We have seen some strange occurrences during the course of this Seniors Championship, but seeing some competitors playing their hands faceup takes the cake.
On no less than three separate occasions, we have passed by a table to see a player with their cards faceup on the felt and the action on them. While all three incidents involved different players, the common thread in each hand was a player in the big blind failing to notice another player limping in.
After seeing the action fold around, these players have looked down to find premium holdings, and each time they have turned them faceup to show the table their bad luck. However, with an unseen limper already in the pot, these players have been allowed to retain their big blind option with the action still pending.
In the last case we witnessed, a man had his faceup with the under-the-gun player having already called. The floor was called and it was determined that the man with kings could still act on his hand. He immediately shoved all-in and his opponent mucked. The player was then forced to sit out for a round as a penalty for exposing his cards prematurely.
With Day 2 winding down deep into the night, we expect more of these mental mishaps to take place as the seniors struggle to maintain their focus following nearly 10 hours of intense play.
We caught Anthony Hornyak making a call to put a pair of all-in players at risk. The first player held and had shoved for 50,000, while the second player tabled after committing his last 70,000.
Hornyak was in a dominant position with his and after the dealer spread a board of across the table, his aces were best. After the double elimination, Hornyak built his stack to nearly 350,000 chips to put him in great shape at this stage in the tournament.
We just witnessed a hand that typifies the current play here at the Seniors Championship. After a raise to 32,000 in front of him, a player pushed all-in for his stack of around 200,000. The raiser went into the tank but eventually folded his face up.
The player who shoved all-in saw the hand and showed his to the table while dragging the chips. While players of the current generation may have tried to extract maximum value in a situation like this, the seniors who have survived to this point simply want the hand to end.
After a flurry of bustouts following the money bubble bursting, eliminations have slowed to a crawl as the remaining players struggle to assure themselves a seat during the final day of play.
We passed by a table and found Debbie Millican all-in for her last 83,500 chips. The board read and her opponent studied both the cards and Millican for more than three minutes. He eventually apologized to the table for the delay, saying "I'm sorry guys, I have a real tough decision here."
After thinking things through, the man decided to make the call and put his tournament life at risk. He showed down the for top pair, top kicker. When he saw Millican's he discovered that his read was dead on and he had made a tremendous call.
The dealer burned and turned, dropping the on the table and delivering a dagger to the man's hopes. Millican had spiked her two-outer and now the man was drawing dead. The on the river only served to rub salt in his wounds, and his top two-pair were rendered useless by Millican's set of sixes.
She now sits with over 150,000 chips, good for a little under the average with only 61 players remaining.
A player raised to 25,000 from middle position and Harvey Bundy announced a reraise from the hijack, making it 71,000 to go. The original bettor looked over at Bundy, and his tower of chips, and laughed before saying "I got bad feeling about this one." He mucked his cards and our chip leader dragged the uncontested pot in his direction.
Jack Ward raised to 32,000 in the cutoff and Paul Magriel tanked for a a short while on the button. He stood out of his chair several times to get a good look at Ward's stack. Finally, he put in a hefty raise to 120,000. The blinds got out of the way and Ward called, leaving himself 9,500 behind.
The flop came down and Ward put in his last 9,500, sending Magriel into the tank for a good while before ultimately calling with . Ward tabled and appeared well on his way to double up, but the hit the turn and gave Magriel two outs to win. However, the river was not one of them and Ward found the crucial double.