Every year we are inundated with a collection of special hands from the poker calendar. Each one is special in its own right for its own reasons.
Everyone has their own opinions on this, but our choices below were certainly amazing to witness.
Adrian Mateos Ends 2024 WSOP Main Event Run to Horrific Bad Beat
This first hand hit Spanish poker legend Adrian Mateos for six, only minutes after he correctly hero-folded pocket kings against the aces of Will Berry on a queen-high board.
Here, it was Mateos’s turn to play with pocket aces and it didn’t go well, to say the least.
Mateos min-raised to 60K with A♥ A♣ and Lu called in the small blind with 5♥ 4♥. Garcia three-bet to 325K with A♠ K♠ and Mateos quickly comes back over the top for 740K.
Lu folded and Garcia jams the rest of his 77 big blinds. Mateos snaps him off, already among the chip leaders on Day 5.
The flop came down 10♠ 9♥ 8♦ to put Mateos as a 91% favourite.
The turn was the 9♠, upping Garcia’s equity to 20%.
But then a 3♠ river ended the WSOP Main Event dreams of the guy who was probably the best player in the remaining field.
Poker can be tough!
Spitale Hits Runner-Runner to Take Down 2024 WSOP Millionairemaker
The heads-up duel to take down the $1,500 buy-in WSOP Millionairemaker was between Franco Spitale and Justin Carey.
Spitale held a modest lead of 168M chips to Carey’s 94M with the blinds up to 2M/4M and a 4M big blind ante.
Carey limps on the button with 2♥ 2♣ and Spitale raises to 14M with A♣ 10♠.
With almost 25 big blinds left, Carey decides to put his opponent under maximum pressure and sticks it all in with little thought. Spitale opted to call his opponent and the pair were off to the races.
It’s worth knowing here that neither player had more than $1 million in live tournament winnings at this point, so the pressure was enormous on both of them after outlasting a massive 10,939 entries.
Right off the bat, as soon as the 10♥ 2♦ 5♥ flop sent the rail into a frenzy. Carey has a set and 97% equity — it looked like it was all over.
But the A♥ turn gave Spitale some hope, even if it did boost his equity up to only 9%.
And, as we’re sure you’ve already guessed, the A♦ arrived on the river to give the bracelet and $1.25 million to the Argentine player.
Carey did, however, still become a millionaire himself with a $1 million prize of his own.
Phil Hellmuth’s Outburst of the Year!
We all love to see a Phil Hellmuth outburst, no matter if you’re a fan or against him. This hand took place on PokerGO’s No Gamble, No Future against a lesser known player called Humboldt Mike.
We saw the action from the turn on a board of A♣ 7♥ 9♠ 8♣ with Hellmuth all-in, holding A♦ Q♣ and his opponent calling him off with J♠ J♥.
The Poker Brat looked to be in a jovial mood, even taunting Mike slightly as an 86% favourite.
But when the J♦ river landed, Hellmuth’s face dropped and his mood instantly soured. Meanwhile, Mike is trotting around the PokerGO studio fistpumping and cheering loudly and shouting “start the car, baby!”
As Hellmuth scowled, he still managed to slip out a polite “nice hand” to Mike before the rest of the table chatter sent him off the edge.
He shouted:
“If you want me to quit, I’m gonna f****** quit. I can’t play with you anymore. You’re such an ass****”
He then accused Mike of being more out of line towards him than anybody else in the last one and a half years. To finish, he gave the classic insult that he had no idea who Mike was and he would never film with him again.
As Hellmuth stormed off the set, he unattached his microphone pack and bounced it off the table.
Another classic!
Santhosh Suvarna Pulls Off 0.6% Miracle
This next hand took place on the revamped High Stakes Poker between two of the best known players around.
Andrew Robl needs no introduction as a star of the boom years and still playing high-stakes live games today.
Indian newcomer Santhosh Suvarna is relatively new to the high-stakes scene, but he’s made plenty of waves over the last couple of years, including at the Triton Super High Roller Series.
Suvarna put in a $4,000 straddle with A♣ K♥ and Robl made it $16,000 in the small blind with 5♣ 4♣.
The big blind folds and Suvarna comes back over the top to make it $54,000. Robl calls.
Stacks are playing $440,000 deep and the pot is $112,000.
The flop came down 4♠ 4♦ 2♠, giving Andrew Robl 99.4% of the equity.
Robl checks and Suvarna leads out for $45,000. Robl calls.
The turn is the K♦ and Robl checks again. Suvarna checks behind, with the king only boosting his equity up to 5%.
The river is the K♠, totally flipping the script.
Robl now bets $300,000 which amounts to almost 75% of Suvarna’s stack, but it doesn’t take long before we see the inevitable shove from the Indian.
Amazingly, Robl shrugs and makes the call without much emotion before he gets the bad news.
Daniel Negreanu Wins Seventh WSOP Bracelet
GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu was one of the stars of both the 90’s and the 2000’s as poker grew into the huge industry that we see today.
While he has still been a top player ever since, his tally of six WSOP bracelets hadn’t increased since winning the 2013 €25,600 High Roller No Limit Hold’em at the WSOP Europe.
That’s a long time for such a player, but he finally got that monkey off his back at the 2024 WSOP in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
In the heads-up battle, only Bryce Yockey stood between Negreanu and his seventh bracelet and the action was in a round of PLO.
Negreanu opens with A♦ Q♠ J♣ :7s to 750,000 and Yockey calls with 9♣ 6♠ 3♠ 2♣.
The flop was 7♥ 7♣ 10♣, giving Negreanu trips and Yockey a club draw and gutshot.
The Q♥ turn was enough to make the hand a lock and Daniel Negreanu knew once again what it feels like to win a WSOP gold bracelet.
The reaction from the crowd was particularly special as Negreanu ran to his wife Amanda, cheering loudly for a long time.
In the winner’s interview you can hear the Canadian’s voice breaking as he struggles to contain his emotion.
Check out the video below to see replays of all of the best hands of 2024.
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