When you are playing at the World Series of Poker Main Event, there are ten people left in the event, and you are sitting on a very precarious bubble, a pair of Aces showing up in your hand would seem like a gift from Lady Luck herself. The problem with this is that Ms. Luck also seems to have a bit of a sense of humor and one could speculate that she also hates men. With this in mind, it would be completely proper for her to throw a drowning player an inflatable inner tube, and then pull out a BB gun and start taking aim.
Jordan Smith was hovering near the top of the chip count at the 2009 WSOP Main Event when he was dealt a pair of Aces. This was the second time in twenty minutes he had been given two aces as his hole cards. When Eric Buchman stated the action with a 650,000 chip bet and Moon countered with a passive flat call, Jordan did exactly what you are supposed to do with a pair of Aces, he raised big. His bet of 2.6 million chips inspired Buchman to fold, but Darvin called the big bet.
The flop was a usually benign 8c-4d-2d. The problem for Smith is that Darvin Moon was holding a pair of eights and had just completed a set. From the small blind, Jordan checked. Moon bet four million, and Smith went all-in. He must have thought he had just closed the trap.
Even though Jordan Smith was beat, Lady Luck still teased him. The turn was a 5h, leaving Smith one card away from a straight. The river refused to cooperate, and the 10h that hit the board ended his WSOP Main Event experience. While eliminated on the bubble, Jordan Smith got $896,730 for his trouble.
