Chaos and Confusion

After a thirty-minute pause in the action, play has rolled on here in Event 9, with the remaining 80 players now officially — at long last — in the money.

Here's what we heard and saw:

During hand-for-hand play, with the tournament clock showing 82 players remaining, a series of simultaneous eliminations led to an extended argument, as the shortest-stacked of the players who went bust refused to accept his position as the bubble boy.

Gary Rosenzweig had lost his last two big blinds (22,500) after calling a preflop raise with . Tony Potis held the to put Rosenzweig at risk, and when the final board rolled out he made a straight to notch the knockout. According to Rosenzweig, his elimination had not burst the bubble though, as the tournament clock had already clicked over to show 81 players remaining, with the tournament staff making a verbal announcement that all remaining players were in the money. A round of applause had gone up throughout the room immediately after that - at which time Rosenzweig was tanking to see what happened - and when the cheering erupted, he happily called off with his thinking he had already min-cashed.

Hand-for-hand play was underway throughout the room, and in the moments preceding Rosenzweig's fateful call and loss, dealers could be seen standing up one by one to signal the end of their table's individual hand. Before Rosenzweig called off, a loud slam of the table had punctuated the air - as a player across the room had just gone broke, and in devastating fashion.

David Silverstein raised preflop with and found a willing caller in a player holding . Both players held around 150,000 or so behind, with Silverstein in ownership of the slightly larger stack. On the flop, Silverstein c-bet and his opponent flatted with his four-flush. The turn came down to miss everyone, and Silverstein then shoved all in for his last 140,000, or just enough to put the other player at risk if he called.

Call he did, and correctly so, as he was only fading the deck's two remaining non-spade jacks to avoid going broke on the direct bubble.

River:

Of course, the brutal suckout was delivered, leading to the aforementioned slam of the table. This is when Rosenzweig mistakenly believed himself to have reached the money - as he failed to account for the concept and conduct of hand-for-hand play. In quick succession the air rang out with the previous player's outburst, and an announcement from tournament staff - made over the microphone - of "Congratulations players, you are all in the money!"

To complicate matters even further, a third all-in confrontation had gone down during this segment of hand-for-hand play, as Gene Mazza wielded his to perfection in busting an unfortunate player who held . The flop had rained down and both players quickly committed the last of their similarly-sized 180,000 or so stacks. Mazza's set of aces trumped the other player's pair, and thus a third casualty was added to the potential roster of bubble boys.

After losing his own all-in hand, Rosenzweig believed himself to have been on the safe side of the bubble, what with his call-off having come after the tournament staff's announcement. However, hand-for-hand play was still underway, and even with two bustouts coming before his own, all three of the eliminations technically occurred on the same deal.

When informed of the bad news, Rosenzweig was visibly upset, refusing to leave his seat until Tournament Director Tab Duchateau himself was consulted. Tournament official Andrew Wong relayed the request for a ruling to Duchateau, and after a lengthy delay, returned to tell Rosenzweig that he had bubbled the tournament. Rosenzweig was distraught after hearing the decision and he mentioned aloud that he "would have to be carried out of here" if he didn't receive a minimum cash prize, while also stating "I have six kids, I need the five-hundred bucks."

Eventually, Wong calmed the commotion and escorted Rosenzweig to the exits, with play resuming about 45 minutes after it was halted. Rosenzweig was declared the bubble boy (along with the other two players who lost with ), and after all of that, the tournament continued as if the three players had never been there at all.