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Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
2009 World Series of Poker Europe
£10,000 WSOPE Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info
2009 World Series of Poker Europe
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
£10,000
Prize Pool
£3,340,000
Total Entries
334
Level
30
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
15,000
Players Left 1 / 334
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Bluffy McAir saw this as odd, while another player actually asked the dealer, "Aren't you meant to show your hand to win a pot?"
"Normally we do," she replied, "But not, apparently, for the World Series. I made a player show their hand to win the pot in a situation like this yesterday and got in trouble."
This does indeed seem odd considering the rule is standard in most casinos in the UK at least and I can see a less mild-mannered table giving the dealers and each other all kind of aggro should a big pot end in this manner.
A quick scamper around the playing area, however, did unveil a handful of players who have not quite doubled up, but at least raised their bat in the air and basked in the applause of making the half century. Richard Herbert, Michael Binger and Haris Kapernopoulous are just three of the players to have reached that milestone.
Other counts:
Arnaud Mattern - 32,200
Michael Tureniec - 28,600
Danny Wong - 17,850
David Williams - 43,000
Freddy Deeb - 27,000
Mike McDonald - 28,900
Barry Greenstein - 36,500
Annette Obrestad - 24,500
Antonio Esfandiari - 32,000
Carlos Mortensen - 18,000
Dennis Phillips - 47,000
Devilfish - 37,000
John Juanda - 32,000
Neil Channing - 29,500
JC Tran - 29,000
Also found lurking on that ex-table was Michael Binger, who's joined a table sporting Christer Johansson and Peter Eastgate, no less. A lot of players' Tweets at the moment include the words, "Tough table..."
The first hand was five-handed with a flop of
. Nguyen bet 700 on the button and Thorson made the call. The 
turn looked dangerous, but Nguyen led again, this time for 2,300, which was good enough to take it down.On the very next hand, Thorson raised it up preflop to 250 from middle position and Nguyen called from the button. After both players checked the
flop, Thorson fired 475 on the 
turn. Nguyen raised to 1,000; Thorson called. Come the 
river, the Swede bet 1,400, and Nguyen quickly folded.
"The very first hand of the tournament I played 5-6 of spades, and flopped an open ended straight flush. I managed to bluff 8k off - well, 5k on the river, against a guy with a set of Aces," he told me, his brow furrowing slightly.
Then he perked up as he said, "Then the same guy got it all in preflop against me with Kings vs. my Aces! So I'm on 50,000."
board, only to find Tabatabai raising him to 6,000. After a pretty long think, he eventually passed, and a quiet, focused-looking Tabatabai raked in the pot.
Carlos Mortensen then check-raised a continuation bet of 375 to 1,750 on a
flop. On the
turn, he insta-led (have I coined a new phrase?) for 2,500. His opponent quickly called. On the
river, the Spaniard made a second swift move for chips, this time dropping 6,000 onto the felt. His opponent, stoic throughout, began riffling his chips as the cameras drew closer. As he continued to tank, Mortensen was equally statuesque, no movement whatsoever. But ultimately his poker facial skills were of little use as his opponent made the call. Mortensen tapped the table in defeat and the victor took the spoils with 
.Consequently, Mortensen's stack has been bisected (17,250 to be precise), and to make matters worse, he had to show the mobile hand-cam his hole cards, be it with a begrudging grimace that can only bestow someone who's just had their paws snapped shut in the cookie jar.
