Have you ever busted out of a poker tournament during Level 1?
If you play multi-table tournaments regularly enough, the answer is likely yes. Whatever the buy-in, an early exit never feels good – but we have to imagine that it hurts a little bit more when it happens in one of the biggest events of the year. For American businessman and high stakes regular Brandon Steven, that nightmare became a reality on Day 1 of the $250,000 Triton Invitational at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise.
Steven's brutal beat in the Triton Invitational comes hot on the heels of his $2M loss in the Million Dollar Marathon game on Hustler Casino Live, making for a tough start to the holiday season.
Steven runs into it
With 190,500 in chips – less than a starting stack – Steven opened to 3,000 at the 500/1,000/1,000 blind level with 
before Eric Wasserson fired in a three-bet to 10,000 from the button. Sameh Elamawy looked down at 
in the big blind and opted to four-bet to 31,000. With the action back on him, Steven five-bet to 115,000, forcing Wasserson to send his hand into the muck.
Elamawy wasn't interested in folding, not even a little bit, and moved all-in for the rest of Steven's chips. With most of his stack already invested, Steven had no choice but to call it off.
For Level 1 of the tournament, it was a massive pot – with nearly 400 big blinds in the middle. The 
flop left Steven drawing thin and the 
on the turn ended any hope of victory in the hand.
While he lost all of his chips in the hand, the rebuy desk was far from closed and Steven opted to fire in another $250,000 bullet.
Unfortunately, his second try didn't go much better than the first and he was eliminated in 44th place.
Images courtesy of PokerGO and Triton Poker Series.
