As the remaining players of the Wynn Classic convened in a small corner of the poker room, a harsh realization came to light. Of the 27 players still in contention, only 18 would take home a profit to show for their three days of effort. Of course, in the world of tournament poker, not everything goes according to plan.
The first level of the day featured a rush of action. In total, six players made the short walk past the Ferrari dealership to the parking garage empty-handed. Among the casualties was Gioi Luong, a professional grinder with more than $2 million in winnings. The next big-name player to exit was James “mig.com” Mackey. Mackey, a 2007 WSOP bracelet winner, was cruelly busted by his roommate Blake Cahail just before the bubble.
After a quick break, the tournament hit a standstill, and it would take an hour before the next player was eliminated. Jonathan Little, who is coming off of one of the best year’s of tournament poker in recent memory, was busted just before the bubble when his pocket nines went up against A-K. After Corwin Cole was sent home in 20th place, a brutal bubble-spot was up for grabs for the first player to falter. With the first of the payouts being just over $22,000, one slip-up could end up costing you big.
The Wynn poker room then announced round-for-round play, though few of the players were aware of the difference between round-for-round and hand-for-hand. In hand-for-hand play, the dealers deal and then stop after every individual hand. In round-for-round play, an entire orbit is dealt before the action is considered concluded. This distinction was the cause of confusion, and ultimately a split prize.
Shortly after the bubble began, Andrew "Good2CU" Robl got it all in with a set against Ardavan Yazdi’s Broadway straight. The stacks were counted down, and Robl was eliminated, much to the delight of the other short-stacks, who believed their survival efforts had paid off. Just a few hands later, on another table, David Singer was busted by Ricky Chow’s set of jacks. Suddenly Robl, who had left the Wynn after busting, was getting text messages from friends watching the live updates to return and collect his unclaimed prize of $11,000. Robl was pleasantly surprised by the messages, which turned a $10,000 loss into a $1,000 win.
Online professionals Matt “mattg1983” Graham and Darren “DarrenElias” Elias quickly busted with short stacks, and Kathy Liebert followed them a short while later. Play slowed down for a bit, but Allen Kessler took a bad beat against a flush draw to hit the rail. After Ted McCollom busted, the players took a dinner break with just four players to go.
Dinner must have been rough, because the action went quickly, and questionable play prevailed. Mike Matusow final tabled this event last year, but he couldn’t improve on his fifth-place finish, as he moved in with pocket sevens against Larry Wright’s pocket aces.
Amit Makhija was crippled with what he thought was fifteen outs, with both an open-end straight and flush draws, only to find out that Chris Moore held a higher flush draw. He was eliminated on the next hand, and the players combined to the final table. Jace Markgraf then doubled through Toto Leonidas, and Leonidas busted a short while later to end the day.
Here are the final nine and their chip counts heading into tomorrow:
