Maryland Poker Pro Kicked Out 2017 Main Event Sues WSOP

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is no stranger to lawsuits and this time around the WSOP’s parent company Caesars Entertainment is being sued.

Maryland poker pro Joseph Stiers wants to collect punitive damages as well as injunctive and equitable relief.

The WSOP has denied all of the allegations.

Stiers was embarrassed and humiliated at the 2017 WSOP Main Event after Las Vegas police along with Rio casino security ambushed him, put him in handcuffs and removed from the property.

The Maryland poker pro claims this happened while he was having a great run at the Main Event and was in the top nine when it came to total chip count. Stiers not only lost his entire chip stack but says his confidence and reputation suffered a beating as a result of the incident.

@PokerNews @WSOP @espn I just got kicked out of wsop main event with 665k for being good at blackjack in Baltimore 3 years ago, ppl help

— Joe Stiers (@Joe_Stiers) July 14, 2017

Prior Trouble With Caesars Entertainment

To understand why Caesars arrested and removed him from the property, one would have to go back to 2015 and focus on an incident that took place at Maryland’s Horseshoe Casino which is also owned by Caesars Entertainment.

The casino suspected that Stiers was using edge sorting or card counting at his blackjack table and as a resulted confiscated $350 in chips and removed him from the table. Maryland’s gaming regulator allegedly ordered the Horseshoe Casino to refund the $350 to Stiers. Due to that incident at the Horseshoe Casino, Caesars Entertainment put him on the blacklist which barred him from entering all Caesars’ owned properties.

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Stiers Finds A Way Around The System

Even though he was barred from entering all Caesars owned properties, Stiers was unable to stay away and managed to find a way around the system. One of the ways he did this was by clubbing his middle and last name together. He played at the Rio during the 2016 WSOP Main Event by using the name ‘Joseph Conorstiers’ and would go on to cash out and take home $18,000.

He tried to do the same thing at the 2017 WSOP Main Event but this time around, Rio casino security managed to detect his presence and were quick to act in removing him. Stiers beef with the casino is that they only removed him because they knew that he was in the top 9 players in overall chips. He alleges that Caesars would have been happy to let him keep playing if he was losing and they were making money out of him.