Ryan Feldman was just one more bustout away from a career-high score but a mistake on the bubble of the Triton Million led to his elimination just outside the money.
The Hustler Casino Live owner was an invitee to the unique Triton format at WSOP Paradise, where he ponied up $500,000 and invited Daniel Negreanu to do the same for a shot at the $12 million top prize. Negreanu busted much earlier in the day, but Feldman held his own and was in prime position to score at least $755,000 as one of the top 17 players.
Double bustout sets Feldman's fate in motion
The seeds of Feldman's elimination were actually planted on another table, where Nick Petrangelo and Artur Martirosian were all in and at risk against Daniel Dvoress with 20 players left in the tournament. Petrangelo and Martirosian bit the dust when Dvoress' jacks held up and that left 18 players in the tournament — the stone bubble.
Ryan Feldman didn't know he was on the stone bubble until it was too late. Feldman didn't realize what had happened and he got a little saucy with the defense of his big blind. The camera swung over and Feldman was all in on the flop of 
after he picked up a combo draw with 
. Alejandro Lococo called with 
and Feldman suddenly needed to catch one of his outs to stay in the tournament.
That didn't happen. The turn 
and river 
sent Feldman to the rail in 18th place and put the rest of the field in the money. Bryan Rast, who was on commentary with Ali Nejad, speculated that Feldman didn't realize that there was a double elimination — a fact the bubble boy later confirmed on X.
A "half-million dollars worth of pure pain," as Nejad called it.
Day 3 on Monday
Two players hit the rail in quick succession after Feldman's unceremonious exit. Mikita Badziakouski jammed with ace-queen, but he ran into the broad side of Stephen Chidwick's quads to collect $755,000 for 17th place. He was followed off the stage by Punnat Punsri, who lost with 
against Adrian Mateos and his 
. Phil Nagy followed them home in 15th place for $792,000 — a career-high — and the final 14 players bagged up for Monday's Day 3.
Michael Moncek once again leads the way with 13 million, good for 65 big blinds when they come back to 125K/250K/250K. The pack is much closer to him now than they were throughout the day with Dvoress right behind with 12 million on the strength of the late double elimination. Lococo is in third with 11 million and Mateos is in fourth with 10 million.
The tournament reconvenes at 12 noon local time on Monday and they will attempt to play down to a winner live on Triton Poker's YouTube.
