Antonio Esfandiari made his presence felt in a long-awaited return to Hustler Casino Live Friday night.
“The Magician,” who is now more focused on raising a family than playing poker, hadn’t appeared on the show since April 2022. It took little time for the poker legend to spin up his stack in the $100/$200 with a $200 big blind ante no-limit hold’em cash game. But despite winning almost $300,000, he was on the losing end of the biggest hand of the six-hour session.
Poker Legend Flops Two Pair
Esfandiari, along with Hustler Casino Live owner Ryan Feldman, bought in for $50,000. Only Peter, known for bringing the action, started the game with a larger stack ($100,000).
Four hours into play, with Esfandiari up heaps, he played a wild hand against Kennen, a recreational player. The hand began with Feldman calling from the lowjack with 6♠3♠ for $400 and then Francisco doing the same on the button with 4♦3♥. Esfandiari then called with A♠8♠ in the big blind before Kennen, the straddle, raised to $5,000 with 5♦5♣.
Nobody other than the Magician called to see a flop of J♠8♥A♣. Esfandiari checked his aces-up before calling a continuation bet of $3,000. The pot would escalate on the 5♥ turn, which gave Kennen a two-outer set.
Esfandiari would again check and then face a bet of $12,000. He wasn’t going to continue slowplaying his two pair, so he went for a raise to $39,000. Kennen, sitting on $141,300 behind, made what appeared to be a min-raise before Esfandiari snap-jammed all in having his opponent covered.
Kennen didn’t snap-call, which gave the three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner a false sense of hope.
“That’s a good sign. How do you say, ‘good sign’ in Chinese?” Esfandiari asked his opponent who didn’t snap-call with a set.
Kennen would eventually make the call and shocked Esfandiari upon turning over his cards. Both players agreed to run the river twice, neither of which changed the outcome. Kennen scooped the entire $323,700 pot.
Esfandiari had no reason to believe his two pair wasn’t good despite facing a three-bet. These same players played a monster pot less than an hour earlier where Kennen check-raised on the turn and then called an all in shove with just top pair against Esfandiari’s flopped nut flush. It’s likely Esfandiari recalled that hand when confidently jamming two pair against a re-raise.
The game came to an end after 10 p.m. PT Friday night with Esfandiari, who won multiple six-figure pots and dominated the table, up $298,500 despite losing the largest pot of the night. Feldman also crushed it with a $138,100 score. Kennen used that big pot to help him book a $195,500 profit, while Peter was ended the stream down just under $500,000.