The Season 13 finale of High Stakes Poker aired Monday evening with the exact same lineup from the previous week, all ready for more $200/$400 action.
Andrew Robl and Sameh Elamawy were the big bosses at the start of the episode, each with over $500,000 in front of them. Stanley Tang and Jennifer Tilly started proceedings with around $200,000 each, while Nik Airball and Phil Hellmuth started with roughly $160,000 and $100,000 respectively. Rounding out the bottom of the stack sizes were Chamath Palihapitaya with $65,000 and Jeff Housenbold with $55,000.
Triple straddle fireworks
While the episode may have seen a more tame atmosphere at the table, the fireworks arrived nonetheless on one of the final hands of the episode. As the dealer and players readied themselves for the last hand of High Stakes Poker Season 13, Tang decided to sweeten the pot with an $800 straddle before Tilly came in for a $1,600 double straddle. Robl, not one to be outdone when it comes to juicing the pot, threw out the $3,200 triple straddle and then it was time to battle.
Despite starting with one of the smallest stacks at the table, Palihapitaya had managed to cobble together a few pots to bring his stack up to the $155,000 mark. Thus, when the action folded around to him on the button, he put in a raise to $10,000 with 
. Palihapitaya's raise cleared Tang from the first straddle, but Tilly made the call with 
from the second straddle before Robl looked down at 
in the triple straddle and came along as well.
The three players went to the 
flop, which connected strongly with Palihapitaya to give him two pairs, while perhaps instilling misguided confidence into Tilly and her overpair to the board. As such, Tilly led out into the field for $15,000, clearing Robl out of the way. Resistance was met, however, in the form of a raise to $45,000 from her remaining opponent. After considering her options for a moment, Tilly uttered the magic words and Palihapitaya quickly called.
Suddenly, on one of the final hands of the season, $322,700 had found its way into the middle, and the two players agreed to run it twice. The first turn came down the 
to give Tilly a few more outs to the winner, but the river 
was a total brick and saw Palihapitaya secure half of the pot.
The second turn brought the 
, once again providing Tilly with additional outs to counterfeit her opponent's two pairs. Taking to her feet, Tilly beseeched the poker gods for help, saying, "Come on, poker gods, come on. Not at the end of the day, not this way. Eight, I need an eight! Or a six! Or a king! An eight or six or king!"
"Or a nine," added Robl.
Unfortunately for her, there was no miracle river to chop the pot as the 
completed the board to send the entire $322,700 pot to Palihapitaya.
As Palihapitaya stacked up his chips, Tilly sent the table into hysterics when she said, "I'm glad the money is going to someone that really needs it."
Images Courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
