Worked by the Working Area
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After one player opened to 1,200 from under-the-gun, three other players flatted the bet and the action moved to Vishnu Pabbathi in the small blind.
Pabbathi wanted to put the squeeze play on with a three-bet to 4,800, and after arranging the necessary chips to do so - with his hands and the chips remaining behind the table's yellow line - he capped the stack with his small blind chip and slid the whole thing forward.
This action led to an objection by one of his opponents - longtime professional Roland Israelashvili - who claimed that a string bet had been made. The floor was called (one of several insistent calls for a ruling made during the last level), and after assessing the situation a staff member told Pabbathi that he had made a forward motion while grabbing his small blind chip, one which nullified his ability to raise.
The term "working area" was used to describe the spot between the aforementioned yellow line and Pabbathi's cards, and the official ruling was that Pabbathi had crossed this invisible realm to reach for his small blind chip. In doing so, Pabbathi had forfeited his right to reraise, and he was forced to simply complete the big blind. Rather than contest the pot with his intentions already revealed, Pabbathi elected to muck his hand instead, surrendering the 300 chips and moving on without much objection.
For his part, Pabbathi contends that he did verbalize the bet of 4,800 before any physical action was made, but upon further reflection the mild-mannered man was just glad the 11-minute long hand had ended without any real ramifications.