Million Dollar Game Results: Alan Keating Wins $2 Million

While super high-stakes cash games are nothing new, it’s rare that they are filmed and livestreamed for a home audience. Generally speaking, players who don’t bat an eye at flipping for seven-figure pots aren’t the type to seek the spotlight, or any attention whatsoever.

Which is why the poker world took notice when Hustler Casino Live first announced their Million Dollar Game three years ago. This year’s edition featured some of the splashiest high-stakes players around in ‘Texas’ Mike Moncek and Nik ‘Airball’ Arcott, table talk and old school skills from Erick Lindgren and Haralabos Voulgaris, and the ongoing war between Alan Keating and Peter Wang.

The game was so hyped up that the Los Angeles-area casino even brought in UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer to bring each player to the table with an over-the-top, smoke-filled and spot-lighted introduction. Players would take breaks during the game to be interviewed by a sideline reporter. On the final day, film actor and poker fan Emile Hirsch even showed up to present Keating and Wang with personal portraits he painted himself.

Day 1 – ‘Texas’ Mike Dominates While Playing Nearly Every Hand

By the end of the eight-hour session on day 1, there was more than $10 million in play on the table. The big winner of the evening was ‘Texas’ Mike Moncek, who racked up with an impressive $1.55 million in profit.

The Chicago amateur, who was profiled in an April issue of Card Player, used a relentless barrage of aggression and overbets to take big chunks out of his opponents. The businessman-turned-high roller played a whopping 85% of his hands, crushing his nearest competitors by nearly 30% VPIP.

It was clear that Moncek was enjoying himself much more than last year, when he lost a $2.2 million flip to Keating. This time around he was able to even laugh it off when Keating bluffed him off trips with four high in a $530,000 pot.

It was a bold bluff for Keating, who had already dusted off his initial million in the hand of the night against longtime rival Peter Wang. Wang, who was last year’s big winner in the Million Dollar Game with nearly $5 million in profit, has battled with Keating continuously over the past year. Wang had recently taken the worst of it on PokerGO, getting his huge bluffs picked off while also losing the biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history, shipping $1.4 million to Keating.

This skirmish involved a third player, Jack, who got caught in the middle of a leveling war and was forced to fold the best hand. Keating had gotten out of line with queen high, but his massive shove on the river looked like it was going to work before Wang found an incredibly tough call with jacks on an ace-high board.

Keating had a lot of work to do to recover from his seven-figure misstep. After reloading for another million, the normally talkative high roller brooded quietly for a couple of hours as he went card dead and withstood Moncek’s relentless action on his immediate right.

The comeback began when he took down a $1.46 million pot from Jack with the nut flush against trips. Jack would later give him the rest of his stack before quitting the game, temporarily.

Keating then busted Pav, and when Jack returned with another $500,000, he took that too. Despite starting the game down a full buy-in, Keating bided his time and not only got back to even, but he profited a cool $451,000.

Erick Lindgren made the trip to Los Angeles with $25,000, and somehow parlayed that into $1.28 million. The two-time bracelet winner came out of the satellite event on Sunday, earning his seat into the big game.

The only catch was that he had to risk his million for at least eight hours. Many speculated that he would play tight and try to lock up profit, especially with the two most aggressive players on his direct left. That wasn’t the case at all as he was frequently involved in six-figure altercations.

Although it took him a bit of time to get his bearings, he was able to bob and weave enough to finish with a nearly $300,000 profit on the session. The highlight was when he picked off a bluff from Steve Swedlow, a former high-profile lawyer and now judge who likes to incorporate table talk into his game.

Swedlow finished the night down $931,000, the majority of which came after losing a big pot to Jack with a pair and a flush draw against his aces. The loss erased his winnings of $816,000 from last year’s game, and also inspired him to take the rest of the week off.

Despite only playing a couple of orbits to end the evening, Nihil ‘Airball’ Arcot entered the game and managed to win a cool $430,000, mostly from holding aces over Peter’s queens.

Day 2 – Haralabos Voulgaris Ups The Table Talk, ‘Texas’ Mike Gives It All Back

Although the game took a bit of a step back on day 2, with four of the eventual seven players buying in for $500,000 instead of $1 million, there were still plenty of seven-figure pots to battle over.

But it was a much different result for Moncek. He gave it all back and then some, dusting off $1.7 million with some very ambitious hero calls and a propensity to play 7-2 like its aces (even though the 7-2 game wasn’t on.)

