The daily lineups for the 2024 Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game have been announced, with Tom Dwan and Doug Polk set to clash on Day 2 of a highly anticipated four-day livestream.
The line-ups were announced by Hustler Casino Live on its X account on Friday afternoon.
The big news is that Dwan is set to play all four days, with the final stream promising to be a wild ride. That will see Dwan face off against Alan Keating, Stanley Tang, Brandon Steven, Santhosh Suvarna and a mystery guest yet to be confirmed.
Suvarna is straight off a big stint on High Stakes Poker, where he scooped the biggest pot in the show's history vs. Andrew Robl.
You can see the full lineup for all four days below.
Dwan made all the headlines at the Million Dollar Game last year, winning the biggest televised pot of all time against Wesley Fei for a huge $3.1 million. You can see how that went down, in Dwan's own words, here.
Nik Airball: Can't play, won't play?
One player conspicuous by his absence from the lineups is Nik Airball.
The HCL regular was a big part of the Million Dollar Game last year, memorably cracking Tony G's aces with 
and then shouting for him to get on his bike afterwards. However, he hasn't played on the Hustler livestream since March 22.
He has played on other streams, including the Lodge and High Stakes Poker, seemingly dispelling the rumors that he has gone broke.
Instead, it seems that there's an ongoing, albeit temporary, issue with Hustler Casino, which has led to him being unable to play at the premises.
A source has told PokerOrg that this is a casino compliance issue and has nothing to do with Hustler Casino Live.
Airball back soon
Rumors to this effect surfaced on Reddit at the start of April, when a user called ‘pokerthrowaway2u3049’ posted, “Nik Airball has been banned from Hustler for breaking their rules about passing/selling chips. After multiple warnings they have banned him for 12 months.”
The length of that ban seems off the mark. Airball opened up about what had happened on a Lodge stream on May 14, when he admitted he'd been banned for three months "for loaning chips."
"They told us if you loan chips you have to report who you loan to, which we did, we always reported it," Airball said. "But then they got upset because we did such a high amount. Nick [Vertucci] and Ryan [Feldman] went to bat for us, we got unbanned, they said if you ever loan in the casino again you're banned for life. It makes running the big games a little more challenging."
There are different versions of the story doing the rounds, but PokerOrg has been told that Airball's temporary ban is still in effect although it won't last much longer. The reason Airball gave for the ban on the Lodge stream lines up with what we've been told.
Might Airball still play the Million Dollar Game?
Never say never. The situation could obviously be fluid and things could change (and there is a mystery guest for the final day), but, as it stands, we don't expect to see him playing in the Million Dollar Game, and that's a shame for Airball, for HCL and for everyone watching at home. He brings the action. As you can see in the infamous hand with Tony G from last year's Million Dollar Game below.
The 2024 Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game plays out May 28-31, with the action starting at 3pm PT each day and blinds of $500/1K and a $2K BB ante. You can watch it all live on the Hustler Casino Live YouTube channel.
Image courtesy of PokerGO
