A man passed out on Day 1 of the $3000 HORSE event at the WSOP -- how did he end up?

[Dan Druff]

They halted play 30 minutes early of Day 1 of the $3000 WSOP HORSE event late last week, as a man suddenly crumpled to the floor unconscious.

Amazingly, they dealt two more hands while he was lying there unconscious, despite protests from players. Finally they halted the tournament, and decided to end for the day, since there was only 30 minutes left of play anyway.

Some players said they should return the two antes that he paid while unconscious, since they should have halted things right when it occurred. The WSOP agreed, and gave him back his two antes, presumably just adding those chips to the event.

But who was it, and what happened to him after that? Here's an update from Jeanne, who is a Vegas local and friend of PFA:

Here’s an update for the many people who are asking what happened to “the guy who was sitting next to Phil Ivey and passed out at the $3000 WSOP Horse event”

Troy R Lee was taken to sunrise emergency room and then was transferred to inpatient after a couple of days. They ran a lot of tests on him and think he had a possible mini stroke, but once they got his blood pressure under control, they finally discharged him very late last night. He’s doing OK and he’s home recovering. For those of you who don’t know Troy, he’s one of the nicest guys around and you might see him dealing at the Golden Nuggett when he’s feeling better.

I think the excitement of Meeting Phil Ivey might’ve gotten to him. 😎 🙏 💕

I'm assuming he blinded out on Day 2, so the antes probably didn't matter after all.

Good to see he is probably going to be okay.

It's surprising that there aren't more incidents like this at the WSOP. Eskimo Clark (RIP) famously collapsed in the infamous, boiling hot "poker tent" in 2007, but ended up okay (for the time being).

Eric Shimp, who cashed in the 2022 $1500 Limit Holdem event, could have actually passed away while playing. He made late Day 2 of that event, and cashed, but lost all of his chips before the end of the day. On what would have been his Day 3 had he made it, he abruptly and unexpectedly passed away. I believe he would have been the first person to pass away while playing a WSOP event.

[nightmarefish]

They halted play 30 minutes early of Day 1 of the $3000 WSOP HORSE event late last week, as a man suddenly crumpled to the floor unconscious.

Amazingly, they dealt two more hands while he was lying there unconscious, despite protests from players. Finally they halted the tournament, and decided to end for the day, since there was only 30 minutes left of play anyway.

Some players said they should return the two antes that he paid while unconscious, since they should have halted things right when it occurred. The WSOP agreed, and gave him back his two antes, presumably just adding those chips to the event.

But who was it, and what happened to him after that? Here's an update from Jeanne, who is a Vegas local and friend of PFA:

Here’s an update for the many people who are asking what happened to “the guy who was sitting next to Phil Ivey and passed out at the $3000 WSOP Horse event”

Troy R Lee was taken to sunrise emergency room and then was transferred to inpatient after a couple of days. They ran a lot of tests on him and think he had a possible mini stroke, but once they got his blood pressure under control, they finally discharged him very late last night. He’s doing OK and he’s home recovering. For those of you who don’t know Troy, he’s one of the nicest guys around and you might see him dealing at the Golden Nuggett when he’s feeling better.

I think the excitement of Meeting Phil Ivey might’ve gotten to him. �� �� ��

I'm assuming he blinded out on Day 2, so the antes probably didn't matter after all.

Good to see he is probably going to be okay.

It's surprising that there aren't more incidents like this at the WSOP. Eskimo Clark (RIP) famously collapsed in the infamous, boiling hot "poker tent" in 2007, but ended up okay (for the time being).

Eric Shimp, who cashed in the 2022 $1500 Limit Holdem event, could have actually passed away while playing. He made late Day 2 of that event, and cashed, but lost all of his chips before the end of the day. On what would have been his Day 3 had he made it, he abruptly and unexpectedly passed away. I believe he would have been the first person to pass away while playing a WSOP event.

Interesting Ivey was there considering a story I have. Not sure what year it was but somewhere in the early 2000s. The Bellagio remodeled their poker room so all the tables where just outside the poker room, basically in the walkway. All the tables were crammed together which resulted in some interesting seating arrangements. I was playing 4-8 limit hold’em (balllllliiinnnn) sitting back to back with Ivey who was playing like 400-800. Anyway old dude in the one seat at Ivey’s table starts coughing, I look over my shoulder and dude has a roll of 100s in his hand trying to cover his mouth. The coughing gets worse and dude starts coughing up blood everywhere and falls to the ground unconscious. Paramedics come help the dude out and all I remember is how annoyed Phil looked and how unconcerned he was.

[Cerveza Fria]

This reminds me of a tournament i played in back in '05 or '06 @ the Trump Resort in Sunny Isles, FL. it was a charity tourney to benefit the IDF. Anyways, the tourney paid 25 places with various gifts donated from various organizations. First place was a WSOP Main event entry and some spending cash.

I was knocked out in 40th place by the chip leader (an Israeli dude) who was drinking heavily. My friend was still alive so i stuck around to support him (he eventually ended up 24th). The chip leader was so hammered, that he eventually passed out and did a face plant into his chip stack. He was out cold. Paramedics were called and they were attending to him in the hall outside the tournament ballroom. His wife tried to sit down and play his stack (while he was still out cold and being treated by the paramedics). Floor was called and ruled she could not play his stack and they would blind him off. They eventually removed his stack and I don't remember what the final ruling was on this situation (if he was DQ'd or they gave him the place he was when he passed out), but he was done. His wife didn't give a shit about him. She was only interested in the trip to Vegas.