There's a new all-time record pot at High Stakes Poker and today we're going to break it down.
Our hand begins with a $2,000 straddle. That's right, the straddle is to a midstakes no-limit game. And the action opens with Alan Keating looking down at Ace-9 of diamonds. He decides to raise it up to $10,000 to go here on a $700,000 stack—and that's pretty incredible.
In fact, if we look at the stacks around the table, we have $700K, $600K, $1.3 million, $700K, and unfortunately someone with only $217,000. Let's have a moment of silence for our poor, poor friend Justin Gavri.
Okay, so maybe it's not worth losing sleep over only having a couple hundred thousand in front of you, but the point is this game is nuts.
All right, back to the action here. So we have Ace-9 suited for Keating. He makes it $10,000 to go. Now we see Gavri on the button with pocket fives, probably a hand you just want to be calling with, and he does call.
Now to the small blind here, and Peter looks down at Ace-2 of spades.
And I'm having flashbacks right now. Nice hand, nice hand, nice hand. To be totally fair, that was actually Ace-3 of spades, a very, very different hand than Ace-2 of spades, but the point remains we're back here for Peter with a $700,000 stack and a suited ace here in the small blind.
How is he going to play it this time after having just lost a $1.4 million pot? Well, this time he's going to play it slow and elects to just call. I'd probably prefer to three-bet this, but all in all, I don't mind taking a flop here as it's likely to go fairly multi-way.
Now to Airball, King-10 of hearts, another hand where you can call or raise. Nick does decide just to call.
And now the action is on Solomon, who looks down at pocket jacks. Pocket Jacks is a hand you probably just have to always re-raise here. You don't want to see a five-way flop with Jacks; you want to get heads-up or maybe three-way where you can feel pretty good about your hand and make your opponents pay by putting in money behind. Solomon decides that's the right idea and makes it $60,000 to go here, a pretty normal size pre-flop three-bet.
Now over to Keating. Can't imagine this guy is going anywhere with Ace-9 of diamonds. We've all seen how Keating plays, and he does oblige, making the $60,000 call in position with the suited ace.
Now Justin Gavri on the button. This is a bit of an issue with these shorter stacks when you do have only $217,000 here. You kind of can't call giant three-bets and try and set mine, so I think you probably just have to fold. He does decide to go ahead and make the call. I can see what he's thinking: if he hits his set, he's super likely to double or triple up, but at the same time, you really just at the end of the day are probably not getting the odds to call.
Over now to Peter in the small blind. I would probably let this one go as well, although they are super, super deep. You are out of position, and typically speaking, these suited ace hands will end up being kind of dominated in lots of the pair spots. And although your flush draw is very good, you are going to be out of position for the hand, so I would probably let this one go as well. He does make the call.
And now Nick Airball with a very surprising decision: he actually folds here with King-10 of hearts. I think I'd probably like calling his hand. You know, one of the most, after maybe Keating closes the action, he for sure gets to see a flop. He has a suited Broadway hand, but maybe he thinks he's just too dominated by some of the stuff that Rick Solomon has pre-flop. So Airball gets out of the way, and we take a four-way flop.
So four people go to watch the flop:
Okay, biggest bet so far. The flop comes with two spades. This is a flop that hits Peter and only Peter with the nut flush draw. All the three other players are unimproved, although Rick Solomon does like this flop with his overpair.
Rick’s $150,000 bet on the flop was a little bit too big. Here’s a tip at home for you guys: in multi-way pots, even when you have pretty strong hands, you want to bet small because in ring poker the chance someone just hits something really good is much higher. There are way more people that can hit the flop. You’re happy on the flop here with jacks for sure, but if you start blasting it might get kind of ugly in a hurry, so I’d prefer to go with a little bit of a smaller flop size.
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Anyway, Rick does go ahead and bet $150,000 now to Keating. With Ace-9 of diamonds—what are you going to do here? Pretty clear fold with two overcards. Alan does get out of the way.
Now for Justin, he is calling basically all in if he wants to continue with pocket fives. While you might be ahead of hands like Ace-King, Ace-Queen, some flush draws, stuff like that, those hands have a lot of equity. And when your opponent has a hand like jacks, you’re pretty much toast. So I like the decision to go ahead and fold here on the flop.
We’re now down to heads-up once again, Peter with the nut flush draw in a giant pot, super deep. How will he elect to play this one on the flop?
He does decide just to go for the check-call. I like this decision. I think when your opponent starts to bet really big and there aren’t many good hands you can have, you typically want to just either call or fold. If your opponent has an overpair here, they’re going to barrel. And if Rick is bluffing—and let’s be real, we’ve seen Rick play poker before, he’s a pretty aggressive guy—you want to give him a chance to bluff later streets. So Peter makes the right decision and goes for the check-call.
With over $550,000 in the pot, it is a very innocent-looking offsuit deuce on the turn. You might think, how could this ever have improved anyone? But it actually did. Now, it’s not all that meaningful here, as Peter improves to two pair with fours and deuces. But at the same time, it does give him a little bit more equity against hands like jacks, where he can river a deuce, and he also then has a little bit more showdown value against hands like Ace-King, Ace-Queen. These are things that matter slightly but are not all that important.
Peter does check once again. Now for Rick, the question is: with about a half million out there and a half million behind, what does he want to do with pocket jacks? And he answers that aggressively by going all-in. This is a great play from Rick here. If you ever are feeling like getting tricky and trapping your opponent, you want to have hands that are much stronger than your middling overpairs. For example, if he had a hand like aces with a spade, you might choose to check this one back on the turn and give your opponent a chance to bluff the river. If, for example, he had Ace-Four of diamonds, you might choose the same type of deal. The point is here, with a middling overpair, you want to jam and either stack your opponent or make him fold or get it in good. So this is a very nicely played hand from Rick Solomon.
Over to Peter now with his deuce. This is an ugly spot, guys. There’s no way to break this down without saying it’s just ugly. The reality is Rick could occasionally be bluffing. There are hands that make some sense: hands like Jack-Ten of spades, hands that maybe 6-5 suited, hands like Ace-Five suited or Seven-Six suited, maybe hands like Ace-Queen or King-Queen even are getting spicy and just trying to put opponents in a tough spot.
The reality is that in order to call this all-in, Peter only needs to be good about one in three times, and he’s almost going to improve on one out of three rivers. So the chance Rick’s bluffing plus the equity you have in the hand, I think you’re honestly pot-committed for what will become an almost $1.5 million pot.
Peter does make the call, which I think was the correct call, and now we’re off to the races, and someone is going to walk away here with potentially nothing if the other player wins two runs.
Let’s see who ends up winning the highest stakes pot in the history of High Stakes Poker.
Commentator: "They’re chopping up 50 dimes from two other players. Nice little profit there for both of them."
