With 16 players left battling it out for GTD prize pool of $50 million in WSOP $25,000 Super Main Event the controversial moment happened when Justin Bonomo was approched by tournament officials and asked to remove piece of clothing he was wearing.
Bonomo was wearing a black/white keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf worn by non-Palestinians to show support for Palestine. The rulebook says that officials can ask any player to remove any piece of apparel without providing any reasoning. If the player refuses, they have the right to ban them from the tournament.
“I noticed that they were intentionally not putting me on the feature table, and that wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was a surprise that they threatened to disqualify me from the tournament.”
“I haven’t been causing any trouble; I haven’t said anything to anyone. I’ve been following all the rules; it’s literally just a nice scarf made in Palestine, so absolutely, that was shocking to me that they threatened to disqualify me from the tournament for wearing it.”
“If they want to have a policy that’s absolutely no politics, I’m okay with that. But I think it’s the worst possible decision that they’ve taken the other side and decided to endorse Israeli charities while banning Palestinian clothes. That is just so completely lopsided and unfair,” added Bonomo for Poker.org.
If you look at Bonomo’s X account, you will instantly see that he went full Palestine support mode and is posting about it daily. He also asked if somebody could get him a Palestinian flag for tomorrow, and one of his followers asked if they were going to let him wear that. Bonomo responded, “The floor said yes, though I fully expect them to suddenly change their mind tomorrow.”
Bonomo also promised to donate some of his winnings to Palestinian charities.
That being said, let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow. Maybe everything works out quietly, but there is also a possibility that things will get heated and the avalanche rolls down.
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