Aces vs. Kings!

Brian Hodhod opened the pot with a raise to 12,000 from middle position. In the next seat over, Michael Shvartsman made the call. Two more seats over on the button, David Diaz announced a reraise, pushing out 52,000 chips. It didn't take long for Hodhod to decide on his action. He reraised to 133,000 rather quickly, leaving exactly 90,000 behind. Just as quickly, Shvartsman moved all in for a total of 226,500, having Hodhod covered by just 3,500 lonely chips. Diaz quickly folded out of the way, leaving Hodhod to take a good long soak in the tank.

After several minutes of deep consideration, it became relatively clear what the two players were holding. "I know you have it," said Hodhod, "but I'm supposed to call. It's pretty obvious what you have here." More deep thought. "I mean, I know this happens. But I can't believe this is actually happening to me right now. If this was any spot other than the bubble, the money would have been in there so fast."

With about five massive cameras, three sound guys, and a whole gaggle of media and wandering players crowding around the table, Hodhod continued to tussle with his decision. "Well, I came to win this tournament," he said, shooting a glance over at his opponent. "Oh man, this is so big. Do you, like, have 'it' though?" he asked. "Do you have ace-ace?" As expected, there was no response from Shvartsman who was rocking back and forth in his chair.

Finally, Hodhod pulled his cards up in front of his face, showed them to the dealer, and mucked {K-Hearts}

face-up. Shvartsman tapped the felt and opened up {A-Spades}

. Hodhod dodged bullets, staving off what would have been near-certain elimination for the time being.