Tuesday, January 24, 2023 should forever be remembered in poker as Chop Pot Day. First, it was a fumbled split pot in the WSOP Circuit King’s Resort Main Event, a hand in which a player mistakenly busted. Then in the evening, PokerGO viewers witnessed an equally entertaining, albeit less controversial, chop pot during the High Stakes Poker Season 10 debut.
For those who missed our story Tuesday morning, a poker player (Pierre Kauert) didn’t realize he should have chopped the pot in the WSOP Circuit event, and neither did the dealer or live-stream announcers. Instead, he was out in fifth place and no one said a peep to him about it until it was too late, although it did appear that some players at the table may have noticed the pot should have been chopped.
Everybody Loves a Chop Pot
Later in the day, PokerGO released the first episode of the newest High Stakes Poker season, and viewers witnessed yet another wild split pot. In a $200/$400 no-limit hold’em cash game, Eric Persson, who bought in for $400,000, called from a middle position with 
before Jennifer Tilly raised it up to $2,000 with 
next to the button.
Ema Zajmovic, holding 
, three-bet it from the button to $7,000, which led Matt Hanks, in the small blind, to four-bet to $25,000 with 
. Feeling trappy, Zajmovic made the call while the others folded. The flop came out 
, leaving Hanks drawing dead to winning the hand outright.
With Zajmovic having just $61,000 behind and the pot already over $50,000, Hanks decided to put her all in with his top pair. She wasted no time in calling, and her opponent needed a runner-runner straight just to split the pot. But this is Chop Pot Day, so of course the board ran out the 
on the turn and the 
on the river. They chopped up the $176,000 pot, which should constitute as a bad beat even though nobody lost the hand.
Hanks, Zajmovic, Persson, and Tilly were joined by Jean-Robert Bellande, Chino Rheem, and Poker Hall of Famer Bobby Baldwin at the table for Episode 1.
Most of the action outside of the aforementioned chop pot hand was due to the aggressive play of poker bad boy Persson and Tilly, the high-stakes poker playing actress. On the first hand, in true form, Persson made a large three-bet with 6-5 off-suit to take down the pot. Later on, he made an ambitious $40,000 turn bet with just a small pair before having to fold when Bellande moved all in with top pair and a queen-high flush draw.
Tilly was also aggressive at the table, making large preflop raises with marginal hands in a few instances. In one of the most entertaining and biggest pots of the night, Persson bet $7,000 on the turn with 
with the board showing 
, but his two pair was drawing to a four-outer against Hanks, who had 
for a flush.
Hanks bumped it up to $25,000 and his opponent made the call. When the river 
brought four cards to a straight, that didn’t save Persson as he called off a $60,000 bet only to lose a $182,000 pot.
High Stakes Poker will return to PokerGO next Tuesday starting at 8 p.m. ET. As is the case with any past episode, you can watch this week’s show on-demand with a PokerGO subscription.
Ivey, Negreanu Play Unbelievable High Stakes Poker Pot
*Images courtesy of PokerGO.