He had second-place chips in the first event of the 2014 Borgata Winter Open with 27 remaining when state regulators discovered counterfeit tournament chips were put into play.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) immediately terminated the event and froze the remaining prize money while they investigated.
Guagenti was in position for a big payday but his money was in limbo.
The DGE eventually refunded a portion of the affected players with the final 27 each receiving $19,323.
Guagenti: “I don’t agree with refunding 60-70% of the field"
Guagenti considered legal action but eventually decided it wasn’t worth his time or energy. He still has issues with how the situation was handled and wishes it was done differently.
“ICM or play it out, those were the only two fair solutions,” he said, “The solution they did, I did not like. I felt if they were going to refund, they should refund everybody.”
“I don’t agree with refunding 60-70% of the field,” Guagenti continued, “I wasn’t a huge fan of everybody getting full equity between 450 and 28. We were robbed of our equity. My equity count was between $138k-$140k.”
Guagenti took it hard at first but quickly bounced back.
“I won a local tournament in Ohio and I had a good swap with my buddy (Keven Stammen) who won the WPT National Championship,” he said, “Everything’s been going good since then so I figured karma’s rolling my way a little bit.”
Guagenti is putting it behind him to get ready for a run at the WSOP.
“I was disappointed but I’ve had a lot of good things go my way since then,” he said, “My whole goal is to focus on the World Series because I have a full slate ahead of me.”
His plan is well underway with a deep run in the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha then he’ll be back for the $10k Pot Limit Hold’em, $10k Heads-Up, and the Main Event.
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