Say what?
The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Taipei wrapped up over the weekend, but not before a really weird hand played out during the heads-up portion of the NT$120,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller event.
It was Ritwik Khanna versus Trung Quan Nguyen, Nguyen healthily in the lead, 22 million chips to 9.7 million. Nguyen called for 300,000 pre-flop with K-5 and Khanna checked with K-6 suited (suits are not important from here on out).
The flop hit Khanna: 6-Q-Q. He checked, Nguyen bet 600,000, and Khanna check-raised to 1.8 million. Nguyen made the call.
Another 6 on the turn was fantastic for Khanna, giving him a full house, and this is where things got strange.
Khanna checked again and Nguyen bet 1.5 million. Khanna, likely thinking he was well ahead, gave his decision some careful thought and then moved forward two stacks of chips totaling 4 million. Thinking his opponent had moved all-in, Nguyen immediately grabbed a small stack of chips and slammed it on the table in front of him to make the call.
Oddly, the live stream graphic also said that Khanna was all-in, and the announcers thought he had shoved, as well. Khanna looked quite confused when the dealer motioned for him to turn over his cards, which he did not do. She asked him, “You’re all in, right?” to which he replied, “I bet four million,” while holding up four fingers.
Nguyen was yelling from across the table and Khanna gestured to the chips he bet, saying, “I said four million.”
The dealer spoke to someone who appeared to be a floor manager, seeming to explain that Khanna said he bet four million, but she, the dealer, thought he had gone all-in (it is difficult to hear everything in the video). The floor radioed to someone as everyone sat there confused.
Nguyen beaming
While they were waiting, Nguyen added another wrinkle to the already strange situation: he stood up, looked to the rail, and raised his fist triumphantly, as if to signal that he was going to win the hand. Of course, the viewers and commentators knew that he was drawing dead, barring a lucky chopped pot. And Nguyen, naturally, knew that he had nothing, though he didn’t know what Khanna had.
After a short wait, another man, presumably the tournament director, arrived at the table and was apprised of the situation. He determined that the bet was 4 million and Nguyen had called.
So at this point, Khanna had a stranglehold on the hand, but here was his problem: because he just saw Nguyen emphatically snap-called what he thought was an all-in and proceed to act very confident during the delay, Khanna now lacked conviction in his full house. Nguyen was acting like he had a Queen.
That doesn’t mean that things would have necessarily been different if Nguyen had acted like Khanna bet 4 million. He might have called and then jammed on the river. He might have raised him right there on the turn. Khanna still might have felt wary, just as he did the way things played out.
The river was a 3. Khanna instantly checked, Nguyen quickly bet, and Khanna snap-folded, obviously scared of a Queen. Nguyen threw his cards down, face up, to reveal his bluff.
In the end, Khanna came back to win the tournament, so all’s well that ends well for him. But what do you think about what happened? Was it just a misunderstanding, or did Nguyen angle shoot?