Since the Matt Berkey $1 million heads-up challenge loss, we’ve seen a humbler Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot. Just kidding. The polarizing high-stakes player had yet another controversial moment on Friday during the high-stakes Hustler Casino Live stream when he randomly slowrolled Ethan “Rampage” Yau in a monster pot.
In a $100/$200 game (with straddles), the poker vlogger had pocket aces cracked and was all in on the turn with $238,500 in the pot. Needing to only dodge a two-outer on the river, Airball acted as if he was doomed, but he knew he was well ahead with trips.
Earlier in the session, Airball was down over $100,000, far less than the $990,000 he lost during the historic $1 million buy-in game on May 30 at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles.
Good ole @nikairball got stuck over $100K early tonight but used the classic Martingale strategy to get close to even
Shaun Deeb Would Approve
Channeling his inner Shaun Deeb, Nik Airball livened up the game a bit during the middle of the stream. Action folded around to Rampage in the big blind and he bumped it up to $3,000 with A♦A♣. Airball then three-bet to $7,000 from one of the straddles with J♦5♦ before calling a four-bet to $18,000.
The flop came out K♠5♣4♥ and Rampage enticed his opponent to call a small bet of $10,000, less than one-third the size of the pot. But the aces were cracked when the 5♥ showed up on the turn.
Rampage, who had $90,900 left behind, still had no reason to think his over pair was beat, so he wagered $27,000, this time around half the size of the pot. Airball, who had turned trips and had his opponent covered, moved all in and received a snap call.
“Boat?,” Nik Airball asked.
“I have aces,” Rampage responded.
“F**k!” Airball answered back, acting as if trips were no good.
Airball then asked Rampage if he wanted to run it twice before exposing his cards. The two agreed to just one river card, which turned out to be a meaningless J♠.
Immediately after the river card was revealed, Airball quickly turned his cards over and then shouted, “All the chips!” He followed that up with a celebratory dance and some uncontrolled laughter. Yau, however, wasn’t laughing with him and quietly rebought into the game.
When the stream concluded at around 11 p.m. PT, Rampage was down $192,000 and Nik Airball was about even for the session.