Over on table 20 a few minutes ago, three players were in the middle of a hand when one of them, the smallest stack at the table, shoved for a negligible amount after seeing the flop. The other two players, Luciano Iacovella and James Brown, easily covered him and were happy to simply make the call. Although we didn’t record the exact cards on the table, when Luciano and James both checked, and fourth street revealed a second king on the board.

James was quick to shove all in, and Luciano folded in the face of his aggression. However, when James flipped over his cards to face off against the short stack, all he had was a (with no sevens or fours pairing on the board). It was safe to say that Luciano was not happy – at both James’ play or his own decision to fold. Even worse, the small stack flipped over his cards to reveal only a six and a three! A few expletives later, the short stack took down the hand and Luciano could do nothing but stew while the table twittered in bemusement at James’ decision to shove with nothing and his ability to come out of the hand without a scratch.

This was Luciano’s frame of mind when, a few hands later, he found himself in another hand with James. It began with a late-position raise from Luciano to 25,000, which was called by chip leader Alexandre Lajoie on the button and James in the big blind. The flop came down , the table checked and a was dealt on the turn.

When James decided to open with an oddly-sized 53,000 bet, Luciano was eager to take back some chips from James and push his weight around, shoving for his remaining 400,000. But to Luciano’s surprise, Alexandre shoved over top with his million chips before the action returned to James. The two all-ins were too much for James, who smartly bowed out.

Luciano flipped over his pocket queens, but Alexandre’s pocket pair of tens matched the ten already on the board, leaving Luciano with only a few outs to make either trip-queens or the ace-high straight. Unfortunately for Luciano, the final card was a dud and he was eliminated in 64th place, just 20 from the bubble. James remains at the table, and is very close to making the bubble. That’s poker!

Play continues…