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Skilled big stacks Marco Johnson, Brian Townsend, Carlos Mortensen, and Nick Schulman are doing an impressive job of abusing the bubble. They've all built their stacks by over 100k in the past half hour. The short stacks, in contrast, are slowly melting away. Here are a few of those most in danger:
Pawel Andrezjewski - 100,000
John Hennigan - 100,000
Al Barbieri - 92,000
Cyndy Violette - 55,000
Scotty Nguyen - 46,000
With hand-for-hand play currently taking a looooong time, discussions have broken out around the tables as to whether we should stop play once the bubble bursts, take a quick break or play right through.
"Can we just stop at three tables?" questioned Allen Kessler.
"I want to play it out as scheduled," said Matt Glantz.
"I want to go home," added Robert Mizrachi.
"I'd be happy to play right down to the final table!" continued Glantz.
"Well I can't do that, unless you have some sort of drugs!" laughed Roman Yitzhaki.
At this stage, we have no further news other than the bubble and hand-for-hand play continues!
Omaha-8
Action folded to Brandon Adams in the small blind, and though we've seen plenty of walks given by shorter stacks in the last level, Adams has the raising chips. He bumped it up, and Todd Brunson defended. The flop came 
, and Adams bet. Brunson raised, and Adams called. He check-called the 
turn, and checked once more after the 
came on the river. Brunson bet again, and this time, Adams gave up. He dropped slightly down to 400,000, building Brunson to 255,000.
Stud-8
Attention turned to the table of Scotty Nguyen who has appeared to show some physical and mental strain over the past few hours. His once mighty stack has fallen and he found himself on the short stack and all in on the bubble.
Nguyen was all in on third street against Robert Mizrachi.
Nguyen: (
) / 
/ (
)
Mizrachi: (
) / 
/ (
)
Not a pair between them as Mizrachi's ace-king high took half and Nguyen made a low to collect the other half to stay alive. He's still on the short stack with about 40,000 chips.
Stud-8
Scotty Nguyen completed, before Robert Mizrachi raised to put Nguyen all in. Nguyen obliged, saying "I hope you don't have queens baby!". Nguyen was wrong.
Nguyen: () / 
/ ()
Mizrachi: (
) / 
/ (
)
Nguyen's fives were dead but he made two pair which was enough as Mizrachi's queens didn't improve.
Nguyen doubled to about 50,000 but as that was the last hand of stud-8, he found himself in the big blind in the first hand of hold'em!
Stud-8
Cyndy Violette: (X-X) / 
/ (X)
Carlos Mortensen: (X-X) / 
/ (X)
Ian Gordon: (X-X) / 
/ (X)
Carlos Mortensen completed, and Cyndy Violette and Ian Gordon both called. On fourth, Gordon checked, and Mortensen bet. Violette called all in, and a swarm of players instantly surrounded the table. Gordon called as well, meaning Violette had to survive two hands to avoid bubbling.
On the side, Mortensen bet, and Gordon called down. Mortensen showed 
for queens up and no low. Gordon mucked, and Violette tabled 
to best Mortensen with kings and fives. Rather than hitting the rail, Violette tripled her stack. She lost the next hand, however, and was back under 50,000.
Stud-8
Michael Chow: (X-X) / 
/ (X)
Eugene Katchalov: (X-X) / 
/ (X)
We got there as a short-stacked Chow bet out on fourth, and a big-stacked Katchalov called. Chow bet all in on fifth, and Eugene called again. Al Barbieri announced an all in and a call, and the field instantly shifted to the two feet around the feature table. Chow had buried 
but Katchalov began with 
for two pair. He caught the 
on seventh, which didn't change anything. Chow squeezed his last card and announced miserably that it didn't have any spots, meaning he was down to two aces to avoid elimination. Except that Chow was wrong and it did have spots. He flipped over the , giving him aces up to scoop the pot. He ended up with 130,000 rather than 0, and the rest of the room ended up mad.
After nearly two hours on the bubble, no one was forced to leave empty handed. Cyndy Violette and Tommy Hang were both eliminated on the same hand, meaning they will split the min-cash. Each get $10,998 for a $1k profit. Not what they wanted for two days of work, but better than losing their buy-ins.
Hold'em
Cyndy Violette moved her short stack all in under the gun, and Roman Yitzhaki called in the big blind. Violette's was racing Roman's for big bucks. The board came 
, and Violette was forced to give up her fight.
Omaha-8
On the same hand as the bust out of Cyndy Violette, Cuong Do and Tommy Hang were tangling in another pot on a nearby table.
The board read 
and Do fired a bet on the river to put Hang all in. After several minutes of thought he made the call. Do showed 
for trips and the nut low which was good to scoop as Hang mucked.
Violette and Hang will chop 24th place prize money!
