Making Mistakes
by Court on 12.18.09, 9:06 pm
The Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio is closing in on the final 6, but with some controversy along the way. Before the hand in question that eliminated John Juanda and brought the field down to 10 players both Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Lee Salem were eliminated.
Sowers moved all in for 740k after an opening bet of 100k from Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and a call from chip leader Curt Kohlberg. Jaka folded to the all in bet but Kohlberg ended up making the call of the additional 640k with the J
T. The board ran out A
87AT
and Kohlberg hit one of his many outs on the river to eliminate Sowers (right) in 13th for $47,615.
Lee Salem was the next to go when his A2
couldn’t hold up against Chad “M8kingmoves” Batista’s KQ in an all in preflop situation. Lee had moved in for around 400k from the button and Chad made the call from the big blind. A king on the flop was good enough to give Chad the pot and eliminate Salem in 12th for $57,137.
After busting Salem it wasn’t long before Chad was making a move again, but not one he meant to make. The action folded to John Juanda on the button who verbally moved all in but didn’t move any chips in the pot and had both his hands covering his cards back right in front of his chips. The dealer announced the all in and the action was to Batista (left). Chad, with hood and headphones on took a minute before taking his headphones off and asking if it was his turn. He was told it was by the dealer, but there was not another mention of the all in bet. Batista then moved all in thinking it had been folded to him in the small blind.
The action was then to Scotty Nguyen who asked for a confirmation that both Juanda and Batista were all in. At this point Chad realized he had moved in over the top of Juanda and is very visibly upset. Scotty, in true Scotty fashion, finds Chad’s mistake amusing and seems to take pleasure in verbally antagonizing Batista as the floor is called over to make a ruling. While Scotty laughs it up the floor comes over and in the middle of the floor ruling that both all in bets stand Scotty also says he is all in.
Nguyen, of course, has pocket aces and is well ahead of the pocket deuces of Batista and the A6 of Juanda. The board doesn’t change anything and Scotty wins the main pot while an upset Batista wins the small pot that was left over between himself and Juanda, worth about 400k while Nguyen triples up to just under 3 million chips. Juanda (right) is out in 11th place for $57,137.
Chad argued throughout the ordeal that Juanda should have had to put some chips in the pot, but was obviously more upset with himself than the ruling. To add to his frustration once the final 10 were combined to one table the shortstacked Batista was eliminated by Nguyen who had taunted him in the earlier hand. Batista’s final hand came when he moved all in from the button for 400k and was called by Scotty. Chad had pocket fives and was racing against the KJ of Nguyen but a king and two diamonds on the flop brought Scotty about all he could have hoped for and there was no miracle five for Chad. Batista’s 10th place finish brings $57,137.
Before the Batista elimination Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka won a massive pot worth 5.5 million chips as the expense of Curt Kohlberg. Jaka raised from under the gun to 160k and Kohlberg called. On the 872 flop Jaka check raised to 600k over the 200k bet from Curt. Kohlberg then moved all in covering Jaka’s 2+ million remaining chips. Faraz called with the 87 and his two pair was ahead of the KK of Kohlberg. The board ran out with the A and the T to send the largest pot of the tournament so far to Jaka. After the double Faraz had almost 5.5 million chips while Kohlberg went from the chip lead down towards the bottom of the pack with 1.6 million chips.
