It's never fun being the player out on the bubble in a poker tournament – the last to leave without any money, and the player making the long walk while everyone else around you celebrates.
Not all bubbles are created equal, though, and the bigger the buy-in, the greater the pain.
The $250K Invitational at WSOP Paradise took it to a new level. 23rd place paid $389,000 – more than you get for winning most tournaments outright. 24th place paid nothing, and the winner would get $7,725,000. It was the ultimate game of haves and have-nots.
The road to the bubble
49 pairs – VIPs and poker pros – signed on for the tournament, with 133 total entries, making it the joint-biggest Triton Invitational ever with a prize pool of over $33 million. Day 1 ended with 71 players headed by Wang Ye and Kayhan Mokri.
After the dinner break on Day 2, the players had been whittled down to just 26, with Mokri leading the way and Ye pondering what might have been after being eliminated in 42nd.
Daniel Negreanu was still in with an average stack. Monika Hrabic was the last surviving woman. A min-cash would smash her previous best cash of $140,900.
How the bubble burst
A double elimination straight after dinner brought us to the stone bubble in a hurry. Taylor von Kriegenbergh turned an ace to crack Alex Kulev's jacks and out-kick Leon Sturm’s A3, all-in preflop. Cong Pham had the shortest remaining stack with just 10 big blinds.
Mikita Badziakouski proved he wasn't playing scared money. After Tyler Stafman raised to 100K with 
, Badziakouski shipped his remaining 1,085,000 into the middle with 
. Stafman asked for a count but eventually folded, saying, "It was really close."
Then it was Joseph Oren's turn. After a raise to 100K from Thomas Boivin and a call from Albert Daher, Oren shipped his 655K 13bb stack with 
. Boivin folded, but Daher called with 
. The 
runout was a rollercoaster but one that delivered a double-up to Oren.
Eric Wasserson was the next player at risk, but he had aces and was up against sixes. That was an easy double-up, but he couldn't watch his fate and had to suffer Negreanu exclaiming, "Oh my god, he runs so bad! I've seen him lose this spot 100 times. Wow!" from the table before he got back to see he'd actually won the hand.
3 hours and counting
Philip Sternheimer got it in with aces next, up against Jonathan Jaffe's tens. He stayed in his seat to watch the uneventful runout and doubled.
Vinny Lingham got his chips in with queens against Albert Daher's and doubled. He let out a sigh of relief and fist-pumped when the river card came down.
Two and a half hours had passed since the stone bubble started. These players might have money, but after playing for two days to get to this point, no one wanted to bubble.
Pham, for so long the short stack, found his own double with AJ vs. eights. The players who had gathered from other tables headed back to their seats. Aleksandr Zubov, with 5bb, would have been the most disappointed.
It wasn't long before Zubov was forced all-in with his final two big blinds.
Gabriel Andrade called with 
, Jaffe shoved and Chalie Hook folded nines. Zubov had a fighter's chance with 
. The 
runout provided the KO, and the bubble finally burst after close to three hours of play.
Everyone else had just made $389,000, including Monika Hrabic.
What happened next?
Freed from the shackles of the bubble, there was a flurry of all-ins.
Mark Hammond went out the next hand; von Kriegenbergh followed soon after. At the other end, Mokri was the overwhelming chip leader with close to double Jaffe in second.
Wasserson and Hook were next out of the door. Negreanu got super-short and then found a double-up through Clemen Deng to survive. Deng was next out, followed by Negreanu after he lost a flip with tens vs. AK. Ramin Hajiyev and Lingham were also eliminated.
The original plan had been to play down to the final table, but the long bubble put paid to that.
Instead, 15 players, including reigning champ Alejandro Lococo, will return to play for the Triton trophy, the bracelet, and the $7,725,000 first prize on Tuesday – and we'll be there for it.
$250K Triton Invitational chip stacks
- Kayhan Mokri: 8,295,000 (82.9bb)
- Jonathan Jaffe: 3,975,000 (39.7bb)
- Thomas Boivin: 3,180,000 (31.8bb)
- Sergio Aido: 3,055,000 (30.5bb)
- Tyler Stafman: 2,720,000 (27.2bb)
- Dan Oren: 2,615,000 (26.1bb)
- Philip Sternheimer: 2,265,000 (22.6bb)
- Cong Pham: 2,240,000 (22.4bb)
- Monika Hrabec: 1,660,000 (16.6bb)
- Alejandro Lococo: 1,535,000 (15.3bb)
- Mikita Badziakouski: 1,460,000 (14.6bb)
- Albert Daher: 1,170,000 (11.7bb)
- Tsz Heung: 1,080,000 (10.8bb)
- Gabriel Andrade: 1,070,000 (10.7bb)
- Joao Simao: 50,000 (0.5bb)
