Every day at around 2 p.m., play stops at the 2009 World Series of Poker for a special bracelet presentation to honor those who've won events the night before.

The winner is brought up on stage, the bracelet is handed over and his or her national anthem is played marked poker.

Typically, the anthem is a staid instrumental arrangement played with very little personality.

For John Kabbaj's ceremony, however, it was the Sex Pistols'"God Save the Queen."

At first, reaction was mostly positive to this refreshing change of pace. Kabbaj and WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack were both seen to be rocking out on stage, fist-pumping and head-banging and generally enjoying easy cards tricks the moment.

But then the grumbling started. People started muttering about the ceremony being disrespectful. Kabbaj thought it over and decided he was infuriated.

Pollack Tweeted an apology: "On behalf of the WSOP, I apologize if we offended any of our British players or fans. We are going to re-do John's ceremony tomorrow..."

A sheepish Kabbaj told his tablemates in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. event just how mad he really was:

"I had no idea they were going to play that song," he said.

"Somebody made a joke about it and I laughed but I had no idea they were going to do it. I should have stopped it but I was just in such shock."

So long story short, they're going to redo the bracelet ceremony tomorrow with the traditional version of "God Save the Queen."

Interestingly, when WSOP organizers screwed up the Finnish national anthem (they played the wrong song), Pollack told Ville Wahlbeck to "roll with it" despite the fact that Wahlbeck was the first ever Finn to win a WSOP bracelet.

Needless to say, there was no re-do of Wahlbeck's ceremony. Pollack didn't even Tweet about it.

Just sayin …

Posted by: Fiona at 06:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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