Ethan “Rampage” Yau, who won a cash game career-best $523,000, made a sick hero call with ace-high to win a massive pot against Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot during Friday night’s Hustler Casino Live stream.
It was an evening to remember for Yau and one to forget for Airball, who lost a significant chunk of his previous $1.1 million HCL profits, according to the website TrackingPoker.com.
Arcot dropped $759,200 on Friday, about half of that from two hands — both failed bluff attempts against Stanley Choi and Yau. Things started off poorly for the HCL regular but then he began to pick up some momentum for a brief while. And then he bluffed off bunches to Choi.
In that hand, on a board of 
, Airball bet $30,000 with sqaudoosh, or 
. Choi, holding 
for second pair, wasn’t a believer and made the call. With $80,000 in the pot, the 
paired the board on the river. Nik Airball couldn’t possibly win at showdown so he went for a massive over-bet, $165,000. That put Choi in the tank for a couple of minutes before he made the call to scoop a $410,000 pot.
Poker Vlogger Makes Epic Hero Call
Rampage took a bunch from Airball as well in a separate hand, which was arguably the most memorable pot of the night. Yau raised to $2,000 from the cut-off with 
before Airball three-bet to $10,000 from the straddle with 
. Big Slick wasn’t going anywhere so a call was made.
The flop came out 
and the preflop aggressor led for $6,000, once again receiving a call. When the 
hit on the turn, Airball ripped off another bet, this time for $30,000. Yet again, his opponent called with ace-high to see the 
on the river. Knowing ace-rag wasn’t going to be enough to win at showdown, he fired out one last bet, and it was a big one — $110,000. Within about two seconds, Rampage made the call with a better ace-high and collected the $313,000 pot.
“Oh my god. How do you snap-call with ace-high?” a frustrated Nik Airball asked following the hand.
HOLY S%$T!!!
— Hustler Casino Live (@HCLPokerShow)
Rampage, one of the most popular poker vloggers in history, would continue punishing Nik Airball, and the entire table for that matter, the rest of the night. He booked a $523,000 win on the session, his largest cash game profit ever. Yau’s greatest poker score overall, however, was for $894,240 when he took down the a $25,000 high roller during the December WPT World Championship series at Wynn Las Vegas.
Prior to Friday night’s show, Rampage had $89,000 in profits on Hustler Casino Live across 15 sessions. The win couldn’t have come at a better time for the live-stream regular. He’d recently written a blog post about a $400,000 downswing he’s been on since the Wynn score.
Bold Strategy, Cotton
While Rampage was the biggest winner on the felt, but the Gutsiest Performance of the Night award goes to Bill Klein, who had the guts to show up decked out in Purdue University gear on the day his beloved Boilermakers became just the second #1 seed in NCAA Tournament history to lose to a #16 seed — Farliegh Dickinson University.
Not only that, but Klein wore the Purdue attire throughout the session even after he became aware of his team’s pitiful performance. Purdue (29-6), the Big Ten Conference regular season and tournament champions were a 17-point favorite against a 21-15 team that seemingly had virtually no shot at pulling off the upset, yet they somehow did, winning the First Round matchup 63-58 in one of the most shocking games in NCAA Tournament history.
Despite the historic loss, Klein had the guts to show up dressed to support his team and deserves props for doing so. Unlike his Boilermakers, the high-stakes poker regular won on Friday — $53,600 — perhaps a bit of consolation for him.