Controversy in Perth, Tournament Paused, Collopy Hurting
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“If my hand is somehow dead, I’m leaving the country,” Jim Collopy just said, perhaps more frustrated than we have ever seen a poker player. However, he would end up being even more frustrated soon enough. Perhaps frustrated isn’t strong enough. Angry. Furious. Fuming, distraught and various other thesaurus-clad words to explain just how upset Collopy would end up being.
Basically, we arrived to find Collopy up out of his seat, telling everyone who would listen the bizarre ruling he was contesting. The clock had been paused as the tournament director decided that they needed to go to the security cameras.
The story goes that Collopy had checked on the river of a 
board and so had his one opponent on his direct left. Now that both players had checked, naturally, it was time to go to showdown. There was around 20,000 in the pot - significant considering blinds were just 150/300.
This is where things got dicey.
Collopy apparently, according to the ruling by the dealer, mucked his hand.
According to Collopy, and many of the players at the table, Collopy had simply tried to turn his cards over to show that he had 
. Considering both players had checked, and Collopy's opponent had not yet shown their cards, it is very safe to assume that Collopy would never muck here.
The dealer told the TD that Collopy’s cards had landed in front of him face down – which, based on the rule here at Crown Perth means an automatic muck. This rule is regardless of a player’s intention or the best interest of the player.
While the ruling was being made, Collopy was holding tightly onto those queens.
“This is absurd, they are going to have to pry these cards out of my hand,” Collopy said.
Time ticked on, Collopy’s opponent sat there stoically, not showing his cards, but it did seem clear that Collopy had the winning hand.
“Where is Danny McDonagh, his job is on the line,” Collopy said somewhat jokingly, while still fuming and still pacing around the table.
ANZPT President McDonagh arrived and explained to Collopy that unfortunately due to Western Australia’s gaming regulatory body, he doesn’t actually have the authority to make TD decisions.
So with that, Collopy was at the mercy of the Crown Perth staff.
Eventually, Crown Perth poker room manager Deb Wyatt said that she had watched the footage on the video and Collopy’s hand was dead as his actions of moving the cards forward, and them landing face down, was in line with the Crown Perth rules which state that in a case like this, the hand is dead.
This strange rule was explained to the room at the beginning of play, as Crown Perth understands it is not a rule that exists in almost any other poker room in the world.
For your information, this is the actual wording of the rule:
“9.1: Any player at the showdown may pass their cards to the dealer without disclosing them, in such circumstances that player shall not be eligible to win the pot.”
In addition to this rule, the following definition was applied:
"fold" means to surrender a hand facedown towards the Dealer or refuse to call a wager
Crown Perth interprets this rule in the way that means Collopy’s hand was dead.
We don’t fully understand it, but apparently the locals here in Perth know it all too well, as according to Wyatt there have been four instances of having to make this ruling in the last week.
So, regardless of what we think, what the players think, or certainly what Collopy thinks and is feeling right now, this is the rule at Crown Perth, so be very careful at showdown. Simply turn your cards over straight away and right in front of you, with no forward motion and being very careful not to drop them face down.
As we write about this, Collopy can still be seen at his table quite distraught. He still has more than the starting stack, but in this instance it’s clearly more of the principle of the matter.
Stay tuned to find out if Collopy does in fact leave the country.
In other news, the tournament clock has restarted and the cards are back in the air at all the tables. This incident means the night will now finish around half an hour later than scheduled.