Cheung Chopped by Huang

Shirley Ang

Level 20 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante

Sparrow Cheung shoved all in for 89,000 in total from the button and Xiao Jun Yu asked for a count in the small blind. The dealer confirmed the amount and Yu tanked. Yu looked at his cards without really protecting them. Shan Huang in the big blind told Yu to protect his cards as he could see them. Yu turned away from Huang a bit and then tanked a bit longer. Yu then folded. Huang confirmed the amount again and then called.

Cheung asked for the floor and explained the situation. According to Cheung, it wasn't fair to him that Huang called with the extra information he managed to gather by seeing Yu's cards. The floor listened to the explanation of all three players and then conferred with the tournament director. When the floor came back, he gave Yu a 1-round penalty for not protecting his cards.

A huge discussion ensued as none of the three involved players agreed. The tournament director was pulled into the discussion and the whole situation was explained to him again. The TD stood by his initial ruling and Yu wasn't happy. Voices were raised and both Cheung and Huang defended Yu as he didn't do it intentionally. After several minutes, Yu's penalty was reduced to 3 hands.

The TD also ruled that the call was valid and the hand had to go on.

Sparrow Cheung:
Shan Huang: