Last week, four sessions of the Million Dollar Game 2 took place at Hustler Casino.
We briefly talked about the beginning of the biggest streamed cash game in the world:
The second session was short and was heavily criticized by the audience. After Peter's hit-and-run, there were only four participants left, no new ones arrived, and the game quickly fell apart.
Not all spectators liked the short-handed game. Several times a situation arose when players left after large losses or, in the case of Peter, victories, and there was no replacement for them.
“The reason the MDG doesn't have backup players when people leave is because no self respecting person is just gonna wait around with millions of dollars for a glimmer of hope to get to play.,” Doug Polk explained on Twitter. “Anyway I'm in town till Saturday.”
Doug played only one day – just in the second session.
After the broadcast, he wrote that he was promised a completely different lineup. He never appeared at the table again. In the last two sessions, mostly VIPs played, and Doug was simply not allowed into the game, despite the enthusiastic support in the chat and on social media.
Tom Dwan was promised that he would play every day. But he was not included in the final session either.
This came as a big surprise to Tom. He responded to the announcement tweet with an angry emoticon 😡.
"I thought you were all 4 days?” Joe Ingram wrote.
“Me too, lol,” Dwan replied. “Might not have come if not, diff if I was up giant n there was a reason obv.” (ed. – Tom lost more than a million in the first two sessions, and won back $800k in the third).
As a result, Tom was allowed to sit at the table at the end of the final session. According to rumors, Santhosh lobbied for his arrival.
A rumor was started on social networks that the regulars were not allowed in because of Alan Keating, who has a great influence on the formation of the lineup in Hustler.
"Lmao the two whales in this game are Santhosh and Keating. If Santhosh is vouching for Durr, we can guess which player is asking for Tom to be blackballed,” wrote one of the commentators on Twitter.
“Keating is a pro 😂,” Dwan replied.
“If you think Keating is a pro the game has passed you by 😂,” the reader continued to insist.
"Ahh maybe u know him longer than me. I think I only met him 15yrs ago or so…"
Alan himself rejected the accusations, although only partially:
– No I didn’t block TomDwan
He can confirm.
– "Who blocked Dvan and I from participating?" – asked Doug Polk.
– No idea. In such games it is not customary to tell why you are not allowed to sit at the table. I think Feldman ( ed. – co-owner of Hustler ) would be happy to see me, obviously it would be good for the show. But if the key players don't want someone to play, there's nothing you can do about it.
Readers also asked Doug how he assessed Dwan’s level of play.
“I’m too far from poker today,” Polk avoided answering. – I can say that for me the strongest offline high roller is Handz by a margin. Everyone else has their strengths and weaknesses.
Handz also played only the first two sessions, in which he was content with a modest win of $500k. He, like Doug, no longer received an invitation to the final games.
Doug was also asked about Keating.
– Can you confirm that he is actually a professional?
The regiment again avoided a direct answer:
– We met in 2010. He then asked me to become his backer, haha. Alan really managed to make his way to the top, and now he’s doing great. I'm very happy for him.
On Reddit, we found information that Howard Keating (Alan's father) was the CEO of Keating Network, a company that helped small and medium-sized businesses attract more than $1 billion in external funding. Keating Sr. died in 2020.
Despite the scandals and criticism, there was more than enough action in the last two sessions. Largely, this was thanks to Keating and his friends. In the third session, 6 players participated and played 4 pots of more than $1 million.
The main driver of action was Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek, who lost $2.7 million in a few hours.
The game didn't go well for him right away. In one of the first big pots, he flopped top pair against a set.
Button limped $2kc , Mike and Brandon Stephen called from the blinds. Tom Dwan c I moved up to $12k on the straddle and received three calls. On the flop, everyone checked to the button, who bet $28k into a $54k pot. Brandon Stephen called and Mike raised to $135k, Dwan and the button folded in horror, and Stephen called all-in. Mike thought for a few minutes and paid.
A few minutes later, a mysterious action was performed by Thomas, who spent the entire game wearing a mask, hat, and hood.
Thomas made a $15k call on the SB. Postflop, Keating bet all streets – $20k, $55k and $235k. On the river, Thomas responded with an instant check-raise push, but for his bold bluff, he clearly chose a less-than-ideal candidate.
Alan reasoned out loud that no one was bluffing like that, but he only needed to deliver $290k, so he couldn’t throw it away.
A few more hands later, Keating made the nut flush and received full payment from Mike.
Texas Mike called a $30k 3-bet preflop and a $35k c-bet on the flop. On the turn, the crafty Alan check-called $85k and then checked the river. Michael bet $520k, an overbet of more than 1.5 pots, leaving himself with just $205k. Keating went all-in and got called.
In Mike's final hand, he and Keating put it all-in preflop for a pot of $2.2 million.
Keating opened with a raise of $19k, Brandon Stephen called from the BB, Michael moved to $100k in the straddle, Keating 4-bet $275k, Stephen folded, Mike called all-in, and Alan called without even a second's thought.
– Do you have a pair? – Mike asked.
– No, and you?
– Yeah.
“I have a good feeling,” Alan answered and showed his cards.
The ace came on the flop. After this hand, Mike said goodbye to everyone and left the Hustler Casino.
“Tilted for a while after my atrocious Q9 call, tried to hero call vs flush. ,” he wrote a little later on Twitter. "Think the straight hand was okay-ish besides obv you shouldn’t call preflop. After that honestly tried my best…GG we battled. Time for WSOP let’s chase some bracelets!"
– How much money does Alan have that he can afford such calls? – the spectators were perplexed.
In episode 4, Rahul Birraju joined the game and periodically challenges the regulars online.
In the first big pot, Thomas (the same European in the mask) 4-bet $150k with 83o and saw 4 calls.
On the flop, Rahul simply declared all-in from the first hand, everyone folded, and Thomas took the longest to think.
Brandon Stephen caught another set.
He opened with a raise, Rahul was on the SB with 3-bet $30k, Thomas and Brandon paid. On the flop, Brandon was checked, he bet a quarter of the pot, and only Thomas paid. On the turn, Brandon bet half the $77k pot, Thomas check-raised all-in for $899k and was promptly called.
The main star of the first two episodes, Peter, missed the third game day, but returned again on the fourth.
Peter 3-bet $42k and three opponents called. Peter bet $45k on the flop, young billionaire Stanley Tang folded , Santosh and Keating paid. On the turn, Keating was checked, he bet $140k into the $306k pot, Peter called. On the river Peter checked with a full house, Keating declared all-in and saw a very quick call.
Alan asked to bring another million, and Peter had more than $4 million in his stack, his total profit for the week exceeded $5.5 million.
Keating, Suvarna and Tang triple-all-in preflop.
Tang with a short stack of 130BB 4-bet all-in, Keating called, Santosh moved.
The board was dealt twice. On the first, Alan and Santhosh chopped, and on the second, it was a three-way chop. The dealer had a hard time, but managed to do it.
Stanley added $500k to his stack and almost immediately doubled up with a flush against Brandon Stephen's set.
After a few limps, Brandon raised to $8k and 5 people called. Brandon c-bet $37k, Stanley raised to $125k and called the all-in. They ran it twice, and the flush held.
Rahul and Keating played the second-largest pot in Hustler streaming history.
Keating put in a $4k straddle, Rahul followed him with a $15k raise, and 4 players called. Alan only called the $40k continuation bet on the flop, and he check-called $140k on the turn. On the river, Rahul bet $200k and spent 8 minutes thinking about whether to call the all-in.
Rahul immediately left the game, and Tom Dwan took his place, but he only managed to play for a couple of hours.
The last big pot was played by Keating and Peter.
Peter limped $4k and called the $35k raise. Postflop, Keating bet three barrels – $40k, $150k and $575k. Peter thought for a long time, but could not throw it away. Immediately after this hand, he also left with a profit of $2.4 million. This time he played for almost 10 hours, so there were no accusations of hit-and-runs.
The remaining players spent another hour at the table, after which the game finally fell apart.
Later, word from Nik Airball and other sources confirmed that Peter had made people aware of his shortened schedule beforehand.
Results of the 4th session:
Overall summary of the whole week:
“I haven’t seen such a cash loss since Ashman won $10 million in PLO on FTP in two weeks in 2010,” Doug Polk wrote after what he saw.
In the coming days, he promises to release a large video analyzing the Million Dollar Game.