Physical violence in the lowest of low-stakes poker tournaments transpired when the dealer slammed a player to the ground who was arguing over the current blind level.
A video of the incident surfaced in the Team Michigan Poker Facebook group, and it showed a player wearing a PokerNews hat disputing the size of his big blind with the dealer. The game, a $20 rebuy No-Limit Hold’em tournament, took place at the Davison Poker Room, a charity card room in Davison, Michigan, a town just east of Flint.
Poker Room Fight
The player, Eric Knopp (“Bobby”), who dealt at the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), put in his big blind of 4,000 chips. But the dealer, whose name appears to be “Mike” based on a comment to him from another person in the room, said the blinds had gone up to 3,000/6,000.
Bobby argued that the dealer had already cut the deck before the blinds went up. Thus, he should only have to pay the 4,000 big blind.
“6,000,” the dealer announced, pointing to Knopp.
“What do you mean 6,000? It doesn’t matter. Every other dealer says once the blind is posted, it’s posted,” Knopp responded.
“They were not posted,” the dealer answered back.
Bobby continued to argue, which led the dealer to say, “shut up, don’t tell me what to do.” The dealer then stood up from his seat and approached Knopp, who also got out of his chair.
The dealer then grabbed the player by the side of his neck and wrestled him to the ground. Another player in the room intervened to stop the flight by separating Bobby and the dealer.
“You think I’m some punk?” the dealer shouted at Knopp after being separated. “You think I’m some punk? I’ll find you. You think I’m a punk? I will find you, boy. You got f****d up by an old man.”
Fights in poker rooms aren’t all that uncommon. Take, for example, a one-punch knockout at Red Rock in Las Vegas last year. Or, an infamous fight between poker legend Sammy Farha and another player in Houston a few years back. But physical fights between a dealer and player are less common. Apparently, not in Michigan, however.
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