Phil Ivey found himself on the wrong end of a cooler in the $250K Invitational at WSOP Paradise – the biggest buy-in of the festival.
And, as Ali Nejad said on the livestream comms, it was a "gross" spot that was also complicated by a player folding out of turn.
Stacks were super deep, with Ivey starting the hand with 254 big blinds.
Taylor Von Kriegenbergh raised to 3,000 preflop with 
and Ivey called with 
on the button before Jonathan Jaffe three-bet to 18,000 with 
.
Both players made the call to the 
flop which was a disaster for Ivey – and potentially Jaffe.
“Do not adjust your screens – top two against bottom set,” said Nejad.
Ivey eliminated by a set
Jaffe started with a check, Von Kriegenbergh bet 20,000, and Ivey raised to 60,000. Jaffe made an incredible fold, and Von Kriegenbergh called – although he wasn’t happy.
He was a bit flustered as well.
“Did he check? I don’t know what’s going on… is he (Ivey) the small blind?" Von Kriegenbergh asked.
“I’m the button,” Ivey said.
“Makes sense,” Von Kriegenbergh said before checking.
Ivey had 176K back and moved all-in. Von Kriegenbergh called and flipped his set of twos.
Ivey had four outs, but the 
river wasn’t one of them, and he was sent to the rail early on.
The rules of the Invitational mean that Ivey had one re-entry but had to use it in the hour following his bustout. We were expecting him to come back in, but he hasn’t, and that means he’s out of the tournament for good.
Confusion contributed to Ivey's bustout
Jaffe explained what the confusion was about mid-hand. It turns out Alexander Zubov had folded his big blind out of turn, which could have led to Ivey playing his hand stronger from the button with just one player to get through.
Von Kriegenbergh thought he had position on Ivey, as he wrongly thought Ivey was in the small blind.
The ripple effect did not help Ivey, and the $250K Invitational has lost some of its serious star power early on.
Level 5 has just ended, and the field is down to 86 players. Rafael Mota is the current chip leader with a 1.2 million stack. Daniel Negreanu is in midfield with 390K (195 big blinds).
Day 1 is set to play through 10 levels before the field merges both VIPs and pros for Day 2 tomorrow.
