Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek has apologized to Eric Wasserson and poker viewers after admitting he was “very out of line” following their record-breaking $4.26 million High Stakes Poker pot.
The extraordinary hand had already given Poker Type plenty to write about.
Wasserson called a river shove worth more than $1.6 million with a nine-high flush to catch Texas Mike bluffing with ten-high, winning the biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history.
What happened immediately afterward created another story.
Texas Mike accused Wasserson of delivering “maybe the biggest nit-roll of all time” after he took around two minutes to make the enormous call.
Two days later, Moncek reconsidered.
Texas Mike Calls Wasserson’s Tank a “Nit-Roll”
The confrontation came at the end of a remarkable run of High Stakes Poker LIVE games from the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.
As Poker Type reported after the hand, Wasserson held 9♦7♦ against Moncek’s 10♣7♣.
The board ran:
A♦ K♦ 9♣ 4♥ 5♦
Wasserson made a nine-high flush on the river.
Texas Mike had ten-high.
After betting $100,000 on the flop and another $330,000 on the turn, Moncek refused to give up. He shoved the river, putting Wasserson to a decision for more than $1.6 million.
Wasserson thought for approximately two minutes.
He eventually called.
Moncek showed the bluff and the $4.26 million pot moved across the table.
Then came the reaction.
“Maybe the biggest nit-roll of all time,” Moncek said.
Wasserson immediately defended the time he had taken over the decision, pointing out that he had already indicated he held a huge hand and had never previously played a pot of that size.
Was Wasserson’s $1.6 Million Decision Really a Nit-Roll?
A nit-roll generally describes a player taking an excessive amount of time over a decision with an extremely strong hand that they are very unlikely to fold.
There was an obvious complication here.
Wasserson’s flush was strong, but it was nowhere near the nuts.
Several higher diamonds could beat him, while Moncek had just committed more than $1.6 million to a river shove.
There was also rather more at stake than a routine cash-game decision.
Calling incorrectly would cost Wasserson $1.6 million.
Calling correctly would produce a $4.26 million pot.
Wasserson eventually made the right decision and exposed one of the biggest televised poker bluffs of recent years.
Texas Mike Initially Defends His Reaction
The discussion did not immediately end when the players left the table.
Moncek subsequently engaged with poker fans on X over whether Wasserson had nit-rolled him.
He acknowledged that a $1.6 million decision was worthy of some thought, while also pointing toward his own ultra-aggressive reputation as a reason Wasserson might have been expected to call more quickly.
Moncek also defended being frustrated immediately after losing such an enormous pot.
That position did not last long.
“I Was Completely in the Wrong”
By Wednesday night, Texas Mike had changed his view and publicly apologized to Wasserson and the people watching the game.
“I was completely in the wrong,” Moncek wrote.
He specifically withdrew the nit-roll accusation, saying he no longer felt Wasserson had nit-rolled him.
Moncek also addressed another element of the disagreement by accepting that Wasserson was under no obligation to “punt back” his winnings through additional action.
He described his own behavior as “VERY out of line” and said he would not act that way again.
It was an unusually unequivocal apology.
There was no attempt to blame the size of the loss, the pressure of the game or Wasserson’s tank.
Texas Mike simply accepted that he had crossed a line.
Eric Wasserson Says No Apology Was Necessary
Wasserson’s response was perhaps even more revealing.
Rather than criticizing Moncek, he effectively told his opponent to forget about it.
Wasserson said Texas Mike was his friend, that he had not been offended and that he considered the reaction completely normal given the stakes involved.
He also suggested people criticizing Moncek may not appreciate what it feels like to genuinely gamble for those amounts of money.
It brought a surprisingly friendly conclusion to an incident that had looked considerably more heated at the table.
A Remarkable Week for Eric Wasserson
The argument also needs to be viewed in the context of what had just happened.
Wasserson had experienced one of the most extraordinary stretches in High Stakes Poker history.
On August 29, he beat Andrew Robl in a $2.478 million High Stakes Poker pot.
At the time, it was the biggest pot the show had ever seen.
The record lasted less than 48 hours.
Wasserson then faced Texas Mike and won $4.26 million, increasing the record by almost $1.8 million.
For Moncek, meanwhile, the latest confrontation was another chapter in an exceptionally volatile run.
Poker Type had already reported how Texas Mike won a $1.5 million pot but still lost more than $1 million during an earlier session.
His aggression had produced enormous wins and equally spectacular losses.
The Wasserson hand was perhaps the most extreme example yet.
Texas Mike’s Reaction Shows What $4.26 Million Really Means
Televised poker can make extraordinary amounts of money begin to look strangely ordinary.
Million-dollar pots arrive on screen accompanied by graphics. Players remain composed. Chips move across the table and another hand begins.
Texas Mike’s reaction was a reminder that the numbers still matter.
He had just attempted a seven-figure bluff with ten-high.
It failed.
His opponent took two minutes before making the call and $4.26 million changed hands.
For a few moments, the frustration showed.
Moncek has now accepted that he went too far in directing that frustration toward Wasserson.
Wasserson, for his part, appears to have already moved on.
After a week in which High Stakes Poker records repeatedly fell, the biggest pot of them all produced something increasingly rare in modern televised poker.
Not just an enormous hand.
A genuinely emotional reaction to losing it.
