Chipleader booted from WSOP circuit final table

When Richmond, Virginia player Lesley S. Thornburg made the final table of the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caesars, Atlantic City, he managed to hold on to a nice chip lead. In the process he also irritated the entire table, agitated the tournament officials and eventually got himself kicked out of the event, at a personal cost of around $50,000 in potential earnings in the process.

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The $300 buy-in tournament had drawn over a thousand players and by the time Thornburg's thorny demeanor got him ousted, they were down to the final five. Top prize paid more than $70,000 (a nice return on $300!) and he was in a position to take the lot. Days of grating on the other players' nerves – and the tourney officials – however, set him up for ejection.

After continually acting in a loud, belligerent, and confusing manner for hours on end, he was eventually ousted for 'unsportsmanlike behaviour'. He had received several warnings on the previous day and also on the day of his dismissal and although you would think he was losing due to his odd behaviour, two fortunate hands kept adding chips to his stack.

After receiving his final warning, Thornburg jammed half his chips into the centre of the table before announcing that he was 'all in'. The patience of the tournament directors came to an end at that point and they booted him out of the event, granting him fifth place and a purse of just over $19k.

His chips were removed and the rest of the players were left to finish a much quieter game.

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