Darren Woods relieved Huck Seed of over 50k in a hand which seemed to run out of gas as soon as the first board card hit the felt - the pot stayed tame until the river as the board ran out 
...
...
. On the river there was a bet and a call of c.30k, Woods showing 
. That pot either could have been much bigger or was the maximum it was going to get - Seed mucked so we'll never know.
We've got 39 players left in the field, and only 36 of them will be earning a paycheck here today. We're three from the money, and we've already been seeing the play slow right down in this level.
Arnaud Mattern was noticing this just a moment ago, thinking the same things we were thinking. Mattern had raised the last pot from the button, and the small blind reraised. In the big, James Bord tanked for several long minutes before folding, and Mattern quickly released his cards as well.
"You're not going to think for, like, twenty minutes every hand, are you?" he asked. Mattern was smirking and speaking in jest to some extent, but his point was a serious one. "I know you want to make the money, but..." he added, trailing off.
Comparing this bubble to the bubble of the WSOP in Vegas sheds a little bit of light on the seriousness of the situation. Those who squeaked into the money took home $19,263 this summer, not a bad paycheck at all. The inflated £10,000 buy-in here across the pond, however, makes cashing in this WSOPE Main Event a much more pocket-padding experience. The first man out in the money today will earn the equivalent of $33,388, and that's nothing to blink at.
The only mitigating factor that could help break our bubble is that we've got a lot of high-level players left who are more or less unconcerned about a minimum cash. Whereas hundreds of qualifying amateurs were just looking for a free $20,000 in Vegas, the men and lady still left in this event seem much less inclined to fold their way through the bubble.
Brian Powell has hit a three-outer versus Phil Ivey to double-up to 267,000 and in the process Ivey dropped to 455,000. Powell opened to 10,000 from the cut-off and then moved all-in when Ivey three-bet him to 28,000 from the SB. Ivey got a rough count and made the call.
Powell: 
Ivey: 
The board ran 
. When the ace came on the turn Ivey shouted "BOOM". He took the defeat in a light hearted way and got on with it.
We found Yevgeniy Timoshenko tanking up on the turn of a 
board. Eventually he bet out 36,000 into a roughly 60,000 pot. His opponent John Eames had a little tank of his own for a while, before flat-calling with around 100,000 behind.
The river came down the 
, and Timoshenko now announced all in to cover. Back into the tank for Eames...
...and then a call all in.
Eames turned over 
- and it was good. Timoshenko just mucked and was left with 190,000. Eames, just a tiny hint of a smile creeping over his face, doubled to 320,000.
"Wow, sick call," mused tablemate Greg Mueller. Indeed.
Guy Gorelik, down to just 45,000 or so, open-shoved - and to his immediate left Marc Inizan reshoved. Everyone else got out of their way, and they were on their backs.
Gorelik: 
Inizan: 
Board: 
The online terminology for what Gorelik said upon seeing the ace on the river is "FFS". With that, he was gone, and Inizan was up to 200,000.
Huck Seed has just been eliminated in 38th place to cue the tournament bubble.
There's not much to tell, it was a pretty unavoidable spot for Seed. Down around 100,000 chips, he had to love seeing two kings in the hole. Until, that is, Greg Mueller found two aces across the table. There was no funny stuff on board, and Seed could not find his two-outer to stay alive.
With Seed exiting, the dealers have been instructed to hold up for a moment. We'll deal hand-for-hand for now, one at a time until we find our bubble boy.
Bryn Kenney has doubled-up to 88,000 after getting it in in bad shape on the bubble. Rudy Blondeau opened to 9,500 from the hijack and then snap-called when Kenney moved in from the SB. The play was paused as the camera's and media gathered round for this important show-down:
Blondeau: 
Kenney:
The flop came 
to offer more help to Kenney and things got even better for him on the turn as he picked up a flush draw to go with the straight draw. Neither of those draws came in on the river but he did spike the to survive.
Moments later he doubled again to 200,000 through the big stacked Bojan Gledovic. Gledovic raised and then tank-called when Kenney moved in again. Kenney was the dominator this time with 
to Gledovic's . The board ran and uneventful 
.
Finishing in 37th spot, and therefore missing out on the not-inconsiderable mincash of £21,106 is Rudy Blondeau. With a stack just shy of 200k it was a pretty chunky pot too, which headed over to join the party in Brian Powell's stack. Blondeau raised to 9,500, Powell repopped him preflop and it was all-in-call in a heartbeat.
Blondeau: 
Powell:
The flop brought a low draw-appreciative, "Oooooh" from the other players who'd bunched round to watch like hyenas around the body of a zebra as it came 
. The turn was the , however, and the river the which meant a straight-faced Blondeau did the dignified thing, handshaking round and heading for the exit with no fuss.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
890,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
|
640,000
40,000
|
40,000 |
|
610,000
110,000
|
110,000 |
|
543,000
17,000
|
17,000 |
|
530,000
75,000
|
75,000 |
|
||
|
506,000
141,000
|
141,000 |
|
||
|
455,000
188,000
|
188,000 |
|
387,000
63,000
|
63,000 |
|
341,000
21,000
|
21,000 |
|
334,000
174,000
|
174,000 |
|
328,000
128,000
|
128,000 |
|
315,000
31,000
|
31,000 |
|
|
||
|
310,000
110,000
|
110,000 |
|
||
|
306,000
106,000
|
106,000 |
|
285,000
35,000
|
35,000 |
|
||
|
260,000 | |
|
|
||
|
260,000
90,000
|
90,000 |
|
||
|
240,000
60,000
|
60,000 |
|
|
||
|
236,000
14,000
|
14,000 |
|
234,000
154,000
|
154,000 |
|
230,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
||
|
225,000
118,000
|
118,000 |
|
|
||
|
225,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
|
200,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
190,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Level: 16
Blinds: 2,500/5,000
Ante: 500
