Tom Dwan tanked twice while holding a monster in the same hand against Doug Polk, who had five-high in what turned out to be a $1.1 million pot on Hustler Casino Live. The question viewers are now debating is was it a slow-roll?
Tuesday’s game was the last of four million-dollar games on Hustler Casino Live, and the action thus far has been as intense and entertaining as any of the previous three sessions.
Dwan, the former internet poker legend back in the Full Tilt Poker days, has certainly never been one to slow-roll, at least in televised games. But many in the HCL YouTube chat were convinced his tank on the turn and river was a “f**k you” to Polk, who has made some critical comments of “durrrr” in the past.
Was it a Slow-roll?
The hand began with Polk raising to $3,000 from the cutoff with 5♠4♠ and then calling a three-bet to $14,000 from “durrrr” and his 7♥7♣ in the small blind.
When the flop came 2♠7♦K♦, bingo for the preflop aggressor, Dwan bet out $15,000 and his opponent called, hoping to either pick up some equity on the turn or bluff to take it down. The 6♥ was juicy as it gave the Upswing Poker founder an open-ended straight draw. But Dwan bet out $30,000, about half the size of the pot.
Polk then bumped it up to $115,000 on his draw, and this is where the hand got a bit strange. Sitting on the second nuts, Dwan went into the tank for quite some time, an odd play. The only hand that had him beat was pocket kings, and that wasn’t a likely holding for his opponent given he didn’t four-bet preflop.
After a few minutes of waiting, Polk had enough and called the clock. Shortly after, Dwan made the call and the 6♠ showed up on the river, giving “durrrr” a full house. He decided to slow-play his hand and checked it over to the button.
Polk, who couldn’t possibly win the $291,000 pot without betting, refused to surrender to the former online poker star and ripped off a bet of $420,000, leaving about $550,000 behind.
There was no way Dwan would fold as he was only concerned with pocket kings or possibly pocket sixes, both unlikely scenarios. Once again, he oddly went into a deep tank before deciding to just call.
It certainly wasn’t a clear-cut slow-roll. In fact, there’s a solid possibility that Dwan really was concerned about one of the two hands that beat him especially given the stakes.
He conceivably could have been thinking in his head that Polk doesn’t have it in him to make such a massive bluff at these stakes even though he’s one of the best high-stakes poker players ever. But the YouTube chat pros seemed to think it was a slow-roll and that Dwan was trolling Polk for some of the things he’s said about him in the past.
Polk, who co-owns The Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas, was down $620,000 for the session at the time of publishing. Dwan was up just north of $500,000 and was the biggest winner in the final day of the Hustler Casino Live $1 million cash game. There were over 43,000 fans tuned in to watch the action on YouTube.