Double Bubble ... Well Worth the Trouble

There's an old adage that no one remembers the runnerup, only the champion. In poker it's not always true, though the champion always gets the lion's share of the money, if not the fame. But if no one remembers the runnerup, how about the poor sap on the bubble?

Pictured to the right is Carl Ygborn, then 25, of Sweden, as he made his exit in 561st place from last year's WSOP main event. As captured on ESPN's coverage and elsewhere, Ygborn was the official "bubble boy" of the event, presumably getting nothing for his deepest of all non-cashing runs while everyone ahead of him made the money. Of course, Harrah's soon announced that Ygborn would be receiving a free entry into this year's tournament as a consolation prize --- meaning that it was the 562nd-place finisher who really got the shaft.

I bring it up here because of the announcement that Bluff Magazine, in association with MansionPoker.net, will be offering "bubble insurance" to as many as five just-out-of-the-money finishers in this year's main event. Last year some 350 ME participants took advantage of the Bluff offer, though it doesn't seem as though Ygborn or other near-missers last year were lucky enough to "win" in this promotion last year. Nonetheless, it brings up an interesting situation: if one scoped out all the available promotional opportunities, it might be far more profitable for an extremely short-stacked player to try to be the magic "bubble boy" out then to survive and make the money in the more traditional way.



Bluff's offer is that anyone wearing their branded "bubble insurance" shirt who is among the last five players eliminated before the bubble bursts, receives a free entry into the following year's (2007) main event. Bluff also adds that the top six "bubble insurance" finishers --- overall, not pre-bubble --- will also receive an $8,000 free entry into MansionPoker's "Poker Dome" events, those real-life "turbo" tourneys we mentioned here some time ago.

And the promotional wheel spins. Note that I've conveniently overlooked the fact that in order to take full advantage of all the promotional gimmicks available to this year's WSOP entrants, one would need to wear about six shirts and make the logos of all appear at the same time. NASCAR, anyone?

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