Antonio Esfandiari, aka “The Magician”, made a sensational return to High Stakes Poker, delivering one of the sickest coolers we’ve seen in quite some time. Esfandiari doesn’t play too much anymore, as he has enjoyed the quiet, retired life with his family. But every once in a while, he returns to play some extremely high stakes, usually crushing the field.
The setup
In episode 7 of the newly-released Season 15 of High Stakes Poker, Esfandiari and the rest of the table were playing nosebleed stakes of $500/$1,000 with a $1,000 big blind ante and a $2,000 straddle. The other players included “The Doctor” Sean Dempsey, Andrew Robl, Scratch CEO Sameh Elamaway, Justin Gavri, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, and Core Scientific founder Darin Feinstein.
The hand
Elamaway opened to $5,000 from under the gun with pocket aces. Esfandiari called from the cutoff with two black eights. Gavri defended his big blind with jack-seven of clubs.
With $18,500 in the middle, the flop came 8-8-6 rainbow, no clubs, giving Esfandiari quads. Commentator Nick Schulman couldn’t help but utter “Oh my god!” as the flop was dealt. Action checked around on the flop.
The turn brought a devastating ace of diamonds, giving Elamaway top boat while also putting a flush draw out on the board. Schulman pointed out the obvious, stating that it looked like Elamaway’s $400,000 stack was about to be headed over to Esfandiari.
Elamaway put out a bet of $10,000, and Esfandiari raised to $37,000. Elamaway three-bet to $85,000, and Esfandiari made the call, with what Schulman claimed was “a little glisten in his eyes.”
With nearly $200,000 in the middle, the three of diamonds put out a potential diamond flush on the board, and both players surely thought they were trapping one another. Elamaway overbet to $225,000, and Esfandiari moved all in for a total of $318,000 effective. Elamaway naturally snap-called and was baffled as he realized his hand was no good, giving Esfandiari the massive $824,500 pot.
Reaction
Elamaway couldn’t help but laugh wryly as the rest of the table gasped and spoke in wows and other expletives. Esfandiari, who was noticeably sympathetic, exclaimed “That’s so sick!” repeatedly as Elamaway told him, “I had a feeling!”
Commentator AJ Benza and the rest of the table were beside themselves, with some claiming that they had never seen such a cooler in their careers. This was the very last hand of the night, and Esfandiari couldn’t help but add one last quip: “I wish it was Robl, not you.”
Aftermath
At the end of episode seven of High Stakes Poker, Esfandiari’s stack shot up to over $1,000,000 while Elamaway was buying back in for $300,000. Over $3,200,000 was on the table at the end of the episode, with the legendary Esfandiari and Robl clearly the biggest winners.
Though generally High Stakes Poker is released one episode at a time, PokerGO opted to release all 17 episodes of Season 15 about two days before Christmas. Naturally, most players are getting to watch the new season as the Christmas holiday is finally behind us.
