It was a day in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship that saw a bit of everything: a classic Phil Hellmuth explosion, the dethroning of defending champion Daniel Negreanu by the Poker Brat... and a nearly four-hour money bubble finally ended by the chip leader.
A new champion will be crowned
The day started somewhat uneventfully with Luke Schwartz being the only elimination of the first level of play, but business certainly picked up after that, with seven eliminations in the following level, including plenty of big names.
The biggest of them all was defending champion Daniel Negreanu, whose title defense came to an end at the hands of 17-time bracelet winner Hellmuth in a hand of Pot-Limit Omaha.
Negreanu was very short-stacked when he got his chips in, but despite flopping two pair, Negreanu had to fade Hellmuth’s flush and better two-pair draws. The flush came right in on the turn for Hellmuth, and Negreanu failed to fill up on the river, ending his quest for a repeat in his favorite event.
That was one of Hellmuth’s highlights of the day, but the lowlights would come later.
Two more former PPC champions also fell in the 14th level of the tournament, as 2015 champ Mike Gorodinsky and 2019 winner Phil Hui both met their ends.
Also among the unlucky seven to be ousted during that eventful 100-minute span of the tournament was last year’s runner-up to Negreanu, Bryce Yockey.
One more level was played before just 22 players were left for the 60-minute dinner break. Over that third level of the day leading to the break, Andrew Yeh began his ascent to the top of the leaderboard, holding 3,200,000 chips at that point.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the counts, with the bubble approaching, all eyes were on two of the biggest names left in the field — Hellmuth and Benny Glaser, who had two of the three shortest remaining stacks as they came back from dinner.
The Poker Brat goes off
They would both remain so by the end of the next level, but while Glaser remained his cool, focused self at the table as he battled to survive, Hellmuth devolved into one of his patented tirades mid-level, targeting Justin Liberto and Albert Daher, who won pots in quick succession that left Hellmuth on fumes.
While the duo survived that level, Level 17 was not as kind, as Hellmuth’s crumbs were gobbled up by Chris Vitch in a hand of Razz as the ‘Poker Brat’ ended up with three pair. In a calmer mood by that point, the Poker Hall of Famer wished his tablemates well and took his leave from the tournament.
Glaser was ousted just minutes after in Pot-Limit Omaha at the hands of Yeh, who continued to add to his lead.
And then came the bubble.
They played how many hands?!?!?!
The first hand of hand-for-hand play was announced at 10.45pm PT, and while the chance for a quick bubble arose with Marco Johnson at risk against Jon Kyte just a couple of hands in, Johnson’s top set was able to hold up against Kyte’s top two pair and a gutshot straight draw.
That left Kyte as the shortest remaining stack, but still with more than enough to work with in what equated to 40 big blinds in big bet games and 10 big bets in limit.
From there, the bubble maintained more of the rigidity of a soccer ball than of dish soap, as after two hours, they were no closer to popping it, though with Kyte now healthier and over a million chips, while Ben Yu and Matt Ashton grew shorter, but still with 20 big blinds each.
After two hours and fifteen minutes had gone by in hand-for-hand play, Level 17 finally came to an end, but still with no resolution.
When hand-for-hand play resumed for Level 18, a welcome announcement was made that once the bubble finally burst, it would be replaced by bags, and play would end for the night.
But there was still that matter of getting to that point.
As play continued past a 60th hand on the bubble, the mood at the tables became deliriously light from the absurdity of the situation. Boisterous discussions, deep belly laughs, and plenty of chatter were prevalent at the final three tables.
While Ashton clung to his final 12 big blinds / 3 big bets on one of the outer tables, the focus for a potential bustout was centered squarely on the PokerGO stream table, as with about 100,000 chips each, Yu and Chris Klodnicki were the players with the largest bulls-eyes on them.
Yeh bagged 7,935,000 while Klodnicki headed for the exits empty-handed.
The final 17 players bagged up with a guaranteed $100,000 payday for their lengthy efforts Thursday and will now come back at 3pm PT, when they’re scheduled to play down to the final five.
PokerGO will again stream the event starting at 4pm, and our coverage will resume then.
$50K Poker Players Championship stacks
- Andrew Yeh: 7,935,000
- Albert Daher: 5,150,000
- Michael Mizrachi: 3,565,000
- Ben Lamb: 2,325,000
- Esther Taylor: 2,010,000
- Christian Roberts: 1,745,000
- Marco Johnson: 1,605,000
- Mike Matusow: 1,545,000
- Erick Lindgren: 1,500,000
- Justin Liberto: 895,000
- Bryn Kenney: 890,000
- Ali Eslami: 800,000
- Joao Vieira: 775,000
- Chris Vitch: 750,000
- Matthew Ashton: 285,000
- Jon Kyte: 230,000
- Ben Yu: 95,000
