Alan Keating is no stranger to high-stakes poker action, regularly bringing his loose-aggressive style to some of the biggest live-streamed cash games. A fan favorite on Hustler Casino Live, Keating has played in some of the most talked-about hands in recent years.
In 2024, he found himself at the center of the second biggest pot ever recorded on Hustler Casino Live, a staggering $2,437,000 hand that started multiway before narrowing down to just Keating and Rahul. With the blinds set at $1,000/$2,000 with a $2,000 big blind ante in a 7-max No-Limit Hold’em game, let’s break down exactly how this massive pot unfolded.
Preflop Breakdown
Rahul opened from UTG to 7.5 big blinds with 8♠7♠, Thomas called in BTN, Stanely called in SB, Brandon called in SB, and Keating called from UTG|S (Under the Gun, Straddle).
Here, we can see that Rahul opened with big sizing 7.5 big blinds, which is too big even for a 600 big blinds deep live poker game. The problem with the sizing is that you lose too much when you have to fold to 3-bet, 4-bet, etc. Rahul probably won’t fold to 3-bets or maybe even 4-bets, and that is another mistake as his opponents will undoubtedly have a range advantage.
Thomas flatting the BTN with A♠6♥ is also a mistake as his hand is too weak and doesn’t play well multiway as other aces dominate it. There were many players behind him still to act, and he was at risk of being squeezed, which would force him to fold and lose 7.5 big blinds. The other callers had good enough hands to call as the price was getting attractive, and each of them had fewer players behind them to act. Stanely was holding K♥Q♥, which would be a good hand to squeeze players out of hand and play heads-up against capped ranges of player/s that would just call.
Flop Breakdown
The flop comes 4♠J♠8♥, and we have five players in hand; in theory, everybody should play really tight here and lean to checking as nobody has a hand that can turn into nuts by the river, and they are playing really deep (600 big blinds). Playing deep demands caution even from high equity hands like 10♠9♠, which Keating has, as there can be a higher flush draw in the hand, making Keating drawing dead on any flush runout.
Three players checked, and Rahul bet 20 big blinds, which is not great considering everything written above, as he only has an eight-high flush draw. Three players folded, and only Keating called. Keating’s call is good as it keeps weaker flush draws in and doesn’t value himself against higher flush draws. While still being able to hit straight, that has the potential to be nuts.
Turn Breakdown
The pot was 78.5 big blinds, and Rhaul fired a huge 70 big blinds bet in a spot where, despite having slightly more sets than Keating, his hand should be pot-controlling and looking to see the cheap river. After some showboating, Keating makes the call, as he should with combo draw.
River Breakdown
The river comes 7♥, which gives Keating the nuts, and is also a card where Rahul should have stopped betting and prayed for a showdown as his two-pair hand strength in this line of action is not looking great. Keating can have ace-jack in his range, ace-jack suited, pocket fours, pocket eights, 10♠9♠, ten-nine offsuit, pocket jacks, and not many hands from which Rahul can get value. Keating’s range is very narrow here, and only potential hands Rahul is beating either missed or blocking (flush draws, four-eight suited).
Keating checked, and Rahul fired another bet of 100 big blinds into the pot of 218.5 big blinds, which I consider a mistake for the reasons mentioned above. Keating then went for all-in (400 big blinds more to call) with his nuts, and Rahul went into the deep tank when he should have been snap-folding his hand as having one of the worst bluff catchers holding two spades (reducing the number of bluffs Keating could have) and not beating much. The only bluffs Keating could potentially have are Q♠10♠, K♠10♠, A♠9♠, A♠10♠, but some of them could have potentially raised on the flop or turn, so we can reduce the frequency of these. Having only four or fewer combos of bluffs and around 25 combos of value (depending on how thin he shoves) makes this an obvious fold, especially for 400 big blinds.
After almost eight minutes of tanking, Rahul makes one of the worst decisions of his life and makes the call. He basically donates an additional 400 big blinds or $800,000 to Keating, who certainly appreciated it. Keating wins the pot of $2,437,000.
Lesson: Play tighter in multiway pots, especially when you are deep and your hand can’t draw to nuts.
*Images courtesy of Hustler Casino Live
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