For the second straight day, Phil Hellmuth lost six figures on a live-stream, but on Tuesday night’s Live at the Bike show, he quit the game after losing a monster pot to Eric Hicks.
Robbi Jade Lew, making her first live-stream appearance since the infamous Sept. 29 Hustler Casino Live stream, was originally expected to be the headliner for the game. But that all changed in the middle of the session thanks to one $285,000 pot.
Don’t worry Phil. Finishing early on Valentine’s Day happens to a lot of guys. https://t.co/5jYuTBRYfZ
— PokerNews (@PokerNews)
Hicks Breaks Hellmuth
Hellmuth, who bought in for $300,000, couldn’t catch a break the first few hours of the game and was down around $80,000 before picking up the aggression. He’d chopped about $30,000 off his losses within just a few hands. And then it all fell apart.
Matt Berkey started the fireworks by three-betting to $5,500 with 
in the big blind. Hicks, aka the “Mad Genius,” the original raiser from under the gun with 
, four-bet to $20,000. Hellmuth then just called with 
in the hijack, and Berkey folded.
The flop came out 
, giving Hicks the nutter-butters. He refrained from slow-playing and fired out a bet of $20,000, to which his opponent made the call. Both players saw the 
on the turn, ending any hope for a “Poker Brat” suck-out. Still with the nuts, Hicks bet $50,000 and again received a call.
When the 
on the river brought four cards to a flush, it killed some of the action. But Hicks was still intent on maximizing value, so he bet $50,000 for the second consecutive time. Despite not having a diamond in his hand, Hellmuth ended up surprisingly making the call and lost the $285,000 pot.
Immediately after the hand, he stood up from his seat, grabbed his chips, and exited the game about three hours into the stream down about $195,000. Some of the players at the table needled the Poker Hall of Famer on the way out.
“Are you sure, Phil? The only way to get out of a deep hole is to keep digging,” Lew joked as Hellmuth left Parkwest Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles.
“At least he handled it well,” Berkey sarcastically said.
Hellmuth would return 30 minutes later to shake hands with the players and record a segment for Bally’s Big Bet Poker, a Bally Sports cable TV poker show that films during Live at the Bike streams.
Upon his brief return to the live-stream, Lew asked the “Poker Brat” if he will be back in the game on Wednesday night. Hellmuth, who was originally scheduled to play three straight nights, told the table he won’t be playing the next two days due to running so bad the last two sessions. He lost over $150,000 during Monday’s Hustler Casino Live show, his largest on live-stream in a decade.
Shortly after the hand, Hicks mentioned that he was disappointed the fourth diamond hit on the river because he felt he otherwise could have gotten Hellmuth’s remaining $105,000 stack. But he can’t complain much about it because moments later he coolered “Aussie Al” with 
on a flop of 
against 
. The board would run out and , which saved “Aussie Al” a bit, but he did still pay off a $20,000 bet on the river.
Honoring Robbi, Berkey Bluffs it Off
With a jack-four bounty on at the table, Berkey attempted to make a play with the hand that Lew called Garrett Adelstein with in the 2022 Hustler Casino Live controversial hand.
Berkey three-bet preflop with the infamous hand to $7,000 and Hicks decided to slow-play his pocket kings and just called. The flop came out 
and the preflop raiser continued for the same bet, and he received a call.
The turn was a 
, giving Berkey a pair, but he opted to check. Hicks, however, ripped off a sizable bet of $15,000, which didn’t convince his opponent to fold.
When the 
appeared on the river, Berkey found an opportunity to pull off a bluff, and he jammed all in for $61,000. Unfortunately, for the Solve for Why founder, Hicks is a mad genius and found the call. It appears that only Robbi Jade Lew knows how to win big pots with jack-four.