Hal Lubarsky and His Assistant

Hal Lubarsky is legally blind and uses an assistant who relays him the action. He has an interesting totem on his table. It's a ceramic paw print. The dog is a German shepherd named Nexus, who actually belongs to Hal's assistant. Before every hand, Hal touches the paw print for good luck.

It didn't help him enough in this hand. Lubarsky limps in the small blind and a middle-position player raises to 1,500. The button calls.

The flop is {J-Hearts}

and Lubarsky checks. The MP bets 3,150 and the button calls. Lubarsky raises to 10,150 and MP reraises all in for 29,275 more. The button folds and Lubarsky goes into the tank, eventually laying it down. Lubarsky has 50,300.

"They don't feel like that on the Internet!" says the dealer about the tense situation.