"Casino Barcelona Cheated Me Out of €18k" Says Ansky

The Barcelona EPT was not the only action taking place at the Casino Barcelona last week, and a high stakes cash game hosted by the casino itself, rather than the EPT, was where the biggest controversy erupted.

US pro Daniel ‘Ansky’ Stern took to Twitter and the internet to share his anger and disbelief at events surrounding a huge pot he was involved in, playing €100/€200 PLO, where he claims a casino manager cost him €18,000 after over-riding not only a players’ agreement, but the dealer’s decision and another floor manager’s original ruling on the matter.

Ansky’s original tweet in the early hours of Friday morning led to a lengthy discussion on the 2+2 forum where the actions of the casino staff were debated in great detail.

http://t.co/3dznLafIbt

Got cheated out of 18k euros at the Casino Barcelona tonight. Details in this post.

— Dani Stern (TheRealAnsky) August 28, 2015

The hand which led to the dispute had seen the multi-way PLO pot sitting at about 24K before the flop, related Stern in his online vent. When ‘an older Spanish guy’ shoved for just over €10K, Stern jammed it for €40K and then David ‘Bullitos’ Van der Weele“called all-in for around €4 or 5K” according to the American.

At this point, Stern claims –and he has stated several fellow pros at the table will back up his version of events – the players involved discussed, and agreed, to run the whole thing twice.

“I was concerned with the language barrier, so several times I clarified that we were running it twice for the whole pot. I specifically said the whole pot, run it twice, so that there would be no confusion. We all agree.” wrote Stern.

After the hand was run twice, which ought to have seen Stern and the Spaniard chopping the main pot and taking back their side pot bets, the local player claimed that running it twice in multi-way pots was against the casino’s house rules and, having won the first run, he was entitled to the entire €36K main pot.

Despite an initial floor ruling going in his favour, Stern claims a second floor manager over-turned this – despite the combined voices of Bullitos, Thomas Bichon and Juha Helppi agreeing with the American and trying to explain that all the players involved had agreed to the whole hand being run twice, not just the side-pot.

When Helppi declared he would take a photo during the incident, he was allegedly told he would be ‘banned from the casino’ if he did so. Further claims on Stern’s 2+2 posting allege that the floor manager refused several times to give his name, as did other staff when asked to do so.

Stern was at great pains to explain that the EPT Barcelona event had no involvement in the cash game problem, but others have criticised the choice of venue which has seen other ‘incidents’ take place over recent years.

Here's how the Casino Barcelona responded:

@TheRealAnsky 1/2 By no means you were cheated, ruling was made by the Poker Manager following our RIT rule.

— Casino Barcelona (@CasinoBarcelona) August 28, 2015

The debate continues on TwoPlusTwo.