Poker Player Doubles with Wrong Stack in WSOP Event After Bag Mix-Up

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Jul 04, 2025 2 min read

Event #83: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em on Friday at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began with controversy, PokerNews Podcast co-host Mike Holtz, who witnessed the wild incident at his table, explained.

Two players began Day 2 with the wrong stack, and one of those players quickly doubled up before anyone realized the error. The bracelet event attracted 1,299 players, and 247 bagged chips late Thursday night. The bubble burst with the 196th-place finisher at around 2:30 p.m. PT.

Poker Player Arrives to Smaller Stack than Expected

Demetrius Campbell bagged 272,000 chips on Day 1, putting him around the average stack. He showed up a minute late when the restart began the following day, only to discover his stack was about 60,000 chips short. He brought it up with the dealer, and the floor manager was called over to investigate.

The opponent seated directly to his right, Mykola Kostyrko, a Ukrainian player, would double-up with pocket kings against the ace-queen that Ran Ilani held. The only problem was Kostyrko's stack was larger than the 202,000 chips he bagged, meaning Ilani paid a significant amount more than he should have, but this was unknown at the time.

World Series of Poker staff then stepped in to look over surveillance footage to determine how Campbell's stack was so short. Upon further review, it was discovered that the dealer gave Kostyrko's stack to Campbell and Campbell's bag to Kostyrko before play began.

Ilani was the only player who was harmed by the mixup, as he was left shorter than he should have been. Kostyrko made the classy decision to make Campbell whole by giving his tablemate chips off his stack, a move he wasn't ordered to do.

The floor, given the bag mixup was discovered minutes later after numerous additional hands had been dealt, could not reverse the action or send chips to Ilani. It was simply a dealer mistake.

All players involved reached the money and were still standing at the time of publishing. The freezeout tournament will play down to a winner on Saturday, and the winner will take home $449,245 and the gold bracelet.

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