Clocking Cirstea

We just witnessed a long, ten-minute hand in one of the center tables. On a flop of {7-Hearts}

, a raising war ensued that left Ciprian Cirstea facing an all-in decision. He had about 32,000 chips in front of him, and his opponent -- completely clad in orange from head to toe -- had pushed his covering stack into the pot.

Cirstea would tank it up for at least five minutes before Pieter de Korver finally looked up from his iPod. "Is it time?" he asked. A few players shook their heads no, and de Korver followed it up with, "Time, please." With that, Cirstea stood up from his chair, and Mr. Orange did the same, chatting it up the whole time.

The floorman was called over, and he waited a full minute before giving the ol' ten-second countdown. When he got to about one-and-a-half, Cirstea leaned forward and splashed his chips into the pot. His opponent showed up {8-Spades}

, and Cirstea pumped his fist as he turned over {J-Clubs}

. The turn and river came safe-safe for him, {K-Spades}

and

respectively, and he's notched himself a big double up.

During the entire ordeal, there was a new dealer standing behind the table waiting to push in. When the hand was over, the current dealer spread the deck and handed off the box. "Why is it that the longest hand of the day always comes right before my only break of the day?"