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Good Monday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

Pete Buttigieg's decision to abandon his presidential run has opened up a new phase in the contest,

in which the remaining candidates that are not named Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are going to be under tremendous pressure to end

their campaign. You're going to hear people say it's not fair, and perhaps it's not, but it is clear

at this point that this is a two-man race between Biden and Sanders. The two outcomes this week

will highlight the splintered nature of the Democratic Party.

Situation 1. Sanders sweeps through Super Tuesday, keeping Biden at bay in California and inching

closer to the Democratic nomination. This situation will send red-faced establishment figures

through the roof. Situation 2. Biden makes headwayway cleaning up in the South and Virginia and overperforming

in California and Texas, which could keep him within 150 delegates from Sanders.

In that case, Biden's campaign believes it enters into friendlier territory, Florida, Georgia,

and other states where Biden is polling well.

The prospect of a contested convention will drive Bernie supporters nuts because they believe

party rules are stacked against them.

Steve Kranaki of NBC says that the best case scenario for Biden is that he gets out of this

week 61 delegates behind Bernie.

590 to 529, a situation Cornacki calculated by assuming Biden gets 19% of the vote in California,

wins big across the south, does well in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado, and keeps it

close in Texas.

There are a range of scenarios he looked at, including if Biden misses the threshold for delegates in California, which would have burning up by roughly 300 delegates.

300 is huge and likely uncatchable.

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