In the last week, a man known to the poker community only as Peter took his seat at the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game and, quietly, went about his business. In this case, Peter's business was the methodical, deliberate taking of millions of dollars from the game.
Over the course of the three sessions that Peter took part in, he managed to walk away with close to $5,000,000 in profits ($4,938,500 to be exact) -- over $2.4M of which came his way on the game's final night. Bear in mind, Peter had played on Hustler Casino Live prior, but, for the most part, little was known about the Chinese businessman and his style of play before the week began. Well, we all learned fairly quickly.
For most of the other players on the felt, it was an expensive lesson. For the viewers at home, it was a show like no other.
Peter on a heater
Peter's run (and we're no math majors so please excuse our, perhaps, hyperbolic assessment) over those three sessions likely falls in the 0.01 percentile of all-time sun runs the game of poker has ever birthed. The man could not lose a hand.
Now, of course, that's not exactly true, but that's how the week felt. It's hard to explain in words just how hot Peter ran – we really need proper numbers to do it justice (paging Chris Brewer).
It's important to note that not only did Peter run better than any other human ever has in one of the best possible spots to do so, he also played some above-the-rim poker. Hero calls with ace-high, preflop folds with big pairs facing aggression from players that don't always have better (but did), well-timed bluff raises, and, overall, a general sense of being locked the f*** in.
Tom Dwan? Beat him. Doug Polk? No problem. Alan Keating? Felted. Santhosh? Out-whaled. Action Dan? Not the action he wanted.
Peter's $5 million haul from the Hustler Casino Live set rocketed him to the top of the show's all-time winner list. Even more impressive? Peter now stands as the second biggest winner in broadcasted cash game history, behind only the legendary Andrew Robl.
Peter leaves, game dies
There were murmurs of discontent from players and fans alike when Peter departed early from his second night appearance on the Million Dollar Game. And the players definitely weren't happy tonight when he departed with multiple racks of chips just past 1am, leaving the game five-handed and not long for the world. However, he left just after dropping a huge $1.6 million pot to Keating.
And Keating also won the second biggest pot in Hustler Casino Live history last night – you can watch that play out below.
Dwan had probably the biggest cause for beef. He lost a large sum to Peter on Day 1 and, after being pulled from the starting lineup on Friday, only got in the game himself at midnight and was around $200K down when Peter racked up. He shipped another $50K before the game ended just after 2am. Sometimes it's just not meant to be.
But, looking back, it's fair to say Peter put in his fair share of time on the felt. Doug Polk even dropped into the live chat on YouTube to say, "I think Peter leaving is reasonable, he played 10 hours?"
On comms, RaverPoker said, "Peter is not only the biggest winner in the Million Dollar Game, he's the biggest winner in Hustler Live Casino history, by a lot."
Yes, he left early one night. Yes, he took some extended breaks during play. When you're playing with one, two, three, four million dollars in your stack at any given time in the session, you can do those things. Yes, there's a quasi-obligation for the players to put on a show for the fans -- after all, they're the ones keeping the lights on -- but is there anyone out there who can say Peter didn't play his role to perfection?
Million Dollar Game final night results
| Player | Stack | Profit/loss |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | $3,413,500 | $2,413,500 |
| Santhosh Suvarna | $2,386,500 | $1,187,000 |
| Alan Keating | $2,721,000 | $421,000 |
| Brandon Steven | $1,625,500 | $127,000 |
| Tom Dwan | $752,000 | -$247,000 |
| Stanley Tang | $865,000 | -$633,500 |
| Thomas | Bust | -$1,619,000 |
| Rahul | $151,000 | -$1,649,000 |
