A lot of work goes into tournament structures. The floor will generally know what the average stack will be at any time, ensuring a depth of play and an estimated end time.
That’s the idea, anyway. But sometimes the poker gods like to have a bit of fun, and they were at their mischievous best in Cyprus for the Super High Roller Bowl Series on Wednesday night.
With 30 runners, not everyone on the final table of the first $50K event of the series would make the money. Only five would get paid the min-cash of $120,000. And the bubble went on for close to an incredible five hours, with the short stacks surviving, improbably, again and again, leading to one of the most top-heavy bubble set-ups we’ve seen.
The 'yes!' movement
At first, the chat warriors, along with Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks on commentary, were getting tired of it. But after a few hours of short-stack play, everyone switched, with every survival being cheered from the virtual rail.
“An hour ago, I was so pissed off with what we had to put up with – this bubble, the pain.” said Hanks. “Now I am loving it. This is great. I want to see somebody fold kings.”
We’ll fast-forward past the first four hours of bubble play to the point when the fun really started.
That smile from Sorel Mizzi says it all It looked like Sorel Mizzi would be the bubble boy. He'd got his last chips in with 
only to collide with Jeremy Ausmus' 
. A ten on the flop saw him survive, with five players (Ausmus, Mizzi, Adrian Mateos, Matthias Eibinger and Danilo Velasevic) now all bunched on stacks between 10 and 12bbs. Masashi Oya had the hammer with 40bbs.
And he used that hammer to batter his opponents until the stacks got squeezed even further. Ausmus folded sevens to Oya’s effective shove with 
, and then folded the same hand to Oya’s 
shove, with Mateos folding 
after him.
“We’re on pace for the longest ever recorded bubble in poker history,” remarked Hanks.
'The bubble strikes again. Wow! It's pandemonium!'
Oya was in pretty much every hand and apologizing for it, maintaining his 40bb stack while everyone else was whittled down to near-felt. “You're so polite about it,” laughed Mizzi. No one else had 10bbs now, with Mateos sitting on three and Velasevic on four.
Oya raised 
from the small blind and Ausmus tank-folded 
from the big blind to leave himself with 6bbs.
And then it finally looked like it was over. Mateos shipped for 225K (three big blinds) with 
and Velasevic re-raised all-in with 
. The 
flop gave him a stranglehold on the pot but the 
turn and 
saved the Spaniard.
Adrian Mateos knows how to hit a deuce at the right time “The bubble strikes again!” shouted Hanks. “Wow, it’s pandemonium.”
That left Velasevic with one big blind, which he got in the next hand with 
. Oya rejammed with 
and the board ran out 
to give Velasaevic the quadruple. Eibinger was now the short stack with about 3.5 big blinds
Then Mizzi, with about 7bbs, folded jacks to a raise from Oya with 
. This was survival poker.
“He folds Jacks,” said Hanks. “Wow! I have never seen anything like this.”
Folding jacks on the $120K bubble worked out for Sorel Mizzi'Breaking records'
Oya was raising every hand now and had 50 big blinds. “We’re out here breaking records,” said Hanks.
As the shortest stack with just three big blinds, Eibinger got under the gun. With the 80K big blind ante, two-thirds of his stack would be in on the next hand.
“Is this the spot we must take?” said Hanks.
It was. Oya called with 
. Eibinger would either bubble or move to second in chips with the 8bb pot. The board ran out 
and Eibinger survived.
Now Velasevic was the short stack again with 2.5bbs.
Oya won the next two hands without contest. Then he raised to 430K with 
. Mateos found 
in the big blind but knew that Velasaevic would be effectively all-in on the big blind next hand. He put his head in his hands and said, “Oh my god,” before he laughed, shook his head and found the call.
The 
board catapulted Mateos into a clear second place with 12bbs.
Bubble finally bursts
That left Velasevic all-in bar 10K with . Oya moved all-in with 
and this time it was the end. The 
board saw the bubble burst after almost five hours. Velasevic went out in sixth with nothing. Everyone else locked up $120K.
The rest of the tournament was an anti-climax with Oya eliminating everyone quick-smart and claiming the $535,000 first prize, but the final table was a masterclass in short-stack bubble play. If you didn't watch the carnage, you can get it on demand on PokerGO and it's well worth a watch.
Meanwhile, the Super High Roller Bowl series continues with the final table of the $100K buy-in tonight (Artsiom Lasouski is the chip leader) before the three-day $300K Super High Roller Bowl IX kicks off tomorrow. All three days will be livestreamed exclusively on PokerGO.
$50K NLHE Super High Roller Bowl Series Event #4 results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Masashi Oya | $535,000 |
| 2nd | Jeremy Ausmus | $373,000 |
| 3rd | Adrian Mateos | $262,000 |
| 4th | Matthias Eibinger | $180,000 |
| 5th | Sorel Mizzi | $120,000 |
| 6th | Danilo Velasevic | $0 |
