High stress situations tend to produce conflict; few would argue that the WSOP is a stressful experience. Catalyzed by a controversial play, this stress has boiled over into tension between two top players; Barry Greenstein and Simon Trumper. In the closing hours of this year’s $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event, the two elite players found themselves battling for a large pot towards the end of the night. After the river was delivered, Greenstein was first to act; he held the second nuts at the table, with only an ace flush capable of beating his hand. Feeling confident, Greenstein bet into Trumper, as he was in early position. Barry made a $17,500 bet, and at this point, Simon went into his thinking zone. According to Greenstein, it was almost 10 minutes before Trumper came back at him and re-raised. Greenstein immediately suspected Trumper held the nuts of the hand, and Greenstein, despite reservations as to the strength of his hand, called Trumper.

At this point, Greenstein claims that Simon committed his second sin; he slow-rolled his nut flush. Holding an 8 and an ace of spades, Trumper drew out the moment and turned over his 8, then the ace. It was at this point where Barry Greenstein had enough; he stood up from the table and left in disgust. Completely fried with the incident, Greenstein’s disgust was visibly apparent; He was later quoted as saying that these actions were inconsistent with a professional poker player (to say the least) “That's something that real poker players would never do, because then you get everyone doing stuff like that. It's kind of an accepted thing that you don't cheat, you don't certain things…”

Beyond Barry’s frustration with the waste of time, an amount he claims as almost 10 minutes, he was infuriated with the perceived “slow-roll”. His disgust with the incident is palpable, and even after some cooling down time, his anger remained. So angry was he, that he requested Trumper’s removal from the tournament, an unprecedented loss of composure for a professional like Barry Greenstein. Poker pro Thor Hansen states that the next day, Barry strode over to Trumper’s table and told him that he should be thrown out of the tournament.

While it is difficult to accurately confirm what exactly transpired, it’s clear that there was at very least a perceived breach of professional conduct top players have come to expect from one another. It’s unfortunate that this incident has created such animosity between two of Poker’s stars in Simon Trumper and Barry Greenstein, however it’s inappropriate to comment on this incident until all the facts have been established.