Possession of Drugs? No. Possession of WSOP Bracelet

Just about all of us have some sort of blemishes on our record or mistakes related to our past that we'd much rather forget. The same holds true for the first-ever WSOP online bracelet winner, Anthony Spinella.

Spinella made history by topping a field of 905 on his way to becoming the inaugural WSOP online champion, collecting a prize of $197,743 in the process. It was his fourth WSOP cash this summer, including 22nd place in the $565 Colossus for $32,352.

While life is looking rosy for Spinella at the moment, it wasn't three years ago when he and a couple buddies were arrested for possession of drugs in Massachusetts. According to various news reports from 2012, Spinella, Daniel Karabchievsky and Jared Joseph Roberge were pulled over and arrested in Framingham after law enforcement noticed them acting suspiciously.

A search of the vehicle allegedly turned up Ecstasy, nitrous oxide and 20,000 hits of liquid LSD. Spinella later appeared as 'prolax13' on a 2 + 2 thread about the incident, setting the record straight and informing a number of misinformed posters that he isn't and never was a drug dealer.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and this became a very dark cloud over my life, and when it happened the only thing that kept me smiling whatsoever were the well wishes and gracious statements from the community in this thread and private messages," Spinella wrote.

The charges against Spinella and the other defendants were eventually dropped, which may have led to him choosing the screen name of 'casedismissed' on WSOP.com where he won the online bracelet. Spinella also wanted the gang at 2 + 2 to know that he "wasn't even aware whatever bottle they said was filled with 20k hits was in the car."

Posters continued to wonder how a case with such a reportedly large amount of confiscated drugs could be tossed. Spinella advised that testing of the suspected LSD came back negative, and that part of the reason for dismissal may have centered around the fact that a chemist in the Massachusetts crime lab was charged and later convicted of falsifying evidence in thousands of cases. Spinella's case was not among the ones that the chemist was accused of tampering with evidence, but it did cause delays in testing which may have played a part in the eventual dismissal by the judge.

In any event, the whole incident is over. Spinella has moved on, pointing out that previous reports that appeared in newspapers and online at the time of his arrest "clearly misrepresented" the facts of what actually happened.

The true facts are that Spinella is a talented poker player with online and live winnings of almost $5.5 million.

"No I don't nor have I ever sold drugs," Spinella wrote at 2 + 2. A poster apparently didn't believe the WSOP online bracelet champ, asking, "Are you done trafficking drugs?"

Spinella had this to say: "lol. never trafficked. i did learn lot from them though, pardon for me experiencing. you should probably try some, maybe you'll gain some perspective."