WATCH: Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Double Check-Raise‘The Magician’ Scores $193,000 Pot On ‘No Gamble, No Future’ |
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After some time away from the poker tables, Antonio Esfandiari is back and recently got in on the high-stakes action with PokerGO’s No Gamble No Future. One key hand saw Esfandiari pull off a double check-raise, as well as some fun table talk to get maximum value.
The hand saw ‘The Magician’ holding 8
6 with $313,000 in front of him, and seeing a flop of A
8
6. He checked his two pair, as did three other players. The 8 fell on the turn, giving him a full house.
Once again, he checked and Brandon Steven bet $4,000 with J 4 for a flush draw. Jennifer Tllly folded and Esfandiari check-raised to $13,000. Steven made the call with $160,000 in front of him.
The river brought the 3 to give Steven a flush while putting him in a very untenable situation. Esfandiari once again checked, and Steven fired $27,000.
Esfandiari once again check-raised, this time to $79,000, bringing the pot to more than $141,000. Steven looked pained at the prospect of calling and began mumbling a bit.
“Six-eight, huh? Probably flopped a set maybe,” he said as he considered the hands that beat him.
Esfandiari looked stone-faced as his opponent squirmed and the table talk continued.
“I have a flush,” Steven admitted.
“You’re going to be a real big star,” Esfandiari responded.
“I have a flush,” Steven said again.
“(It’s) hard to make a flush,” Esfandiari noted.
Steven continued replaying the hand in his mind, keying in on the continued check-raises.
“I called your check-raise on the turn and you check-raised the river again,” he said. “Man, that’s freaking ballsy as hell. How do you know I’m going to bet?”
The banter continued a bit before Steven finally put the money in and Esfandiari collected a pot of $193,300.
Watch the hand below.
Esfandiari became a favorite among many poker fans during the game’s boom of the 2000s. The noted prop bettor also won World Poker Tour titles in 2004 and 2010 and also has three World Series of Poker bracelets.
The biggest of those came in 2012, when he took down the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop for $18.4 million. He has more than $27 million in live tournament winnings.
While the family man took a break from the game, he has made his way back to the tables some in recent months, scoring a big win at Hustler Casino Live and also appearing in Global Poker’s Table Talk event that also featured 23-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps and Formula 1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
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*Photo by Global Poker
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