Kings Lose to Aces on WSOP Main Event Bubble – Worst KK vs. AA Beat Ever? 

The WSOP Main Event has already provided many thrills in its first four days at the felt, with a world record attendance of 10,112 confirmed on Day 2d. Stars such as the reigning champion Daniel Weinman and seven-time bracelet winner and the current Poker Players Championship winner Daniel Negreanu both owed out on Day 4 of this year’s World Championship, but neither of them lost as painfully as Lucas Reeves.

Kings into Aces for the Lot

Lucas Reeves was the unfortunate player who lost with kings against aces on the stone-cold bubble of the 2024 WSOP Main Event. With the 1,518^th place finisher receiving nothing and the person ousted in 1,517^th taking home $15,000, there was a lot on the line, let alone the chance to remain in the fight for the $10m potential top prize.

At around 2pm local time on Day 4, there were six players all-in and at risk of elimination in 1,518^th place, including Reeves. But while the other five were short-stacked, Reeves was far from it, having so many chips to his name that the all-in – and eventual call – came at the end of a raising war.

Eventually seven-bet raising all-in, Reeves was dismayed to learn that he had run pocket kings into the pocket aces Marcelo Tadeu Aziz Junior. Those aces held across the board of J-7-6-Q-4 and Reeves, crestfallen, fell on the bubble. Thankfully for Reeves, he was able to chop the 1,517^th-placed prize of $15,000 with Christian Stratmeyer, who busted to Terrance Reid in the same hand-for-hand period, so there was a fairly happy ending to proceedings.

That hasn’t been the case with other all-ins and calls at the World Series of Poker…

Hellmuth and the High Fives  

Back in 2007, in a $3,000-entry World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em event, Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth was in full ‘Brat Mode’. In a sensational hand, both he and Beth Shak – wife on high roller crusher Dan Shak – picked up pocket aces pre-flop. Not only was that statistical anomaly in play, but Brett Richey somehow found pocket kings in the same hand.

In 2024, the notion of calling with pocket kings when two players have both already gone all-in in front of you might be considered mildly insane. But this was 17 years ago. Aggression over GTO was the style. A year after Jamie Gold flipped his way to $12 million in the 2006 World Championship, the action was crazy.

Shak and Hellmuth both went all-in pre-flop with aces and with just eight players left in the event, Brett Richey somehow found the call. There were no aces in the deck but there were a couple of kings. So did a cowboy come to oust Hellmuth and Shak instead of Richey? Well, no. Shak and Hellmuth chopped up a sizeable pot, high-fived each other and Richey cashed for $42,227 in eighth place.

Karma fans might note that after Hellmuth and Shak’s “grandstanding” in the words of commentator Norman Chad, Hellmuth crashed out in sixth place and Shak was beaten heads-up for the bracelet, an accolade she has never won in the 17 years since. In fact, that was the best result of a poker career at the WSOP that last saw a cash a full 11 years ago.

Here’s that crazy hand for your viewing pleasure:

Check Your Privilege

“He’s not your Dad; he’s not going to help you.”

When William Kassouf ran deep in the WSOP Main Event eight years ago (it really doesn’t feel that long, does it?) he really did set the cat among the pigeons. In fact he was the cat and the other 7,000 players were -to him at least – the pigeons. Thanks to a dubious bluff with nine-high, Kassouf was swept along on his three catchphrases into some sort of cult hero to WSOP noobs and the players around him didn’t like it one bit.

Day by day in the Main Event, he kept surviving, and with each new day, another set of players would become annoyed with his repetitive rhetoric. By the final two tables of nine, everyone had endured enough – except the watching poker public. Fans adored him, and whether it was laughing at him or with him, as the saying goes, ratings don’t care how they land.

By the final 17, Kassouf was at the feature table and decided to try his ‘speech play’ on Griffin Benger. Not unaccustomed with things going against him in a fairly long and distinguished career, Benger wasn’t having any of it. Kassouf, however, was undeterred and holding pocket kings, decided that speech play was his best weapon in trapping Benger and taking all of his chips. The problem was… Benger was holding pocket aces.

“What you’re doing to me is verbal abuse,” Benger said, trapping the trapper. “You’re a bully. It’s not called speech play, it’s called being a bad person.”

At this point, Kassouf looked at Jack Effel, tournament director for a little guidance. Was this still real, or were we actually through the looking glass.

“He’s not your Dad; he’s not going to help you.” Said Benger and this prompted a pile-on. As the poker table turned into Lord of the Flies, Kassouf finally ‘gambled’ and shoved all-in with kings. Benger, of course, called with pocket aces, but in doing so, seemed to go mildly insane, barking nonsense about the hand not mattering before screaming at its conclusion.

“If this gets any worse, it might rival the Russian Roulette scene in Deerhunter.” Quipped Norman Chad on comms. This feels like Will against the world.”

And it really was. Did a king land on the river to bounce Benger, or was Kassouf crushed?

Watch the best kings vs. aces hand in history right here. But do remember to check your privilege on the way into your seat.