The season finale of High Stakes Poker Season 12 aired Monday night, drawing the curtain on a record-setting run of episodes. From the triumphant return of Phil Laak earlier in the season to the nasty cooler that led to a record-breaking $992,000 pot between Andrew Robl and Santhosh Suvarna, it's been a hell of a ride.
Season 12 ended on a high note as Nik Airball and Charles Yu tangled in a pot that threatened to reset the record for biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history after just a few episodes. Airball and Yu were once again joined at the table by Andrew Robl, Brandon Adams, Stanley Tang, and Santhosh Suvarna for the final installment of the $1,000/$2,000 battle.
Tang's raise to $5,000 with 
was met by three callers: Yu from the button with 
; Airball from the small blind with 
; and, perhaps the real shocker here, Adams from the big blind with 
. The four players headed to a 
flop that connected with each of them to varying degrees.
Tang caught just enough of a piece with a gut-shot straight draw, while Yu's flush and straight draws provided him more than enough equity to see a turn and river. Meanwhile, Airball smashed the flop with a sneaky bottom set and Adams still held an overpair to the board. All in all, for the action junkie audience member, it was a damn good flop.
The action checked all the way around to Yu on the button, who quickly threw out two $5,000 chips. Airball, next to act, pondered for a second or two before nonchalantly throwing in the $10,000. Both Adams and Tang followed suit, each sending their $10,000 into the rapidly bloating pot.
The turn brought in the 
- a total blank - and Airball elected to lead out into the field for $50,000, nearly a pot-sized bet. Adams considered the call for a moment with his jacks, but cooler heads prevailed for the Harvard professor and he slid his cards into the muck. Tang's ace-high with a gut-shot couldn't justify the steep price and he too passed his hand to the dealer. Yu, however, could justify the call with his combo draw leaving him several outs to improve to the winner. His $50,000 was over the betting line before the dealer was finished collecting the folded hands.
The river came down the 
to give Yu the nuts in a rather disguised fashion. As Adams watched on with clear distress - having folded what would have been a very strong hand on the river - Airball slid $200,000 into the middle without much hesitation. Yu reached for his tea and took a sip as Airball returned to a conversation about DEXA scans that started before the hand. Just as he and Adams were getting into it, Yu said, "I'm all in."
Yu's jam took Airball's $200,000 bet all the way upstairs to $682,000 and brought the pot to an eye-watering $1,044,000. The DEXA scan talk ended immediately and quiet took over the table as Airball began to monologue. He went through the bluff combos, the value combos, and even the misread hand combos, clearly agonizing over the spot. After ten minutes of Airball running through his thoughts, which included correctly calling out Yu's hand, it was Robl who saw fit to call the clock.
As the final minute on the clock burned down, Airball held last rites for his hand before stating: "Fold."
High Stakes Poker airs exclusively on PokerGO - catch up with all episodes from Season 12 now!
