After several decades spent at the poker table, there's not much that Daniel Negreanu hasn't seen. With four players remaining in the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event, however, a hand took place that Negreanu described as "so bonkers you have to see it to believe it." The hand in question involves three of the four combatants and a turn card from the heavens that birthed the greatest "What If?" scenario of the year.
Plus, when a veteran player with experience across all levels of the game says that you should watch a hand, you should watch the hand – check it out in the post linked below.
Did that really happen?
Belarmino De Souza kicked off the action with a raise from the hi-jack with 
and Bernhard Binder – the eventual Super Main Event Champion – called from the small blind with a mystery hand. Jean-Noel Thorel, runner-up finisher and never one to shy away from the action, came along from the big blind with 
as the covering stack.
The 
flop was all De Souza as he connected with a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw while Thorel picked up bottom pair and backdoor possibilities.
Binder's hand remained a mystery as all three players checked to bring in the 
on the turn – the perfect card to induce action as De Souza's straight came home and Thorel improved to two pair. While his hand was a mystery to viewers, Binder knew his cards perfectly well and opted to lead into the field on the turn, firing 37M into the 56M in the pot. And this is where the hand starts to get interesting.
Thorel snap-mucked his two pair in the face of Binder's bet. If you've ever watched Thorel play on the Triton Poker Series, you know this was a misclick. There's no universe in which Thorel throws away two pair on the turn when faced with a single bet. It's just not happening. There's only one reasonable conclusion we can draw from this and it's that Thorel must have misread his hand.
"I've never seen JNT fold two pair in my life," came the call from Henry Kilbane in the commentary booth.
With the Frenchman out of the way, De Souza made the call to bring in the 
river – providing viewers with a real-time example of the butterfly effect in motion. If Thorel knew he had two pair, he likely would have called Binder's bet and improved to a full house on the river. Instead, Binder moved all-in on the river to put De Souza in a sick spot. Eventually, without much time to consider his options, De Souza pitched his cards into the muck and Binder's hand was revealed: 
.
We'll never know what would have happened if Thorel called the turn bet – De Souza may very well have decided to raise behind with the nut straight and a re-draw to a flush – which makes it one of the greatest 'What If?' moments in poker history.
