Take a look at this list of people cashing the WSOP Main (so far), and scroll down to the bottom: http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/resu...ayof=7655&rr=5

Notice anything missing?

1286 spots were in the money, but only 1285 finishers are listed!

In fact, the WSOP even gave their traditional free Main Event seat for the following year to the bubble boy, which was 1287th place (not officially listed in the link above).

So what about the guy at 1286th? What happened to him?

I have a theory, and it's an unfortunate one.

The WSOP Main was a complete zoo when it got fairly near the money bubble. Stalling was super rampant, prompting complaints from many prominent poker pros on social media. In fact, stalling got so rampant that nearly every table stalled in order to avoid being at a disadvantage compared to other tables. That was the attitude on my table, which stalled plenty. "We don't want to have to do this, but we have to or other tables will have an edge on us as far as getting into the money," said one player.

Hand-for-hand was laughably scheduled to start at 1288 people left -- just two before the money, and just ONE spot before any prize was given (since the stone bubble gets a seat for next year, worth $10k).

People were BEGGING the WSOP floor to go hand-for-hand earlier, or at least make a rule for each table regarding the maximum tank time allowed per hand (kind of a temporary shot clock).

The floor did neither, citing that management refused to change the plans.

Finally, we went hand-for-hand at 1288 left, and the money was reached surprisingly quickly.

It was also noticed that the final hundred players didn't seem to be tracked well (starting from 1386 left). It would be stuck on a number for a long time, and then decreased rapidly.

There is some belief that the floor lost track of the number of players left, and a player may have busted 1286th thinking he had finished a few off the money, and left!

Of course there's no way to figure out who that is, or for that person to prove it.

There is also some possibility that the 1286th player simply walked off and never registered his cash, as he was supposed to, and will return later. But why hasn't he done so yet? It's been a full day since the bubble burst.

We may never find out about mysterious player #1286, but at the very least, that $15,000 he was supposed to get should be returned to the prize pool in some way, or we need to understand where that money is going.