Poker player Michael McQuaid was walking his dog last month when a “huge” and aggressive raccoon startled him, causing him to stumble and leading to a shoulder injury requiring surgery.
The Washington, D.C. native with $75,916 in live tournament earnings not only lived to tell the tale, he went on to win a poker tournament later that evening.
McQuaid told PokerNews the story of the not-so-friendly furry mammal, which may be the wildest lead-up to a tournament victory we’ve heard, at the 2026 Potomac Summer Poker Open at MGM National Harbor — the same place he won the tournament.
Read More About the Potomac Summer Poker Open
Close Encounter of the Fur Kind
McQuaid’s wild story began on a sunny Wednesday morning on Theodore Roosevelt Island. He was walking his brindle pit bull on the boardwalk when his dog noticed something in a nearby tree.
“So my little guy stopped to start barking at the tree, and I looked to the left and there were two huge raccoons,” McQuaid said. “And one of them started running down the tree, and I knew there was going to be a bad interaction.”
After “sprinting as fast as I could down the boardwalk,” McQuaid turned back “to see if he was still chasing us.” In the process, he “lost balanced and flew forward and completely dislocated my shoulder.”
McQuaid immediately went to the emergency room, where doctors treated him with anesthesia and popped his shoulder back in place. That’s when McQuaid got an itch to play poker.
“I had nothing else to do that day,” he said.
“It Was a Pretty Intense Moment”
McQuaid headed to MGM National Harbor and registered the $200 buy-in Wednesday night tournament. He ended up winning the event via chop for around $3,000. But more than the four-figure score, McQuaid got the poker story of a lifetime.
“It was a pretty intense moment,” he recalled. “You have a raccoon chasing you, a wild animal.”
Though it was a serious incident, one that McQuaid said will require surgery for a torn labrum, it quickly became a laughing matter for McQuaid’s friend group. It didn’t help that the incident coincided with a social media frenzy around “Jimothy,” a round raccoon with short spine syndrome that roams freely in Seattle.
“My buddy sent me pictures (of Jimothy) and was like, ‘Is this the animal that chased you?’ It’s all good humor. It was an unfortunate incident, but you’ve gotta laugh at that stuff.”
Connor Richards
Senior Editor U.S.