The players were on the edge of their seats as each of the three last tables had all ins, and right on the bubble too! While 29 remained, only 27 would be paid. And so the action stopped while all the hands were played out. Only once the five community cards had been dealt on each board were the players allowed to flip over their cards to see who won at each individual table.
In the end, the unlucky two players to be bounced on the bubble were Eric Benhamron and Joey Cournoyer, missing out on the $320 prize given out to the player in 27th. But it could have been any one of a number of players that didn’t quite make the cut.
Perhaps the luckiest player of them all was Rabih Aboudib. With the blinds at 5,000/10,000, Rabih only had 4,000. Total.
His shove, in which his pocket 9s beat someone else’s paired 8s, doubled him up just in time. Adding the 25,000 he picked up on the blinds, he now had just over 30,000. Add that to the fact that the button had just passed him the hand before, and he was able to quietly fold the next few hands in peace, waiting for another player to take an early exit in his place.
Another close call belonged to Lynn Phan. She saved herself with the same hand as Rabih. Her pocket 9s helped her triple up on a three-way battle, turning her 33,000 into more than 100,000. And just in the nick of time!
While we were writing up this post, six more players were eliminated in rapid succession, leaving only 21 still alive. Rabih was one of the eliminated players – but Lynn wasn’t!
Good luck to all the final 21 as they battle it out for the $8,860 prize for 1st.
