Nikki Limo Ends Her Loose Cannon Run With A Big Gamble In The Big Game
The Big Game on Tour was back on Saturday with another episode of $100/$200 no-limit hold'em. This episode finished up the action for the first lineup and teased us with what's next for the series.
At the end of last week's episode and the beginning of this week's, Jennifer Tilly was the runaway victor. She was up a little over $300k. Phil Hellmuth had been playing his usual tight, tactical game, which had worked so far, putting him $75,800 in the black. Arden Cho and the "Loose Cannon" Nikki Limo were also up by smaller amounts — $42,100 and $9,400 respectively.
The two biggest benefactors of these winners are Lex Veldhuis and Alan Keating. Veldhuis was down $109,600 going into Episode 5, while Keating was down a massive $315,800 from a mix of fast play and slow cards.
Limo, as the loose cannon in The Big Game on Tour, was staked for $50,000 in this game and was set to keep whatever profit she made over the course of the series's 150-hand duration. This was the last episode with the current lineup and loose cannon, with an all-new table forming up for episode six.
With just 22 hands left, this was Limo's last chance to make bank before the credits rolled. She needed to make some moves.
The Beginning of the End
The game, which is hosted by PokerStars, continued with blinds of $100/$200 and a $200 big blind ante, pot-limit betting pre-flop, and no-limit betting post-flop.
Between the episodes, an exhausted Alan Keating pulled out of proceedings, leaving $314,500 on the table, most of it in Jennifer Tilly's stack. Keating was replaced by Griffin Benger who joined the table with $50,000 and a big smile for just a handful of hands.
Benger took no time to settle in, coming out swinging on the first hand. He raised to $700 from the button with J♥J♣. Veldhuis called him with K♦3♥ in the big blind. On a flop of A♣5♠A♥, Benger bet $500 and Veldhuis folded, giving the first pot of the episode to Benger.
The Loose Cannon Dodges A Bullet
Veldhuis immediately followed up his small loss by raising Limo's straddle with queens in his hole. After getting calls from Tilly, Benger, and Limo, the flop came K♣9♥6♣ giving every player a little bit of something on the flop. Limo checked a king-high flush draw (K♣3♣) and Veldhuis bet $2,500 with his overpair.
Benger folded a small pair (A♥6♥), and Tilly — with the ace-high flush draw (A♣7♣) — raised to $7,000. Limo called and so did Veldhuis, making the pot $26,900 going into the turn.
The turn was a big money card, the 10♣ filling up Tilly and Limo's flushes. All three players checked and the K♥ on the river changed very little. Limo bet $25,000 and Veldhuis got out of the way, with Tilly reraising all in.
"You should fold. I'll show you my hand," Tilly said.
"Okay. I have the second nuts," Limo replied, believing Tilly and throwing away the king-high flush.
Tilly And Limo Run It Twice
Tilly and Limo were at it again just moments later. Tilly raised to $700 from UTG+1 with 6♥5♥ and Limo called with Q♦8♣.
Tilly bet $1,500 on the flop of 6♦Q♥7♥ and got a call. The turn was the 4c, giving Tilly another draw, this time to the straight. Tilly bet $5,000 and Limo put the rest of her small stack in to make it $7,500. Tilly called.
Limo opted to run it twice. With her freeroll only paying out if her stack was over $50,000, this might have been the wrong move. As it was, the first river was the 7♣, giving Limo the best hand but the second river was the 6♠. Unfortunately, the players split the pot, each taking back $19,900.
The Biggest Hand So Far
Jennifer Tilly was playing well and running well, when she picked up 6♦6♣ in the big blind. Arden Cho raised her to $600 from under the gun, and Benger reraised to $2,200. Tilly and Cho both called and all three of them went to the flop of 6♥5♠K♠.
Benger, who was holding the K♣Q♥, bet $2,500 and Tilly called. Cho did not. She reraised to $6,900 pushing Benger out and getting a 4-bet to $30,000 from Tilly.
The pot started at $69,400 on the turn of 9♣. Tilly checked and after a small pause, Cho checked behind. The river was the 5♣, giving Tilly a full house.
Tilly covered Cho's massive $164,900 remaining stack, but opted for a half-pot bet of $35,000. Cho paused shortly before raising Tilly all-in. Tilly only hesitated for a moment, running quickly through Cho's possible hands. Then she pushed her stack in.
To the table's surprise, Cho turned over pocket fives for quads, winning herself the biggest pot of the series at $399,200. The monster pot moved Cho to the top of the leaderboard, but surprisingly only bumped Tilly down to second.
Countdown To The End
Limo managed another split with another hand where she ran it twice. With just a handful of hands left, she needed multiple double-ups to turn a profit and make some cash.
Limo managed one double-up against Tilly, getting her stack to a little over $25k; Phil Hellmuth pulled off a rare bluff; and then Limo got her stack in against Tilly once again. Unfortunately, Limo was on the wrong side of the bet with K♥10♦ against Tilly's A♣K♠.
Limo opted to run it once and card by card, the dealer dealt the board out. When the last card rolled off on the river, Tilly's ace-high hand had held and it was time for Limo to stand up and bid the other players adieu.
There was still one hand left to play. However, with the loose cannon gone and a pot of just $3,800 (won by Phil Hellmuth), it was a quiet end to a very loud game of high-stakes poker.
The Big Game On Tour returns on Fox Sports 1 in a few weeks with a new lineup of players and Lily Newhouse as the loose cannon.
This week's lineup finished their game with the standings as follows:
| Rank | Player | Profit/Loss | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arden Cho | +$246,600 | $396,600 |
| 2 | Jennifer Tilly | +$172,600 | $322,600 |
| 3 | Phil Hellmuth | +$75,700 | $125,700 |
| 4 | Griffin Benger | -$17,700 | $32,300 |
| 5 | Nikki Limo | -$50,000 | $0 |
| 6 | Lex Veldhuis | -$112,700 | $117,300 |
| 7 | Alan Keating | -$314,500 | $0 |
