The penultimate episode of High Stakes Poker Season 12 aired Monday night on PokerGO. Audiences were treated to another thrilling instalment of the ongoing six-handed battle between Andrew Robl, Santhosh Suvarna, Brandon Adams, Charles Yu, Nik "Airball" Arcot, and Stanley Tang.
$1,000/$2,000 stakes helped to keep the majority of the pots above the $100,000 watermark – that and plenty of preflop and postflop action, as the players seemed to up their gamble towards the end of filming. Interestingly enough, the most exciting hand of the night was one of the few to not eclipse that mark.
Adams connects, Tang smashes
In another uncharacteristically non-straddled pot, Tang raised to $5,000 from early position with 
, only to see the action fold all the way around to Adams, who made the call from the big blind with 
. The 
flop saw both players connect, as Tang flopped the world with just about every draw imaginable – an open-ended straight draw, a flush draw, and a gut-shot straight flush draw to boot – while Adams made top pair with a decent kicker for a single-raised pot.
Adams' smile evaporated when Tang put him to a tough decision on the riverWhile Adams technically held the best hand at this point, Tang's draws gave him the lion's share of the equity and, facing a check from his opponent, he fired out for $10,000 into the $13,000 pot. Adams made the call and the turn brought in the 
, improving Tang to a straight flush and the stone cold nuts.
After Adams checked, Tang opted to take a tricky line and checked back. Tang's slippery play led to Adams improving to trips on the 
river. The $23,000 in chips that Adams placed in front of him would never return to his stack, but Tang wanted more and made it $125,000 to go.
Meanwhile, as Adams deliberated the raise, Airball and Yu broke out into a side conversation, in Mandarin, much to the surprise of commentators AJ Benza and Nick Schulman. Benza may have even bestowed a new moniker on Airball, saying, "He might be the International Man of Mystery." Another High Stakes Poker all-time great commentary moment.
Charles Yu and the International Man of Mystery himself, Nik Airball If the Mandarin in his ear made it hard for him to think, Adams didn't show it. It took him about a minute and a half to get there, but he made the fold, painful as it may have been. As Adams' cards hit the muck, Tang reached for his cards as though to flip them from the top side, but at the last second he slid one atop the other and tossed them to the dealer.
Images Courtesy of PokerGO/Antonio Abrego
