Suspicions of Cheating in the WSOP $10k Heads Up Event

WSOP $10,000 Heads Up championship is one of the most prestigious events at the Series and it's one of those tournaments that don't attract too many, if any, amateur players. Tough field and a format that really emphasizes a skill element don't particularly cater to an average poker Joe, who will have much more fun playing in any of the regular WSOP events.

Because of this, it is not really an event one would expect to hear cheating allegations thrown around, but if rumors on Twitter and on 2 + 2 forums are to be believed, this is exactly what happened. It all started with a tweet from Connor Drinan, which sounded almost as joke at a first glance, but as it would soon turn out, Drinan was very serious.

Bubbled the HU. Hands down strangest hour and a half of poker of my life. Felt super-used

— Connor Drinan (@ConnorDrinan) June 3, 2015

Not long after the thread popped up on the forum, Drinan chimed in, posting as 'blanconegro', wanting to explain the situation as best as he could since the rumors were already circulating the social media.

Drinan lost his match to the player named Valeriu Coca, a player whose best score came just recently in the France Poker Series in Monaco, where he finished second for the pay day of $79,000. His total live earnings to date coming to the WSOP amounted to $263k and he has never previously cashed (or probably even played) in a WSOP event.

All these things considered, 10k HU event was a really strange choice for Coca, but it is his money, so no one would try to stop him. But, as Connor explained, there was something really strange going throughout the match, as his opponent was able to play him almost perfectly after they've played first ten hands or so.

All the while Coca was acting suspiciously, recounts Drinan, as he was rotating cards and checking them from different angles, although it was clear he had already decided to fold. After about 90 minutes of play, Coca was able to win a decisive flip and went to the next round, while Drinan immediately messaged Pratyush Buddiga who lost to Coca in an earlier match.

Pratyush pretty much confirmed Drinan's suspicions, confirming that Coca displayed pretty much the same behavior during his match with Buddiga and that he was able to play this almost perfect game against him as well.

This led Drinan to dig deeper and he soon found out that Valeriu Coca was banned from a number of Czech casinos for cheating and marking cards. With all these indicators, Drinan and Pratyush decided to go to WSOP officials and ask for an investigation. Connor said that they believed that he probably used some sort of invisible ink in combination with the sunglasses to identify opponents' cards.

Presented with these serious allegations, WSOP officials took notice and Coca started receiving special attention during his matches. This seems to have triggered alaram bells in Coca's head, as he proceeded to lose his match to Keith Lehr, finishing in fifth place.

The internal investigation is still ongoing and WSOP has not issued any official statements at this point in time, but they are clearly taking this matter very seriously and they will certainly get to the bottom of this. Luckily, Drinan and Pratyush were aware enough to realize something fishy was going on and approached the issue methodically, so there is a good chance that things will get sorted out. In the meantime, Keith Lehr and Paul Volpe are awaiting the start of their final confrontation to determine who gets the bracelet and the $334k first place.

We're waiting to see what the WSOP does at this time but they took our worries very seriously immediately so cautiously optimistic

— Pratyush (@pratyushbuddiga) June 4, 2015