A poker player who tried to pull a fast one at a recent WSOPC tournament at Planet Hollywood got called out, only to assert that he didn’t do anything wrong. Unfortunately for him, the incident was published to social media, which virtually forced his hand and led to a lukewarm apology.
Justin Lapka was one of many players participating in the WSOPC Planet Hollywood $600 NLHE Double Stack when someone noticed something funny. Lapka had 5,000 more chips than everyone else at the table, all of whom were only given 40,000 chips.
The player who noticed the discrepancy was Shawn Daniels, who was sitting close to Lapka at the table. He at first tried to get Lapka to do the right thing but, when his efforts failed, resorted to letting the Twitter world know what had happened.
Daniels tweeted, “This kid got very upset when someone mentioned he started with too many chips. He knew and wasn’t going to say anything. When I mentioned he’s scumming / cheating all his peers he said he will do what he has to it’s business. If you interact with this guy pay close attention.”
Lapka had acknowledged that he had erroneously been given more chips than what was required but decided that, since it wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t liable to return them. That typical scammer mentality doesn’t sit too well with most poker players. Lapka eventually saw his chips taken away by the dealer, but a more appropriate response would have been for him to be removed from the game.
After Daniels spoke up about the incident, several poker players responded to the post. One was Steven Snyder, who said, “He has to be the biggest douche I’ve ever met at the tables. Constantly talking sh*t when he loses a pot and just always unhappy making smart ass comments to everyone. He thinks he’s some hot shot player.”
DJ MacKinnon spoke up, as well, saying, “If he admitted to the table he knew and didn’t do anything about it I would def give him a 1-2 round penalty.” Lapka did admit it, saying he noticed the discrepancy when he took his seat, but nothing was done to penalize him.
Lapka finally issued an apology, perhaps to try and recuperate some of his lost fan points. He said, “I just wanna acknowledge that I made a decision tonight without a full understanding of how my decisions may affect other people or the poker community at-large.”
I guess the Twitter poll was correct—poker players are unethical.
