Do the Tighten Up

Play sure has tightened up over the last half hour.

Kalle Niemi opened to 25,000 from early position, and Laurence Ryan three-bet to 78,000 next door. When it came back to Niemi, he put in the call, and the flop came down {K-Hearts}

. Both men checked, and they did the same on the {8-Hearts}

turn. The

hit the river and both players once again checked with confused looks on their faces. Ryan had to show first, and he tabled {A-Clubs}

. Niemi flipped over {J-Hearts}

, his pair plenty good enough to take the pot.

Immediately after that hand, we turned around to catch a hand at the adjacent table. Marcin Horecki had made a button raise, and Gustov Ekerot called from the big blind. The board came down heart-heavy: {A-Hearts}

. Each man check-checked the flop and turn pretty quickly, but both appeared to consider firing a bullet on the river. In the end, though, they seemed to give up and check it down once again. Horecki tabled {8-Clubs}

, unable to win the full pot with that hand. Fortunately for him, Ekerot tabled {K-Spades}

, and the two heartless hands split up the antes plus the small blind.

How exciting!