Furlong Fights for His Chips
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Phil Ivey's table just broke, and he joined table Mortensen/Elezra/Shak over there in the corner. We tend to follow Ivey around, so we dropped by to see how he was liking his new digs.
As we walked up, there was a commotion brewing, and the floor was called. Here's the deal. There was a board of 
in the middle of the table, and the pot was heads up at this point. Gabriel Alarie had checked, and Noel Furlong bet 12,000, just a bit less than the pot. That's where the confusion started. Alarie said either "fold" or "call" depending on whose ears you trust, and he opened up his 
. Furlong, whose hand was clearly beaten, insisted that he heard Alarie announce a fold, open-mucking his big slick. Eli Elezra and Furlong were getting a bit heated as Elezra argued that Alarie clearly said call. A couple other players at the table nodded in agreement, but there was no unanimous verdict.
Floor!
This one required the big boss, T.D. Jack Effel, and it took a minute for him to pick his way through the thick mass of spectators and into the ropes. When he arrived, he reconstructed the action, listened to both sides of the story, and made what we think is a pretty logical ruling.
The relevant factors:
- Furlong had committed 12,000 chips to the pot on the river.
- Alarie had exposed his hand, which did not necessarily make it dead.
- There was no indication that Alarie intended to fold.
Effel therefore ruled that Alarie would have another chance to make his action, though it was pretty apparent what his decision was going to be. He splashed in the call, Furlong mucked, and Alarie dragged the pot.
Furlong's argument was that Alarie had never put his chips in the pot. "I have 12,000 in the pot. Right there. When a player calls, he puts his chips in the pot," Furlong argued in his light Irish brogue.
A few of the other players at the table tried to politely give him the "well nowadays" routine, but Furlong was too steamed to pay much attention. He's dropped to 29,000 now, and it's back to battle with his starting stack.