The bubble has burst in the Main Event of the 2018 WSOP-C Playground. The payout schedule, released today after registration closed at the beginning of level 13, called for 287 players to be paid in the tournament, with a min-cash of $2,250. With a few tables still active in the Tournament Tent, and to make sure hand-for-hand play proceeded in an absolutely fair manner, the clock was paused with 290 players remaining. A table was broken to take the tournament down to 29 tables with exactly 10 players each. Before that could happen – in the last hand played when the clock was paused – a player was eliminated in the Tournament Hall to take it to 289 players.
Then hand-for-hand play began, with the clock paused on 26 minutes remaining in level 19. On the second hand of hand-for-hand play, one player was eliminated in the Tent, bringing the field to 288 players – the stone bubble. Play continued one hand at a time, with tournament staff in the Hall coordinating via walkie-talkie with the Tent, and on the 5th hand total, the fateful hand arrived.
When we arrived at the table, there were two players all in – Sebastien Labbe and Mario Lepine. Hal Rotholz, who only had to contribute another 20K to the 100K+ he had already bet in the hand, was just delaying to make the call knowing that the action was paused until the action was complete on all other tables. He was never folding, clearly, and after a few seconds he made the call. Mario and Sebastien were both shorter-stacked that Hal – he could have taken them both out – and Mario was significantly shorter than Sebastien.
There was also an all in and a call on another table, and once it was clear that these were the only two tables left to settle their hands, the dealers were asked to proceed. First thing – on the other table, the short-stack doubled up. And on the table in question, all hands were exposed:
Sebastien: 
Mario: 
Hal: 
The board, once it was run, was almost anti-climactic – 
. Sebastien’s Kings held, Mario was eliminated on the bubble, and Hal shipped some chips over to Sebastien… and everyone was in the money!
Congratulations to all!
