The biggest-ever pot in live-streamed U.S. poker history was won last night as Alan Keating scooped $1.2 million with… a king-high flush?
In sensational footage from Hustler Casino Live, Keating, who is famed for playing big cash game pots, was the man with the decision to make after ‘Handz’ pushed all-in with just pairs of aces and sevens.
“Sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield.”
The pot of the year has taken a long time to arrive, with Hustler Casino Live the setting. Streaming to poker fans around the world online, Alan Keating called the initial pre-flop raise to $9,000 by Handz at blinds/straddle of $200/$400/$800/$1,600. It was a mismatch in terms of hand strength, with Handz holding ace-seven offsuit with the ace of spades and Keating holding king-deuce of spades.
Another two players were in the hand, too, however, with Ben Lee (eight-five of clubs) and Eric Persson (ace-jack offsuit) both interested parties. The flop of T-6-5 with the first two cards being spades led to a bet of $25,000 from Handz, with only Keating calling, bumping the pot up to around $87,000.
On the turn, Keating checked a four of diamonds, but Handz bet $70,000. Again, Keating made the call; the pot soared to $227,000. The river of the seven of spades gave Handz two pair, but Keating the flush. The only problem was, the action was about to get huge.
“I Just Got It In!”
With $227,000 in the pot, Keating changed tack, taking the betting lead himself by tossing out $155,000. Handz then moved all-in over the top, with Keating needing to put $309,000 more into the pot to make the call. Cue the mother of all tanks.
All in all, Keating took a good couple of minutes thinking about whether to call. Handz’ bet was clearly pretty wild, but then there were no pairs out there, and if he didn’t put his opponent on a set, then clearly only a king-high flus could beat him, with Handz having the ace of spades blocker to the nut flush.
Eventually, Keating made the call, getting it in to win the $1,160,000 pot – the biggest ever to be streamed on U.S. soil. Plenty of Twitter fans waded in after the action, praising Keating for the call but equally not condemning Handz for the shove. Keating, known as a ‘calling station’ among some of the poker fraternity (in their opinion not ours!) thought long and hard about the fold and looked 100% genuine in it being a close one no matter how much he could have afforded to lose the pot being a very rich man indeed.
Another cash game player Andy Stacks tweeted that “many poker players are now going to have second thoughts before making that naked ace bluff shove.” Some argued back that Handz didn’t need to make that move at that time against Keating in particular.
“I Love his Shove with the Ace.”
Keating took the ice in his hand after the session and praised his opponent as he pocketed the milly.
“Maybe if I had a smaller flush, do I fold?” he said, questioning his own play. “Yeah, I just got it in! I love his shove with the ace. It’s a pretty awesome move [and I] respect that.
Keating admitted during the interview that he had forethought the Handz shove if he called the bet on the turn, so it was if not a predictable play, one that he’d already considered before it happened.
“When he did I was like ‘OK, well, maybe I should have thought about that further!’ I had the king-high flush. I’m not going to act like I had some brilliant thinking, just call.”
Keating is sure to be part of the cast in next season’s 10th season of High Stakes Poker on PokerGO.
You can watch the hand in full right here in this clip shared via Hustler Casino Live Twitter account:
