More than 27,000 people were tuned in Tuesday night to watch Tom Dwan run into a seven-figure bad beat during the first night of the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game.
Seven players showed up at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles with $1 million in cash to play some no-limit Texas hold’em at $500/$1,000 ($2,000 big bind ante) stakes.
It took exactly one hand for the first juicy hand to transpire. On a board of K♥8♣10♠A♦A♣, Action Dan bet $33,000 with Q♣J♥ for the nut straight. But he’d fold after a raise to $105,000 and it was a wise decision because Hook rivered a full house with A♥10♦. While that hand was entertaining, the following hand involving a former Full Tilt Poker pro has been the biggest and sickest on Day 1 of the Million Dollar Game.
Dwan Put in a Brutal Spot
Dwan began the session slow and was down around $400,000 before mounting a bit of a comeback. He pulled off a couple of bluffs to win decent sized pots, bringing his deficit closer to $200,000, and he was clearly on the right track back to his $1 million starting stack. Well, he was until he ran into an unfortunate turn card.
The hand began with Peter, the under-the-gun player with 10♠10♥, raising to $4,000. Steve, in the cutoff with A♦J♦, called, and so did Dwan, who was on the button with 9♥4♥. Hook then came along for the ride in the big blind with 7♦5♠ to see a flop of 4♦4♠6♦, and all four players had a piece.
After Hook checked his open-ended straight draw, Peter bet $8,000 with an over pair. Steve wasn’t going anywhere with the nut flush draw, but Dwan made a huge raise to $36,000 with trips. That convinced Hook to fold, but the two other players wanted to see the turn, which was the 10♣, an especially cruel card for Dwan as it gave Peter a full house.
Action, however, checked to Dwan, who had no reason at that point to believe trips was no good. So, he bet out $76,000. Peter opted to play his second nuts hand slow and just call, while the player with the nut flush draw mucked his cards. The 2♥ on the river wasn’t a scare card, and Peter checked his full house to “durrrr,” who bet $167,000.
A clear decision to check-raise was in store for Peter. The only question was how much of a raise. Dwan had $465,000 behind, but Peter opted to raise the bet to $425,000, a smaller size than most watching expected. After tanking for quite some time, Dwan couldn’t find a fold and called off the $258,000 only to find out the bad news that he’d suffered a bad beat in a $1,129,000 pot.
The bad beat differs greatly from Dwan’s appearance in the Million Dollar Game last year where he won a $3.1 million hand against “Wes Side” Wesley Fei, the largest pot in livestream poker history.
At the time of publishing, Dwan was down about $800,000. The stream, which began at 3 p.m. PT, will continue for at least a few more hours. Hustler Casino Live will host three additional days of $1 million buy-in cash games May 29-31.