The Million Dollar Game

Last week, Hustler Casino Live wrapped up its Million Dollar Game - a three-night stream where every player sat down with at least a cool million in front of them. It was as crazy as you'd imagine. Huge stacks, big personalities, and no shortage of fireworks. We saw wild bluffs, gutsy calls, and a few brutal coolers.

Alan Keating, Nik Airball, and a mysterious Chinese businessman named Peter were just a few of the players mixing it up. Blinds started at $500/$1,000, and million-dollar pots popped up more than once.

If you watched live or just caught clips online, here’s a quick recap of who crushed, who didn’t, and the hands that lit up the poker world.

3 Key Hands

Keating vs Peter - a $1.95M bluff

Blinds: $1k/$1k/$2k

Pot: ~$1,950,000

Preflop: Peter opens UTG to $6k with J♥️J♣️, Keating calls with Q♠️T♦️, while Jack, the 3rd player in the hand wakes up with Q♥️Q♦️ and 3bets to $26k. Both Peter and Keating call.

Flop ($81k): 4♠️7♦️6♦️. Jack fires a $35k cbet, Peter calls, and Keating does what Keating does best - bumps it up to $180k, leaning on the fact that low flops hit his range harder than theirs. But both guys call. If Keating wants this pot, he’s gonna have to keep the pressure on.

Turn ($621k): 2♠️. Blank of all blanks. Not great for Keating - his opponents are unlikely to fold anything on this turn. Having no equity in the hand, he slows down and action checks through.

River: A♦️. At this point, things could’ve either gotten real interesting or just checked around again. But once it got to Keating, he went for the spicy option ripping his last $663k into the middle. Jack tanked for a bit, then let go of the Queens, leaving only Keating’s arch-nemesis, Peter.

Peter took his time, then finally dropped in the call. Keating’s quick finger point right at him said it all — Peter got him, and Keating wasn’t about to show.  

Result: $1.95 million pot where Keating shows up with the stone cold bluff set the session into a new gear. They were there to play street poker and we were all for it.

Keating Catches Airball Bluffing - $1.6M

Blinds: $500/$1k/$2k

Pot: ~$1,600,000

Preflop: Nik Airball opens 6♦️5♦️ to $6k, Keating obviously calls in the SB with 8♥️4♣️. They go heads-up to the flop with more than $1 million behind. Surely, that shouldn't come into play here…

Flop ($16.5k): 4♦️8♣️3♦️. Oh, boy! Action flop. Airball cbets $5k, Keating pops it right back to $35k and Airball calls.

Turn ($86.5k): 3♥️. Even though we could’ve seen both players slow down on a turn card that pairs the board, Keating continues firing big - $60k on the turn. And Airball is not there to play nice either - he raises to $230k, which Keating calls.

River ($546.5k): A♠️. Keating checks the river and Airball bets $525k, with Keating going into a deep tank. After about 5 minutes, Keating calls and receives the good news - he’s the winner.  

Airball’s Not Done Bluffing - $1M 

Blinds: $500/$1k/$2k

Pot: ~$1,330,000

Preflop: DoorDash co-founder Stanley opens to $10k with K♦️6♦️ UTG, Airball 3bets to $30k in the LJ with T♥️9♥️, and Brandon Stevens goes for the cheeky cold 4bet from the BB with K♥️J♦️ bumping the action to $105k. Only Airball calls.

Flop ($224k): 2♥️2♠️3♥️. Brandon cbets $77k and Airball calls.

Turn ($378k): K♣️. A get out of jail free card for Brandon, pairing his king. He continues for $187k, leaving only $290k behind. Even knowing that, Airball decides to try to level Brandon and goes all-in. Not a comfortable decision, but Brandon does eventually call.

Result: They run it once and Airball gets scooped for the second time in more than a $1 million pot. Brandon Stevens collected $1.33M after the 5♠️ river.

Results

There are plenty of more pots to talk about, but these 3 stood out to me the most. When it comes down to the overall results, once again our mythical Bond villain Alan Keating came out on top - with $1.92M in net winnings, while Jack had the biggest loss at -$1.5M, according to HighRollPoker.

Biggest winners:

• Alan Keating: $1.92M

• Haralabous Voulgaris: $852k

• Brandon Stevens: $705.5k

Biggest losers:

• Jack: -$1.5M

• Texas Mike: -$1.22M

• Pav: -$1M

Now that the Million Dollar Cash Game is in the books, I’m already looking forward to the next one. The whole thing had serious Full Tilt Poker railheaven vibes. Except this time, we’re watching the madness unfold live.