Following the pandemic-driven digital tournaments and “hybrid” Foremost Occasion of final 12 months, the World Sequence of Poker is now in full swing on the Rio All-Suite Resort and On line casino in Las Vegas.
Chris “Huge Huni” Hunichen, pictured throughout a latest WPT occasion, has recovered from COVID-19 and was fast to defend himself from a fellow professional’s allegations. (Picture: WPT)
Nicely, it’s attempting.
The Sequence is adjusting to life in a mid-pandemic world. That’s no simple feat for an occasion that entails packing 1000’s of individuals collectively in a single, albeit very massive, room to move playing cards and chips backwards and forwards.
Disturbingly, after touching these chips, a few of these gamers additionally contact their mouths or their noses. They’ll’t assist it. It’s involuntary. It’s referred to as a inform.
It’s little shock, then, that a few of this nervousness ought to spill out into the Twittersphere, the place three-time bracelet winner Justin Bonomo has accused a fellow high-stakes professional of breaching well being and security guidelines.
Professional Bonomo
Bonomo didn’t identify the participant he claimed had exhibited COVID-19 signs whereas taking part in on the identical desk as him for 2 days. However he was motivated to complain after studying the identical participant “examined constructive for COVID instantly after the event.”
Gamers negotiating the brand new WSOP panorama are understandably somewhat jumpy, particularly concerning the man in seat 3 who’s wheezing and sneezing. Proof of vaccination is a requirement for individuals this 12 months. However masks will not be, at the least whereas gamers are seated, though face coverings do have apparent benefits on the poker desk.
Again within the Twittersphere, poker followers didn’t have to attend lengthy to seek out out who Bonomo was speaking about. That’s as a result of the accused participant, Chris “Huge Huni” Hunichen, outed himself.
Justin is speaking about me right here!” chirped Hunichen. “First, that is very dramatic and overblown. I didn’t know I had Covid till after the 50k [event]. After taking part in, I frolicked with 7-8 of my finest mates, in addition to my spouse and cousin. I smoked hookah, blunts, joints, and many others, with everybody.”
“Each single of considered one of my mates/spouse/children/cousin examined unfavorable the subsequent couple of days. I purchased 40 fast assessments, and everybody examined consistently. If simply considered one of them had examined constructive, then I perceive the purpose right here. But when all of them are unfavorable, there isn’t a manner anyone from the 50k was contaminated by me.
“I additionally was very f****d up from COVID and was targeted on staying alive and out of the hospital. In hindsight, I in all probability ought to’ve mentioned one thing,” he added.
Huge Huni’s Huge Guess
Hunichen brought on fast controversy in April 2020. He provided to guess his Twitter followers that greater than 100,000 folks would die from COVID-19 within the US by the next September.
He comfortably gained the $10,000 guess he mentioned he hoped he would lose. Hunichen advised The LA Instances on the time he was asthmatic, with a weak respiratory system, and was significantly susceptible to the illness. It in all probability additionally means he must be cautious about ” hookah, blunts, joints, and many others.”
Hunichen mentioned he simply needed to lift consciousness about COVID-19 amongst folks he felt weren’t taking it critically sufficient.
The US reached 100,000 deaths in late Could 2020. Up to now, there have been greater than 777,000.
Fortunately, Hunichen has recovered from his nasty bout of COVID-19 and didn’t develop into a statistic in his personal twisted guess.
