On Monday evening, the penultimate episode of High Stakes Poker Season 14 hit the airwaves on PokerGO. Alan Keating, Nik 'Airball' Arcot, Rick Salomon, Peter Wang, Justin Gavri, and Sam Kiki returned to the felt for more $500/$1,000 action after last week's episode provided serious fireworks on the final hand of the night.
While Keating, Salomon, and Wang had served as the driving forces behind the action to this point, it was Arcot who seized upon his chance to score a high six-figure pot on tonight's episode.
A classic race for $900K
Salomon — almost halfway through his most recent $1M reload — started the episode with around $560,000 in front of him and a clear willingness to battle big. It didn't take long for him to find the spot he desired. With Wang's $2,000 straddle sitting in the middle, Kiki kicked off the action with a raise from up front to $15,000 with 
before Arcot, next to act, fired off a three-bet to $45,000 with 
.
When Salomon looked down at 
in the small blind, it was time to pounce. Without skipping a beat, he quickly assembled a stack of chips worth $245,000 and tossed them across the betting line. With the rest of the field out of the way, Arcot verbally declared his all-in shove and Salomon made the call to bring the pot to an eye-watering $908,000.
It was a classic race and the two players agreed to run it twice. Arcot had his opponent drawing thin as he connected with a set on the 
flop. Salomon wasn't completely dead as his gutshot straight outs were live, but the 
turn and 
river failed to improve his holding.
On the second board, Arcot found the case ten on the 
flop and locked up the entire $908,000 pot on the 
turn.
Salomon spins $47,000 into $400,000+
After tangling with Arcot, Salomon had about $200,000 to work with and wasted no time in gambling it up. Keating gave him plenty of action with sub-standard hands, but ended up scooping three-quarters of the pot on two separate occasions to leave Salomon with just $47,000 in front of him.
When Salomon stuck the $47,000 in with 
, it was Kiki's turn to give him a spin and he called it off with 
. The singular board ran out clean for Salomon and the recovery was on.
On the very next hand, Salomon had the $2,000 straddle on and was rewarded with 
. With a $5,000 raise from Gavri and a call from Kiki in front of him, Salomon made it $25,000 to go with his pocket pair. Gavri fled the scene, but Kiki made the call with 
. With $57,500 in the middle, the 
flop favored Salomon as he connected with bottom set and fired out for $20,000. Kiki, seeing that his opponent only had about $50,000 behind, moved all-in for the rest of it, but quickly heard the bad news.
"I got a set," Salomon said as he threw his chips across the betting line.
"I'm dead," Kiki responded. "Just run it once."
On the 
turn, Kiki picked up a few outs and the table erupted with laughter, but the sealed the deal as Salomon improved to a full house and continued his comeback.
Keating comes through
While Keating's willingness to gamble it up led, in part, to Salomon's downfall, he came through in the end when he sent a full double to his opponent. Kiki wanted to push the action preflop and, in the face of a limp from Wang, raised it up to $15,000 with 
. Keating opted to flat the massive raise with 
which allowed Salomon to get in on the action with 
.
On the 
flop, Kiki continued for $20,000 and Keating made the call, but Salomon wanted to play for more with his top pair and moved all-in over the top for $188,000.
"I gotta go home, this is crazy," Kiki lamented as he tossed his cards into the muck.
Keating, however, decided to give his buddy one last spin and made the call. With $442,000 in the middle, Salomon looked poised to complete an epic comeback. The two players agreed to run two turns and rivers, but Keating failed to improve on either runout and the entire pot went Salomon's way to cap off his spin up.
High Stakes Poker airs Monday evenings at 8:00pm ET, exclusively on PokerGO.
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
