Being the owner of the poker room doesn’t make one exempt from getting owned by an inebriated opponent. Just ask Doug Polk, who couldn’t pull the trigger on a call with ace-high in an exciting hand on Poker at the Lodge.
The Upswing Poker founder is a co-owner of The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas, a suburb of Austin. He’s also a regular on Poker at the Lodge, the poker room’s live-streamed show, which airs five nights a week on YouTube.
Ace-high battles ace-high
During a recent stream, Polk tangled in a hand against a player who is appropriately named “Action Adam,” Both players held ace-high and hoped to pair up, hit a straight, or make a hand that would win them a sizable pot. Neither hand improved, but one player did make an impressive play.
Action folded to the card room owner in the first straddle who just limped for $175 total with 
, hoping to induce a raise from the second straddle. The plan worked to perfection as Action Adam, with 
, bumped it up to $525. Polk then three-bet it to $2,500 and received a call.
With a stack of over $32,000, easily covering his opponent, Polk bet $1,400 on a flop of 
and his opponent came along for the ride. The turn was the 
, giving both players a gutter-ball and Action Adam a flush draw, but the action went check-check to the river, which was the 
.
Again, neither player improved, but this is where aggression in no-limit Texas hold’em pays off. Polk checked the river and then his opponent moved all in for $9,700 into a pot of about $8,000.
Action Adam hadn’t played the hand like he had a queen, and with the board paired, that’s a strong bet with a flush. But Polk, holding two red cards, didn’t block any flush draws, so he could have been considering his opponent was simply over-betting with a flush on a paired board.
The player facing the large bet had a tough decision with just ace-high, but it was obvious by how long he took to ponder his decision — about four minutes — that his instincts were telling him that his hand was likely good.
In the end, the co-owner of The Lodge Mahal couldn’t pull the trigger on a call and folded his exposed cards. Action Adam, of course, made sure to show the bluff, letting it be known that he skillfully won a heads up pot on a bluff against one of the best heads up players of all-time.
That said, when all was said and done for the five-hour stream, Polk still ended up winning over $15,000. As for Action Adam, he lost more than $40,000. Go figure.