As Chris Brewer was winning the $250,000 Super High Roller WSOP bracelet, a storm was brewing on Twitter, as high stakes poker pro Andrew Robl accused 3rd place finisher Martin Kabrhel of marking cards.
During the coverage of the final table, Andrew; seemingly frustrated with what he was seeing from Martin, put out this tweet:
In it, he asks “How is Martin Kabrhel not banned from the WSOP?” Going on to say, “I’ve seen him mark cards in every tournament I’ve ever played with him.”
Twitter Detectives
When someone tweets something as controversial as this, you better believe Poker Twitter will react, and it wasn’t long before we saw a full-on investigation. Robl himself followed up his initial tweet with a screenshot that implies Martin is looking at Brandon Stevens’ hand while in a pot with him.
It didn’t take long before people were posting videos and pictures from the $250K event, reportedly showing Martin marking the cards. As is the case with these Twitter investigations, many people jumped on the bandwagon, posting any clip they could find of Kabrhel acting somewhat suspiciously, but there are examples that have raised a few eyebrows in the poker community.
The tweet below shows Martin handling his cards in a strange way while folding them - notably while he has an ace in his hand.
The next video again shows Martin handling his cards in an unnatural way while trying to fold them.
While these videos are in no way conclusive evidence that Martin was marking cards, there are many players who believe that to be the case.
What The Pros Say
Given Martin’s controversial table persona, many were quick to believe the allegations without waiting for any conclusive evidence. It’s common in these situations to see people dogpile on an unpopular figure, and potentially ruin their reputation when there could be no basis for these allegations.
PokerGo’s Remko Rinkema was one of the voices calling for calm in the replies of Robl’s initial tweet, saying, “Is there evidence or is this just because this guy is super annoying and foreign? He's playing against the best and brightest and yet no deck changes, nobody spoke up, no markings pointed out? What am I missing, which markings can he see that nobody else sees?”
However, many professionals have come out in support of Andrew’s statement, seemingly backing his calls for a WSOP ban. Haralabos Voulgharis tweeted “He spends an inordinate amount of time looking at his hole cards, flicking them in all kinds of different ways w/ his nails. Then for good measure stands up repeatedly to look at the back of other ppls cards while pretending to "get a count" It'd be comical if not so disgusting.”
Other professionals such as Phil Hellmuth and Justin Bonomo have tweeted their opinions on the subject, and even Dan Smith had some strong words for Kabrhel after busting from the event.
Kabrhel Denies Allegations
One thing that’s important to remember in all of this is that they’re just allegations. No matter how much you think the videos are proof that Martin was marking cards, there is no physical proof of this that we know of as of yet, and we’re waiting on the WSOP to launch an investigation.
Breaking his silence a day after the event, Kabrhel addressed these accusations in a four page thread on Twitter denying the allegations made against him. He says, “I am not a cheater, this is not true!!” and “I was shocked by how quickly people took it as true, pure statement with no evidence and started media blizzard in which I am portrayed as cheater.”
Kabrhel even said in his tweet that he will be pursuing legal action against Robl, presumably for defamation of character.
As of today, the WSOP has opened a formal investigation into the alleged events that took place during the $250,000 Super High Roller Event, and we await the results of that investigation.
Image Source: Pokernews
