The latest episode of High Stakes Poker aired Monday night on PokerGO, bringing fans of the show more of the $500/$1,000/$1,000 BBA action. The same group of players took to the felt and the action kicked off with Nik Airball covering the entire table on a stack of $490,000 and expressing his clear desire to play oversized pots.
Andrew Robl and Brandon Steven sat basically level, with $411,500 and $409,000 respectively, while Stanley Tang ($372,500), Sameh Elamawy ($362,000) and Humboldt Mike ($336,500) filled out the middle of the pack. The relative short stacks – relative being the key word here – Justin Gavri ($257,000) and Jennifer Tilly ($211,000) had work to do, but were in the right spot for the action they needed.
Robl vs. Airball
Prior to this episode's entanglement, Airball and Robl had mostly stayed out of one another's way, but with the play styles of each player being so reliant on image and exploitation, they were bound to bump heads at some point. With a $2,000 straddle on, Robl came in for a raise to $6,000 with 
. Tilly called behind with 
before the action came around to Airball, who looked down at 
and put in a raise of his own, to $45,000.
With the action back on him, Robl took a look at Airball's stack, attempting to size up his opponent's chips. Airball told him the amount and Robl then put in another raise, up to $135,000, which prompted a quick fold from Tilly. By this time, Airball had slipped down in the stack size counts and Robl now covered him. Still, he inquired back and asked how much Robl had in his stack, perhaps as a mind game or some form of leveling war.
"It feels like it's going in, does it not?" asked Nick Schulman from the commentary booth. Despite not being physically present at the table, Schulman's premonitions were spot on as Airball shipped the entirety of his $353,000 stack into the middle. Robl made a quick call and the cards hit their backs as the players agreed to run out two full boards, each for half of the pot. Airball would need to catch a three-outer or connect with his flush and straight outs to win the $716,000 pot.
The first flop came down 
to provide Airball with additional outs to a straight, but still in need of help. The turn 
changed nothing for either player and the river 
locked up half of the pot for Robl.
On the second runout, Airball connected with the community cards, but not in the way he needed as the 
provided him with top pair while Robl made top set. As soon as he saw the flop, Airball began to move his chips towards Robl's side of the table. Then, the 
on the turn provided him with outs to a win and outs to a quarter of the pot, in the event of a chop. The 
river brought none of those outs to Airball's rescue, however, and the entire $716,000 pot went Robl's way.
High Stakes Poker airs on Monday nights at 8:00pm ET, exclusively on PokerGO.
