Mark Seif is a back-to-back WSOP bracelet winner who struck gold twice in a week at the 2005 WSOP - first in a $1,500 NLHE Shootout for $181,330 and then in a $1,500 NLHE for another $611,145.
With over $3 million in tournament winnings, the former attorney knows his way around a poker table and the rulebook, but that didn’t stop him from falling foul of the floor deep in the Seniors event at this year’s WSOP.
Seif was chip leader of his table and near the top of the overall leaderboard deep on Day 3 of the big-field event (7,954 players entered) when the highly controversial hand with Mikey Wangh went down. Seif tweeted about it and said he was “beyond livid” with what happened in an incident where he was threatened with being DQ'd and barred.
We caught up with Seif shortly after to find out what happened, straight from the source.
“We’re down to 80-something players in the Seniors event and a player sat down at my table with over 5 million chips - I had about 4.8 million. We got into a few hands together, and I won those, so now I have around 6 million to his 5.
“The last hand before the break comes up. Before this, I had folded a couple of hands that I had opened and he reraised, pocket eights and A-Q. This time I was in the small blind and he opened in early position to 400K. I decided I was going to three-bet, so I made it 1.1 million, and he snap-called.
“The flop was nine-high with two clubs. I led out for 1 million with 
and he immediately moved all-in.
“It’s a huge pot. I’m the table chip leader and he’s in second. We have this history and now we’ve got this big pot going on.
“I’m thinking over what to do, and about 90 seconds go by (we’re on break now) when my opponent calls for the clock. I’m in orbit now. I’m super pissed because I’m thinking about what to do. I’ve been around long enough to know that this is likely a move with a really strong hand. And while I was most certainly going to call, now I’m super-confused and I don’t know what to do.
“Four or five players immediately said it wasn’t nearly enough time given the situation. The dealer stood up and called for the floor. The floor went up to the dealer and asked if I had time to act, and the dealer said yes.
"All of the players started objecting to the situation. The floor took a very aggressive approach and I asked him to ask the other players. He said he didn’t have to and started to count. I said, 'Hey, listen, this is a big situation. Calm down.’ He continued to count quickly from five and said my hand is dead.
"I asked to get someone else to look at this situation. The floor called a supervisor over, who came over and said the hand is dead. I asked for Jack Effel to be called, and he said, ‘No, the hand is dead; it’s over.’ He started being super loud and he told me to get out of there. I said, ‘What is wrong with you?’ and he said, ‘That’s it; you're getting a one-round penalty.’
"I said a few things I shouldn't have said at that point, and he called security over. I was on the edge of losing it, and I ended up just walking away. I asked him if he could get someone else to review this decision and he said, ‘Absolutely not; if you say another word to me, I’m going to throw you out and have you barred.’
"That left me with 2 million, and now I’m back up to 4 million. I’m coming back to win this.”
Wangh was the other player in the hand, and he admitted afterwards that he should have given Seif more time to make his decision, but added that everything that went down after he called the clock was between Seif and the floor.
"He took a bit of time," Wangh said. "Actually, I should have given him more time, but it was break time, and I asked the floor to see if I could call the clock.
"Me and Mark [Seif] have no problem; it's between him and the floor."
What does the official WSOP rulebook say?
“Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and a clock is called, Floor People may, in their sole discretion, give the Participant an additional 0 up to 25 seconds to make a decision. If action has not been taken when prompted by the Floor Person, there will be a 5-second countdown followed by a declaration or stopwatch alarm. If a Participant has not acted before the declaration or alarm sounds, the hand will be dead. Host Properties, in its sole and absolute discretion, reserves the right, at any time, to invoke a clock or speed up the amount of time allotted for a clock.”
What is a reasonable amount of time? That’s going to change with context, but 90 seconds for a decision in a pot that could be for the chip lead of a tournament, deep on Day 3 of a WSOP event, doesn’t seem to reach that threshold.
At the time of publishing this article, Seif is still in the Seniors event with a stack of just over 4 million. Wangh has the chip lead with a stack of over 8 million, and Greg Raymer is still in with 1,400,000. There are 35 players left, and the winner won't be decided until Sunday. There's a massive $677,326 up top.
