Every year the WSOP throws up some weird and wonderful hands - some that win massive titles, some that result in players losing their minds, and some, well, just plain controversial...
We have already had the massive stramash that ensued when Sam Soverel folded out of turn at the $50k High Roller final table, and this week saw Maria Ho involved in a strange hand that still has your writer confused – a big raise that wasn’t an all-in but was ruled as an all-in!
Ho was sitting pretty in the $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em day one when she made a big raise from middle position, 105,000 from her 130k stack, and her opponent in the small blind called after asking for a count of Ho’s bet.
Standard so far, but then… both players tabled their hands! Ho had barely a BB and ante behind, but they were definitely still there.
A sweet turn card paired her ace to win the hand against her opponent’s pocket queens, and here’s where it gets tricky.
The floor ruled that not only was Ho due the 105k from her bet, but also payment for the extra 25k she had behind – the tabling of cards an assumption of all-in, her opponent under the impression she had shoved anyway.
The controversy? Well, had Ho lost the hand, she could have argued she still had 25k to play with – the argument perhaps being she thought she had her opponent covered, for example. It could be a good angleshoot at the right time.
Well, this time round it didn’t amount to a big problem – but answers on a postcard if you think this should have been an ‘all-in’ ruling, or just a ‘checked to the river’ hand for 105k?