“It was a bad call by me, but…” said the PokerStars Shooting Star Sebastian Ruthenberg, shrugging his shoulders and counting up about 20,000 in chips. Half of them previously belonged to the Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano, who by the time Ruthenberg was half-offering an explanation was talking to himself on the rail, the Italian for something like “Calm down, deep breaths,” etc., etc.

Sebastian Ruthenberg

Luca Pagano

They’d got it all in on a ten-high flop, Pagano with Q-10, Ruthenberg with 10-6. Ruthenberg was staring at the abyss until a six rivered and he was doubling up instead. Pagano is still alive with about 2,500, but Ruthenberg’s star is shooting again, when it might have fizzled.

On another table, Dario Minieri and Ramzi Jelassi are again mixing it up. Minieri raised pre-flop to 400, Jelassi made it 1,150 and Minieri called. The flop was 4h-5c-2c and after Minieri checked, Jelassi bet 1,600. “Raise,” said Minieri. He made it 4,800 and Jelassi folded.

“You raise me pre-flop with king high?” asked an faux-incredulous Minieri.
“I had blockers on your seven deuce,” fizzed the Swede.
“You had blockers on my top set?” Minieri pinged back.
“You’re lucky that I didn’t have ace high. I’m calling.”

Minieri has 23,000; Jelassi 12,000.

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