It is not uncommon to see players use every trick in the book to gain an advantage during a poker tournament. Often times the deeper you go, the more likely it is to see some kind of psychological pressure being brought to bear. We can’t be entirely certain, but on table 20 just now we might have witnessed just that, in the form of uncommonly long periods of reflection.

What made this noteworthy was that the tournament was barely two hours old, most players had something on the order of 120 big blinds, and the stakes of this hand are relatively low, considering the starting stack. The delays were so out of place they seemed like an intentional tactic.

The hand began with three players entering the hand preflop for 7,000. The flop came down , and the first player to act took two full minutes in the tank, only to bet 8,000. Both other players immediately called and the dealer slapped down fourth street with record speed. Fourth street was a , and it took another two full minutes for the same player to open with a bet of 24,000.

Only one player stuck around to see the river, a . Again, it took another two minutes for the player to bet, this time 66,000 chips. The other player called and was forced to muck his cards when he saw his opponent flip over a , two pair.

In the end, we suppose it doesn’t matter how you get there – winning’s winning!