High Stakes Poker LIVE promised something enormous when Andrew Robl arrived in Las Vegas.
It delivered.
More than $9 million eventually found its way onto the table at the PokerGO Studio as some of the biggest cash game players in poker produced five seven-figure pots and several spectacular swings.
Nobody experienced those swings quite like Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek.
At one point, Texas Mike dragged a $1,517,500 pot away from Robl after flopping the nut flush. By the end of the session, he was down more than $1 million.
Eric Wasserson suffered an equally expensive night, while Stanley Tang and Sameh Elamawy emerged as the biggest winners.
This was High Stakes Poker operating at an entirely different level.
More Than $9 Million Hits the High Stakes Poker Table
The fourth of seven consecutive High Stakes Poker LIVE sessions brought together Robl, Wasserson, Texas Mike, Rick Salomon, Kirk Brown, Darin Feinstein, Elamawy and Tang.
There was serious money on the table before much poker had even been played.
Wasserson began with $1 million. Robl, never one to shy away from a high-stakes challenge, deliberately bought in for $1.05 million.
That extra $50,000 was no accident after some pre-game back-and-forth between the pair.
More than $3 million was already in play before Salomon arrived.
That was only the beginning.
As players added chips and the game developed, the total amount on the table climbed beyond $9 million.
Just a day earlier, YoH ViraL’s $223,400 pot against Andrew Pacheco had been the biggest confrontation of the High Stakes Poker LIVE week.
We noted then that $223,400 might look relatively modest once Robl arrived.
It certainly does now.
Watch the $9 Million High Stakes Poker Cash Game
If you missed the action as it unfolded, here’s the High Stakes Poker video from the guys at PokerGO.
Texas Mike Takes $1.5 Million From Andrew Robl
The most remarkable individual story of the night belonged to Texas Mike.
Moncek’s aggressive reputation means opponents know he is capable of turning up with almost anything.
Against Robl, that reputation could hardly have been more valuable.
With multiple straddles pushing the action as high as $16,000, Elamawy opened to $40,000 holding A-5 offsuit.
Texas Mike called with A♠5♠.
Robl came along with 6♣5♥.
The 4♠2♠8♠ flop immediately gave Texas Mike the nut flush.
Robl had a double-gutshot straight draw, but the reality was considerably worse than it appeared from his side of the table. He was already drawing dead.
Texas Mike bet $55,000.
Elamawy folded, but Robl called.
Then came the card that made the hand explode.
The 3♥ on the turn completed Robl’s straight.
It looked like exactly the card he wanted.
Texas Mike still had the nuts.
Moncek bet another $150,000 and Robl called.
A 4♦ on the river paired the board and Texas Mike moved all-in for $490,000.
For most players, facing a shove of almost half a million dollars might be enough to reconsider a straight on a paired, three-spade board.
Texas Mike isn’t most players.
His reputation for enormous bluffs and unpredictable lines gave Robl another problem to solve.
After thinking it through, Robl called.
The pot was worth $1,517,500.
Texas Mike turned over the nut flush and collected one of the biggest pots ever broadcast on High Stakes Poker.
$1.5 Million Pot Still Doesn’t Save Texas Mike
Winning a $1.5 million pot should make for a pretty good session.
Not this time.
Texas Mike’s fortunes reversed dramatically as the game continued.
By the time the session finished, he was down $1,061,000.
That means a player who dragged more than $1.5 million from a single pot somehow ended the night seven figures in the red.
It is difficult to find a better illustration of the scale of the game.
At lower stakes, a monster pot can define an entire session.
Here, it was just another swing.
Stanley Tang Wins $1.695 Million Pot
Texas Mike and Robl weren’t responsible for the biggest confrontation of the night.
That distinction belonged to Stanley Tang and Kirk Brown.
Brown committed $726,500 on the turn in a hand that ultimately created a staggering $1.695 million pot.
Tang won it.
The DoorDash co-founder has become increasingly familiar to viewers of televised high-stakes cash games, regularly competing against professional players despite making his fortune far away from the poker table.
On this occasion, he did considerably more than simply compete.
Tang finished the session up $1,522,500.
That made him the biggest reported winner of the night.
Sameh Elamawy Wins Another $1.4 Million
Tang wasn’t alone on the winning side.
Sameh Elamawy finished $1,445,500 ahead.
The Scratch CEO has become a fixture in enormous televised cash games and has already produced some memorable High Stakes Poker moments.
His willingness to play huge pots against elite professionals has made him one of the more unpredictable figures in the modern version of the show.
This session produced another seven-figure result.
Between them, Tang and Elamawy won almost $3 million.
Eric Wasserson Takes a $1.1 Million Hit
At the other end of the table was Eric Wasserson.
Wasserson began the game with $1 million in front of him and endured a brutal session that included two damaging full-house situations.
By the end, his reported loss had reached $1,110,500.
That made him the biggest loser among the reported results, narrowly ahead of Texas Mike.
Robl also endured a difficult night.
Despite arriving with more than $1 million and taking his usual place at the center of the action, the cash game specialist finished down $711,500.
Brown’s collision with Tang contributed heavily to his $500,000 loss.
High Stakes Poker LIVE Reported Winners and Losers
The scale of the swings becomes clearer when the reported results are placed side by side.
| Player | Result |
|---|---|
| Stanley Tang | +$1,522,500 |
| Sameh Elamawy | +$1,445,500 |
| Kirk Brown | -$500,000 |
| Andrew Robl | -$711,500 |
| Texas Mike | -$1,061,000 |
| Eric Wasserson | -$1,110,500 |
These are the reported results for six of the players involved rather than a complete accounting of every player who appeared during the session.
Even so, they show just how violent the swings became.
Tang and Elamawy won almost $3 million between them.
Wasserson, Texas Mike, Robl and Brown lost more than $3.3 million between them.
Five Million-Dollar Pots in One Session
One seven-figure pot is normally enough to make a televised cash game memorable.
This game produced five.
Texas Mike’s $1,517,500 win over Robl wasn’t even the biggest of the night, with Tang’s $1.695 million confrontation with Brown going higher.
Yet Moncek’s pot earned its own place in High Stakes Poker history.
At $1,517,500, it became the second-largest non-chopped pot ever seen on the show.
Only Santhosh Suvarna’s extraordinary $2,421,500 pot from Season 16 has been larger among outright winners.
High Stakes Poker has changed considerably since the original series put huge cash games on television two decades ago. Six-figure pots that once looked extraordinary are now regularly eclipsed when players such as Robl sit down in the modern games.
That evolution reflects the wider growth of poker’s highest stakes.
Tournament poker has experienced something similar. As we explored when looking at Jason Koon’s place among poker’s modern greats, today’s elite players routinely compete for sums that would have been almost unimaginable during earlier generations.
Cash poker is pushing those boundaries even further.
Andrew Robl Arrived and Everything Changed
There was plenty of hype surrounding Robl before this session.
Earlier in the week, he had spoken about wiring as much as $7 million ahead of his appearance.
That didn’t mean he was simply going to place $7 million on the table from the opening hand, but it made his intentions clear.
Robl was prepared for an enormous game.
The previous High Stakes Poker LIVE sessions had already produced plenty of action, including the YoH ViraL and Pacheco clash.
Robl’s arrival changed the scale completely.
Seven-figure stacks appeared.
The straddles increased.
More money entered the game.
Eventually, more than $9 million was sitting on the table.
Five pots crossed seven figures.
And a player managed to win $1.5 million in a single hand before finishing the same session more than $1 million down.
High Stakes Poker has produced some extraordinary games during its long history.
This one will take some beating.
