Timex's Good Decision Goes Unrewarded

[user66118]

We missed the preflop action, but we walked up to a heads-up pot between Alexander Kuzmin (button) and Mike "Timex" McDonald (small blind). The dealer was rolling out a {8-Hearts} {A-Diamonds} {3-Hearts} flop as we approached, and McDonald had fired out into the pot with 6,200. That leads us to believe he may have been a three-bettor preflop, but we can't say for sure. Either way, Kuzmin made a raise to 12,800, and McDonald carefully stared him down. After a couple minutes, he raised it back to 22,200, and now it was Kuzmin's turn in the tank.

During this series of action, there was a cocktail server standing behind Timex waiting to deliver a sandwich. McDonald broke his steely gaze to turn around and apologize to her for the wait, then returned to his eye-to-eye staredown with his neighbor. One deliberate blink every 5 seconds, staring directly at Kuzmin the whole time.

For his part, Kuzmin was cutting down the last ~35,000 chips he had left, and he rested his hand behind them for a while longer before shoving them in. McDonald didn't love it, but there wasn't much choice now. As it turned out, his call was very much the correct one.

Showdown
McDonald: {A-Hearts} {10-Spades}
Kuzmin: {A-Clubs} {6-Clubs}

The {8-Diamonds} on the turn brought a chop into play, and the river {K-Diamonds} meant the players would have to share the pot. McDonald couldn't help but let out a bit of a frown, but he quickly gathered back his bet and exchanged some friendly small talk with Kuzmin.