2008 Partouche Poker Tour - Cannes
€8,500 Cannes Main Event
Day: 2
King Kongsgaard Taken Down
Paez check-raised Kongsgaard's 2,000 bet up to 10,000 before Kongsgaard reraised up to 28,000. Very quickly, Paez moved all in for 130,700.
Kongsgaard obviously had a big decision and he talked through different options of what Paez might have hoping to get a read. He eventually made the huge call with but was loathe to see Paez turn over .
The turn came and river to send the huge pot Paez's way. He's now up to 262,200 whereas Kongsgaard is down to just 8,500.
Sitbon Not Sitting Still
Moments later, we picked up a big hand involving Antonio Esfandiari and Sitbon again. The board read on the turn, and there was nearly 30,000 in the pot. Sitbon put out a bet of 15,000, and Esfandiari went deep into the tank. After several minutes and several re-counts of his chips, he moved all in for a total of 29,000. Sitbon quickly called, turning over for the big straight. The Magician was drawing completely dead with his , having been badly outdrawn on fourth street. He mustered a, "Nice hand... Good luck," as he made his way to the rail.
Off to the Races
All the way we went . Two-pair was good for Nyman and he took the pot, eliminating Levi in the process.
"It's Not Rocket Science"
From the hijack seat, Patrice Sitbon raised to 5,800. Rafe Furst was in the small blind, and he reraised to 15,800, a raise of 10,000 chips. When action cames back to Sitbon, he re-reraised to 30,000, when the dealer informed him that it is not a legal raise. This drew immediate criticism from Furst, as well as Antonio Esfandiari and Evelyn Ng, who tried to explain that 30,000 was sufficient. The floor was called over, and it didn't exactly make things any more clear.
No fewer than 6 members of the staff became involved, as well as most of the players at the table, and even some of the onlookers in the media. A crowd of some 30 people gathered around the table, pressing in on the players and floor persons. The situation was explained and re-explained, and neither side seemed to understand the other. There were several different rulings made, none of which was satisfactory to everyone involved. This ordeal was going on for more than 10 minutes by this time, still without resolution.
"Come on guys, it's not rocket science. I don't care, I'm not in the pot... but you're wrong, just so you know," said Esfandiari. With the language barrier clouding the explanation, it was eventually decided that the raise had to be double the total amount bet, equaling 31,600. Finally, someone not of the staff came over and explained to the parties involved that this rule is different in France. It appears that according to French poker rules, a raise must equal double the total amount of the bet.
After receiving the final word, Sitbon did indeed put out 31,600 chips. Rafe Furst eyeballed his opponent's remaining chips -- about 50,000 -- before open-mucking . Sitbon was cordial enough to show , and took down the controversial pot.
Raising Machine
Chorny folded before Demsey tried to isolate and shoved over a big stack of 5,000 chips. It worked as the player on the button folded to leave it heads-up. Dempsey tabled and his opponent winced and we see why as he revealed .
The dealer took us all the way to the river on this one .
A set of nines was good enough to see Dempsey rise up to 129,000, while his opponent took the walk of shame out of the room.
Aggression Meets Aggression
Esfandiari shot a stare across at Sitbon and took several minutes to consider his move. He eyed up his opponent's stack, as well as his own, appearing to be somewhat amused with the play. Finally, he did let his hand go. The third player in the hand pounded the table with his knuckles, then open-mucked his . Sitbon decided to show what he was working with: , as he raked in about 16,000 free chips.
Flushed with Excitment
The button player tabled and was up against Donnaz's .
The board came to give the French lady a flush on the river to eliminate her opponent. She yelled with excitement as she hugged her new chips and this caused great amusement to all around.
Donnaz's up to 83,000 now.
Level: 10
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
Big Hansen Versus Little Hansen
Casper continued his aggression with a 3,000 bet before seeing Gus raise up to 12,200. Casper's answer was to reraise up to 29,000. Pretty quickly Gus used both hands to roughly slide all his chips over the line. The all-in bet was a total of 81,500.
The room got word of what was going on and suddenly the table was surrounded by four cameras, sound men, four floor persons, a host of written press and curious folk with all-access passes. This caused the temperature in this corner of the room to rise beyond what was already just bearable.
This situation wasn't helped by Capser taking nearly ten minutes to make his decision which was to......fold.
Still a large pot and the two Danes passed each other on the chip leaderboard as Gus now has 120,000 and Casper 108,000.