Bob Bounahra and Antonio Esfandiari Celebrate Miracle River on $1,000 NLHE Final Table

Next door to the star-studded H.O.R.S.E. event, we have the final table of $1,000 Event #21: No-Limit Hold'em, which started Sunday and attracted more than 2,000 runners. First prize will receive a cool $335,659. Sitting on a short stack of 100,000 chips, Billy Horan endures the ultimate bad beat, going all in with aces against Dave D'Alesandro’s aces. Unfortunately, the flop comes with two spades attached and the board runs out with two more spades, sealing Horan’s fate as the rare A-A vs. A-A loser. Groans of sympathy erupt from the participants, followed by handshakes all around, as our eighth place finisher takes the long walk to the cage for a $32,168 payout. 

                                                     My aces just lost to aces? WTF!?

Dave D'Alesandro now sits on a middling stack of 720,000. Florida online specialist Thayer Rasmussen, with more than $6 million in Pokerstars and FullTilt lifetime tournament winning, sits comfortably in first with nearly 2 million chips. Belize businessman and 2011 WSOP Main Event final-table fan favorite Bob Bounahra proves his amateur mettle once again, with a comfortable stack of 1 million chips.

Action continues apace at the $1,000 Event final table, with Bob Bounahra making a min-raise to 55,000 with A-K and Rasmussen coming over the top with A-Q and putting Bounahra and his 770,000 stack at risk. The flop is an innocuous 10-10-8, with Bounahra doing his usual thing of hiding in the corner of the room, too nervous to watch. 

Reporter wonders, after Bounahra all-in call. Where the f-- is Bob?

                                                       Antonio to Bob. Come out from hiding man.

When a Q comes out on the turn there are massive groans from the crowd and none other than Antonio Esfandiari pops out to console his good friend. 

Antonio to Bob.. good call, sick turn man.

The river comes out with a miracle king, saving Bounahra’s tournament life and causing an eruption of unabashed joy that somehow does not result in a penalty for “excessive celebration.”

                                                      No "excessive celebration" called, somehow.

Getting back into poker mode,  Bounahra counts his chips & Dominik Nitsche contemplates.

The fireworks are far from over––two minutes later Dave D'Alesandro raises preflop with A-Q and Eric Milas shoves over the top with pocket tens, putting his last 380,000 at risk. The tens seem to hold up on thr river, with the MC-announcer commenting that Milas has doubled up, before it becomes apparent that an ace of clubs on the river has resulted in a four card flush and knocked him out of the tournament. Ah the cruelty of the poker gods––if they don’t get you one way, they will certainly get you another. 

Flush? But the Announcer said my tens held...