The 2015 World Series of Poker began with Brian Stinger885Hastings (pictured) blowing up Twitter with bracelet bets. With almost 70 bracelet events on deck this year, Hastings seemingly had plenty of chances to make good on his wagers. Sure enough, within a couple of weeks of the 2015 WSOP starting, Hastings took down the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for $239,000 and reportedly made over $400,000 more from prop bets.

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One week later, he was back at it, becoming the first repeat bracelet winner of this year’s tournament series. This time around, Hastings took down a $1,500 Ten Game Mix for $133,000. Ten days after that, he nearly got a third bracelet, but finished 11th in the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop. Still, he cashed out from that event for $332,000.

Over $700,000 and three top-ten finishes later, Hastings has had one heck of a WSOP. Intermixed were allegations that he multi-accounted, reportedly from the US, under the screen name NoelHayeson PokerStars. This has hardly been a distraction, however, as he’s third in the Main Event after Day 3 with a stack of 1.03 million, one of only three players to cross the seven-figure chip mark.

Former Main Event winner Greg Merson (pictured) summed it up pretty succinctly on Twitter, calling 2015 the “Summer of Hastings.” We couldn’t agree more. Despite his ups and downs, controversies and successes, Hastings has made mincemeat of the WSOP. He Tweeted just before the money bubble popped on Friday, “This hand for hand is zzzzzz, who wants to play some #OFC? #needmorehandsperhour.”

Hastings helped himself late in the day by eliminating a player with K-6 against Q-7 after hitting a king-high flush. That hand brought Hastings to 1.16 million in chips and he ended that level on top.

One of your 2015 Bubble Boys was Roy Daoud, who was ousted on Friday with pocket fives against 7-5. The board ran out K-9-4-K-9, which counterfeited Daoud’s pocket pair and left everyone else in the room in the money.

Across the hall at the same time, Germany’s Jonas Lauck tanked for five minutes before calling for his tournament life with A-Q on a board of K-5-4-10-A. However, his opponent rolled over Broadway and Lauck became the second 2015 WSOP Main Event Bubble Boy.

Following the bubble bursting, there were almost 70 eliminations in an hour. Here’s how the top 10 in chips looked at the end of the day. There are 661 runners left:

1. Amar Anand – 1,139,000
2. Joseph dude904 McKeehen – 1,052,000
3. Brian Stinger885Hastings – 1,034,500
4. Fedor CrownUpGuyHolz – 994,000
5. Jason Roberts – 948,000
6. Emmanuel Lopez – 942,000
7. Jake jet5087 Toole – 940,000
8. Chad Power – 917,500
9. Stephen Graner – 916,000
10. Dmitry Chop – 901,500

Click here for the full leaderboard.

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