The Bubble Bursts At 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event

At $19,227, the World Series of Poker main event money bubble created quite a great deal of drama and anxiety on day 4. Depending on who you asked, the min-cash could either be life-changing money or merely a tool of intimidation used to acquire more chips.

Entering the day as the second shortest stack in the room, Derek Mymko was feeling the heat. The Canadian started with only five big blinds and to make matters worse, he had to begin his comeback from the big blind.

Mymko operates a crane in a nickel mine in Thompson, Manitoba, but plays poker with his buddies in a garage game to pass the time. The group calls themselves the Thompson Poker Tour, though the stakes are never high enough for anybody to feel the pressure that Mymko was under on day 4.

The situation was clearly getting to Mymko, who began pacing around his table whenever he wasn’t involved in a hand. The 39-year-old was wringing his hands together as he glanced nervously up at the tournament clock which showed the number of players remaining in the field.

“Martin Staszko was short stacked around this time last year,” said Mymko of 2011’s runner-up. “That’s what I kept telling myself. I was basically looking for something pretty, throwing it in and hoping for the best. Cashing in this event means that I can keep playing poker. Maybe I won’t have to work so much overtime next year in order to play.”

Mymko had to fold five hands before he got his opportunity to get it in. Sean Rice, who came into the day in second place, min-raised to 10,000 for the fourth time. Mymko moved it in for 14,500 and was called by both the small blind and Rice.

The flop came down 10 5 5 and the small blind led for 26,000. Rice reluctantly folded and Mymko revealed Q 10 for top pair. He was beat, however, by the small blind’s pocket jacks.

Fortunately for Mymko, the Q pealed off on the turn, along with the K on the river, securing his triple up. Rice then informed the table that he folded a king and told Mymko to thank the small blind for pushing him out of the hand. Mymko enthusiastically agreed, very appreciative of his new-found stack.

On the first hand of hand-for-hand play, there were an incredible five all-ins that had been called. Amazingly, four of the hands featured at least one player holding pocket aces. Except for one double up, four players were eliminated, meaning they were all forced to share the $19,227 prize between them.

The four official bubble boys of this year’s main event are Dylan Schwartz, Steve Rosen, Dane Lomas and Desmond Portano.

When the announcement was made, the room exploded in celebration. Among those high-fiving his table mates was Derek Mymko, who had parlayed his fortunate triple up into a nice payday.

Among the notables who were eliminated before the money on day 4 were Ryan Daut, Zachary Clark, Rob Perelman, Thiago Nishijima, Matt Kay, Jamie Kestetter, Ozzy Sheikh, Jon Van Fleet and Erick Lindgren.

For complete coverage of the summer poker festival, check out our WSOP landing page.

Comments

bigvert
11 months ago

Why would they all share the $19,227?
Shouldn't it go to the person with the most chips that was knocked out?

 

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