Summary:
- Yunish abandoned the $1,100 Triple Stack No-Limit Hold’em in the middle of a heated tournament with a $500k guaranteed.
- Made the unexpected decision as he received news of the birth of his first child.
- Explained the birth of his first child was more important than poker.
Holder of 44 WSOP bracelet event cashes Nick Yunis has unexpectedly renounced 509,000 in chips on Day 1 at the $1,100 Triple Stack No-Limit Hold’em held at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) in Hollywood, Florida.
The spectacular exit that occurred in the middle of a $500,000 guaranteed tournament that still had 105 players remaining had a very special reason: the birth of Yunis’ first child.
Miami-based Yunis’s stack was good enough to score him 11th place.
Fellow US resident Salomon Sutton came back on Day 2 and took the lead at 827,000 chips.
The first place will pay $136,750. The remaining players will enjoy a guaranteed minimum payout set at $1,940.
Day 2 started at noon ET on Wednesday at the location that will be also hosting the World Poker Tour Main Tour event between April 19-23.
Last-Minute C-Section
Yunis took it to his X account to explain that he failed to show up for Day 2 as he and his wife had to welcome their firstborn into the world on Wednesday morning, after a last-minute C-section
If anybody is wondering why I abandoned my 11 of 105 players stack in Day 2 of the 1k/500k at the @shrpo is because my wife had a last minute c-section and about 2 hours ago I became a father. 😍 Welcome to the world, Matthew James Yunis. May God bless you as He has blessed us.
— Nick Yunis (@nickyunis) April 17, 2024
“It’s been a hectic day“, Yunis described the event to PokerNews.
The player is now the father of a baby boy, Matthew James, who is still in the NICU in a “stable” condition“, “doing well”, the same as his mother.
The birth came two months earlier than expected, prior to the original due date.
The pregnancy itself was unexpected as Ynuni’s wife, whom he met in 2022 and married in May 2023 told him “she would never have kids”.
Yet, three months in, “she felt pregnant”.
The player explained their baby was due June 10, so his main concern was that, provided he would have made the SHRPO final table, “that would be in Las Vegas at the end of May”.
An earlier birth, he added, would have interfered with the schedule, explaining that he had “no idea it would be two months before the due date“.
Yunis, who had previously won the $1,100 Deep Stack and took home $34,005, was eager to close out another.
