When we joined the hand on table 56, Francis Labonte was in the middle of a battle with Van Nguy, one that had been defined up to that point by Francis raising, and Van calling. Having chased everyone else out of the hand, it was heads up between the two.

The flop was dealt and Van led out with a bet of 5,400. Not to be outdone, Francis raised to 12,800. As it was in the preflop action, Van reflected briefly, then called. This time a came down on the turn, and Van checked. Francis casually tossed in 14,900 – a relatively odd-sized bet. Perhaps making his flush, or perhaps noticing that Francis was down to his last 30,000 chips, Van check-raised to 35,000.

It didn’t take long for Francis to realize he wasn’t willing to risk his tournament life on this hand, and he laid it down. At this stage in the tournament, with only 13 eliminations separating the winners from the losers, it was the cautious move. But without seeing what Van was holding, there’s no way to tell if it was the right one.