When 362 hopeful poker players paid their £10,000 entry fee for the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe they all had at least one common goal, writes Matthew Pitt.

Each and every one of them had their sights set on the £1,000,000 first prize but they wanted to survive long enough to reach the last 36 places where the prize money started to be distributed.

Ask any poker player their thoughts on the worst finishing position in a tournament and nine times out of ten they will answer "on the bubble".

Most non-players, after asking what the bubble was, would be surprised that the answer was not "last place", after all, in most other activities finishing last is a usually a disastrous result.

However, in a poker tournament losing all of your chips on the bubble, a term coined to describe the final person being eliminated from the competition that will not receive any prize money, is much worse than coming last.

The reasoning behind this is time related. If a player finishes last in a tournament he or she can easily enter another one, play some cash games or tend to other business they may have.

By "bubbling" they will have invested a significant amount of time with absolutely nothing to show for it, which for any player is far from ideal.

So spare a though for Jeff Buffenbarger, a 42 year old from Sandy, Bedfordshire, who was the unfortunate player to finish in 37th place of the 2007 WSOPE where 36 people received prize money.

Sat with a healthy stack, Buffenbarger instantly called an all-in bet from Italian Marcello Marigliano, leaving him with just 5,600 chips if he lost.

His pair of black aces were way ahead of the heads-up cash game pro's Kd Tc but a flop of Qd Kh 9d gave Marigliano some hope.

When the seven of clubs fell on the turn, Buffenbarger was a 4/1 favourite but a cruel king of clubs fell on the river to cripple his stack.

In the very next hand Ian Frazer raised from the late position and Buffenbarger put in the last of his 4,100 chips from the small blind and also received a call from John Tabatabai.

A final board of 8d 8c 4h Qs 2h did not help Frazer, who mucked, but eventual second place finisher Tabatabai paired the four by holding 4s 5h which was enough to beat Buffenbarger's Ac 9h and send him home empty handed.

As always, Buffenbarger was gracious in defeat, despite also bubbling at the 2007 WSOP in Las Vegas, stating he would "be back next year to go one better!"

I for one wish him the best of luck at the 2008 World Series of Poker.