On table 34 action was all in pre-flop between Paul El-Khouri and Jean St. Martin, and both players were sitting on large stacks, although El-Khouri had St. Martin covered. When the players flipped over their cards, the entire table smiled as both players had pocket aces, and it looked like one of those “waste of everyone’s time, chopped pots”.  There were two diamonds on the flop, and on the turn everyone on the table went silent when a third diamond hit the board. El-Khouri was holding the ace of diamonds and St. Martin cringed and tensed up, thinking “OMG”. Thankfully for him, the river was a blank and the pot was chopped.

Tournament players know the routine: there is always a sweat when there is an all in. This is definitely a situation where in the end, St. Martin was happy to chop.

Paul El-Khouri

Jean St. Martin