The WSOPC Main Event in Hammond, IN, gave players more action than they expected
A strange scene played out over the weekend at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Hammond, Indiana, when a player’s cell phone began smoking and then erupted in fumes in the middle of live play. The $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em tournament drew 622 entries, but for a moment, the cards were not the main attraction at the Horseshoe Casino.
The incident occurred during a Day 1 flight. According to witness David Larson, the player in seat 7 accidentally sat on his iPhone, cracking it. The device began to release faint smoke, prompting the player to set it aside on the rail before eventually moving it onto the concrete floor. Initially, the issue seemed minor, but during the middle of a hand, the phone suddenly spewed heavy smoke across the tournament area.
Larson described the scene in a Facebook post, saying he was stuck in a tough spot himself. “You can see me in seat 5 wondering what to do because I flopped a full house, but the phone erupted in the middle of the hand,” he wrote. His comment captured the surreal nature of the moment — serious poker action colliding with a burst of unexpected chaos.
Clips of the smoky mishap quickly circulated online, with ClubWPT Gold sharing the footage on Instagram and Facebook. Social media users turned the alarming event into light-hearted banter, with one quip joking that “definitely his ex calling” must have caused the meltdown.
Despite the commotion, the tournament continued, and Brek Schutten went on to secure the title and $185,594 on Monday, earning his first WSOP Circuit ring. The phone incident, while bizarre, ended without injury or major disruption, leaving players with one of the more unusual poker stories of the year.
