‘Donald Trump of poker’: Polarizing pro making noise in WSOP Main Event

“They’re putting William Kassouf on the feature table?” the first player said.

“Oh, those poor people,” the second player responded.

Kassouf is up to his old antics in the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship, talking nonstop to his opponents and everyone else within earshot.

The British poker pro had plenty of chirping chips when action was halted early Wednesday, as he bagged a top-100 stack entering Day 4 of the Main Event. He lost about one-third of his chips Wednesday but was still alive at the dinner break.

The money bubble burst Wednesday afternoon when 1,461 players remained from the field of 9,735. The minimum cash is worth $15,000.

“I told my friends, I was half joking, but months ago I said, ‘This is going to be my year,’” Kassouf said during the second break on Day 3. “I’m not into U.S. politics, but I think Donald Trump is my good omen. He was elected president in 2016; I had my deep run in 2016. He’s now president in 2025. This is my deep run in 2025, hashtag nine years later.

“Some people call me the Donald Trump of poker because I’m polarizing and controversial and chaotic. But I speak my mind, and I get (stuff) done. That’s the bottom line. That’s what counts.”

Kassouf is best known for that 2016 Main Event when his stream-of-consciousness speech play at the table tilted the field. One player was nearly brought to tears by Kassouf, as his signature phrase “nine high, like a boss” was born during the tournament.

That deep run ended in 17th place after one of the most famous hands of the modern Main Event. Kassouf was eliminated in an aces-versus-kings showdown by Griffin Benger, who told his opponent to “check your privilege” before sending him to the rail.

Since then, Kassouf has been largely quiet at the WSOP with a handful of small cashes.

His results have been mostly from low-stakes buy-in events in Europe, including a first-place finish in the 2020 Irish Poker Masters Main Event.

According to the Hendon Mob Poker Database, Kassouf has more than $1.7 million in career live tournament earnings.

“The guy sure has an ability to just talk nonstop,” said James Buckley, who was at Kassouf’s table during Day 3. “But he’s entertaining. I think he’s perfect for feature tables and TV.”

Kassouf arrived on Day 3 with one of the largest stacks in the room and proceeded to talk endlessly through the first two levels while giving away a chunk of his chips.

He brought his speech play tactics to one of the feature tables for PokerGO’s coverage for two hours during the late afternoon and was stuck in neutral for most of the level. But Kassouf added to his stack after the dinner break and bagged almost 120 big blinds worth of chips at the end of the night.

Several other notables weren’t as fortunate to make it through. Defending champion Jonathan Tamayo busted during the second level of play when his pocket eights couldn’t hold up against his opponent’s ace-king.

Phil Hellmuth, the all-time leader in WSOP wins, was eliminated in devastating fashion when his opponent hit the only card in the deck that could eliminate the “Poker Brat.”

Daniel Negreanu’s Main Event also came to an early end with pocket nines when his opponent made a pair of queens on the river.

Former Main Event champions Greg Merson (2012) and Damian Salas (2020) remain in the hunt, while a number of top pros are lurking further down the chip counts.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on X.