World Series of Poker -- Main Event Bubble Pops On Day 4Galfond, Dunst, Brikis, and Chan Leading the Pack |
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It’s probably the biggest celebration at the World Series of Poker. The moment the money bubble burst in the WSOP main event.
That celebration took place on Tuesday evening as 747 players can now say that they have cashed in the 2010 WSOP main event. There were 1,205 players that came back to the Rio to continue their quest for the title of world champion, but not all of those players would leave with a payday.
Notables that were eliminated without any money included Barry Greenstein, Erica Schoenberg, Annie Duke, Adam Junglen, David Sands, Matt Graham, Matt Savage, and Barry Shulman.
Shulman (pictured right) started out the day with an above average stack, but lost a big pot in the first level of the day when his opponent flopped top set. That set him on a downward spiral and he was finished off when his A-6 couldn’t overcome his opponent’s K-Q on a Q-8-6 flop.
Play got down to 751 players 15 minutes before the scheduled dinner break. Tournament Director Jack Effel decided that they would take the break early and come back and play hand-for-hand until the four eliminations took place that would pop the bubble.
Kido Pham was the first elimination that took place after the break when his pocket eights couldn’t outrun Josh Brikis’ A-K. A few eliminations later, our bubble boy was crowned.
Tim McDonald is the official bubble boy of the 2010 main event. The Lexington, KY native moved his last 37,500 in the middle with pocket queens on an A-A-2 flop and was called by his opponent, who had flopped a full house. Don’t feel too bad for McDonald though. Harrah’s is giving him his buy-in for next year’s main event.
At the end of scheduled four levels of play, there are 576 players still in the hunt for the $8.9 million first-place prize and there are plenty of top pros still alive.
Tony Dunst, who holds the chip lead with 1,546,000 (pictured above left), Phil Galfond, Josh Brikis, and Johnny Chan have all crossed the 1-million chip plateau and are pacing the field along with a few others.
Galfond, better known as “OMGClayAiken” online, was able to double up earlier in the day and use his stack to pick up chips near the bubble.
“Luckily, maybe 100 people before the bubble, I had around 280,000 and doubled up when I rivered a straight against a lower straight,” recounted Galfond. “That gave me the chip lead at the table which was key because I was able to beat up on the shorter stacks. Once we were actually on the bubble, I was able to pick up 150,000 just from people folding almost every single hand.”
Other notables still remaining include Adam Levy, Jesper Hougaard, Hasan Habib, Scott Clements, Scotty Nguyen, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Shannon Shorr.
The remaining 574 players will return on Wednesday at noon and continue to inch closer to the November Nine.
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