Floor Called as Martin Kabrhel Causes a Stir Over Tank in WSOP Super Main
Stop us if you've heard this one before: the floor manager was called over to the table to rule on a situation involving Martin Kabrhel on Friday during the Day 2a session of the $25,000 buy-in WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.
The $60 million guaranteed no-limit hold'em tournament, one three days of registration still to come (1c, 1d, and 2b), had just under $40 million in the pot at the time of publishing, or 1,575 entrants (six of which have come from Daniel Negreanu).
A prize pool won't be revealed until after registration closes on Day 2b. But the first Day 2 session bubble burst with Vladas Tamasauskas sending Manuel Pochat home one spot short of the money.
During that Day 2a session, which was still running when this article was published, there were interesting hands, including a controversial situation involving Kabrhel (what else is new?).
'Let's Dance, Martin!'
PokerNews captured a video between Kabrhel and fellow high-stakes crusher Mustapha Kanit a couple hours before the bubble burst that has generated some buzz on social media. The hand, as reported by Tyler Boyer, saw Kanit, holding K♥10♥, facing a three-bet for his tournament life against Kabrhel, who had K♦4♣.
Kanit went deep into the tank. After using a time bank, more time continued to run off, at which point Kabrhel claimed that Kanit owed an additional time bank. The action clock was paused, the floor was called, and tensions quickly escalated. Kabrhel and the floor were discussing the situation in another language, which prompted another player at the table—clearly fed up with Kabrhel’s antics—to shout, “They’re speaking the same language, what the f**k is going on?!”
A second floor person arrived in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, but things only became more heated. Kabrhel remained adamant that Kanit still owed another time bank.
Eventually, a third floor person—tournament director Andy Tillman—came over and sternly warned all parties that penalties would be issued if the situation continued. After confirming with the dealer that only one time bank had been used, Tillman ordered the action clock to be resumed.
At that point, Kanit declared, “let's dance, Martin!” and made the call. The board ran out nice and clean for the at-risk player, who doubled up to just over 45 big blinds. Kabrhel took a hit but was still north of 70 big blinds.
"I'm dancing, Martin. You see how I dance," the trash-talking Kanit shouted before stacking his new chips.
Kabrhel would get the last laugh in this feud, as he went on a heater and was the massive chip leader at the time of publishing, thanks in part to eventually collecting all of Kanit's chips. Coincidentally, Kanit was all in against Kabrhel with Kx10x and had flopped top pair, but this time he ran into pocket aces.
Poker fans are encouraged to follow PokerNews' continued live reporting coverage of the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event until a champion is crowned next week.