Moncek kept a positive attitude despite the reversal of fortune, telling his social media followers that he had “a lot of fun despite the results.”

Wang was another big winner from Monday, finishing the session up $700,000 after picking off Keating in the biggest pot of the week. But Moncek’s night would have been even worse if not for Wang, who also couldn’t get anything going after arriving late and quickly ran aces into a set of jacks to lose more than half his buy in.

Wang would finish the night as the only other loser, giving back a little more than $600,000 of his winnings. That was good news for the rest of the table, who all managed to book wins.

Britney Jing, who is Wang’s sister, bought in for $500,000 and almost immediately doubled up thanks to a cooler when her flopped flush held against Arcott’s top set. She would finish the session up $350,000, quitting when Wang showed up to take her seat.

Despite losing his initial buy in to Jing, Arcott was able to rebound and finished in the black, racking up with a profit of $375,000.

A young high-stakes newcomer named Jasper had a rollercoaster session filled with numerous ups and downs and some head-scratching hero calls, but managed to quit while he was ahead to the tune of $145,000 profit.

Keating was steady throughout the day with only a few hiccups, and finished up $620,000, bringing his two-day total to $1.07 million.

But the big winner of the evening was Haralabos Voulgaris, who played his $500,000 stack to virtually break even for the first eight hours and then soared up the leaderboard during the final hour of three-handed play.

The former NBA analyst and soccer team owner was seemingly more focused on story telling and jokes for most of the night, but he was able to dodge a couple coolers and got paid on his big hands to finish up $820,000.

Day 3 – Alan Keating Makes Late Entrance But Finishes As Big Winner

The buy-in was bumped back to $1 million for the third and final day of the game, which also featured Kansas businessman and frequent high-stakes poker player Brandon Steven, and Stanley Tang, founder of DoorDash. They are the only two players to compete in all three years of the Million Dollar Game.

Steven got off to a terrible start, losing nearly half his stack, which he later admitted in an interview was something that happens to him often. Even still, he was able to mount quite a comeback, taking down a big pot with pocket queens and then cracking kings with 5-4 to finish the session as the night’s second-biggest winner, taking home $705,000 in profit.

The marks three straight winning years for Steven, who profited $680,000 last year and $265,000 the first year. His $1.65 million in total winnings are the fourth most in the field.

Although Tang also played the first two years, his luck wasn’t very good. Tang lost nearly $1.6 million combined during the first two years in the game, but this time around, he soared to a profit of $616,500.

The game was stuck in the muck for the first few hours with Keating at the table. He eventually showed up and the action noticeably picked up, which included a $1.6 million pot and yet another hero call.

Arcott had been a sizable winner the first two days, but he put himself in a hole he could not climb back out of when he nearly doubled up Keating with a busted straight flush draw. Keating had been counterfeited after flopping two pair and was left with a tough decision that required several minutes in the tank.

Ultimately, he came away with the correct call, ensuring that he finished the night with another win. While Keating was the night’s big winner with $848,000 in profit, Arcott was the biggest loser, racking up $1.29 million less than he started the day with. Overall, Arcott lost $482,000 over three days of play, making him down $1.04 million overall after his nearly $600,000 loss in year one.

And while the week started so promising for Moncek and he showed flashes of brilliance throughout, he ultimately couldn’t overcome how many hands he played, finishing down $1.05 million on the session. That put him down $1.22 million for the week, and $3.28 million when you factor in last year’s losses, the most of any player to participate in Million Dollar Game history.

Keating finished $1.92 million in the black overall, which was nearly identical to his results from last year. With $3.25 million in total winnings over the last two year, he trails only Wang’s $5.18 million in winnings, the majority of which he secured last year.

What’s Next?

As Hustler Casino Live Producer Ryan Feldman reiterated, it’s hard to put a game of this size together for broadcast. It’s especially hard to do it for more than one night at a time, given these millionaires’ hectic schedules and temperament. And if a player gets buried on the first night, it’s much more difficult to get them to come back for a second round.

“It’s really tough,” Feldman explained to PokerNews. “The same thing kind of happens every year where we have a number of players who are either committed or interested, as you get closer, you start getting people that can’t make it for different reasons.”

As a result, Feldman says future edition of the Million Dollar Game could just be one day and run longer, and possibly occur twice per year rather than annually.

Final Results