It seems that Jay O’Toole approached the bubble with the sort of cushion of chips one could lean back on while relaxing into the money – 300,000. But in NLHE, such cushions all have warning tags sewn into them advising that they may deflate slowly over time, or pop suddenly like costly balloons.
The pop that dropped him down to a short stack at the most tense of moments occurred when he picked up pocket kings, raised preflop and found a caller in Tom McEnany in position. On a flop of Qx 9x [brick], O’Toole bet (an appropriate amount, we’re sure) and McEnany called.
The turn brought a king. O’Toole opted to check, and then ship it all in when McEnaney bet this card. “He hurt his hands getting his chips in!”
It had brought O’Toole top set, but McEnaney’s Tx Jx had made a straight. The board failed to pair, and O’Toole is now navigating the early payout period with just 75,000 (McEnaney has over 425,000).
O’Toole recounted this story and McEnaney added that it was “just his side” and that we could tell it from the winner’s perspective too (it is, however, the same, just with the expletives taken out).