Poker’s Most Annoying Player William Kassouf Now Banned From Grosvenor Casinos

The poker world abounds with players who have risen to prominence as much for their trash talking and wayward antics at the table as for their poker skills. This list of players include such pros as Phil ‘Poker Brat’ Hellmuth, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, with the latest pro to try joining their ranks being William Kassouf.

Furthermore, it looks like Kassouf’s quest to become the game’s most annoying player has now hit an all-time peak after his own sponsor, Grosvenor casinos, has finally thrown in the towel and banned him from everyone of their casinos. That’s quite an achievement considering Grosvenor is the UK’s largest casino chain and has around 55 venues based in major towns and cities across the country.

The Incident

The decision was announced following an incident which occurred after a group of friends, which included Kassouf, were playing roulette at the Grosvenor Casino Westgate in Leeds on the sidelines of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. One of the party was British poker player, Michael J. O’Mahoney, who revealed details of the episode via his Facebook account, stating at the time that he was “sick of people defending him”. As he then wrote:

“We were all drunk and the only one playing roulette was one mate who won about 4k and let us bet for him using the single 1 (£100) chips he had. We put a bet on that won another £2800 and Kassouf started celebrating and grabbing the £100 chips which myself and mates took back.”

While that may have been bad enough, but almost excusable for a player who prides himself on being more annoying than irritable bowel syndrome, it would appear Kassouf’s intention went beyond being merely pestiferous, and as O’Mahoney added:

“But in the ensuing betting he was seen pocketing some. That’s when argument happened. Like I said, we all wanted to keep it between us and we had a private argument at bar with a view to it being sorted the next day.”

Despite O’Mahoney’s good intentions, however, Grosvenor staff soon caught wind of the situation and after reporting the incident the company wasted no time in cutting their ties with Kassouf.

Still Annoying

The player has since issued an apology, and has laid blame for the incident on an excessive amount of alcohol consumed, followed by an “error of judgement”. Showing that he is still full of crap and has lost none of his ability to be incredibly annoying, Kassouf also added that “Grosvenor Poker and I have mutually agreed to part ways,” as if he even had any choice in the matter. The oblivious UK solicitor even placed a big steaming cherry turd on top of his own apology by ending his piece with the following message of goodwill and general optimism for the poker community, stating:

“I will continue to do what I do best by bringing the fun and entertainment factor back to poker as that’s what’s most important to me in my poker career.”

2016 WSOP

William Kassouf’s talent for being more annoying than a vuvuzela first appeared on the radar after he put in a strong performance at the 2016 WSOP Main Event, eventually finishing in a 17th place position for $338,288. During his run, Kassouf succeeded in antagonizing his fellow opponents with his incessant table talk, and was even handed a one round penalty by Jack Effel, who also threatened Kassouf with another penalty after he seemed determined to challenge his decision further.

In December of the same year, Kassouf took down the EPT Prague High Roller for €532,500 ($555,619), with the $953,160 he won that year accounting for most of his $1,406,158 in career earnings.

Over the years, Kassouf has also managed to cheese off some of the best players in the world, including the likes of Cliff Josephy, Griffin Benger, and Sean Deeb. Last year at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, he even claimed another major scalp after putting the women’s number one player, Vanessa Selbst, on tilt with his relentless needling, which he later described as making “great TV”.