Cheating In The Main Event? Was Tamayo's WSOP ME Win Unethical?

What a disgrace for the entire poker world. It seems actually enforcing dem rules is missing out here.

No. This is the dumbest controversy in the history of poker.

They did such a bad job at enforcing it, it's almost as if they weren't actually breaking a rule!

Not unethical. Possibly against the spirit of the game.

If it is banned next year, does that answer the question of the OP?

I've talked to DOM, and he said that he spoke with WSOP officials to ensure that he was within the rules.

I think the detractors know that it was perfectly legal. They are just trying to pretend that it isn't because they know just saying "I hate solvers and this hurts my feelings", makes them sound really stupid (not that this red herring fixes that problem)

The rule is clearly about not pulling up a solver when you are in the middle of a hand to look up the best play, and it says nothing about having someone do a line check for you after a hand, to see if you played it correctly.

If it's banned next year, then neither he or anyone is obviously going to do it, but stop acting like he was breaking a rule, when we all know damn well that he wasn't.

hi dom this asperger's response system you have going on is getting really tiring

at multiple points you(dom) have argued it was fine because the announcement that it wasn't ok happened before you arrived and it wasn't in the rule book which implies it was cheating but loophole. You then turn around and say you weren't doing any of it to begin with and start calling people names. You then say you did it but it wasn't against the rules rinse and repeat.

Also all this talk of it being life changing money for a trio with 42 million in live earnings is rich. Considering how little tamayo had of himself that might not have even been his biggest score let alone you(dom) or joe's

The WSOP officials clearly knew this was happening and allowed it.

If you want to discuss whether a specific rule should be added in the future to clearly prohibit this, that’s totally legit.

But calling it “cheating” is really absurd and unfair to Tamayo.

even if you want to have this argument

Participants are allowed to use approved electronic devices, during Tournament play until the Participants have reached the final table in any
Tournament; so long as the approved electronic devices are not used to collude or cheat in any way. Once
Participants have reached the final table in any Tournament, all approved electronic devices must be removed.
Failure to do so will results in penalties up to and including disqualification, in accordance
with Rules 40, 113, and 114. Participants are also not allowed to use approved electronic devices if their table
has been deemed a Feature Table for production purposes

now wsop dropped the ball on this one because as noted elsewhere i saw a significant amount of airpod over the several feature tables

also

Participants are prohibited from using betting apps, gaming charts, or any poker information tool while involved
in a hand. seeing as dom is a tool and the laptop was a tool

he also broke that rule

Was he looking while in a hand or between hands?

he came over during every all-in

that is a live hand despite action being closed

Still using the term "asbergers" in 2024? Not a good look if you want anyone to take you seriously, but I'll bite.

There was no announcement that said what dom did was not legal. (and no the announcement floating around on twitter had nothing to do with what dom said, it's pretty obvious)

And as you know, "live earnings" on hendon mob is a GREAT indication of someone's net worth. I suggest developing some common sense before you keep throwing out ableist slurs (or actually, just don't me an ******* and throw them out for any reason)

even if that announcement doesn't apply i presented 2 cut and dry rules in the book he violated. There is no discussion beyond that

funny you would use the exact word for word comeback as dom and to that ill say then i shouldnt take what tamayo just won as life changing either because i dont know his net worth.

and yes i used aspergers because i didnt want to call you the autistic borderline ******ed **** that you are but here we are

So if he had an earpiece in and was receiving communications from people on the rail while he was in a hand then that's not breaking the rules???

If he has an earpiece in his ear all we have is his word what he was being told. Clearly allows cheating.

1. No you didn't.

2. How about you don't use either? You get called out for talking out of her ass, you cut your losses and acknowledge it, you don't throw a tantrum.

Ok.... so if he doesn't have an earpiece in his ear, which there is absolutely no evidence for, you can acknowledge that the "controversy" around this is nonsense?

Unfortunately there is a gray area in the rules as announced at the start of each event - is the rail inside the “tournament area”? If not, there is no prohibition against using solvers etc.

Based upon common understanding of “tournament area” it is clearly not. Think about each break - the “tournament area” refers to the roped off section containing the tables for that tournament. Players can, and do, stay just outside that area - particularly towards the end of the break.

During play spectators and other non-participants are asked to stay out of that area; but observing from the other side of the ropes is fine.

Nothing to do about 2024 but one would hope this is clarified for next year.

Tamayo was not wearing an earpiece. Prior to hugging him, you can clearly see the AirPod in McKeehan’s right ear. It falls out when Tamayo squeezes his face against Joe when hugging him. Joe catches it and hands it to the other guy.

Detractors know what a disgrace it is and how bad it is for poker. Wsop choosing not to enforce something they specifically said not to do is a huge problem. But Id be shocked if they didn't completely ban stuff like this going forward and actually enforce it.

You realize none of us were at the final table right? So it's not like we're complaining bc he took money from our pockets directly.

Now do I think Tomayo should be disqualified and lose the money? Absolutely not.

Back when I used to hang out with an international motorcycle club, they would not allow cell phones, pagers, blackberries, your X box controller, the TV remote or any other electronic device in 'meetings'.

Even those guys knew what's up and the potential for shenanigans.

It's an absolute disgrace to the game. How anyone can think this is ok is ridiculous.

I already hate people who use GTOwizard, but this just cements it. Complete ****ing dorks.

I don't care if this is legal, ethical , morally right etc... the optics of it are terrible for the game.

We can argue all we want , but it's too late... the damages are done. Do I think this is going to lower next year's main event numbers or something ? No probably not. But do I think some casual or random who stumbles upon these videosi n the future is going to be put off on playing poker ... yeah.

There's already a huge stigma around online poker that it's filled with bots , rta and collusion (which it is) and now these things have made their way into live poker. Will live numbers take a dive , similar to how online has as of late? Only time will tell...

the rule book itself does not state that in or out of the tournament area matters for the 2 rules violated so that is irrelevant

dom, can you explain this? you also spelled it wrong