Doug Polk and Shaun Deeb have both apologised this week for their parts in a $42,000 ‘illegal’ hand of poker which resulted in two people losing their jobs and the casino being fined $30,000…
The unfortunate incident happened back in 2017 at the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, after a Poker Night in America episode had finished.
Polk, Deeb and others were packing up to leave when they decided to have a bit of fun, Polk and Jeremy Kaufman deciding to play a single hand of 10-card stud poker, with $42,000 going to the winner.
Deeb filmed the action on his phone and Polk later shared it on his YouTube channel, all as a bit of innocent and harmless fun between poker players – Kaufman ‘buying out’ for $25k when it looked as though he was losing, although the ‘rabbit hunting’ showed he would in fact have won the hand.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, however, took a different view – a board meeting hearing that “the casino dealt poker games that had not been authorized by the PGCB.”
10-card stud, it would appear, is not allowed in Pennsylvania casinos – nor is Open-Faced Chinese, for which the SugarHouse Casino was also fined for allowing several hands to be played.
The SugarHouse Casino stated:
"The poker supervisor instructed a dealer to deal the unauthorized game while a third patron recorded it on his cell phone. SugarHouse took disciplinary action against the two employees. Two of the supervisors subsequently resigned."
Doug Polk apologised via the 2plus2 forum, writing:
"Just want to say that I’m sorry my actions got the casino fined, but more importantly that people potentially lost their jobs over this matter." He added: "I just thought it would be a fun thing to stream that people on my channel would like seeing. Especially coming from Las Vegas where flips are completely acceptable, I didn't really think that it could cause any issues. Once again, I apologize that my actions caused harm to others, even if it was inadvertently."
Deeb added his own apology via Twitter, stating:
"We all apologized to the staff who got in trouble for us pushing them to allow it. We took advantage of their kindness."
The PGCB hearing covering the Polk/Kaufman/Deeb incident can be seen below…