The :::Qs :::Jd :::6c :::9h :::Ac board had been fully dealt by the time I arrived and the dealer was staring into space, bored and waiting for the two players to finish betting. Oleksander Sharov had bet 5,800 in the cutoff; Juha Rasku on the button thought about it for a long time before raising to 15,000, leaving himself less than 9,000 behind. Sharov went all in and although Rasku didn’t look massively pleased about it, he hadn’t left himself many options. He called all in, sadly revealing :::Ah :::Ad. Sharov turned over :::Kh :::Tc for a Broadway straight and the winning hand, and is now up to around 70,000. Rasku stood right by the table for a while, watching Sharov stack up the chips that used to be his, before eventually wandering off into the night.
Rasku’s former seat has now been filled by Paul Valkenburg.
