Chip Leader Ejected from WSOP Circuit Event

Poker is not necessarily known to be a gentleman’s game.  Every day, live and online, you can see countless instances of players using foul language, being verbally abusive towards others, or just generally being boorish oafs.  But even those people just get behavior warnings, chat bans (when online), or possibly ten minute penalties.  Last week, however, a player was actually ousted from a tournament for being a jerk. 

Lesley Thornburg of Richmond, Virginia, entered the final table of the first preliminary tournament of the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City in second place.  After sucking out a couple times, once with A-7 versus A-Q and the other with 4-4 versus 7-7, he held a healthy chip lead. 

Unfortunately, Thornburg could not just be content with his good fortune.  At the final table, he repeatedly taunted his opponents, refused to stack his chips, and constantly splashed the pot.  He was warned about his antics several times (and was warned twice the day before), but would not stop.  Finally, the tournament director made the difficult decision to disqualify Thornburg, ejecting him in fifth place. 

Thornburg’s chips were removed from the table and he was awarded the fifth place prize of $19,026 for the $300 buy-in event.