Star City Brawl
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Believe or not, a fist fight (albeit a one-sided affair) just broke out inside the Star City poker room. Our media desk is situated just outside of the poker room and upon hearing several cries for "Security!" and "Fight!" media row emptied itself to find out what was happening.
Inside the poker room, the scene was an ugly one. An unidentified and heavily tattooed man (who was not playing in either event) was on the floor and virtually mangling a player we've identified as Mark Ericksen, who had been playing in the high roller's event. Security was on the scene in a hurry and managed to separate the two men, but not before Ericksen's face received quite the battering.
Team PokerStars Pro Terrence Chan was sitting at Ericksen's table when the incident took place and we asked him to recount what happened. Without quoting Chan directly, here's the gist of what went down:
The unidentified man (we'll call him Mr. X) approached Ericksen's table and initiated a verbal altercation in which he told Ericksen to (paraphrased): "Stay the f*** out of my business." The two exchanged a few more words before Mr. X took a swing at Ericksen, connecting with his face. Mr. X then walked away from the table and it appeared (to Chan) as though the situation had resolved itself when Ericksen stood up and told Mr. X he was a "f***ing rat."
At this point, all hell broke loose. After throwing and landing several punches, the two hit the ground where Mr. X continued his assault of Ericksen. With each punch he threw, Mr. X yelled "Rat! Rat! Rat!"
Chan also explained that one of the tournament directors who stepped in (fully intending to help), grabbed and restrained Ericksen from behind, not knowing that he hadn't thrown a single punch and was actually the one being assaulted. After a long minute, Mr. X was escorted out of the poker room while Ericksen was tended to by security personnel.
The players in both tournaments were then sent on an impromptu break while the matter was investigated. Play has since resumed throughout the room.
Of note, Ericksen's chips have been removed from play and his money refunded, based on the premise that the incident did not involve another player or event staff member.
"I thought the fight was tomorrow night," joked one player during the break, referring to the Roy Jones Jr. v. Danny Green boxing match scheduled for tomorrow night.
"This was the undercard," replied a member of the media.
Video footage of the incident was confiscated by casino security, but we caught up with Andrew Scott who was also sitting at Erickson's table: