I'm posting this here since it's more of a tell based guessing game than anything else, and over at LCP it would just be a 50/50 situation.
Last night I played the PokerStars Festival Open (live) in Korea, day 1A. These events attracts a lot of regs traveling the region and as I sat down I noticed that the dealers/floor are Filipino and half the table as well. To my right is a nice French guy, to his right is the "villain" in this tale. He is Filipino.
Towards the end of level 1 (25/50) this hand goes down:
French raises 150 from UTG and it folds to Villain in the BB who calls. The flop comes 9
4
2
Now V reaches for chips and puts in a bet of 7.000. He puts in one 5k chip and two 1k. Two seconds goes by (by estimate) and then he takes them back and puts in one 100 chip and two 25s, to indicate he meant to make it 150. Now the dealer chimes in and says the initial bet stands, it must be 7k. As it happens one of the floor men is standing right by the table and states that 7k is the bet.
Since this is very early in the tournament both players have about 15k stacks. My French buddy goes into the tank and says "i don't think I can fold this. If this is an angle it's pretty sick". Villain just shrugs, I'm not sure if he speaks English to be fair.
French eventually jams and gets snap called. French shows 44 and Villain has A
5
.
The set holds and V is eliminated. After he leaves there is a big discussion if it was an angle or not. One guy says he's seen him do that before, but goes a little defensive when I ask flat out.
Granted, I have a very limited time with V (28 mins?), but I can speculate based on that short time.
It was an angle:
He looked to be a seasoned player. Chip tricks, the way he handled his cards, the overall comfort level at the table.
The chip colors are not even remotely similar, clearly states denomination too.
From my perspective the move itself looked rehearsed; he didn't look flabbergasted upon realizing his error and the call when facing jam came very quickly.
We have one guy who maybe saw this angle from V before? Not a very reliable witness tho.
It was not an angle:
The strength of his hand seems dubious.
I guess he has to call the jam from Francois with any heart/ace whatevs?
If it was rehearsed, wouldn't he protest and plead his case and then sigh call the jam?
Plus, this happens all the time at live poker?