As I lurked around the near table watching the clock tick down, little did I know of the drama that was about to ensue. With Lorna Lancaster making it 3,500 preflop from mid-position, Terry Nelson pushed from the cut-off and
Gary Chatterton shoved from the button. After Libertini had returned an exchange of words with Chatterton and folded what we were led to believe was a big hand, initial raiser Lancaster made the fold and we had our showdown... except one player didn't want to show.
With Chatterton's
lying patiently on the felt, Nelson turned to his neighbour and said, "You told him [libertini] your hand." "No I didn't," replied Chatterton. "No he didn't," concurred Libertini. "No, I want a ruling," demanded Nelson.
As the tournament director was summoned, the argument continued.
"Look mate, I heard you say you had kings and you made him put his hand down."
"Nope, I didn't say that," replied Chatterton.
"He didn't say that, he said 'you haven't got kings have you?'" claimed Libertini. "I folded queens."
"You said 'have you got aces?', and he said 'I've got kings'," accused Nelson.
"I'm not happy about this," continued Libertini. "You're putting words into my mouth. "Look, I've told you what I heard," continued Nelson. "You're calling me a cheat, I'm not a cheat," said Libertini.
With the dealer retracing steps, the tournament director ruled that play would continue and asked Nelson to turn over his hand. Nelson showed
. A board of
was rather less eventful than the quarrel itself. As Nelson left mumbling under his breath, Libertini said, "Don't call me a cheat, I've never cheated in my life."
In what was a rather heated debate which even involved suggestions of "taking it outside", I simply couldn't resist a cheery face amid all the doom and gloom.
photography courtesy of the Floppster
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