Hustler Casino Live promised the "most epic two days in poker history" after Day 2 of the Million Dollar Game flopped when huge winner Peter left with his pockets stuffed full of chips halfway through the session.
Did it live up to the hype? Of course not, but Day 3 was a pretty wild ride, with the third-biggest pot in Hustler Casino Live history (a flip for $2.2 million – see video above), part redemption for Tom Dwan, and one of the game's biggest-ever losers.
Masked mystery man mucks winning hand
Speculation ran rife about the identity of the mystery guest promised ahead of the show. Some of the more outlandish guesses included Elon Musk and Mr. Beast. In the end, it turned out to be a mystery European businessman who kept his hood up and face covered by a mask for the entirety of the show. In other words, the polar opposite of 'promise small, deliver big.'
The players didn't mind, though, as the masked man dusted off over $1 million over the course of the night. Thomas may not want to relive any of last night's session, especially the hand where he made a winning straight on the river, bet out $130,000, got a call, and then mucked face down. That's one way to torch $543,000. You can see the grisly spectacle below.
The main event of the evening turned out to be a battle between Alan Keating and Texas Mike. The latter was too sick to play Day 2 of the show, and he'll be wishing he hadn't recovered after going down for a shocking $2.7M over the session.
He didn't shy away from tangling with Keating, though. In the first big confrontation, he came out on top after bluffing the river.
Perhaps showing the bluff at the end wasn't the best thing to do, as Keating destroyed him in two massive pots after this.
In the first, worth $1,757,000, Keating three-bet over Mike's preflop raise to $30K with 
. Mike made the call with 
.
The 
flop saw Keating put out a bet of $35K, which was matched.
Keating made the nuts with the 
turn and checked. Mike bet out $85K and Keating called to the 
river, giving Mike the straight. Keating set the trap with another check, and Mike bombed the river, betting $520K. Keating moved all-in for the last $205K of Mike's stack, which he duly delivered.
Mike then lost a $366K pot in a set-over-set cooler against Brandon Steven before the big one.
Third-biggest pot in Hustler Casino Live history
Some players just love to gamble. And Keating is always a willing participant.
Keating and Mike got $2.2M in preflop with 
(Keating) and 
(Mike). They agreed to run it once, with David Tuchman on comms saying, "What am I seeing?" You can watch how the hand played out at the top of the story.
Texas Mike left to lick his wounds $2.75M down for the session, and Keating paid tribute to his fallen comrade afterwards saying, "It was his last buy-in for the day, so you feel kind of bad being the reason he leaves, but I also didn't want to lose the pot. Just as a note, Mike is a warrior, an absolute star."
Million Dollar Game Day 3 results
| Player | Stack | Profit/loss |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Keating | $2,818,000 | $1,521,000 |
| Steve | $1,980,500 | $982,500 |
| Tom Dwan | $1,803,000 | $803,500 |
| Brandon Steven | $2,051,000 | $552,500 |
| Thomas | $387,500 | -$1,112,000 |
| Texas Mike | Bust | -$2,747,500 |
Day 4 of the Million Dollar Game could be the wildest yet, with the following players announced last week but not fully confirmed yet for action tonight. Dwan will be hoping that Peter comes back so he can recoup some of the chips he lost on Day 1.
- Alan Keating
- Tom Dwan
- Santhosh Suvarna
- Brandon Steven
- Stanley Tang
- Peter
Action is slated to start at 2.30pm local time, although that's subject to change. You can watch the pre-show with Veronica Brill from 1.30pm below. The live stream will be on the PokerOrg homepage just ahead of go-live time.
