A hero call by Alan Keating claimed a $1.6 million pot and took a big chunk out of Nik Airball's stack on the Million Dollar Game at Hustler Casino Live on Thursday night.
Keating, who had a big bluff of his own earlier in the week, flopped two pair and dodged a number of outs to beat Airball's straight flush draw. A gutsy call facing a $525K bet on the river kept the pot where it belonged.
The hand sent Keating near the $2M mark and Airball near the zero mark in the marquee livestream with a $1M buy-in. Their tablemates included regulars and familiar faces like Texas Mike Moncek, Stanley Tang, 'Peter', and Haralabos Voulgaris.
Airball chases outs
Peter and Tang were the top winners when the big hand went down with $700K and $511K in profit, respectively. Texas Mike was also in the green with $369K and Airball was near the starting line with around $60K in profit. Keating was down $345K when the cards turned his way.
The $500/1,000 hand started out innocently enough when Airball raised to $6K with 
and Keating called from the big blind. A flop of 
opened up a world of possibilities.
Airball bet $5K and called when Keating check-raised to $35K with the top two pair. Keating then fired $60K on the 
turn and called when Airball raised to $230K.
The situation set up a $546K pot and a 
fell on the river — a miss for Airball. Keating checked and watched while Airball put $525K across the betting line.
Keating continued to watch Airball for several minutes, talking out a few things in the process. At one point he mentioned the possibility of a suited six-five, and that Airball's big bet is not what he would usually do in this situation.
The mental math finished and Keating called, deflating Airball and adding $800K to his stack.
The tricky part with Airball
"I just stared him down," Keating said in an interview shortly after the hand. "I was watching everything. There are hands he can be bluffing with and he can easily have me beat and I can be down a million right now — or more. But the tricky part with Airball is that he doesn't bluff a lot, not with big numbers."
Keating continued, suggesting it wasn't necessarily an accident.
"It's something that I said at the table a couple of times in an hour. I think I planted this seed in his head where it became somewhat of a challenge, and this hand came out where I didn't have a great hand by the river. Even an ace-high that is bluffing beats me. But knowing that it was kind of set up that way where he knew that I didn't want to call him and give him a half-million dollars."
