The WSOP Main Event burst its money bubble in the opening level of Day 4 on Thursday, needing just three hands to eliminate the seven players needed to get to the magic number of 1,382.
It was an early start and a tense morning for both players and organizers, who almost missed the big moment. The first hand went off before tournament directors started hand-for-hand play, and the sweat got very real as six players were bounced in the opening moments.
The caravan of bustouts led to the immediate start of hand-for-hand play with only one elimination left to go. It was hardly the long and drawn out morning that some may have expected.
Third time is the charm
WSOP Vice President Jack Effel bounced around the room on the first try, but four at-risk players survived, and everyone reset to do it again.
The second hand-for-hand round – the third hand of the day overall – did the trick.
In a twist of Main Event fate, two of the final three eliminations would be former Main Event champions, and they would square off for the WSOP Paradise consolation prize.
Six players were all in with a call on the bubble hand, and one of them was 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker. Our Guest Editor started the day with over 200K, so there wasn't any immediate bubble danger, but things went south fast.
A crowd gathered around Table #169, where Moneymaker was already packing up his things. The board read 
, for a full house, and word spread fast that his opponent, Antonio Vargas, had pocket aces. They got it in on the river, but it was bad news for the champ.
Another player was eliminated before Effel made his way to a waiting Moneymaker, who turned over 
. Vargas indeed had 
to send the champ home.
"Wrong read, wrong time," Moneymaker said after the hand.
Consolation prize?
Three of the six players who were all in on the bubble hand would go bust, so they split two payouts among them and left with a $10,000 rebate on the buy-in. They would also sit down to run it out for the annual consolation prize, a $25,000 seat to the Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.
In a light bubble day twist, one of the three was Stoyan Madanzhiev, winner of the 2020 Online Main Event. Not often considered one of the official Main Event champions, Madanzhiev was the winner of GGPoker's online version of the summer classic during COVID. The third player was Zhaken Seitbekov, and he would claim the consolation prize with king-high.
So, what now for Moneymaker?
"I can go back to my Guest Editor job."
The rest of the tournament will now move forward without him, with the remaining players now trying to climb the pay jump list all the way to the $10,000,000 top prize. Day 4 will continue for another five two-hour levels, and the field should shrink down to around 500-600 players for Friday's Day 5.
