The tournament is now on a 15-minute break.
2014 Borgata Spring Poker Open
After one player opened to 1,200 from under-the-gun, three other players flatted the bet and the action moved to Vishnu Pabbathi in the small blind.
Pabbathi wanted to put the squeeze play on with a three-bet to 4,800, and after arranging the necessary chips to do so - with his hands and the chips remaining behind the table's yellow line - he capped the stack with his small blind chip and slid the whole thing forward.
This action led to an objection by one of his opponents - longtime professional Roland Israelashvili - who claimed that a string bet had been made. The floor was called (one of several insistent calls for a ruling made during the last level), and after assessing the situation a staff member told Pabbathi that he had made a forward motion while grabbing his small blind chip, one which nullified his ability to raise.
The term "working area" was used to describe the spot between the aforementioned yellow line and Pabbathi's cards, and the official ruling was that Pabbathi had crossed this invisible realm to reach for his small blind chip. In doing so, Pabbathi had forfeited his right to reraise, and he was forced to simply complete the big blind. Rather than contest the pot with his intentions already revealed, Pabbathi elected to muck his hand instead, surrendering the 300 chips and moving on without much objection.
For his part, Pabbathi contends that he did verbalize the bet of 4,800 before any physical action was made, but upon further reflection the mild-mannered man was just glad the 11-minute long hand had ended without any real ramifications.
A few more for the counts.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Emad Alabsi |
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Gene Mazza | 20,000 | |
Gerard Kane |
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Roland Israelashvili |
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Sam Datta
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Vishnu Pabbatha
|
20,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
Brian Correro and three other players were engaged in four-handed action for approximately 38 minutes, leading to a call for the floor to fill the table.
After the tournament staff investigated the situation it turned out that the five missing players who had been assigned to the table were mistakenly sent elsewhere.
This forced the foursome to play at an accelerated pace, acting either from the button, under-the-gun or the blinds on every hand. Eventually though, things were sorted out and the table was made whole, with the old expression "no harm, no foul" at the forefront of the table's collective conversation.
Level: 6
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 50
We apologize for the lack of updates recently, but a few floor decisions have been made recently that required our reportorial attention.
Updates will resume on their regular schedule, so stay tuned.
Level: 5
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 25
A few more familiar faces have emerged, as Onofrio Reina and Brian Correro have joined the party.
Reina went deep last January at the Borgata Winter Poker Open WPT Main Event Championship, where he ultimately fell in 24th place.
Correro just made a final table here at the Spring edition of the Borgata's seasonal series, recording a 5th place finish in Event 10 yesterday.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Onofrio Reina | 20,000 | |
Brian Correro | 20,000 |
Thanks to a couple of tipsters - including an especially helpful floorman and Mike Salvietti, who watched it all go down from the table - we have the pleasure to report on an especially epic hand of Texas Hold'em. Here's what went down:
Yuriy Kim opened for 200 during Level 2, raising the minimum of 100 chips. One opponent then tossed 300 into the pot, leading to a brief dispute over the sizing of his raise (some players believed he had to double the bet, but with Kim raising 100, this man's raise of 100 more was legal).
A third player in the hand decided to call the 300 wager, as did Kim, and the dealer fanned a flop of across the felt. An undetermined bet was made on the flop and all three players continued in the hand, with the falling on fourth street.
Kim decided to make a play at the pot and he fired out a bet of 1,000, with the player next to act raising it up to 4,000. The third member of the trio decided to flat the raise, as did Kim, and the river came to complete board. And that's when the fireworks began...
All three players couldn't wait to get their chips in the middle, with Kim and his two opponents each risking their stacks with all-in wagers and calls. Multiway action this early in a tournament is always a rare sight, so the players at the table collectively craned their necks to witness the collision.
Kim:
Opponent 1:
Opponent 2:
One player rolled over the nut flush with big slick in clubs, while the other triumphantly tabled what he believed for all the world to be the trump cards with his eights full of sevens. Kim was the real monster under the bed though, as his flopped straight flush draw had turned into the best hand he'll hold in a long while. With a straight flush to the eight Kim had his crestfallen opponents crushed, and just like that he surged to the top of the leaderboard courtesy of one of the coolest coolers we can remember.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Yuriy Kim | 55,000 | |
Mike Salvietti
|
20,000 |
Level: 4
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0