Ladies and Gentlemen, Give a Warm Round of Applause
When we heard one player clapping sarcastically and applauding his opponent's "great play" with derision, we stopped to take a look. The frustrated player had gone all-in with and was called by an opponent holding
. With nearly equal chip stacks, a loss here would cripple the player holding queens in the hole.
While his overpair was certainly best before the flop, the arrival of five board cards can change everything in a hurry. The flop came and the queens were by far the best hand. After the turn card came
, the man with the overpair was one card away from building a big stack to wield later in the tournament.
River:
With that, the opponent's lowly pair of fours had transformed into a runner-runner straight and the pot was shipped his way. The player who took the bad beat was left with just 600 chips and began applauding his opponent's play, clapping and laughing to show his disapproval.