February may be the shortest month of the year, but its 28 days are plenty of time to create plenty of heated action at the green felt.
Last month, we saw a number of huge live-streamed poker games across our favorite shows, as well as a launch of a brand new poker live stream, Venetian Poker Live.
Usual suspects such as Rampage, Mariano, Doug Polk, and Taras were only a few of the big names that got in the action in February.
Today, we take a look back at the last four weeks and dissect the three best hands that were shown on live streamed poker shows.
Top Hands in February:
- $121k pot goes to Mariano after an insane preflop call
- $191k pot for Mariano after he draws out on his best poker buddy
- $115k pot for Jean Robert Bellande on a new live poker stream
Mariano Loses His Mind at the Lodge
This month, Poker at The Lodge announced they would be bringing back their high-stakes cash game streams, to the delight of the shows numerous fans.
One of the first games of the month saw Mariano make his way down to Texas, riding a wave of big wins recorded on Hustler Casino Live in January.
Playing $100/$200, Mariano opened the action from the button, raising it up to $500 with 10♦7♦, a very standard play in this particular spot.
The small blind folded and Doug Polk himself found himself looking down at A♦K♠ in the big blind. Polk quickly re-raised to $2k, before Josh in the straddle position ripped it all in for his $9.4k with A♥8♥.
Josh was probably thinking and both Mariano and Polk were often light in this spot, and he was right about one of them, as the Argentinian YouTuber held only ten-high.
Yet, that didn’t deter Mariano from making the call sandwiched between the two players, which was probably not the most “solver approved” play of the night.
Once Mariano made the call, there wasn’t much of a decision for Doug, whose hand rated to be the best. Polk pushed all-in for $56k, and it seemed that Mariano’s flat call had backfired in a big way.
Instead, Mariano went from making one questionable call to another, as he eventually called off Polk’s bet, committing $56k to the pot with just ten-high, playing in a $100/$200 game.
Doug could hardly believe his eyes and the entire table laughed at the situation. Mariano even chose to run it just once, and the dealer put out an amazing flop in 8♦8♣9♦, giving Josh trips and Mariano an open-ended straight flush draw.
The turn brought the 6♣, making Mariano a straight, and the river bricked out for Josh, which meant Grandoli would scoop a $121k pot, the biggest of the night.
The Clash of the Vloggers at Hustler Casino Live
Following a heated January, Hustler Casino Live kept streaming some massive games in February, with Rampage and Mariano both making headlines in these games.
Once again, Mariano was involved in one of our notable pots of the month, as he clashed with his good friend Ethan “Rampage” Yau in a truly spectacular way.
This time around, the stakes were just $25/50, so there was seemingly no way for pots to get into six figure territory. Yet, the vloggers came out to play, and they found a way.
The hand started with Rampage putting in a triple-straddle for $400, and Mariano calling without looking at his cards, looking to play the pot in position.
All the players between Mariano and Rampage called and Rampage checked his option with 10♥7♠, looking to win a bounty from everyone at the table if he wins the hand, thanks to a side game that was being played at this table.
The flop came down K♥10♣7♦, giving Rampage a miracle two pair. With $1,625 in the pot, he wasted no time and led out for $3k, nearly two times the pot.
At this point, Mariano finally looked back at his cards and saw he had K♠J♦, good for top pair in a very unorthodox way.
Mariano could hardly believe his luck, and he decided to bump it up to $6k, which was the minimal raise he could make at this point.
When action came back to Rampage, he realized that he is almost certain to have the best hand, so he put in another raise to $15k, looking to charge any draws or top pairs in Mariano’s range.
Yet, Mariano was not a believer, and instead of calling the raise, he decided to put his entire stack in, forcing Rampage to call nearly $80k more to see the runout.
Despite agonizing a bit, Rampage soon realized he almost always has the best hand and made the call, making the pot $191k.
Rampage was a 7:3 favorite to win the hand, and the two friends agreed to run it twice. This is where things went off the rails, as Rampage managed to lose not just one, but both runouts.
The jack on the first river and the king on the second turn gave Grandoli the win and sent Rampage to the rail to bemoan his bad luck.
Despite this hand, both Rampage and Mariano ended up losing big in this Hustler Casino Live game, once again showing just how volatile high-stakes poker games can get.
JRB Wins a Big One on Venetian Poker Live
This month, a brand new poker stream opened its doors, as Venetian Poker Live streamed its first tournament and cash games sessions.
The two big stars of the first cash game show on Venetian Poker Live were Jean Robert Bellande (JRB), and King Charles.
The legendary high-stakes gambler got involved in one of the biggest pots of the session with the crypto trader when both players made trip jacks on a board of 10♠J♠2♦J♥.
Both players were convinced they had the best hand, but JRB’s Q♣J♦ pipped Charles’ J♣3♦ and left Charles scrambling to find one of his last few outs.
All the money went in on the turn, which led to the pot swelling to over $115k, which was quite big for a game where six-figure pots were not the norm.
Bellande ended up scooping the pot, with Charles unable to find help on either of the two rivers that were dealt.
Venetian Poker Live will be bringing us regular weekly high-stakes poker streams, so expect reports of more huge pots from the new venue in the months to come.
