Dorman "Pat" Atchison had all of his chips in the middle and was at risk of falling tantalizingly close to our money bubble, but his was in good shape against the held by his opponent.
The board ran out and Atchison survived his all-in encounter, doubling his stack to just over 40,000 as we begin hand-for-hand.
Allie Prescott called a 3,000-chip preflop raise from the small blind to see a flop fall.
The small blind continued for 3,700 with Prescott making the call from the big as the landed on the turn. Faced now with a 7,600-chip bet, Prescott smooth-called as the landed on the river.
Prescott's opponent would push out a 15,700-chip bet, and after considering his options for roughly two minutes, Prescott kicked his cards to the muck while slipping to 30,000 in chips.
Joseph Kuether fired out 3,200 on the flop only to have John Eames bump it to 7,500.
Kuether made the call as the rolled off on the turn and both players checked it through to see the revealed on the river.
Going into the tank for a few moments, Kuether would eventually chose to push out 7,500, which Eames called, tabling his to best Kuether's . He slipped to 21,500 while Eames moves to 115,000.
The player under the gun limped and Ricky Fohrenbach raised to 2,900. Bryn Kenney bumped it to 7,700 on the button and the waiting game began. The player under the gun turned around to look at the tournament clock to see how many players were left. He then began stalling for quite some time. Clearly, he didn’t understand the concept of hand-for-hand play and that it didn’t matter how long he took. If he was the only player to be eliminated that hand, he would be the bubble boy. But if others were eliminated as well, then they would split the money.
Kenney had had enough at this point and called time on the player and the floor came over to give the player his minute and ten seconds. It took until the clock was down to around 30 seconds for him to move all in. Fohrenbach instantly folded and Kenney made the call. UTG showed while Kenney held for a sick cooler on the bubble. The board ran out and the player survived to double up.
After the hand, Kenney said “nice stall” and then proclaimed that he didn’t care if he bubbled but that it would now be his mission to bust his opponent. Needless to say the following hand, he raised the players big blind and when the player folded, Kenney showed and said "I’ll raise your big blind with any two”.
The Tournament Director has just made an announcement regarding the issue of players stalling.
"Just a reminder players, it has come to my attention that some of you have been stalling. It doesn't influence the bubble at all because we are playing hand-for-hand. You can take an hour or a minute, it doesn't matter because all you will be doing is wasting time off the clock."
Jack Effel has just informed the Tournament Director on duty that anyone that is caught stalling will have only ten seconds to act on their hand. Otherwise they will be issued a penalty.
The majority of the room applauded with delight while others cheered.
With so many tables and so many all ins, we were bound to miss some players who were at risk. We missed the bubble hand but were able to hear the action as told by the victor of the hand. Nick Gibson raised in middle position to 2,700, and it folded around to David Rood in the big blind. Rood put Gibson all in for around 18,000, and Gibson made the call with . Rood had , and it was off to the races for Gibson’s tournament life. The flop was a safe , but the turn came a to put Gibson on the brink of elimination unless one of the two remaining 9s hit. Unfortunately for Gibson, the river was another , making him the bubble boy.