Slowrolling — it’s a divisive topic in the poker world. Some players take great joy in taking part in the act, while for others, it’s their biggest pet peeve when at the table.
There have been plenty of examples that have made headlines over the years, with Nik Airball‘s slowroll on Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau on Hustler Casino Live being a recent case study.
And now, at the 2024 World Series of Poker, we may have seen the biggest slowroll of the summer so far.
In poker, a ‘Slow Roll’ is when a player delays revealing their hand at showdown when they know they have the winning hand. This is generally considered poor etiquette as it can be seen as rubbing in the victory or unnecessarily stringing along the losing player.
Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2024 WSOP is here.
The Hand in Question
Deep into Day 3 of the WSOP $1,500 Monster Stack, which features a $1,098,220 first-place prize, a hand between Maxwell Young and Joseph Alban caught the attention of several members of the poker community.
With around 60 players left from the 8,704-entry field, PokerNews live reporter Herbie Teope caught the action for all to read. He relayed:
With the blinds at 125,000/250,000/250,000bba, Young raised to 500,000 at the cutoff. After the button folded, Joseph Alban made a small three-bet of 1,150,000 out of the small blind.
The big blind folded, and action returned to Young, who moved all in for his remaining stack.
Alban went in the tank, and then asked the dealer for a count, which was confirmed as 5,885,000.
Alban then reached down to his card protector, a toy car. He wound it up and let it go, allowing it to race across the felt into Young’s all-in stack, which was directly in front of Young.
“Is that a call?” Young asked.
“Yes,” Alban replied.
The cards were then tabled, with Young at risk.
Maxwell Young: A♥Q♦
Joseph Alban: K♦K♠
Alban’s hand appeared to surprise Young, as he watched the dealer fan J♦10♠Q♥ on the flop. The 7♠ on the turn kept Alban in the lead, and 10♣ on the river ended Young’s tournament.
Young, however, had to ask a final question as he packed his belongings.
“Did you mean to slow roll me or were you really worried I had aces?” Young asked across the table to Alban.
Alban didn’t respond.
At the time of writing, 22 players remained in the Monster Stack, with Alban still being one of the players with a stack. The likes of Joao Simao, 2023 PCA runner-up Pedro Neves and Tim Reilly were also still in contention for the gold bracelet and seven-figure payday.
Follow Day 4 Action of the Monster Stuck
Editor & Live Reporter
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.
