Event 8: Profitable Fold

$350 + $50 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Maio (left) Describes the Action as Jon Diolosa & Celeste (right) Listen

It's a wild and crazy hand where a player, who tries to fold, is forced back into the hand by the tournament director and the ruling helps him increase his chip stack.

The flop of A♠ 7♠ 8♥ creates a ton of action and it goes down like this:

Anthony Maio (Jamison, PA) opens for 2,500
Steve Celeste (Howell, NJ) raises to 11k
Seat 1 moves all in for 65k
Celeste says, "call" out of turn before Maio acts, and that's when the fun begins.

Maio eventually calls and is all in for only 25k, but when the hands are tabled Celeste sees he's in big trouble.

Seat 1: 8♦ 8♣ (set of 8s)
Maio: A♥ 8♠ (top two pairs)
Celeste: A♦ 7♦ (top and bottom two pairs)

Celeste asks for an official ruling to see if his out of turn call is binding and if he can now fold.

After TD Tab Duchateau is summoned from the Signature Room across the hall, the fact that Maio has less chips doesn't change the action and Celeste, who actually tried to put his cards into the muck, was committed to calling the 65k.

Turn: Q♦ (Seat 1 is 98% favorite to win the hand)

River: A♣

The case ace hits the river, the table explodes, and just like that seat 1 is out the door as he loses to both full houses.

Maio wins the main pot of 80k, while Celeste takes down the side pot of 80k and can't believe that, despite losing the main pot, adds 15k to his stack.

"I tried to fold, but they wouldn't let me," says Celeste.

Seat 1 is left wondering what could've been as a 160k pot slips through his fingers with the turn of one card.