A Curious Ruling

We've seen several head-scratcher rulings during the course of the WSOP. Add this one to the list.

Two players saw a flop of {J-Clubs}

. The player in Seat 2 bet pot, which was 21,000. His opponent in Seat 4, Genci Shehu, who was somewhat short, said, "OK. If you've got me, you've got me," and turned up his hand -- {J-Hearts}

. Seat 2 opened {J-Spades}

for a set-over-set situation. The dealer ran out the board {6-Spades}

, with Seat 2 declared the winner.

However, when the stacks were counted down, it was determined that the pot bet of 21,000 on the flop did not actually put Shehu all in. He still had some chips behind. A floor was called, who ruled that Shehu had called the bet on the flop, so the turn {6-Spades}

should stay on the board. The river {Q-Spades}

should be shuffled back into the deck and action should commence from the turn.

Seat 2 bet the turn, with all of the cards open, and Shehu, on the wrong end of the set-over-set situation, made the obvious fold. However, Shehu was not given a penalty for exposing his hand. Previously in the WSOP, any intentionally exposed cards, no matter the situation, have resulted in a one-orbit penalty.

Shehu won a large pot shortly thereafter, and then tripled after that. Rather than being out of the tournament, he now has an average stack of about 40,000 chips.

2008 World Series of Poker

2008 World Series of Poker

A Curious Ruling