By Joe Zusman | March 13, 2008

One of the big no-no’s for the serious poker player is to never drink while you play. It’s not a rule, but playing while under the influence will undoubtedly lead to poor decision-making. Apparently, there are always exceptions to the rule.

For what many believe was the first time ever, a player was disqualified from a major poker tournament last week because of his behavior. Lesley Thornburg was on his way to a possible victory in the first tournament of the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City when officials finally could not tolerate his antics any more.

Throughout the course of the final table, Thornburg, who observers reported to be drunk as a skunk, was verbally abusive to his opponents, did not care at all to stack his chips, and decided it was appropriate to simply push messy piles of chips into the pot when making all-in moves. He was a bull in a china shop, essentially, one which had worn out its welcome after many warnings, including two from the previous day.

Sitting pretty as the chip leader after getting very lucky as a huge underdog on a couple of all-in hands, the tournament director’s patience came to an end with Thornburg as he had him escorted from the tournament. As there were four other players remaining at the time of his disqualification, Thornburg was awarded fifth place. His chips were removed from the table, as there was really no fair way to redistribute them, and play went on as usual.

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