath and Darrell Blodgett in the $800 8-Handed Deepstack.

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.