In a very confusing hand, Steve "pikappraider" Burkholder has doubled an opponent at his table.
The pot was raised preflop and three players saw a flop of . A player in the blinds checked and the dealer thought the next player checked as well so he signaled to Burkholder that it was his turn to act.
Burkholder bet 2,200 and the player who was skipped appealed the bet. The floor was called over and ruled that since Burkholder was prompted by the dealer that the bet can be pulled back and that the action is on the player whose been skipped.
The player moved all in for 2,500 and Burkholder quickly called. The player in the blinds folded and the hands were tabled.
Showdown
Burkholder:
Opponent:
The aces held after the turn and river came , respectively and Burkholder's opponent doubled through.
Burkholder is still plenty healthy with 40,000 chips.
Thespian and former Eastenders star Michael Greco reached a flop with Yuval Bronstein where Greco led for 4,400, leaving himself 4,100 behind. Bronstein made the call, but then dwelt unexpectedly when Greco moved in his remaining chips on the turn.
Eventually, Bronstein made the call, showing for the nut flush draw. Greco had .
I didn't catch the river (although I sense it was a third heart) as there were two hands occurring simultaneously on separate tables, but it favoured Bronstein who added almost apologetically, "I had just about the right price to call." "You had to call," replied Greco sincerely. "You're hitting everything."
A kafuffle on one of the tables lured me over like Hellmuth to a TV camera. When I arrived, it quickly emerged that the root of the problem was an exposed card, the river being dealt before Christian Harder had been given the chance to act.
The board at the time read , and Richard Grace had led out for 2,500. After the next player made the call, the dealer committed his dastardly deed, but the difficulty with this situation was that only the caller had seen the card.
"We have a right to see the card too," claimed Harder.
"He has an advantage because he knows we don't have that card in our hand," added Grace.
After a back and forth discussion, the tournament director made his decision: "What's going to happen," he ruled, "is that that card will be taken out of play, and that if you [Harder] decide to call, the card will be exposed, as you're only affected if you decide to continue with the hand. The question here is whether you are entitled to see the card at this point in time, and you are not, as there is no purpose to it."
In the end, Harder did indeed make the call, and the was revealed (Yes, an anti-climatic card, I know). No burn card was produced, the dealer instead shuffling the remaining cards (which appeared rather fiddly as it was a depleted deck), and dealing the river card: the .
After the storm on the turn, it was calm waters on the river, the action checked around allowing Grace to pick up the pot with .
With the board reading , Charles Alexandre Sylvestre led out for 8,000 into a 14,000 chip-pot against Nenad Medic.
"You can't be that sick," Medic darted at Sylvestre.
"Maybe," the Frenchman beamed back.
Medic tanked for a little longer before folding.
"You should know me by now!" Sylvestre blurted tabling for just a pair of fives.
Medic could do nothing but laugh even though his stack dropped down to around 80,000 chips. Sylvestre's antics have him trending up, he now sits with 55,000 chips.
James Akenhead made a standard open from early position, the hijack reraised to 7,000 and the big blind pushed all in. "All in," announced Akenhead sliding his chips across the line.
Despite being encouraged to "gamble", the hijack folded and we reached a showdown, a split pot imminent between and .
"Sevens," requested Akenhead's foe with a wishful smile. "Clubs," countered Akenhead.
In the end, it was the November Niner's demands who were met, the board coming to deliver him both the flush and the pot.
After a roller coaster of a last level or two, Akenhead is now back up above the 50,000 mark.