A player in Day 1B of the $5,300 SHRPO Championship event managed to get to showdown in a massive pot with what he thought was top full house, only to find that he'd actually got three hole cards.
The hand happened on the feature table and was livestreamed last night, with Jesse Fullen on commentary.
With blinds at 1K/1K/2K, Niall Costigan raised preflop from UTG+1 to 4,500. The on-screen graphic showed that he had 
but Costigan thought he had pocket kings.
Corey Harrison called with 
and Daniel Cove called with 
from the big blind.
The flop came down 
, and action checked to Costigan, who bet 5K. Harrison folded and Cove called to the turn.
Cove check-called another bet on the 
turn, which took action to the 
river. Costigan slid out a massive bet of 52,000, equal to just over a starting stack, and left the pot at 101,500.
Cove made the call and showed his hand. Costigan flipped over a king for what he believed was top full house, then reached for his second card — and realized there were still two in his hand.
That's when things went a little crazy.
Costigan claims he never saw ace
'F**k!' Costigan said, slamming the second king down and showing the to the table, saying, "I never saw the ace!"
Steve 'Cuz' Buckner, who was also at the table, said, "I've never seen this in my life!"
Costigan continued talking, saying, "He called with trash as well, that's the worst part. The whole time I thought I had top boat. It [the ace] was stuck to the bottom."
The floor was called and the table carried on talking about what had just gone down.
Brian Green said, "There's no way he didn't know he had that [third] card."
That started another argument, with Costigan saying that he would never have value bet an ace that big on the river.
Buckner said, "That's why I knew he thought he had two kings and it was stuck underneath."
Floor makes ruling, Costigan not happy
PokerOrg columnist Matt Savage, executive tour director of the WPT, turned up in the chat and said he'd seen this a lot and that the result would be that Costigan's hand would be declared dead. Savage said he may refund the last bet depending on when it was made and that it didn't matter whether the player knew he had three cards or not.
He called it right. The floor declared the hand dead and despite Costigan arguing that the whole hand should be declared dead and the chips refunded — "So I get punished for playing well?" — that was the final ruling.
"It's your responsibility to know how many cards you have," Green said. "It's an unfortunate mistake."
Costigan was left with just over his starting stack and went on to bust later in the day. Cove didn't find a bag either.
Day 2 of the SHRPO Championship restarts at noon on Sunday with 292 players returning and 112 getting paid. You can watch all of the action on the Hard Rock Poker YouTube channel.
You can watch the controversial hand play out below, starting from 3:50:00.
