Categories: Poker News
| Published On Oct 25, 2016 7:49 pm CEST  |  Updated on May 2, 2021 11:56 am CEST | By Patric Huemmerich

Hand Of The Year In WSOP Main Event 2016

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William Kassouf was without a doubt the most talked person of this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event even if he didn’t make it to the November Nine.

In his last hand when he wakes up with pocket kings versus Canadian Griffin Benger’s pocket aces all the tension and emotions that have built up towards that moment found its climax.

Since the start of the coverage of day 4 of the Main Event, viewers of the ESPN show could follow Kassouf on his controversial but successful deep run. With his chit chat at the table he got under many of his opponents’ skin and clearly crossed a line in certain situations.

Even after being warned and penalized by tournament directors he stuck to his tactics nevertheless and therefore created very tensed moments during day 6 and 7 of the tournament where he partly turned the whole table against him. He kept on provoking players with his extreme slow play and speech play, so some players would snap and consistently calling the clock on him.

On Sunday ESPN aired its last two episodes of the WSOP Main Event before the live coverage of the final table next Sunday and the highlight was without a doubt the bust out of Kassouf.

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In the hand Benger open raises to 875k and gets reraised by Kassouf to 2.3M, when play comes back to Benger he makes the 4bet to 5.6M. Kassouf started the hand with a total of 13.4M and is covered and now starts his chit chat with Benger, trying to gain information when in reality he knows he’s never going to fold the second best hand in No Limit Hold’em. While staying calm and quiet for the first few minutes, Benger snaps at some point and accuses the Brit of ‘verbal abuse’.

Benger now started getting a bit out of line by telling Kassouf to ‘check his privilege’ without a hint of irony.

Eventually the money went in and Griffin Benger’s aces held, much to the delight of the rest of the table and Kassouf was knocked out in 17th place for $338,288.

Here is the whole hand to watch:

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Patric Huemmerich

Patric is a German writer and (live) reporter for iGaming.org. As a professional poker player he has a lot of insight into the industry. His goal is to bring his followers exclusive articles, interviews and stories in and around the poker world.