A pot of 60,000 had developed on a board of 8♠4♥2♠8♦10♦, in a hand between Giovanni Nava and Piotr Wasilewski.
Nava checked to his opponent, who fired out a bet of 30,000. After quite a bit of thought, Nava folded and Wasilewski tabled 6♣5♣ for the missed up and down. "Nice bluff" said Nava.
A truly bizarre hand has just taken place at Table 10.
Padraig Burns opened to 8,000 from early position, and was met with a three-bet to 13,000 from Willy Flora in the hijack. Giuseppe Di Bella cold-flatted on the button, before action moved back to Burns.
He took some time to count out his chips, before moving all in for around 100,000.
Back to Flora, and he started to pick up his cards in a manner that risked them being exposed. It appeared he may have forgot Di Bella was still to act behind and was preparing to open-fold, and the dealer told Flora to protect his cards.
Flora told the dealer there was no chance of Di Bella seeing them, and Flora and Di Bella then started arguing in Italian. As Flora went to fold, Di Bella did the same at almost the same time. They both exposed their cards almost in unison, Flora folding A♥K♠ and Di Bella dumping A♦K♣.
It took the table a moment or two to realize that their eyes weren't playing tricks on them. No-one could really fathom what had just occurred, but its certainly the first time this reporter has seen two players fold ace-king versus a sub-40 big blind shove. One person was not complaining, and that was Burns.
Around 50,000 was in the middle, in a hand between Piotr Wasilewski in early position and Nicholas Galtos in the big blind, with the board reading 9♠8♣6♦5♠J♠.
Galtos led out with a bet of 21,000, and after some deliberation, and asking "You really have the seven?" Wasilewski open folded K♥K♣.
Late registration has now closed, with the flight obtaining 213 entries, which means 32 players will progress to Day 2. There are currently 81 players still seated.
Day 1e is about to go into Level 7 - featuring 20-minute levels, late registration closes before the start of Level 11. There are currently 23 players seated from 28 entrants.
The players have been sent on a 45-minute dinner break, with play due to recommence at approximately 9.00 p.m. Late registration will close before the start of the next level.
Life Outside Poker is a podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the 26th episode, Connor speaks with chess streamer and GGPoker ambassador Alexandra Botez about learning chess and poker from her dad, getting into streaming at Stanford, dealing with online trolls, creating content with her sister Andrea Botez and the similarities between chess and poker.
Botez also talked about winning $456,900 in a legendary 2022 Hustler Casino Livestream that included Phil Hellmuth, Mr. Beast and Ninja, as well as signing on as a GGPoker ambassador and securing two career-high cashes at World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise (she finished 60th in the $10,000 GGMillion$ Championship for $22,190 before finishing 187th in the $25,000 Super Main Event for $67,300).
