McConnon’s Main Event Cheat-Sheet!

(Photo: WSOP.com)

Just when I thought the annual WSOP biggie couldn’t surprise me any more than it already has over the last decade, out comes Jason McConnon with his cheat-sheet – on day 6 of the Main Event no less!

A cheat-sheet, for those who haven’t heard of the term, is basically a written or printed list of useful information –a guide to making the right play. Beginners often use them and you can find one I wrote earlier this year here.

The Englishman, on his WSOP debut and without a live cash to speak of, was deep into the biggest event of the year when he produced the sheets of paper from under the table – much to the amazement of his fellow players!

As McConnon ruffled his cheat-sheets, Kenny Hallaert to his left explained:

“You can’t look at them during the hand.”

“Yes, you can,” replied the Manchester University student who hails from Newcastle in the north of England.

“Not during the hands,” repeated Hallaert, only to be rebuffed : “You can”, stated McConnon, “No” repeating Hallaert.

“There’s no rule against it”, claimed McConnon when the rest of the table started to take notice.

With play folding round to the Englishman, who peeked down at AdQh who then added at peek at his cheat-sheet, Hallaert asked for a ruling on the issue. It would seem to be simple common sense that a ‘cheat’ sheet is, well, cheating!

Anyway, with WSOP head rules honcho Jack Effel being called over to the table, he quickly explained that during the actual hand a player isn’t allowed to refer to such sheets, often filled with % and shove ranges, etc.

As soon as Effel walked away, McConnon mumbled “I’m pretty sure that’s wrong”, Hallaert looking at him as you would someone who disagrees with everybody around him!

“By the way, my cheat-sheet says…Ace-Queen equals skid-row,” joked commentator Norman Chad - and how right he was. McConnon’s raise met with resistance from Abugazal in the big blind who woke up with pocket 10’s and just flatted McConnon’s raise.

The flop came 5 Q 10 and on the first hand of day 6 at the feature table, McConnon was soon folding up his cheat-sheet and exiting the Main Event - $80,000 richer and a little wiser about his rules breach!

Speaking to Kara Scott directly after his bust-out, McConnon finally admitted it “makes sense” that a player can’t consult reference sheets during actual play and Lon McEachern and Chad had a little laugh about things afterwards too.

"What happened to trusting your gut?” said Chad, “what happened to instinct? What happened to… poker!”

He continued in his usual style saying:

"This game is a battle of wits, not a battle of who can write the most info on a piece of paper and follow it. This isn’t your 10th grade chemistry class…no cheat-sheets during a hand!”

So, every year brings us something new at the table when you have thousands of amateurs mixing with the top pros in the WSOP – and hopefully this pone will save you the embarrassment of falling for the same cheat-sheet problem!