One week after winning the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event and the $10 million prize, Jonathan Tamayo had an interview with The Chip Race where he talked about the allegations of him using poker solvers during the event.
Tamayo noted that he would go along with any change in rules preventing players in the future using solvers on the rail during WSOP Main Event matches.
Poker Solver Allegations
During the breaks of the 2024 WSOP Main Event, Tamayo was seen consulting with his close friends Joe McKeehen and Dominik Nitsche for advice with regards to the best poker strategy he should utilize.
Photos of Nitsche and McKeehen using the laptop became the focal point of the allegations. However, Tamayo disclosed that no sims were on the laptop, and that McKeehen and Nitsche communicated “in-game adjustments” to him as options to utilize during the course of the match,
“They basically told me ‘we’ll handle it, just play. If there’s something we need to talk to you about, we’ll talk to you about it.’ So I was just compartmentalizing what I was going to do,” Tamayo said.
Their suggestions and coaching proved to be instrumental in Tamayo’s run, as he eventually won the Main Event and bagged the $10 million cash prize.
Tamayo’s win caused an uproar from the poker community where notable poker figures were critical with his use of Real Time Assistance (RTA) during the event. Alan Keating was quick to tweet, saying that what happened wasn’t in the “spirit of the game.”
This sentiment was echoed by former WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk on a podcast. Negreanu wanted the organizers to clear the rules about RTAs, and criticized Dominik Nitsche for “doubling down” on social media afterwards.
Jordan Griff, the runner-up of the Main Event, commented on Tamayo’s use of RTAs during his appearance with Doug Polk in a separate podcast,
“I mean, I think using RTA is going to give an advantage… “Everyone can debate how large that is, and how much it will really help a person. I think it’s hard to quantify that,” Griff said.
When asked about RTAs, Tamayo noted that he himself doesn’t even understand how a lot of the technology works, and it hasn’t been something he’s devoted a lot of time to over the course of his career.
“I haven’t studied solvers, I don’t know how they work. I’ve had a coach on the cash side [of poker] on spots. But I don’t know how to process it. Most of my time and most of my hours is spent playing. It’s a delicate balance. Studying makes your play better, but playing is what makes you your money. So where do you stop studying and start playing?” said Tamayo.
Preparations Made by Tamayo for The Main Event
Part of Tamayo’s preparations involved narrowing down which poker strategies were the best ones to execute,
“You have to make a strategy executable… If the strategy is too complex, then you can’t execute it well. A strategy that is not as good [but straight forward] is a lot better than something that’s complex and I’m not going to remember,” remarked Tamayo.
Tamayo added that the most-studied scenario they prepared for was for a big blind versus button confrontation with Joe Serock. He noted that they spent between 3-4 hours on a spot that never eventually happened during the event.
In another interview in PokerOrg, Tamayo noted that while the result continues to be the talking point for the poker community, he was more concerned about playing well and executing strategies, and that reactions from the community and other people are beyond his control,
“I mean, that stuff wasn’t under my control. My job was to play. Joe and Dom were giving me advice. I didn’t tell them to bring anything. You know, whatever was on there was on there. My job was to play. You have to be pretty narrow-minded when you’re playing. All the other external stuff is just wasted energy.”
Will WSOP Take Action?
In the wake of Tamayo’s win and the solver allegations, it remains to be seen what WSOP will do as far as the rules and regulations with RTAs and its usage during events.
Back in 2023, the WSOP issued a statement pertaining to solver concerns where they said that any player using real time assistance (RTA) during a hand would be subject to penalty. Additionally, they reserved the right to further penalize a player for using RTAs “in any other situation at our sole and absolute discretion.”
Tamayo noted that when it comes to RTA policies, he doesn’t have an answer for that since he is not an operator. For now, Tamayo is taking all that’s happened lightly,
“They’ll think of something. I joked with one of my friends that I might have a rule named after me now!”
