Little Sympathy After Valdes Removed From Tournament

Published on April 2nd, 2019 5:04 pm EST

Catherine "catrific" Valdes is a fairly well-known figure in the poker world, as she has hundreds of thousands of Instagram, Youtube and Twitter followers and is currently one of the ten "Thirst Lounge" participants.

Earlier this weekend, Valdes was removed from a World Series of Poker Circuit Bally's event. Valdes' actions in the event, as well as her subsequent videos on Youtube, have opened up quite a bit of debate in the poker world.

Here is what happened:

Valdes registered for a $400 buy-in event and somehow ended up getting a seat for the main event instead, which had a buy-in of $1,700. Valdes sat in the main event despite the event having a different starting chip stack than the $400 and a different start time. I'm assuming that the person processing her registration entered Valdes accidentally into the wrong tournament.

Valdes said that "something didn't seem right" but she kept playing nonetheless.

After an hour, Valdes was certain that she was in the wrong tournament, though she chose not to say anything because she thought that it was going to cause "chaos".

After yet another hour, tournament officials finally realized their mistake and removed Valdes' chips from the tournament. Tournament officials offered to let Valdes take a seat in the $400 tournament, which was well underway by that time.

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Many in the poker world took exception to how Valdes handled things. Even Bill Perkins, who decided to choose Valdes as one of his "Thirst Lounge 10", was critical of Valdes on Twitter.

The general consensus - Valdes should have immediately said something once she realized her error, and that she was trying to angle and take equity from the other players in the tournament by continuing to play.

Also, many were unhappy with Valdes' subsequent Youtube video explaining the situation called "Why I Was Kicked Out of WSOP", which took aim at the WSOP and Bally's officials who Valdes initially dealt with. Most felt as though Valdes should have been apologizing instead of questioning the professionalism of the people that she dealt with.

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There have been several similar situations over the years - most recently, Justin "Lappy" Lapka was given an incorrect starting stack in a tournament and chose to continue playing, despite knowing that he had more starting chips than his fellow players.

In the end, you should always notify your dealer or the tournament director as soon as you become aware of a problem. There is no excuse for continuing to play if you are aware of an issue.

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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker