Roy Daoud Bubbles 2015 WSOP Main Event, Calls It "The Sickest Way to Go Out"
There's perhaps no more tense a moment in poker than the bubble of a big tournament. When it comes to inflection points, this is the big one. The next person to be eliminated gets nothing, while the rest of the players will at least book a small profit if it's a true freezeout, with no reentries.
For the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, that bubble pressure is magnified 10 times over. Bubbling the most prestigious tournament in the world can leave a lifelong scar on the psyche of a poker player, especially an amateur who has long dreamed of playing in the big one.
This year, two players fell on bubble, Jonas Lauck and Roy Daoud.
With blinds of 1,500/3,000/500, Lauck's opponent fired 16,500 on the K♠5♥4♣ flop, 37,000 on the 10♠ turn, and 70,000 on the A♠ river. Lauck had gone into hero mode and called down with the A♥Q♠, but his opponent ran a straight with the Q♣J♠.
Daoud, meanwhile, had already paid the big blind and watched as his opponent in the small blind put him all in for 21,500 without looking at his cards. Daoud called it off with the 5♥5♣ and dominated his foe's 7♥5♦. The board ran out K♣9♠4♣K♠9♣, counterfeiting Daoud's pair and leaving him with a losing five-high.
"It's the sickest way to go out," a disappointed Daoud said. "Small [blind] against big [blind], I see pocket fives, and I put it in. There's nothing I can do."
Many players would be eager to muck in that spot, knowing they can likely squeak into the money with a few big blinds remaining and the blinds set to pass by. However, that's not the way Daoud was looking at things.
"If I fold there, even if I make the money, what can I do after that?" he said.
Daoud, a 31-year-old real estate worker who was playing in his first Main Event, may have been the recipient of a bad beat, but he was able to come out on the right end of a coin flip in the moments afterward. He and Lauck high-carded for a seat in next year's Main Event, and Daoud's jack bested Lauck's seven.
A native of Dubai, Daoud said he won his seat in a $1,000 sit-n-go on a trip to Las Vegas with three friends. He now has at least one more Main Event to look forward to, but that didn't seem to be on his mind in the aftermath of his elimination.
"I got a seat, but I would like to still be playing," he said. "What can you do?"
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