Hand of the Week: Mariano misclicks in bizarre $175,400 all-in pot

Posted on: January 26, 2026 18:27 PST

The self-proclaimed King of LA Nik 'Airball' Arcot has featured in several iterations of the PokerOrg Hand of the Week column. As has Mariano Grandoli.

In all of their time together on the felt, however, the two had yet to clash in a Hand of the Week-worthy pot. After the most recent High Stakes Friday game on Hustler Casino Live, that's no longer the case.

Interestingly, the hand came about as result of a misclick from Grandoli. And Arcot, whether he recognized the mistake or not, stepped into a situation he might have otherwise avoided.

'You got it'

With the blinds at $50/$100 and the $200 straddle in play from Arcot, Phong 'Turbo' Nguyen kicked off the action with a raise to $500 with . Grandoli then looked down at on the button and quickly threw a single $1,000 chip across the betting line before the dealer pointed out that Nguyen had already raised to $500.

"Oh, okay," Grandoli said as he replaced the $1,000 chip with five $100 chips.

Did Grandoli mean to raise, thinking the pot was unopened? Or was he slow-playing his hand in the hopes that someone behind would squeeze so he could spring a trap? It's unclear. Grandoli didn't verbally declare a raise so, technically, his tossing of the $1,000 chip should stand as a call – and it did – but was that his intention? Again, unclear.

Jasper Ma and Bear Jew matched the $500 raise as well, but Arcot opted to three-bet squeeze to $4,100 with . Nguyen fled the scene and Grandoli cut out a four-bet to $15,000 to isolate Arcot. With the action back on him, The King of LA asked Grandoli how much money he had in his stack.

"I think like 80 [thousand]," came the response.

Arcot thought for a moment or two longer and then moved all-in. Grandoli wasted no time in calling it off and, all of a sudden, a $175,400 pot materialized seemingly out of nowhere – and it was all thanks to a misclick. If Grandoli had seen Nguyen's pre-flop raise, there's a decent chance that he three-bets himself and Arcot avoids the confrontation altogether.

Instead, Grandoli's call – followed by a back-raise four-bet – must have looked somewhat suspicious to Arcot and he tried to make a move.

Despite the misstep, Arcot found himself with live cards and only a little less than a coin flip's shot at scooping the pot. The runout offered no help, however, and left Grandoli's ace-high best.