McEwen Popped

Jeff McMillan

Level 8 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Action was on the river in a three-way pot that had 30,000 in it. It read J?8?4?J?5?. From the hijack, big stack Catalin Pop dialed up the pressure cooker on his two shorter stacked opponents as he bet 75,000 which covered both players.

The first decision was on Ignacio Costa in the small blind who had about 55,000 behind, he went long into the tank and put his head in his hands multiple times while sighing. Eventually after 3 minutes he folded.

Then it was Preston McEwen's turn to stew from early position. He had about 35,500 behind and took around two minutes himself before he spiked in the call.

Pop turned over the J?10? for trip jacks. McEwen got up in a hurry in visible frustration as his 9x9x hand was turned over and he fled out of the room with his main event over.

Meanwhile, Cuesta reacted in relief when he saw Pop's hand, indicating he had made the correct fold to preserve his tournament life.