Polarizing poker player William Kassouf was escorted out of the Horseshoe by security after busting the Main Event in 33rd place to a chorus of “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye,” boos, and smattering of cheers.
The walking stomach ulcer from the U.K. caught the ban from WSOP Senior Vice President of Poker Operations Jack Effel after berating tournament chip leader Kenny Hallaert for knocking him out with Kh5h against his pocket sevens (“I knew a king was coming,” said Halbert later that night).
“King five. King five. Yeah, well played. Well played. Absolute fucking joke, absolute fucking joke. Disgrace. You’re pathetic. You’re pathetic. Bad and pathetic. I hope you’re proud of yourself. You’re pathetic.”
The 43 year-old then focused his vitriol on WSOP staff, claiming he was treated unfairly and targeted throughout the event, accusing tournament director Dennis Jones and Effel of being “totally out of line” by threatening him with a ban earlier in the day after he received a one-round penalty for calling a player a “prick.”
He later received another one-round penalty after calling the entire table “little bitches.”
Effel wasn’t bluffing.
It was the final straw for WSOP organizers, who, over the last two weeks, had to constantly remind Kassouf to simply stop acting like a privileged jerk to everybody.
The video of Kassouf berating tournament staff standing besides the table where he one had chips as the game moved forward feels like watching a man who was put into the grinder that is the Main Event and turned into mush.
He simply would not shut his mouth, promising the players that he would be back next year for revenge, and made it a point to stare down all of them and again calling them “little bitches” and “pathetic,” as the rail — who was weirdly quiet the entirety of Day 7 — began to boo and jeer Kassouf.
Of course, Kassouf took a bow and hammed it up when he eventually walked off the feature stage.
In a post-match interview, Kassouf denied his lack of sleep or eating well had anything to do with his seemingly irrational and unchecked verbal outbursts that got worst and more insulting as the Main Event went on and his chip-stack grew smaller. A player who takes pride in waging verbal psychological warfare on the poker table, he said it’s all about strategy he needs to use playing in “dog-eat-dog” events like the Main Event.
“This is me on two hours of sleep. I’m like buzzing. I’m thinking clearly. I had two hours sleep the night before. I’ve been late to every single day,” he said.
The $300,000 he won is his third largest score, only behind the $338,288 he cashed for finishing 17th in the 2016 Main Event the same year he won the EPT High Roller event for $555,619.
As he was about to conduct post-match interviews, Jones informed him that security is here to escort him from the property and that he was banned from the rest of the 2025 WSOP, which ends next week. Kassouf, a lawyer, again went into orbit with another verbal blast that wavered from attack to victimhood.
“We’re done with it,” Jones said. “You’ve been very disruptive” after Kassouf asked what he had done to deserve being 86ed.
Jones made it perfectly clear to the distraught Englishman — “There will be no more events for you this year.”
Poker.org’s instagram has this knockout in full, and it’s obvious that Kassouf still didn’t understand why was trespassed. “What have I done wrong,” he says, continuing to plead his case to security, who only cared about getting him out of there.
“God bless America,” he said, surrounded by armed officers.
And yes, his mouth never stopped as the poker press followed him down the hallway and out into the Las Vegas night, hanging on every word.
About The Author
