Phillips Doubles, with a Little Extra
From middle position, Zheng Tang raised to 1,100. Next to act was Boston Celtics captian Paul Pierce. Pierce made the call before play folded around to Dennis Phillips in the big blind. The three players saw the flop come down 
. Phillips checked and Tang fired 2,200. Pierce made the call and Phillips also called.
The turn then paired the board with the 
. It also brought in a possible flush draw. Phillips checked and Tang bet 6,000. Pierce quickly threw his hand away, but Phillips didn't go away so easily. He tanked for a bit and then made the call, leaving himself with under 15,000 in chips behind.
The river completed the board when the 
landed and Phillips checked. Immediately, Tang tossed out 35,000 with seven T5,000 chips. That was more than enough to put Phillips all in. Phillips began to tank. He tanked for several long minutes, breaking down his own stack in the process. Phillips had 12,400 behind and was faced with a very important decision for his tournament life. He thought and thought, finally saying, "I'm sorry guys." The table insisted that he take his time and it's not a big deal. Then, he announced a call a few moments later.
Tang didn't turn his hand over, but Phillips did and he showed the 
for kings and nines with a queen. Tang mucked his hand, unable to beat that and Phillips slapped his hands together with a loud clap. He headed to the rail to get a congratulatory hug while the dealer broke down his stack to verify. This is where things got interesting.
The dealer broke down seven T1,000 yellow chips, three blue T500 chips, two stacks of ten black T100 chips and three stacks of 20 green T25 chips. There were then three more black T100 chips and four green T25 chips left over. By our Math, that equals 12,400, which was the amount Phillips broke his stack down to earlier when he was tanking. The dealer verified this amount as 13,900. How did this happen? The dealer pointed at each chip and announced the amount she was counting. She started with the two stacks of ten blacks chips, saying, "One, two," and then moved to the three stacks of 20 green chips. She continued, "Three, four, five," before going through all of the chips and finishing at 13,900.
Tang sent over three orange T5,000 chips and the dealer gave him 1,100 in change from Phillips' stack before play moved on to the next hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
71,000 | |
|
|
50,400
28,400
|
28,400 |
|
|
40,000 |