Poker players reach money at WSOP Main Event

LAS VEGAS — A 50-year-old competitive fisherman from Kentucky was eliminated from the World Series of Poker main event Tuesday night, guaranteeing the 747 players left some piece of a $68.8 million prize pool.

Tim McDonald of Lexington, Ky., lost the last of his chips after his pocket queens ran into an opponent’s full house.

McDonald raised nearly half his 67,500-chip stack before the flop and Ismail Erkenov of Moscow called with an ace-deuce.

The flop came ace, ace, deuce, giving Erkenov a nearly unbeatable hand.

A queen on the river wasn’t enough for McDonald — who needed four of a kind to beat Erkenov.

“I felt like I could sit there and go ahead and grind out a check, but I was trying to play good poker no matter short-stacked or otherwise,” McDonald said. “I felt like it was the right play at the right time.”

McDonald was eliminated in 748th place, winning a free seat in next year’s no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event as a consolation.

The remaining players were guaranteed at least $19,263.

McDonald’s elimination came on the sixth hand of hand-for-hand play, during which each of 84 tables remaining at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino played a hand, then waited for all other tables to finish before dealing the next.

“It’s a stressful time, especially for the short stacks,” said Hoyt Corkins, who made it through the money bubble for his third main event cash in five years.

“Nobody wants to play four days and go home with no money,” the two-time gold bracelet winner said.

Once the bubble burst, a flurry of eliminations left 705 players in the tournament by their next break a few minutes later.

The day started with 1,204 players from the original field of 7,319, and 358 were eliminated within four hours. Players took a dinner break with just four players remaining before the prize money was reached.

“Sorry, man,” Jesper Petersen of Arhus, Denmark, told Benjamin Pollak of Paris early in the session after Peterson’s low-card flush beat Pollak’s pocket aces.

Players short on chips gambled them before community cards were dealt, hoping to get other players to fold or isolate opponents before hands went further.

Top prize in the tournament is $8.94 million, with the final table to be determined this weekend and played in November. Entry into the tournament cost $10,000.

Marlon Shirley, the 32-year-old two-time Paralympic 100-meter champion, agonized over an all-in bet from Jeremy Cate of Dallas, with the board showing a four, six, seven and eight.

“Are you bluffing?” Shirley muttered as ESPN cameras shuffled over to film the action, with a sizable pot and 113,000-chip bet from Cate.

Shirley eventually folded pocket aces face-up, after Cate promised to show his cards no matter what.

Cate tabled a queen-king for a king high.

“You sick?” Shirley said.

“I am sick. I have a disease,” Cate said. “I am insane.”

“I’m going to have to join you in therapy after that one,” Shirley said.