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We just witnessed the very end of a three-way hand where the board read 
X and the hands shown were trip tens (Jeff Kimber) and quad jacks (Felipe Ramos). A hugely superlatively massive pot, right?
Nope.
There was barely more than three sets of blinds in the middle when Ramos picked it up.
"This is why the bubble is taking so long," chuckled Jeff Madsen.
Jeff Madsen won a monster pot earlier on when he hit running nines to make a bigger full-house than what his opponent had flopped. The tables just reversed on him as he looked to eliminate Erik Friberg. The two got the chips in from the blinds with the Swede being the short-stack on 16,000. Showdown:
Friberg: 
Madsen: 
The flop came 
to propel Madsen into the lead but the turn and river 
put a full-house out there meaning Friberg's two jacks play. The table and the rail just laughed. When will this bubble burst?
But can't pop it - he just repopped short stack Erik Friberg to 24,600 preflop (Friberg made it 7k out of a 35k stack) but Friberg declined to commit.
One hand later and amidst more whinging that the bubble would take hours with less pressure on the short stacks, Justin Smith tangled with Madsen (as he has so often) calling Madsen's 9k bet on the flop and checking the turn so the board stood 
...
. Now Smith checked again and Madsen bet 19,200. The full timebank probably already at a low ebb for Smith, he nevertheless counted out the call and weighed it up, in between shooting daggery looks at Madsen. Presumably it's easier to take your time when your stack is OK relative to static blinds. Either way his table waited patiently and eventually he passed. The bubble continues with Madsen probably on top of it.
So returning to our deconstruction of the field into nice, simple numbers - the distribution of WSOP bracelets across the three tables is most uneven.
Table 1 - five bracelets (Lisandro and Tann)
Table 2 - five bracelets (Madsen, Bjorin and Jelinek)
Table 3 - one bracelet in the possession of John Kabbaj.
Poor show, Table 3!
However, Table 3 also boasts John Racener who will be returning to Vegas this November to play the final table of the Main Event. If he wins that, he will retrospectively become the second bracelet holder at his table; and seeing as a WSOP Main Event bracelet is worth, ooh, we reckon roughly four regular bracelets, then the bracelet distribution will become even in hindsight.
In further news, some of the players have given up on complaining to the TDs about the blinds being frozen and have come to complain to us at the bloggers' table. We regret that this is not our department.
Collected while Steve Jelinek spent several minutes telling us why freezing the blinds has actually made the bubble last longer.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
185,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
||
|
175,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
|
||
|
170,000
-5,000
|
-5,000 |
|
||
|
135,000
-25,000
|
-25,000 |
|
||
|
130,000
-35,000
|
-35,000 |
|
||
|
110,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
|
105,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
|
||
|
100,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
85,000
7,700
|
7,700 |
|
|
||
|
|
84,600
1,000
|
1,000 |
|
70,000
-20,000
|
-20,000 |
|
65,000
-33,000
|
-33,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
63,000
-14,500
|
-14,500 |
|
57,000
-7,000
|
-7,000 |
|
||
|
45,000
-25,000
|
-25,000 |
|
35,000
-4,000
|
-4,000 |
|
35,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
|
|
||
|
33,000
-20,600
|
-20,600 |
|
|
||
|
|
30,000
-16,000
|
-16,000 |
It looks like two big hands are going to have to match up if this bubble is going to burst any time soon. Players are playing incredibly tight with many pots reaching a flop without a raise. If there has been a raise then not many flops are being seen. I think Jack Eiffel is going to lose his voice soon as he's said "Okay, deal the next hand" more times than I can count.
Over an hour has now elapsed since we came back from the break, and players are beginning to grumble.
The blinds have been frozen at the 1,200/2,400 level the whole time - the TD's thinking was that the bubble wouldn't take too long, and seeing as hand-for-hand play really slows down the number of hands you can get in, freezing the blinds would be the fair thing to do. However, we are still at 19 runners, and although there are a few people in or near the danger zone, there is no guarantee that this bubble will burst any time soon. A few players have requested that TD Jack Effel put the blinds up now - but because some people are at a disadvantage now who were not at a disadvantage an hour ago, it would be unfair to put them up now.
For the moment, at least, the blinds remain frozen. We could be in for a very long night.
Steve Jelinek almost shoved under the gun - he stuck in a pot-sized 8,400 with just 300 behind. It folded around to Justin Smith in the cutoff.
"That all your chips?" Smith asked.
"Unfortunately yes," said Jelinek, waving his three T100 chips at him. Smith called, and in the big blind Jeff Madsen called too.
"You're all hoping I win, right?" Jelinek said to the players from the other tables who'd come over to gawk.
"I'm rooting for you Steve," called over John Kabbaj.
Flop: 
Madsen checked to Jelinek, who announced, "I'm going to bet them out," and went all in for his last 300. "You can raise," he added for the benefit of Smith. Smith however just called, as did Madsen. "Oh no," Jelinek lamented.
Madsen and Smith checked down the 
turn and the 
river. "I have three aces," announced Madsen and flipped 
- in fact a pair of aces and the pair of queens on the board, if one is going to adhere to the published rules for this event. Jelinek turned over 
for trip queens - and following a muck from Smith, Jelinek tripled up.
He's still the shortest stack in the room though, on a little under 30,000.
Steve Jelinek is the uber-short stack now after raising half his remaining stack from the button and then folding to Felipe Ramos bet on a 
flop. The Brit had raised from the button and his Brazilian opponent pulled the old stop 'n' go from the SB.
At the end of this hand another interesting hand on the next table was still playing out between Karl Mahrenholz and Samuel Stein. The turn was out to give the board a 
look and Mahrenholz check-called an 11,000 bet. The river came [
and Mahrenholz checked again and this time faced a 23,000 bet that he treated with an all-in push for 48,600.
We didn't see Mahrenholz look over at Jelinek's table so we can assume he didn't know Jelinek's situation. Stein voiced an opinion that he thought he'd been rivered. Jelenik's situation or not it looked like a very strong line, too strong for Stein anyway who let his hand go. He's down to 80,0000 whereas Mahrenholz is up to 120,000.
Or possibly just the fact that it's one hand at a time makes it feel like everyone's biding their time. Most of these players are used to high buy-in tournaments and the pressures that come with them, and sneaking into the money with a short stack is probably not the most important part of this crucial period for them.
In an effort to entice a bit of action Joe Serock limped under the gun and both blinds (Chau and Dempsey) saw a 
flop. Check to Serock who got no action when he bet 3,200. He showed them his anyway, perhaps to inspire some bubble fear.
