Negreanu Thinking Royal Thoughts

[user66118]

Caio Pimenta limped into the pot from middle position, and Daniel Negreanu made the raise from the cutoff seat. When it folded back to Pimenta, he snuck in a reraise, and Negreanu flatted to see the flop.

It came {10-Hearts} {K-Hearts} {6-Diamonds} , and Pimenta continued out with what looked like 63,000. Negreanu announced that he was all in with his monster stack, and Pimenta instantly called off his last 208,000 to put himself at risk. He was ahead, but it was a good sweat.

Showdown
Pimenta: {A-Clubs} {A-Spades}
Negreanu: {A-Hearts} {Q-Hearts}

Yikes. Pimenta's overpair had him poised for a double, but he needed to fade the hearts and jacks left in the deck to avoid elimination. The turn came the {10-Clubs} , a safe card for the at-risk player, and Negreanu repeated his situation aloud: "Royal draw."

That draw never came in as the river {8-Spades} was the wrong shade and the wrong shape. Negreanu was accepting of the result as it was an unavoidable spot once the flop came. Pimenta was more than accepting, throwing his hands up in celebration and then running over to leap into the arms of a friend on the rail. Quite literally. It was a sight to behold, but Pimenta returned quickly to stack up the chip-leading pot.

He's got about 530,000 now, while Negreanu takes a tumble back to 375,000. It must be comforting to know you can lose a 100bb pot and still have nearly twice the chip average, and we're sitting here wondering what might have been if Kid Poker had found an out on that river.