Ten Bracelets Walked Out Before the Final Table Was Set

Ten bracelets walked out the door before the $3,000 Nine Game Mixed final table was even set.

Eli Elezra, a five-time bracelet winner with $4.53M in lifetime cashes and 26 career final tables, finished 8th. Mike Gorodinsky, who owns five bracelets of his own and $4.65M in earnings across 18 final tables, finished 9th. Allan Le (two bracelets, $2.4M lifetime) went out 11th. That's 12 combined bracelets eliminated before the cameras warmed up.

Ten bracelets walked out the door before the $3,000 Nine Game Mixed final table was even set.

This Doesn't Happen in No-Limit Hold'em

In a $3,000 NLHE event, Elezra and Gorodinsky are sitting at that final table more often than not. They're better than the field, and the single-game format gives them room to express that edge over hundreds of hands of the same discipline.

Nine Game Mixed doesn't care about your edge in Stud Hi-Lo if you run cold during the Razz rotation. It doesn't care about your HORSE experience if 2-7 Triple Draw catches you at the wrong stack depth. The format rotates through nine distinct games, and each rotation is a fresh opportunity for variance to eat your lunch. Pedigree gets diluted across too many disciplines for any one player to dominate consistently.

Some will argue that the best mixed-game players should thrive because they're well-rounded. In theory, sure. But well-rounded means competent in nine games, not dominant in any single one. The gap between competent and dominant is where chips go to die.

The Last Format That Still Surprises

Joseph Couden, a two-time bracelet winner with $2.07M lifetime, leads the seven remaining players with 1,280,000 chips. Richard Roger Freitas, a Brazilian with $365K in career earnings and zero bracelets, also made it through. The bubble took out the bigger names and let the field breathe.

That's mixed games. The format where your résumé doesn't buy you a seat at the final table. It buys you a longer walk to the rail.

I love it.