Max Silver has been giving the table the benefit of his wisdom on the merits of min-raising versus limping. As with much in poker the answer seemed to be “It depends.” He was clear on one thing though, he called antes the “Lowest emotion chip.” for players. Something for us all to ponder on there.
Meanwhile a hand broke out. Spanish player Rauel Perez raised to 4,900 from the button. The small blind folded but the big blind, PokerStars player Edo Naftlay from Israel, called.
They saw a flop of . Both players checked. The turn was the and Naftlay led out for 5,300. Perez, after some thought, called. The river brought the . Naftlay bet again, this time a hefty 9,000.
Perez began to think. The table fell silent allowing him to work through the problem for a significant number of chips. The minutes ticked by however and eventually Silver called “Time.” The floor was called and Perez was given the speech: “You have one minute starting from now, at the end of which you will have ten seconds to make a decision or your hand will be declared dead.”
Within 30 seconds though Perez made up his mind and called. Naftlay tabled the . Perez re-checked his cards but couldn’t beat that and mucked his cards.
We happened by the feature table just in time to see Christopher Morkan moved all in for 25,700 and receive a call from Spain's Guilabert Bernabeu on the button. The blinds folded and the cards were turned on their backs.
Morkan:
Bernabeu:
It was a flip, and Morkan was on his feet asking the dealer for a little luck. The flop seemed safe enough, as did the river. All Morkan needed to do was dodge an ace and queen on the river, which he did when the blanked on the river.
"Thank you," Morkan said as he retook his seat.
Bernabeu, who got off to a quick start today, has fallen back down to earth rather quickly.
Benjamin opened to 7,000 preflop from the cutoff before Marc Macdonnell made it 16,600 on the button. Spragg came back over the top with a four-bet to 27,500 but Spragg quickly moved in for about 120,000.
sighed and then called.
Spragg:
Macdonnell :
The flop came and Spragg was freerolling for a huge pot, Macdonnell looked on anxiously but he faded the diamond on the turn and river to split the pot.