The entirety of Season 16 of High Stakes Poker is now live, exclusively streaming on PokerGO – each week, on Mondays, we'll dive into a new episode. With Episode 1 in the books, we march onwards.
After starting strong out of the gate, superstar comedian Kevin Hart hit a serious rough patch in Episode 2.
With nearly $1M in front of him at the onset, the funny man had plenty of ammunition to fire about the table – but by the end of the 44-minute runtime, he was forced to reach for rebuy chips as his losses exceeded the $1.4M mark.
From bad to worse
It all started with a $544,000 pot against High Stakes Poker regular and Scratch CEO Sameh Elamawy. Hart got the money in as a big favorite – his 
dominating Elamawy's 
. With more than half a million on the line, the two agreed to run it twice. Elamawy improved to the nut flush on the first runout as it came down 
.
On the second runout, Hart's misfortune increased as the 
board left him drawing dead on the turn.
And it didn't get any better from there on out.
Kevin Hart's toast to High Stakes Poker: "To starting off the way you supposed to and making a f**king great comeback and crushing you motherf**kers. That's what I do." Only a few hands later, Hart looked down at 
with the $4,000 double straddle live and lots of action in front of him. 'Big Al' Decarolis kicked off the party with a limp from up front with 
. Sam 'Senor Tilt' Kiki bumped it up to $20,000 – attacking the dead money in the middle with his . Hart opted to flat the raise with his jacks, allowing Darren Feinstein to come along with 
. Decarolis made the call as well, closing the action, and the dealer spread the 
flop.
Kiki caught a fortunate flop to make trips and continued for $25,000 in the face of three checks from his opponents. Hart made the call while Feinstein and Decarolis mucked their holdings.
With $133,500 in the middle, the turn 
didn't change much and Kiki bet again for $95,000. After a moment of thought, Hart matched the wager and the 
completed the board – another blank.
Kiki only had $97,500 left and he wasted no time in shipping all of it into the middle. Hart agonized over the decision, but eventually made the call – only to see the bad news.
And then it got even worse.
Rebuy time
With about $250,000 left in front of him, Hart threw out the $4,000 straddle. Decarolis raised it up to $16,000 with and picked up a call from Santhosh Suvarna and his 
.
Hart defended his straddle with 
and the three players headed to the 
flop. Decarolis, with top pair, continued for $35,000 and Suvarna, with a slightly weaker top pair, made the call. With $121,000 up for grabs, Hart sent the entirety of his $238,000 stack into the middle with just bottom pair and not much backup to speak of.
Decarolis made the call to bring the pot to $561,500, forcing Suvarna to lay down his no-good top pair. The two players ran it one time and neither the turn 
nor the river 
offered any improvement to Hart.
"Nice hand, Al," Hart said as the river bricked out.
"I know my customer," Decarolis replied.
"You had a f**king ten, what are you talking about?" Hart shot back, sending the table into a fit of laughter.
Then he told Robl to give him a $500,000 rebuy – and everything changed for the better.
Kidding. Somehow, things just kept getting worse for Hart.
The final blows
The majority of Hart's $500,000 rebuy vanished in two pots.
In the first, he got supremely unlucky as Feinstein rivered trips with 
on a 
board. Hart bet the turn and river with 
to bleed off about $150,000.
The cards just didn't agree with Kevin Hart on High Stakes Poker Season 16, Episode 2. In the second, he was also unlucky – just in a different way.
It was a single-raised pot that saw four players head to the flop. Suvarna, the original raiser, had and picked up calls from Hart's 
, Matt Kalish's and Feinstein's 
.
With $41,000 in the middle, Hart found top pair on the flop. With an overpair to the board, Kalish opted to lead into the field for $13,000. Suvarna made the call with some backdoor possibilities, but Hart wanted to play for it all and shipped his remaining $179,000 into the middle. Kalish made the call and the two players agreed to run it twice.
While had two pulls at finding improvement, neither runout helped Hart and his losses eclipsed the $1.4M mark.
