Jonathan Tamayo was crowned victorious in poker’s world championship event for a $10million (£7.7m) payday this week but the poker community is concerned about an element of his win Jonathan Tamayo celebrates winning the World Series of Poker Main Event (Image: Louis Grasse/PX Imagens via ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

Poker has evolved over the years and as mathematicians get their head around No-Limit Hold’em (the game of choice for the world championship event), a theory called GTO - or game theory optimum - has been produced. In simple terms, it means there is a chart which can tell you whether you are making a positive play or not, for almost any situation, based on how likely you are to win the hand.

If you are making the correct decisions according to the charts, then you are in theory playing perfect poker. A simulator is a computer program or app where you can insert the data from a hand to find out what the correct play is, according to GTO.

Throughout the final table of the tournament, Tamayo was seen consulting his friends on the rail, who were putting certain situations into a sim, to confirm whether he had played his hand correctly or not.

Did Jonathan Tamayo do anything wrong?

There is no suggestion that Tamayo did anything wrong.

While he himself is not allowed to use a simulator during a tournament - and there would be a harsh penalty if he did so - there are no rules regarding the use of such software for those who are in attendance supporting.

Tamayo is seen consulting Dominik Nitsche (left) and Joe McKeehan (right) during the eventOther players in past editions of the World Series of Poker have also gathered advice and information from their rails to help inform their strategy - but few have had a laptop so visible on the sidelines, hence why it is causing a big stir.

Most poker players will consider it a legal edge that can be exploited - and while it may not be ethical, if it is legal, a lot of people would say ‘why wouldn’t you?’.

How does live TV poker work? Is it not easy to cheat?

The World Series of Poker was live streamed on subscription service PokerGo. For the final table, it broadcast every single hand, with information of what each players’ face-down cards were, thanks to technology in the cards and the table.

However, the stream is delayed by two hours, as is all live reporting of the event. Therefore, it is impossible to cheat in this scenario. Suggestions that Tamayo could have been fitted with an earpiece and be told the cards are wildly false.

Once the two hours passes, information of particular hands can be made public and that information will often be fed back to the players on the table from people on their rails, which can then impact decisions later in the game, as they now know how their opponents are playing particular situations.

Who was on Jonathan Tamayo’s rail?

Tamayo is fortunate to have some of the very best poker players in the business on his rail, not least Joe McKeehan, who won the very same event to become poker world champion in 2015. Given the amount of entrants, it is a remarkable feat to have two close friends and roommates both win the event.

The man on the laptop was German pro Dominik Nitsche, who has won four World Series of Poker events (but not the world championship main event) in the past. He is widely considered as one of the most fearful tournament poker players on the planet, with over $20m (£14.2m) in winnings.

British pro Benny Glaser was seen congratulating Tamayo when he won his final hand, while other professionals, backers, friends and family were on the sidelines cheering him on.

Who is Jonathan Tamayo?

Tamayo is a poker professional who hailed from Texas, United States. He has been a long-time grinder of some of the biggest poker circuits and boasted over $2million (£1.5m) in tournament winnings prior to this $10m payday.

He has twice finished in the top 100 of the World Series of Poker Main Event in the past, include a 23rd-place finish in 2009. Tamayo has also won four WSOP circuit rings, which are smaller tournaments ran by the same organisers which are hosted around the world.

Tamayo began the final table of this event in seventh out of the nine remaining competitors - and he outlasted the likes of Niklas Astedt (the greatest online poker player of all-time), Brian Kim (super high stakes regular) and Joe Serock (former World Poker Tour player of the year) to come out victorious.

What is the World Series of Poker?

The World Series of Poker is an annual series of poker tournaments which culminates in the Main Event, which is poker’s world championship.

Players pay $10,000 (£7,700) to enter the Main Event and this year’s 10,112 entrants made it a record-breaking field.

Winners of any World Series of Poker event win a gold bracelet, which is considered one of the most prestigious things anybody can win. It is hosted in Las Vegas each year.

No British player has ever won the main event, however a handful of London residents have taken the crown, including Iranian Mansour Matloubi in 1990, Swede Martin Jacobson in 2015 and Norwegian Espen Jorstad in 2022. Irishman Noel Furlong was victorious in 1999.

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