Another EPT, Another Day, Another Boujenah Outburst
Poker "back in the day" had a lot more characters than poker today. Pistols and cigars have been replaced by headphones and iPads. This is mostly for the good of the game but it is refreshing, if a little controversial, when a player has a big outburst on the tournament floor.
Ilan Boujenah is undoubtedly one of the characters of the EPT and has had three or four such outbursts this season, and we've just witnessed another. We only caught the back end of it, but Boujenah came into the press room afterwards to argue his point. The main gist of what happened was:
Boujenah led for around 3,200 on a two-club flop and was raised to 6,500 by an opponent. Boujenah pulled back his betting chips and threw in two 5k chips and announced raise a second later. Konstantin Puchkov, who wasn't in the hand, got involved and said it should be a call. Two rulings were called for and it was deemed a call, not a raise as Boujenah had intended it to be.
The turn brought a third club and Boujenah's opponent led out. This prompted Boujenah to fold and jump out of his chair to tell the Russian where to go and that he should not get involved in the hand. He also shouted the quote of the season for me with: "I was doing the bluff of the year!"
The behaviour was direct and aggressive so the TD gave him half an orbit's penalty, increased to one orbit when his reaction escalated.
Boujenah understood why he was given the penalty and was glad of it as he was on tilt and needed time to calm down. He still thinks he was right and that the powers that be are against him this season. We look forward, (sort of) to the next episode.