Elton Tsang, moved to Guy Laliberté's former seat on the feature table, opened with a raise to 50,000 from the cutoff. Small blind Patrick Madden reraised to 170,000 and Tsang called.
Both of them checked on and the hit the turn. Madden tossed in two 100,000-chips and Tsang called.
It went check-check on the river and neither player was eager to show their cards.
"One pair,... small" Madden said.
"Oohh, that's not good enough" answered Tsang.
After some hesitation, the two of them both showed their cards. Madden tabled and Tsang showed .
"One more bet and you would've had it" Tsang smiled.
"But I made a pair" Madden answered.
Bob Safai, smiling at Madden, said: "So that's what you've been doing, huh?"
There was about 250,000 already in the pot on the flop, and two players involved in the hand. After the flop came down , Rick Salomon checked from the hijack, and Mark Teltscher bet 140,000. Salomon called.
Both players checked the on the turn and the river was the . Salomon led out for 325,000. Teltscher thought for a minute, then tossed out the chips to call.
"Flush," Salomon announced as the tabled . Teltscher tapped the table, then mucked his cards.
A head-scratcher of a moment for Pierre Garand to tell you about now and it was Brandon Steven who put him to the test.
Pre-flop Garand opened to 51,000 from the cutoff, Steven three-bet to 153,000 and Garand smooth called. On the flop Garand check-called a bet of 77,000 and he check-called a further 232,000 on the turn. The was a very interesting river card as it completed a broadway straight on the board. Again Garand played it passively, checking the action to Steven. He emptied the clip, firing a third barrel of 470,000 to further swell the pot. This gave Garand pause for thought, he quickly cut out the required calling chips and went to call but then thought better of it.
He and Steven shared some inaudible conversation as Garand continued to mull over the decision, he looked anguished and decided ultimately to keep his powder dry and pushed his cards into the muck. As for Steven, he wasn't showing.
Elton Tsang raised to 50,000 from middle position, and Bob Safai three-bet to 150,000 from the cutoff. Anatoly Gurtovoy called from the big blind, and Tsang called as well.
The flop came . Gurtovoy and Tsang both checked, and Safai continued for 175,000. Both his opponents folded, and Safai took the pot.
Popular poker wisdom is that showing your cards when you don't have to is bad as you give your opponents free information. Well thankfully that memo hasn't reached Monte Carlo and we like that as it gives us more information to report.
In a recent hand at table 10 Yaqi Sun made it 50,000 to play and he picked up calls from Rick Salomon (button) and Dan Shak (big blind). The action kicked up a notch on the flop as Sun continued for 100,000, Salomon called and Shak then check-raised to 400,000 total. There followed quick folds from both his opponent's and as Shak took the pot he showed for a flopped set.
Paul Phua was first to act and raised to 45,000. His neighbor Talal Shakerchi called, Kamer Alyanakyan on the button called and big blind Elton Tsang called.
All four of them checked the flop. Tsang bet out 100,000 on the turn and Phua called, Shakerchi folded, Alyanakyan called.
The on the river made Tsang bet 225,000 and Phua instantly folded. Alyanakyan called but mucked upon being shown by Tsang.