The most talked about topic of the past week at the World Series was Patrick Leonard's hand in the $2,500 tournament.
Just had one of the worst rulings at wsop towards the bubble of the 2.5k, I’m all in on the river the guy is in the tank for 6 minutes, floor called over, gives him 30 seconds. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, dead” I’m relieved, and then he says “call” and it counts. Called another floor and he…
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 24, 2026
Just had one of the worst rulings at WSOP towards the bubble of the 2.5k.
I’m all in on the river. The guy is in the tank for 6 minutes.
Floor is called over, and gives him 30 seconds. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, dead”
I’m relieved, and then he says “call,” and it counts.
Called another floor, and he ruled in their favor. Another player at the table said it was 5 seconds after “dead.” Less IMO, closer to 3. Somebody else was recording the hand, too. I asked them to check the VAR, but they wouldn’t. The dealer also said I was correct.
Joke.
Here’s the video. People are even speculating what I have! I’m laughing he says call so long after.
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 24, 2026
What the fuck man https://t.co/ZyuAdAAmW8 pic.twitter.com/nEzgZlJD47
"Wtf, I would have caused a scene so big security would have to take me out," wrote John Monnette.
"Truly, with no offense to you, but there is no world where I don’t stop the tournament until the right ruling is made," Scott Seiver agreed. "Security would need to be called to remove me from my seat."
"You can take the man out of Bobby's Room, but you can't take the Bobby's Room out of the man," Sam Greenwood quoted Scott and John's posts.
"This is so true!" Monnett confirmed. "One of the main skills you learn in there is how to protect yourself!"
Here’s rest of the video btw, floor says he said call just as he said dead then dealer corrects floor and said he heard him say dead first.
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 24, 2026
Dealer was great btw, told the floor they were wrong and came up to me 2x afterwards apologising saying it was wrong. Forgot to give him… pic.twitter.com/zB6hsf2HvP
Patrick then tried to get justice from the floor.
Other floor came and ruled within 10 seconds despite the dealer, myself, the other players and the cameras saying something different. I walked away from the table and tried to speak and they said decision was final and they didn’t want to discuss it any further.
The comments called for the opponent to be named and for the floor staff to be fired.
Of course, one of these wise voices was Nicky P.
FWIW I have no problem with the guy at all. I never wanted to out him and he felt bad, after the hand immediately when he had 5x+ my stack he immediately offered to do a big swap because he realised. I’ve never seen somebody feel so bad about something at the table, he was… https://t.co/m3VBDd4Vzj pic.twitter.com/CnLbngYKLu
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 25, 2026
World Series representatives have not officially commented on the situation.
PokerNews editor Chad Holloway tweeted that he was told by the organizers that the floor player was distracted by the clock during the countdown and didn't realize the call came too late.
Chad was criticized for this tweet and quickly deleted it. The video clearly shows that this was not the case at all.
"Of course I deleted it," Chad said, not denying it. "What they told me doesn't make any sense if you watch the second video. And I hadn't seen it yet."
The tournament in which this scandal occurred ended with a victory for Josh Reichardt.
Before the series, Josh was considered one of the strongest grinders in the American live poker scene without a bracelet. He has 17 WSOP Circuit tournament victories and one WPT title. At the World Series, he comes close to a bracelet almost every year, and does so in huge fields.
In 2023, he finished 2nd in the $1,000 Mini-Main (5,257 entries).
In 2025, he busted in 3rd place in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker (11,996 entries). At that series, he finished 3rd in the $600 PLO/NLHE (3,332 entries) and 3rd in the $10k Mystery Bounty (558 entries). He defeated 1,736 opponents to win the tournament.
When asked if he was irritated by the fact that he came within a few steps of getting the bracelet, Josh replied:
"It's poker, after all; we lose more often than not. I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist. I understand perfectly well that winning bracelets is very difficult."
Mike Monchek was playing this tournament alongside the $50k Players Championship. He shoved blind in the first hand and won a triple all-in with offsuit against and .
Texas Mike Went All-in Blind the First Hand
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 23, 2026
While still playing in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, @TexasMike2014 bought into the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event, then immediately shoved all-in blind on the very first hand. pic.twitter.com/36W0GhAhRv
"Not sure why WSOP promotes this behavior," one commenter wondered. "There’s nothing about this that is good for the game, drives interest, or encourages more attendance."
"Man people are really going crazy about the dark all-ins," Mike responded to all the haters. "There’s 1 tourney with unlimited reentries, the rest are almost all 2 bullets/freezeouts. I can’t play as many hours as everyone with my heart failure, I’m able to rest for extra hours and still use max bullets. Not sorry."
From our perspective, there's nothing wrong with a player doing this. Do the other competitors prefer that Mike plays solid preflop and reduces their odds of winning? In poker, the best hand usually wins. Usually.
Would Mike's opponents prefer he played perfectly, or played like a donkey?
The second bracelet of this series was won by a woman in an open tournament – Michelle Chin won the $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw event.
11 years ago, Michelle became the first woman to win the WSOP Circuit Main Event.
“I didn’t realize how hard it is to win a tournament, it then took me 10 or 11 years to win another.”
You won't have to wait a decade to win tournaments online, but the WSOP is a different beast. Enter multi-million dollar series online, and you'll have plenty of chances every year. Satellites can take you into the big money, for a fraction of the cost.
Last year's Millionaire Maker ended in a major scandal. The heads-up participants were permanently banned from the WSOP and have not played since.
This year's tournament was calm and made millionaires of two regulars.
A total of 11,769 entries from different countries around the globe, but the final table was dominated by players from the United States.
This tournament was broadcast with cards up on the WSOP channels, leaving the $50k Players Championship virtually unnoticed. Poker social media has been seething with indignation and confusion for two days now. Every tweet with the intermediate chip counts was accompanied by a wave of angry questions, "Where's the broadcast?" But the organizers insist that Hold'em is much more interesting to the general audience.
The only WSOP employee who communicates with the audience in any way is Jeff Platt.
"Quick note on coverage instead of individual replies," he wrote after Millionaire Maker ended.
"I know some of you have enjoyed the Milly Maker coverage
I know some of you like the balance between our featured events and others out in the field.
And I know we’ve let some of you down with the level of coverage devoted to the PPC
We appreciate all of you tuning in. Really. We are working to find the right balance.
EX: Tomorrow we will show you every hand of the PPC final table!!!
This is year 1 of a massive investment into production from the WSOP. Year 2 will include a much more customizable individual viewing experience.
Stick with us."
Multimillionaire Dan Shak expressed the opinion of many ordinary poker fans. "Honestly, its a disgrace that you have a chance to see Phil Ivey, who we really haven't been able to enjoy watching as much recently, and you are risking him busting tonight without being at the FT tomorrow."
Fortunately, Dan's fears proved unfounded. Phil entered the Players Championship final table with a second-to-last, but still quite playable, stack.
