That bubble didn't take long, just one hand in fact. On the first hand of hand-for-hand play, Nicholas Newport got his stack of 17,500 all in over at Table 8 and was up against Full Tilt Poker qualifier Barry Donovan.

Action was halted to allow the rest of the tables to complete their hands, a process that took about 90 seconds. During that time a large crowd gathered around the table and waited in anticipation for the two players to reveal their hands. When the time was right, the cards were turned up.

Donovan:
Newport:

The rail let out a collective moan upon discovering the cooler. Newport was in bad shape, though the PokerNews Odds Calculator indicates that he had a 18.55% chance of coming from behind to win the hand.

That percentage dropped to 12.02% after the flop failed to help Newport, and the turn knocked it down even further to 4.55%. Newport needed a queen on the river to stay alive, but it was not meant to be as the peeled off. With that, the remaining 104 players are in the money!