Three Great Live Reported Hands: Folding Quads and Kessler's Near Miss

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Aug 29, 2019 4 min read

This is Volume 10 of an ongoing series in which PokerNews will look back on some of the most memorable hands recorded in the long history of live reporting on this site. To read more about the concept and which hands make the cut, check out Volume 1.

The Infamous Quads Fold

Most of the time, it's tough enough to get someone to fold a pair in no-limit hold'em. In an infamous hand from the first $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, John Morgan managed to go several levels above that and induce a fold of quads.

It was early in the tournament, Level 4 (6,000/12,000/2,000) to be exact. While PokerNews was unable to get start-to-finish details due to having to get hand information from a player after the fact, there was still enough to set the poker world abuzz with discussion of this ultra-rare scenario.

What was known was that Tom Dwan opened the pot and got called by Mikhail Smirnov and Morgan, both behind him. On the J♠8♣7♠ flop, Dwan checked and Smirnov bet. Morgan called and Dwan folded. When the 8♠ arrived, Smirnov bet big with 200,000. Morgan called, reportedly in "extremely excited" fashion.

On the K♠ river, Smirnov bet 700,000 and Morgan shoved all in for 3.4 million. Smirnov opted to fold his two red eights face up, much to the amazement of everyone, including table-mate Phil Galfond, whose tweet alerted the world to the wild hand. Galfond called it the "craziest hand" he had ever seen, and coming from a man who has seen some things and played some hands in his time, that's quite a statement.

Morgan has never revealed publicly whether he had the 10♠9♠, so everyone will have to go on wondering until he decides to give up his secret.

A Brutal Beat for 'Stealthmunk'

Justin "Stealthmunk" Schwartz has largely disappeared from the poker world in recent years, but those who remember him can definitely recall his unique, sometimes adversarial personality. He was capable of some great poker as well and made a deep run in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the 2011 WSOP before disaster struck at the final two tables.

Sitting with a roughly average stack with 13 players remaining, Schwartz found himself a dream spot against Matt Glantz when they got it all in on a board of A♠Q♥9♦4♥.

Schwartz held A♥9♥9♠6♥ for third set and the nut flush draw. Glantz had a great hand of his own but his A♦J♥10♥4♦, good for two pair and a combo draw, was in rough shape. He needed to hit a straight that didn't also complete a flush as Schwartz was blocking him with the nut draw.

Unfortunately for Schwartz, the K♣ river was exactly the card Glantz needed, reducing his own stack to a handful of big blinds while Glantz rocketed up among the leaders after dealing out the bad beat.

"F***!" was all Schwartz could yell afterward.

He'd be eliminated right after the break in 13th, but Glantz didn't fare much better as he busted in 10th a bit later for only about $12,000 more.

Kessler Comes Up Just Shy of a Bracelet

The career of Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler has been a long and often fruitful one as he's amassed almost $4 million in cashes, but WSOP gold has managed to elude him. He's had a slew of runner-up finishes, the most recent of which came at WSOP Europe in 2017.

Heads up, Kessler held the chip lead early before Lukas Zaskodny flipped things and had him out-chipped following a few consecutive dragged pots. Unfortunately, the details of the final hand were lost due to technical difficulties, but some information did get recorded.

On the turn, the board read Jx7x2x2x, with Kessler holding AxJx3x2x for a full house, deuces full of jacks. Unfortunately for Kessler, Zaskodny had him nearly dead with J♥J♣6♦3♦. Only the last deuce in the deck could save Kessler, and then the 10♥ river arrived; his fourth and most recent runner-up finish in a bracelet event was locked in.

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