The WSOP Final Table Bubble Was Burst On One Of The Sickest Hands Possible

Oh my god, can you even imagine? You just navigated through a field that started with 7,894 people. You dipped, ducked, and dodged all the land mines, got lucky here and there, and made it to the unofficial final table of 10. You look down and see pocket Kings. And then you have your heart ripped directly out of your body and stomped on. You’re all in with a basically 0% chance of winning the hand because someone else has both of your kings and someone else has your flush blocked by their aces, and at best you’re chopping a king high straight with Labat.

Poker is such a sick, sick game, it just ain’t right.

I mean, sure, 10th place is cool. But you know what’s cooler than 10th place?

8 million additional dollars!

Hands like that can happen any time in poker. You just never expect it to happen to you on the biggest stage possible, with the maximum amount of money on the line.

As for the folks that did make the final table, I think I’m rooting for Joe Cada to win his 2nd Main Event, after he took it down at 21 years old in 2009.

I also found this chart very fascinating, showing how inconsequential Day 1 of the Main really can be.

Manion bagged 11,500 on Day 1 from 50k starting, and then bagged barely over starting on Day 2. And now he is the chip leader at the final table.

Cada bagged fewer chips on Day 6 than Dyer did on Day 5.

It really shows how big of a grind the Main Event truly is, and how you’re never out of it at any stage. Until you run fuckin’ kings into aces on the final table bubble, of course. I guess Zhu shoulda worn a Caps jersey.