Quads Vs. Quads Sends Chang Liu Home Near WSOP Main Event Bubble

November 11, 2021

Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

Chang Liu will forever have an interesting story to tell about his 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event experience. But he'd probably rather just forget about it instead.

Liu busted in one of the cruelest fashions — suffering a brutal bad beat near the money bubble. It wasn't just any bad beat, however. He didn't flop a set and lose to a rivered flush. Instead, he flopped quads, and somehow that hand didn't hold up. To make things even worse for him, the pot was so large that had he won, he would have been among the chip leaders late on Day 3 of poker's biggest event.

One in More than a Million Shot (Literally)

The hand in question, which aired during PokerGO's livestream, began with Vito Distefano raising the 5,000 big blind to 11,500 with A♦J♦ and receiving four calls from Omer Gabay holding K♥Q♥, William Benson with A♠10♠, Liu's 4♥4♣, and then Ugur Secilmis with 6♠6♦.

With an already large pot in play, the flop came out 6♥4♦4♠, a brutal situation for Secilmis. Everyone checked to see an almost unbelievable turn card, which was the 6♣, giving Secilmis quads against Liu's weaker quads. Once again, all five players checked.

The river was an inconsequential 5♠, and the action picked up. Secilmis bet out 55,000 and Liu raised to 225,000. All others folded and when action returned to Secilmis, he put Liu all-in for around 390,000.

There wasn't much Liu could do but snap-call and then find out the bad news, which is exactly what he did. Secilmis scooped a pot of over 850,000 chips, or about 170 big blinds at the time. He was out about 150 spots shy of the money in the Main Event.

Liu's bad beat was even crueler than a memorable hand played in 2017 by Vanessa Selbst when she lost with aces full against quad 7's to Gaelle Baumann, who cracked the boat on the turn. That hand, also on a PokerGo feature table, took place on Day 1, which is far less soul-crushing than being a few hours from the money bubble.

Check out all of the WSOP Main Event updates

Sharelines