Steven Eliminated After Cruel Board-Pairing River Spade

Brandon Steven had been all in multiple times over the last hour or so with his stack of less than 1 million, surviving each instance. Alas for Steven, in one of the final hands of Level 24 his Main Event run has come to an end, with a combination of community cards producing a gut-wrenching send-off.

The hand started with Steven open-shipping his last 675,000 from early position. It folded to Keanu Tabali who asked for a count, then receiving it promptly dropped down the requisite chips to call. It folded back around, Steven showed , and Tabali turned over . The pair bumped fists, then turned to watch the board.

The flop seemed unremarkable, but when the fell on the turn many uttered the word "sweat" as Tabali had hit a set of nines, but Steven had flush outs to survive.

Then came the river… the ! Steven initially pumped his fist at the sight of the third spade on board then an instant later it registered with him that the card had paired the board to give Tabali the winning full house, and Steven's head sunk with the realization.

Another great Main Event run for Brandon Steven thus concludes with a top 100 finish. Steven finished 10th in 2010, just missing that year's November Nine.