Big Pot Goes Into the Break

Ivan Tikhov raised to 34,000 preflop, Fraser Macintyre called behind him and João Paulo Simão called out of the big blind to see a dry looking {5-Spades} {2-Hearts} {2-Clubs} flop. Simão checked, Tikhov bet 56,000 which Macintyre called but then, perhaps a little surprisingly, Simão check-raised to 135,000. Tikhov folded but Macintyre made a second call to see the {J-Spades} on the turn.

Simão now fired out a bet of 215,000 which had Macintyre muttering, "You can't have a two..."

Despite this, Macintyre made the call once more and the river was the {9-Hearts} . Simão thought for a couple of minutes and then checked, but the second surprise (to the watching crowd) was that Macintyre did not check back but instead fired out a bet of 400,000.

Simão now was tanking and asked Macintyre if he would show, should the Brazilian fold, Macintyre responded in the negative.

After about two or three minutes (and five minutes into the break), Macintyre suddenly stated, "Come on, you're going to fold anyway. I was so sure you were raising with air on the flop."

Simão responded, "Thank you for saying that last bit, I was almost going to call..." and with that he mucked his hand and we went on break.