Meet the Survivors!

Event #4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic presented by partypoker LIVE has come to a close in dramatic fashion with 16 “Survivors” remaining. The tournament followed a Survivor format, in which the top 10% of the field share the prize-pool evenly. With 169 players registered, the top 16 were awarded a prize of $2,910, while 17th place took home the remainder of the prize-pool, $2,619.

When play returned from break and into level 18 (8K/16K/a2K), only 19 players were still in the game with a handful of short stacks – 2 of which held less than 2bb, and another 8 below the 10bb mark. The shortest stack at the time, Rejean Viens, was the first to go, as his all-in was called by 3 players who checked down to the river.

Once on the stone-cold bubble, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, the two biggest stacks of the tournament clashed in an all-in preflop hand. Chip leader Trevor Delaney open-shoved his 450K stack from early position to put pressure on the short stack in the big blind, and when action came around to Neil Trahey (pictured), he also announced he was all-in with his stack of almost 400K. Neil, who spent the better part of the night referring to himself as “The Best Player in the Game”, seemed to have missed the fact that Trevor was already all-in, binding him to the action. In an apparent outrage regarding the outcome of a previous ruling which had no more recourse, he lost sight of the current action on his table – or perhaps it was the array of colourful drinks that were served to him throughout the night.

Neil tabled and was at risk and behind Trevor’s . With no help on the board, he was knocked out of the tournament in 18th place, and a sigh of relief reigned amongst the short stacks in the tournament. The bubble had now burst, and play continued for a few more hands to determine who would finish in 17th place.