Topping the Million Dollar Game 2 was always going to be tough, but Legends On The Felt was HCL's best attempt. The lineup would have suited a movie plot. Among the returning players like Ninja and Alan Keating, prolific athletes took their seats.
It was a wild game. Players hit insane VPIPs, went all-in on the first hand, and threw $14k tips to the dealer.
Here's Ryan Feldman's lineup for the event, from left to right in the image above:
- Chris Eubank Jr. – Middleweight and super middleweight British boxer, with a record of 33 wins and 3 losses in his professional career.
- Dan Bilzerian – The King of Instagram, whose road to stardom was paved by models, yachts, social media, and massive behind-closed-doors cash games (apparently).
- Alan Keating – A fan-favorite from Hustler Casino who seems apathetic to the number of zeros in bets and buy-ins.
- Ninja – A streamer and esports competitor who began with Halo 3 events, moved to Fortnite, and regularly appears at the Hustlers Casino.
- Neymar Jr. – A midfielder that needs no introduction, inside or out of football discussions. The Brazilian legend plays online at PokerStars, where he has his own poker game called Kick Off.
- Jimmy Butler – The Miami Heat's power and small forward, six-time All-Star, and 2nd-biggest winner of the 8-hour Legends On The Felt stream.
- Ryan Garcia – A Californian boxer who recently made headlines for enhancing performance, though his play at HCL seemed unaffected.
- Jon Vlogs – Influencer with over 10 million Instagram followers and CEO of a career management company. He started playing poker with Neymar.
- Velasco – Sportbettor and owner of Velasco Bets.
- Brazil God (not shown in image) – Invited to play, but not initially scheduled, Brazil God is a Chicago regular who has appeared many times on Hustlers Casino in the largest games.
The game started at $50/$100 blinds.
Let's get into these hands.
All-In on the First Hand
To start Legends On The Felt, Bilzerian limped and Eubank got on the button. He chose the solver-unapproved size of 10x, or $1,000 from $100.
Keating insta-called with out of position, violating poker fundamentals as he usually does. Bilzerian let his cards go.
On the flop, Keating called another bet of $1,000.
On the that came next, Eubank sized up to $2,000. "Alright, all in," Keating said happily.
After some worries about being behind trip Kings, Eubank quickly called.
"I didn't really want to get all-in in the beginning, I just felt I had to," Keating said as two rivers were dealt.
The first was an , the second was a , and Eubank doubled.
Three Kings and the Worst Prevails
With effective stacks of $21,000, Keating, Ninja, and Ryan Garcia saw a flop together. After the boxer 3-bet to $1,500 preflop, each player hit top pair on the dry flop of .
Ninja ( ) and Keating ( ) both checked, leaving Garcia ( ) to bet $2,000 into $4,650.
Ninja thought and then clicked it up to $4,000. Of course, everyone was fine with the new sizing.
"Deuce," Ryan urged the dealer – and the came.
"Thank you for asking for that," Keating said honestly. "I appreciate that."
Ninja bet $7,000 on this unfortunate turn, and told Keating while he pondered, "I've watched so much of your hands."
"This one will be unlike the others," Alan said as he looked at his chips. "I'm all in."
And while Ninja thought with his cards face-up, Keating told him his odds of winning.
"You win if you river a 3, 9, or Jack, nothing else though."
With a bit of poker combination knowledge, you will know that is the only hand that fits this criteria. The question is, does Ninja believe Keating is being truthful?
He may have. The $39,550 pot went to Keating on the turn, but they rabbit-hunted the river.
"Any 9s, Jacks, or 3s?" Keating inquired.
Ninja shook his head. "No. Unfortunately, no."
Streamer Slowrolls a Pro Boxer
This one would get a smile out of elite slowrollers, like Will Kassouf and Shaun Deeb.
Ninja, with , called a raise to $300, and saw a flop, along with four other hands.
On that flop, which was a perfect , he checked. Ryan Garcia, immediately left in the big blind, had hit two pair with his . He bet $1,500, everyone folded, and Ninja looked down. He sighed, shook his head, and glanced at Garcia.
"Here we go again," Ninja said.
"I'll raise to $3,000, so just double it."
"I'm all in," said Garcia immediately.
"Are you fucking serious?" Ninja played the part of a worried overpair, but his slowroll wasn't drawn out.
After the runout was clean for Ninja, Garcia said, "It's gonna get dirty now."
The Hand Everyone's Talking About
Every time he plays, Keating seems to do something highlight-worthy. On this evening, he even 5-bet . In his element at Legends On The Felt, he ignored bankroll management, yet again.
In this hand, the showdown is where the action really started.
Preflop, Eubank opened to $1,000 with , making a bit of a move. Ninja called with , as did Neymar with . Keating's was much more hand strength than he needed to 3-bet to $5,000. Velasco folded the best hand, , getting out of the way of the volatility.
The boxer, streamer, footballer, and VPIP God all went to the flop, with $20,150 in the middle.
On the board, Keating continued for half pot and got calls from Ninja and Neymar.
The turn was a , and Keating said with a smile, "I've had enough," shoving all in into about $50,000. Ninja lets his cards go quickly, but Neymar and his $74,400 in chips come along for the ride.
In 5 seconds, with a pair of 9s and no kicker, Neymar had slammed the chips in. The players agreed to run it twice.
River 1:
The first board went to Keating with a nut flush, winning half of the $200k pot.
River 2:
Neymar collected the other half, hitting another pair on the second board.
But Keating wasn't done. "Wait, wait, wait. You want to do one more card for $50,000?"
"Alright." Neymar quietly agreed.
River 3:
"One more for fifty," Alan said, rather than asked, already knowing the answer.
River 4:
"Wait, wait, wait. One more time."
River 5:
"We've gone this far, we can go one more, right?"
River 6:
"Alright, alright, last one."
River 7:
"Hold on, I'm all in here."
River 8:
As if the diamonds and Aces were committed to hiding, Neymar won 7 out of 8 boards, pocketing Keatings full stack. By the end, Keating had gone from $361,950 to $0. The first board was the only one that favored his hand.
Despite being 21% to win the hand on the turn, he lost 87.5 % of the runouts. Eubank folded a , Ninja folded a , and Velasco folded , eliminating another two of his outs. Brazil God mucked one more out, the .
The question is, if Keating knew all of his outs were gone, would he shove anyway?
Neymar continues to show that he isn't only competent on PokerStars.
The Tipping War
Alan Keating has high VPIP, but also high VTIP (Voluntarily Tip in Pot).
He prompted the table, "By the way boys – everyone throw in $500. It's for the dealers and staff and stuff like that."
Garcia and Keating then raised each other's tips back and forth until they reached about $14,000.
The stats seen at Legends On The Felt were impressive. Keating and Bilzerian both aimed to achieve near-100% VPIPs – and they came quite close.
Neymar was the big winner, taking home $308,000 from the game, mostly from Alan Keating. In second place was Jimmy Butler, who somehow achieved a $122,850 profit, despite the lowest VPIP and almost non-existent PFR.
This was not one of Keating's profitable nights and lost almost half a million. He lost almost 5 times more than the second-biggest loser, Ninja, with $94,925 in losses.
You can watch the full stream of Legends On The Felt on YouTube.