Player Down: Miami John Cernuto Falls from Table

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The $2,500 Razz event came to an abrupt halt today when Miami John Cernuto collapsed at the table. Apparently ~~action was on him~~, at first people thought he was asleep, and then someone said I don\’t think he\’s breathing … at which point they kinda poked him, and he fell to the ~~ground~~ felt.

Tournament officials stopped the clock and cleared the area while paramedics rushed to attend to him. No official medical report yet, but it appeared to be a heart attack. However, in the end, about 40 minutes later, he appeared to be OK. Like an injured athlete being carried off the field of play, Cernuto waved to the crowd and received an ovation as he left the Brasilia room and was calling someone on his cell phone en route to the hospital.

Pokerati was there to try to show how a major tournament handles such incidents — and though we know this matter isn\’t about \”us\”, we apologize for the unclear photographs snapped before being expelled from the premises for trying to bring you the story:

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Also apologies to those — all of you, as far as I can tell — who think publishing something like this is \”inappropriate\”. I respectfully disagree and welcome the debate on how much \”reality\” poker people should see.

Cernuto\’s stack remains in play — about 14,000, making him one of the shortest stacks with 49 players remaining (out of 315) and 32 getting paid.

UPDATE: Word from Miami John on his health situation and recovery. (It wasn\’t a heart attack.)