The tournament director instructed the dealers to stop dealing when the tournament was two spots away from being in the money, as play became hand for hand. There were some all-ins happening on different tables, and finally Christian Muset became the first to fall, putting the tournament on to the stone cold bubble.
The chip leader, Diana Shamshoun, had been playing aggressively and steadily chipping up along the way. None the less, she asked the floor if the players could pay the bubble, so as to help out the short stack player. As a hand was in progress, nothing could be arranged as deals cannot be made while a hand is playing.
After a another orbit, Igor Gamayunov, seated to her direct right, was down to only 50k while seated in the big blind. Diana opened UTG to 55k, and as it folded around the table back to Igor, he pushed in his stack and announced “all in”. Diana then commented “I never looked at my cards, but I wanted to help you out by trying to isolate, as I was pretty sure that you would be shoving your big blind”.
Both hands were tabled:
Diana 
Igor 
The flop came down with a 
in the window to give Igor the lead, but was followed by the 
to put Diana ahead. The 3rd card was the 
. Being a good sport, Diana asked the dealer to turn either another J or a 7 in order to help keep Igor in the game, but the 
on the turn didn’t give him any assistance and neither did the river, 
.
And just like that, Igor Gamayunov became the official “bubble boy” and the tournament is now in the money, with a min cash payout of at least $780.
