STACKS COLLIDE (EVENT #2)

King - Nine, Good!

"How often when you have ace, king and you flop two kings, are you going to lose?" That's the question that will haunt Al Lubin (Watchung, NJ) for a long time.

Lubin was second in chips with 275k when he had the misfortune of running his big hand into chip leader Matt Lombardi (Villanova, PA), who has slightly more.

Lubin raised from the button and Lombardi calls 14k more from the BB. Lombardi checks dark, the flop is [KK9] and Lubin checks his flopped set.

The turn [10] and Lombardi leads out for 20k. Lubin reraises to 75k and says "you're drawing dead." Lombardi shoves all-in and Lubin snap calls.

Lubin is stunned to see (K 9) and that he's dead to an ace. "I can't believe it," says Lubin, "anybody else and I still have chips. I built a steady stack and lost it all on one hand. I could've cruised to a top four finish, but now I'm out."

Lombardi has lapped the field with a stack of nearly 600k, double the average stack. "I was wondering what he saw that I didn't," says Lombardi when Lubin told him he was drawing dead.

Play continues with 12 players, blinds are 5k/10k/1k ante.