What tilt leads players to do is quite amazing. Some steam ala Phil Hellmuth, others simply decide to play tighter and become as still as a mouse. But according to several reports and a forum posting on TwoPlusTwo, someone at the Bellagio decided to take matters into their own hands and strangled a fellow player at the table during a tournament.
This happened during a $1,000 buy-in (w/ rebuy) second chance tournament at the Bellagio. The culprit of this literal ad hominem attack was Tony Korfman, poker player and author. The TwoPlusTwo post goes in detail saying that Korfman busted on the bubble and that triggered his bad temper. Korfman got so heated up that he grabbed a fellow player’s neck and started multitasking, yelling at him and choking him.
It took several security guards to stop Korfman, pull him off the player, and promptly escort him outside the building. It goes without saying that Korfman has been banned from playing in the Bellagio for his ungentlemanly behavior.
Present at the scene of the assault was Brain Devonshire, who was the one who posted his recount of the incident on TwoPlusTwo. However, the story got an interesting twist when Korfman also responded to the thread in question as follows:
“I did not bubble. said punk bubbled then slammed his stack toward the guy that won the hand. punk was pissed because guy rivered him with a gutterball. then he had the balls to question weather the guy had him covered with part of his chips in the pot, part on the floor and part in the guy’s stacks. I then mother ****ed him for being a prick and chaos ensued. I always defend the dealers, floormen and players that don’t defend themselves. these types of punks should have been spanked when they were a kid. actually im sorry I didnt pants him and take him over my knee. that would have been a great lesson for him. tk.”
Whatever happens at the table, your hands should not go around the neck of a fellow player. Ever. There is just no excuse for violence. Tony Korfman will have a ton of time to think about what he did, while playing at every other casino in the world but the Bellagio.
Shame on you, Tony Korfman!