The Main Event Bubble Delivers a Two-Hour Battle

The APT Incheon Main Event bubble proved to be one of the most tense stretches of the tournament so far.

With only three eliminations needed before the field reached the money, play entered hand-for-hand mode.

The bubble eventually lasted approximately two and a half hours.

Every remaining player knew that elimination meant leaving empty-handed after surviving a field of 1,393 entries.

Eventually, Haohui Ma became the player to burst the bubble.

His journey to that moment was anything but straightforward.

Earlier in the tournament, Ma doubled up after getting pocket kings against Tomoya Kojima’s pocket aces and hitting a two-outer on the river.

He later found himself involved in another critical hand with pocket queens against Lifu Huang’s ace-eight.

Ma’s queens held.

Huang was eliminated, and Ma secured his place in the money with a stack of 466,000 chips heading into Day 3.

The bubble is often where tournament poker becomes most psychologically demanding.

Players with large stacks can apply pressure, while short stacks must balance survival against the risk of missing the money.

At APT Incheon, that tension lasted for hours.

Now that the bubble has burst, the remaining players can focus on the much larger target ahead—the final table and the approximately $374,000 first prize.
photo credits to Asian Poker Tour