From the button, Rami Boukai peeked at his two cards and quickly folded. In the small blind, Najib Bennani followed suit, giving Ben Grundy a walk in the big blind.
It's not often you're upset to snag some free chips, but Grundy couldn't have been happy to look down at as he slid them across the felt face-up.
"That should steam you now," quipped Boukai, drawing a chuckle from the table. It was good to see the stale mood broken just a bit with that comment, as the players have been all too serious for several hours now.
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Two orbits later, Grundy got yet another walk. "Oh my god," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I'm not even gonna show you this time." A few hands later, he told one of his railbird friends that he had ace-king. He's still chuckling though, with no signs of steaming just yet. Let's see what happens next orbit though.
Najib Bennani limped in from the button, Ben Grundy completed from the small blind, and Rami Boukai knocked the table in the big.
In a friendly three-handed pot, the flop brought . Grundy checked, and Boukai led out with a two-thirds pot bet of 100,000. Bennani called, and Grundy got out of the way.
The turn and river came and respectively, with the two players check-checking on both streets. Bennani tabled , and his set of tens was good enough to win the pot on a scary looking board.
Players continue to play cautiously, with few hands going beyond the flop (if that far). Just now we thought something big might be brewing as Rami Boukai raised to 110,000 from the button, and Ben Grundy reraised pot from the big blind. Boukai thought about it, but let it go. Grundy showed .
Rami Boukai has pushed back out into the lead now with about 1.6 million. Najib Bennani has 1.1 million, and Ben Grundy is the short stack with 700,000.
Najib Bennani held a big advantage for a good while, but they have pulled back close to even now. Rami Boukai has 1.25 million, Bennani has 1.15 million, and Grundy 1.05 million.