Be Careful How You Move Your Chips

[user25067]

Brandon Cantu raised to 175,000, Nikolay Losev called on the button and Peter Eastgate called from the big blind. The flop was {A-Spades}

. Eastgate checked, Cantu bet 350,000, Losev called and Eastgate folded. The turn was the {A-Diamonds}

. Cantu bet 475,000, Losev raised to 1,000,000 and Cantu called. The river was the {4-Clubs}

. Cantu checked. And here's where things got interesting.

Chip leader Losev had all of his 100,000 denomination chips stacked up into one tall tower. He gripped the tower, slid it out toward where the dealer button sat in front of his chip stack, and then pulled it back. He then took 15 chips off the top of the tower and bet 1.5 million.

Several players at the table were alarmed at this, especially since Losev had made what appeared to be a string bet only a few hands prior. In that incident, Losev had picked up some chips, cut them down in front of his stack, then returned to his main stack two more times for additional chips before stacking them all together and pushing out his bet. Losev's motions on that hand were ruled by the floor not to be a string bet.

Tournament Director Jack Effel was called over to the table to make a ruling. Losev ended up getting a warning about moving his chips that way, but did not receive a penalty. Since Losev does not speak English, his translator relayed the information to him at the end of the hand.

Losev's 1.5 million river bet was allowed to stand and Cantu quickly called, turning over {8-Spades}