On table 65 just now, Sivajini Kathiravelu (below, left) was all in two hands in a row. One time it went against her, and the next she doubled up. Although the end result of this high-risk play was a net negative for her chip count, at least she’s still alive and kicking.

In the first instance, Sivajini faced off against Louise Francoeur (above, right) and chose to shove on a flop holding top pair as well as a flush draw. It was Louise however that had it sewn up as she called Sivajini’s all-in shove with her pocket twos already matched. The turn and river didn’t help Sivajini at all, but fortunately for her, Louise had fewer chips than she did. Sivajini was able to stick around with about 7,000 left in her stack.

Very often when a player’s stack is crippled, the next hand usually involves a second consecutive shove. This is exactly what happened here, except this time Sivajini’s preflop shove resulted in a win. Only one player decided they wanted a piece of the action, this time it was Lisa Powell. Lisa’s stack size almost required her to call, which she promptly did.

Sivajini’s outlasted Lisa’s in this case, as her ten made her a straight on the turn. She lives to play another day…or at least another few minutes!