“Classic.”
So said someone from the rail after having witnessed preflop action resulting in Chilean Jose Ile putting his entire stack at risk.
The hand had begun quietly with a standard raise from Claudio Moya, Ile’s fellow countryman sitting to his right. Ile checked his hand, then announced he was reraising all in for about 365,000, setting a partial stack of blue chips in front of him to indicate the bet.
It folded back to Moya who didn’t hesitate before calling, then the two players — the oldest at this final table — simultaneously tabled their hands.
Moya had the big one — A♥ Aâ™ . Then Ili showed the hand helping us all see that the unsaid noun “cooler” was what the adjective “classic” was modifying — Kâ™ K♣ .
Ili exhaled wearily and started to stand, but Moya held his neighbor’s arm while noting that it wasn’t a done deal quite yet. But five cards later — 6â™ 5♥ 7♥ 9♥ 5♣ — it was, and they stood and shared an embrace signifying both players’ acceptance that sometimes the cards play the players, not the other way around.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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