By Evert Caldwell
After the World Series Of Poker announced there would be a vaccine mandate for this year’s series, tens of thousands of willing, and some reluctant, hopefuls made their way to The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to take their ‘shot’ at the 98 bracelet event.
Since all participants were required to be vaccinated, organizers determined no testing was necessary. It would be left up to the players competing for millions of dollars in prize money, to self-report if they became ‘symptomatic,’ in which case, they were expected to voluntarily remove themselves from the event, and forfeit any winnings they may be in line to receive.
In the first month of play (through 59 events) there were over 70,000 entrants, with only 1 player publicly acknowledging a Covid positive case. On October 29th sponsored pro Vanessa Kade Tweeted her recent playing schedule along with her positive test result, and a plea for others to get tested.
“Just don’t want anyone else to get sick so if you were around me at all either of those days and don’t feel well please get checked!”
It’s not clear if anyone else, to that point, had self-reported to the WSOP, as no official procedures for reporting active cases or notifying the public appear to be in place.
It’s also not clear if those who played with Kade, around the time she developed symptoms, were ever contacted to ensure they were aware of the situation.
“I talked with them this morning to go through which tables I’d played at because they have a procedure for dealers, but not players afaik (as far as I know) since we’re all required to be vaccinated. (Though apparently almost all the dealers are, too.)”
Kade was eventually cleared by the WSOP to play the Main Event eleven days after her symptoms began, much to the chagrin of some, who pointed out WSOP rules require(d) a 14 day recovery time.
As the series winds down, several participants are now, also coming forward with ‘positive’ test results.
Poker pro Dan Zack is the only player to date, of the over 90,000 participants, to reveal he was Covid positive while still participating in an event, abandoning a healthy playing stack and essentially forfeiting $2,500.
Others infected include high-stakes poker pro and WSOP commentator Nick Schulman (@NickSchulman), Jacqueline Burkhart (@jackiburkhart81), Alan Yakuboff (@alanyakuboff), and Mikey D (@3kingme3).
Despite numerous reports of outbreaks among fully vaccinated participants in college and pro sports, several respected ‘influencers’ have suggested the low number of positive cases at The Rio is a direct result of the vaccine mandate, apparently giving no consideration to the lack of testing or the “noble” act it would require to willingly forfeit a potentially huge payday.
Clinging to the mantra “the vaccinated rarely get the virus or spread it,” and providing no evidence an unvaccinated player with Covid participated at any time during the series, several players are nevertheless speculating the outbreak was likely caused by the unvaccinated.
If nothing else, one thing’s been confirmed through all the noise.
Poker is alive and well !
