Friday, 29th March 2024 15:16
Home / Uncategorized / EPT12 Malta: Split the difference

As far as arguments over antes and blinds go the one that just took place between Steven van Zadelhoff and Patrick Leonard is hardly going to rival the infamous Friedman vs Lisandro incident from the 2006 World Series.

In fact it wasn’t even an argument, which is no bad thing. It was more a discussion between the two of them and the dealer to make sure nobody was out of pocket and the pot was correct. No voices were raised, no one got annoyed and nobody felt hard done by. It was though quite a funny incident to watch as something got lost in translation between Leonard and the dealer.

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Van Zadelhoff and Leonard
The blinds at this stage were 100/200 ante 25, action was nine handed, Van Zadelhoff was the small blind whilst Leonard, who was wearing a knitted blue woolen hat, was the big blind. The dealer had scooped the antes into the middle there was a solitary 100 chip in front of Van Zadelhoff and the same amount in front of Leonard, meaning the Englishman was one chip light. But, there was also 25 too much in the antes pile and the dealer went to return this to Leonard which is where the confusion began.


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“I put my 225 out there,” Leonard said to the dealer and reached back into his stack and took out another T100 chip and another T25 chip to demonstrate this. “Even if you don’t think I did, I shouldn’t be getting 25 back as I either put in 125 or 225,” added Leonard.

“I’m fairly sure I put my small blind out, but I can’t be sure,” said Van Zadelhoff at this point. Another dealer had arrived on the scene by this point and it was established that the antes were correct but there was still this mysterious T25 chip that didn’t seem to belong to anyone. “Is it possible you put in 150?” asked another player at the table to Leonard, who was sure he’d put out 225.

It should be noted at this point that no one was angry and Leonard’s main issue was with the fact that he shouldn’t be getting a 25 chip back, not that he was being asked to put in another 100. Everyone just wanted to play cards and to help facilitate this Van Zadelhoff offered to split the cost with Leonard of the extra chips that were required. So, Leonard put out another T100 chip, Van Zadelhoff tossed him two T25 chips and the game continued.

Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.

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