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34-year-old Russian businessman and poker player Ilya Bulychev was eliminated on the largest money bubble in tournament poker history, finishing tenth for zero dollars, ensuring that the remaining nine were all guaranteed at least a seven-figure cash. The first player eliminated inside the money was 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton. The WSOP bracelet winner and World Poker Tour commentator earned $1,109,333 for his ninth place finish.


The chipleader of the final table is Antonio Esfandiari, who has 39 million in chips and is followed by Sam Trickett (37 mln.) and Guy Laliberté (21 mln.). Among other finalists are: Brian Rast, Phil Hellmuth, Richard Yong, Bobby Baldwin and David Einhorn, each of them with their eyes on the record-demolishing $18.3 million first-place prize.

There have been many interesting hand played so far, but one of them deserves a closer look. It happened on Day 1 and impressed everyone. This is how it happened. The action started with Tom Dwan opening to 32,000. The Russian Mikhail Smirnov called from the small blind with the , and businessman John Morgan called from the big blind. The flop fell . Smirnov bet 50,000, Morgan called quickly, and Dwan folded. The 8s hit the turn, and Smirnov bet once again, this time 200,000. Morgan called instantly. The Ks landed on the river, and Smirnov bet another 700,000, which was more than the pot of 600,000. Morgan thought about it briefly and then shoved for about 3.4 million in total, which was about the size of Smirnov’s stack. Smirnov folded the quads face up. It was said that the table erupted and Tom Dwan left the table in disbelief once the quads were shown.


As Mikhail explained later: "For me it was a very easy fold. If he had two kings before the flop he would have re-raised Dwan, because he’s been active and raising a lot. So, two kings were impossible. Two jacks, in theory, were possible. But, in case of jacks full of eights there wouldn’t have been such a confident shove on the river. He was like all-in, no problem. Before that hand he was playing very carefully and tight”. According to this logic - Morgan could be only having one combination - .

Later Smirnov added that the size of the buy-in was not a factor in the decision. Besides, Morgan seemed visibly upset after the hand, giving more validity to the fold.


However, not all the professionals were so sure about Mikhail’s decision. "I'd never fold here" - said Phil Galfond. "I’d lose sleep. But, I think it was a reasonable fold actually. There are definitely very few hands John could have had that weren’t a straight flush. Jacks full was probably the one that made the most sense, other than a straight flush.”

And what would you do in this case? Could you ever fold quads on the river? Please, share your opinion in comments.