Clerical Error Mistakenly Put Negreanu Ahead of Campbell as WSOP POY Winner

Robert Campbell, Daniel Negreanu & Shaun Deeb
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  • Attreyee Khasnabis November 9, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

The culmination of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) earlier this week had brought with it another announcement. In what was being termed as once of the most fiercely contested WSOP POY races to-date, there were three superstars – Daniel Negreanu, Robert Campbell, and Shaun Deeb in the running to win the POY title. The race went all the way down to the wire with Deeb needing a fifth-place finish or better in the series-ending €550 Colossus to win the title. Still, his 11th place exit saw six-time WSOP bracelet winner Negreanu retaining his top seat in the WSOP Player of Year (POY) race to win the title for an unprecedented third time!

In what can be considered a repeat of the debacle that happened at the 2017 Academy Awards when ‘La La Land’ was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner when, in reality, the award had been won by ‘Moonlight,’ something similar transpired here as it was Campbell’s title that was erroneously awarded to Negreanu.

Robert Campbell
Robert Campbell

A clerical error not only seems to have taken the title away from Campbell but also mistakenly put Deeb in third place when he should have been the runner-up. According to PokerNews, “As noticed by ‘iskander,’ a poster on the TwoPlusTwo Forum who started a thread today titled ‘2019 WSOP POY Error? Not DNEGS?’ a mistake in the results listed for one of last summer’s online events, Event #68: $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em Championship, appears to have given previously declared 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu extra POY points.”

On Friday, the WSOP POY title was rightfully awarded to Campbell, with WSOP also releasing a public statement.

“We have confirmed an error was made in our results for WSOP Event #68, affecting places 32-46. As a result, Daniel Negreanu was given 213.1 points erroneously in this event. We deeply regret this error and its impact. Recalculating our Player of the Year results has an impact to the standings. Robert Campbell finishes in 1st place in the now final results, with Negreanu dropping to third place. Again, we apologize profusely for the error in our calculations and the impact it has had.”

WSOP also tweeted their apology.

Though the rectifications have been made, many questions arise at this point. Let’s do a quick recap of how things unfolded.

Negreanu was among 15 players who didn’t cash in Event #68 – a $1,000 WSOP.com online bracelet tournament – but still received Player of the Year points. Had these extra points not been awarded to Negreanu, then the final POY points table would have been very different.

Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu

The POY standings were tight between Negreanu, Deeb, and Campbell late in the WSOPE series. Heading into the final event – €550 Colossus – ‘Kid Poker’ held a slim lead over his two main competitors. Following the Colossus, Daniel Negreanu had 4,074.88 POY points. That put him ahead of Robert Campbell (3,961.31) and Shaun Deeb (3,917.32), the defending champion.

Before the Colossus concluded, Negreanu needed to hold onto his 113.57-point lead over Campbell, while Deeb required to finish in fifth place or better to overthrow Negreanu from the pole position. Each player cashed in the Colossus, earning additional POY points. Negreanu finished in 195th place, receiving 103.3 points. Campbell did slightly better – 149th place – but also earned 103.3 points. Deeb ran even deeper, finishing in 11th place, good for 206.7 points.

But as the situation now stands, when the three pros had registered for the Colossus, it was Campbell who was in the lead with 99 points. The situation now begs the question, would the players have played differently had they been aware of the change in points?

For instance, when Deeb had entered the final day of the Colossus, he was under the impression that he needed to finish fifth or better to win the POY title, when in fact, a ninth-place finish would have done the trick for him. Deeb played aggressively from the get-go and even made a questionable decision against eventual champion Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, which eventually led to his 11th place exit. Had he known that a ninth-place finish would have sufficed, would he have played more conservatively for his shot at the title?

Shaun Deeb
Shaun Deeb

While these are pertinent questions, sadly, there are no conclusive answers. At this point, all we can say is ‘what is done is done’ and taking a leaf from Negreanu’s book, all anyone can do is congratulate the rightful WSOP POY winner – Robert Campbell.

While this is definitely a huge setback for Negreanu, but his graciously accepting and adjusting to the circumstance shows that he is a true sportsman. However, we can be sure to get an update about this whole incident once his latest blog is out!

Campbell also expressed his joy at winning the title, saying, “I would like to thank the WSOP, the Rio, and King’s for a fantastic tournament series. I had one of the most exciting years of my life.”

Congratulations Rob!

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