Episode 3 of the new season of The Big Game on Tour was broadcast over the weekend, and it wasn't a great session for Lex Veldhuis.
The PokerStars pro has been loving life recently, winning his first SCOOP title and $140K in the $5,200 NLHE Titans event. He was also on a roll after the first two episodes of The Big Game on Tour, heading the leaderboard with a profit of $118,900. The Loose Cannon, Nikki Limo, was also in profit to the tune of $21,400, with Phil Hellmuth (+$49,800) and Jennifer Tilly (+$46,900) the other winners. Alan Keating and Arden Cho were both down around $100K.
However, the script was flipped for Veldhuis on episode 3, where he ended up losing the biggest pot of his career (see video above).
Veldhuis runs into Keating's set
It happened early on when Keating picked up 
and raised it up to $900. Veldhuis called with 
and Hellmuth just called with 
. A chunky three-bet from Hellmuth could have saved Veldhuis from what was about to happen.
Keating made top set on the 
flop and his image always helps him get paid off. Keating bet $2,000 and Veldhuis raised to $9,000 with air. Keating called to see the perfect card for him, the 
, drop on the turn.
Keating 101: Play loose and get paid off when you hit a monsterVeldhuis checked, Keating bet $19,000, and Veldhuis called to the 
river.
Keating put Veldhuis all-in and the PokerStars pro said, "Alright, well, well," Veldhuios said. "I said I was going to either win the biggest pot of my life or lose, probably," Veldhuis added.
Veldhuis called and was stacked. "A pot of more than a quarter of a million dollars, the biggest we've seen so far, shipped by Alan Keating," said James Hartigan. "And a chill filled the room," said Joe Stapleton.
"Everything's gone. All the momentum's gone, and now you have to start over... and that sucks," said Veldhuis ruefully.
More woe for Veldhuis
He had a big chance to get a load back the next hand but ended up folding an overpair of tens after Cho put him all in on the turn with top pair. Then he ended up chopping a $122K pot with Keating with kings against A-Q. He was starting to get the feeling this wasn't going to be his day.
And his misery didn't end there. The final hand of the episode saw another disaster for Veldhuis with a big pocket pair. You can see how that went down below. If you're not in North America, you can find The Big Game on Tour on your local PokerStars channel.
The Big Game on Tour is broadcast every Friday evening on FS1 and on Saturday across the PokerStars YouTube channels.
