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February 12, 2012

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Players rejoice as World Series of Poker Main Event reaches money

Poker’s championship is down to 576 players with many players remaining

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Sun Coverage

Tim McDonald, a professional fisherman from Lexington, Ky., will spend the next year with the most unfortunate title in poker.

McDonald became the "bubble boy" of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event on Tuesday at the Rio by finishing in 748th, one place out of the money.

McDonald busted when his pocket queens ran into an opponent's ace-deuce. The flop came out A-A-2, giving his opponent a full house.

"I felt like I could sit there and grind out a check, but I was trying to play good poker no matter short-stacked or otherwise," McDonald said. "I felt like it was the right play at the right time."

The other 747 players cheered wildly as McDonald left the Amazon Room, as they were all guaranteed at least $19,263.

Not all was lost for McDonald, though. The World Series of Poker announced it would pay for his $10,000 buy-in to next year's Main Event as a consolation prize.

"I'm definitely looking forward to coming back," McDonald said. "I'll probably play some tournament poker more seriously."

After McDonald's elimination, the casualties started rapidly. Players without many chips showed little hesitation to gamble and either double up or exit after four days with a nearly $20,000 payday.

In the 30 minutes after McDonald's defeat, about 60 players hit the payout window. One of those players was Eric Mizrachi, whose pocket Jacks ran into pocket Aces.

But Mizrachi was still part of history. All four Mizrachi brothers made the money in the Main Event. Older brother Robert Mizrachi, twin brother Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and younger brother Donnie Mizrachi are still playing in the Main Event and fighting for their share of a $68 million prize pool.

"We've still got three brothers left," Eric Mizrachi said as he left his table, "so we'll see what happens."

The Mizrachis were far from the only notables left. Two former Main Event champions, Johnny Chan and Scotty Nguyen, still are in the field and both have above-average chip counts.

Other dangerous players lurking include French pro David Benyamine, online poker superstar Phil Galfond, 2009 CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year Eric Baldwin and 2009 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Jason Mercier.

Also still alive are UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Hoyt "The Alabma Cowboy" Corkins and 2009 Main Event fourth-place finisher Eric Buchman.

"Any time you can go this deep in a tournament with this set of players, if you're an intelligent player, you pick up a lot of knowledge," McDonald said. "You learn from your mistakes and go forward to play better poker."

The presence of one player in the field should further put McDonald at ease. Kia Hamadani of Los Angeles will return for Day 5 Wednesday after being last year's bubble boy.

Hamadani received free entry into this year's tournament and made the most of it. Perhaps, he can serve as an example to McDonald of how to deal with bubbling poker's world championship.

"It haven't let it bother me," Hamadani said earlier this summer. "I've had fun with it."

Fewer than 600 players are left in the Main Event, which will play down to the final table Saturday. The eventual winner will score $8.9 million.

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or case.keefer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer for live updates from the Main Event.

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