Canadian Police Makes Final Table Arrest

It’s a story that sounds like something off a comedy show or a detective TV drama, but the arrest of a player during the final table of a poker event in Canada was 100 per cent real. Harnam Matharu was the chip leader of the Fallsview Poker Classic event in Niagara Falls in the Canadian state of Ontario when he was nabbed by the cops.

Five players were left in the event when Matharu, who had already put on his best ever professional poker performance in this event, was arrested. As per the rules of the event, Matharu’s chips were left on the table and blinded out throughout the rest of the event.

It did not take long for the news of the arrest to get out, with the local poker pro DJ MacKinnon having taken to Twitter to let everyone know of the out-of-the-ordinary occurrence at the event.

Chip leader of the $1100 at Fallsview gets arrested and taken out of the building during the final table…lol
— DJ MacKinnon (@djmacjr) February 10, 2015

Despite his dramatic exit from the game on the business end of the final table, he was still able to outlast two of the remaining players to finish in third place. That was good enough for an $88,189 payday, although it is currently unclear if that has been collected by Matharu or anyone close to the player.

So, to answer the question you all must be asking at this point – What was Matharu arrested for, anyway?

Apparently he robbed some people in Montreal previously? Seemed like a nice kid lol they arrested him on dinner brk will find out more after
— DJ MacKinnon (@djmacjr) February 10, 2015

It’s actually quite a serious offence, assault and robbery. The Canadian player has been accused of robbing and assaulting a fellow poker pro, Uri Miro during the World Poker Tour in Montreal in November. Miro is believed to have had $5,000 stolen from his hotel room, outside of which security footage showed a physical altercation between Miro and a man believed to be Matharu.

Matharu is due to appear in court on Friday in relation to the charges.

With regards to the Fallsview Poker Classic event Matharu was arrested and eventually blinded out of, the two players who outlasted him were Dan Wagner and Jason Sagle. Wagner went out of the event in second place and took home $135,977, while Sagle won the event and left with an extra $193,906 to his name.

Photo (illustration): http://images.frompo.com/