Tonight focuses on verbal discord. Amateur Curtis Rystadt is typically labeled as a “troll.” His tactic involves incessantly provoking more proficient players verbally, with the aim of making them blunder more. Rystadt persistently refers to Kyle Keranen as “Clyde,” and ESPN adjusts their footage to heighten the tension and offensive banter to maximize the television drama.
Episode 3: Begin Day 5
Kyle Keranen begins the first hand assertively with A-T, with only Margolin choosing to stay in the game with J-8.
The flop shows J49, providing Margolin with an upper hand. However, despite the King turning and the 3 hitting the river, he continually checks and responds to Keranen’s resolute raises, eventually relenting at the final hike. For Keranen, it wasn’t as much about a particular bluff but rather about sticking to his stance, which is why it still works against a player of Margolin’s caliber.
This hand primarily served as an opportunity for Lon and Norman to depict Rystadt telling a golf story. It’s unclear whether it’s filler or foreshadowing.
Rystadt opens with a hand of 35K, holding J-5 suited against Stewart’s A-K. The pot increases to 212K before the 5TK flop. ESPN portrays Rystadt as a chatty and sociable novice, who lands a Jack on the turn. This secures him his second pair and increases the pot by another hundred thousand. The river reveals a 9, providing Rystadt with a small but gratifying boost to his stack.
Minimal love for Newhouse
This is a short profile on Mark Newhouse, which carries an odd contradictory tone. ESPN appears to favor him heavily, as indicated by the extensive attention he receives and his expanding fan base. However, the commentators, particularly Norman, seem to be slightly more dismissive than their true sentiments likely are. Their remarks could even be described as snide.
Newhouse risks playing a K-4 of both clubs, competing against Gabe Paul’s pair of sevens.
Newhouse possesses a two pair with 84658, while Paul holds a straight. Paul cleverly extracts an additional 127K from Newhouse on the final bet, which doesn’t significantly affect his stack. This move is rational from Newhouse’s viewpoint considering the odds. His gameplay is marked by confidence, yet it doesn’t border on recklessness.
Keranen is continuing to receive some well-deserved attention. The game begins with Adam Coats opening with K-Q (both diamonds), but only Keranen (big blind) decides to call with 5-4 (both hearts). Across the table, Rystadt resumes his conversation, discussing British and American comedians with Stuart Rutter and debating the spelling of Stuart with Casey Stewart. Meanwhile, Norman persists in calling Rystadt rude.
The flop reveals the 2 of hearts, 9 of spades, and King of spades. Coats, holding the highest pair, bets 42K. Despite having no significant cards, Keranen raises the stakes by an additional 50K in a classic bluff maneuver.
When the 6 of hearts is drawn, Keranen increases his bet, causing Coats to be rightfully skeptical. However, when Keranen surprisingly completes his flush with the 7 of hearts on the river, he’s ready to force Coats to go all-in. Coats eventually folds, resulting in yet another successful raise for Keranen. He now boasts a total of 3.8 million, which is 2.5 million more than the player with the next highest amount at the featured table.
Not many ladies
It appears that only four women remain in the main event on Day 5. This provides us the chance to showcase Maria Ho’s elimination of Sean Kelly. She beat his wired Jacks with her Aces and Kings, boosting Ho’s stack to over a million. There are still 227 players left in the game.
Rystadt persists in provoking Keranen. Norman remains upset with Ivey for his elimination in the previous episode.
A major shift
Margolin places his pair of nines in a significant hand against Casey Stewart’s suited J-T and Rystadt’s suited Q-J.
Rystadt boldly went all in on the river with his three Queens, only to be met with Stewart’s calm call with his straight. Margolin, who only had a 2% chance before the river card, decided to go all in with his full house. Rystadt was on the verge of going for it but ultimately decided to back off. This resulted in Rystadt and Keranen clashing verbally while Stewart took an exceptionally long time to finally decide to call.
Stewart is left with only 129K after losing 82% of his stack. Margolin, on the other hand, has nearly tripled his stack to over 1.5 million.
Below 200
There are 198 players remaining, each with an average chip stack of slightly more than one million. Griffin Benger from Canada leads with 3.9 million chips, closely followed by Kyle Keranen with 3.72 million.
Of course, this is up until Bruno Politano from Brazil goes against Zack Jiganti by putting three Kings against his three Jacks in a 4.8 million chip pot. This swiftly propels Politano to the top spot in the tournament.
Jiganti, who began today in the 2nd position, currently holds a stack of 358 thousand and is struggling to hold on. He will soon be eliminated in 185th place, earning nearly forty-five thousand dollars.
Marcia Koontz, one of the remaining women and first-time players, wins three hundred thousand chips from Nguyen with a four-of-a-kind, increasing her stack to over one million.
Casey Stewart goes all-in with A-9, which Keranen responds to by calling with A-5. Following a 727K6, Stewart’s stack doubles to 278K, allowing him to remain in the game a while longer.
Coming to a close
Rystadt wins a hundred thousand from Keranen in a round where Keranen has A-9 and Rystadt has A-Q. Not long after, Rystadt decides to challenge Keranen’s stack once more, this time holding a Q-4.
Kyle has A-A.
Rystadt’s full house triumphed over the pocket aces, despite the pot exceeding 1.3 million, in game KK449.
Curtis Rystadt starts to escalate his trash talk to dangerously high levels of dramatic irony.
Instead of the more deserving chip leader Bruno Politano, who is the first player to break the five million chip barrier, Draftkings.com has chosen to make him this episode’s King of the Night.
Episode 4: Less interesting than 3
This time, Norman’s unreasonable rejection of Newhouse leads him to pledge to climb the Sears Tower in flip-flops.
We learn that all of the current top ten players are under 33 years old, then the focus shifts, rather obviously, to Rystadt who is 44. Nice manoeuvre, ESPN.
Mikiyo Aoki increases her stack to 2.6 million as the few remaining women continue to lean in.
Keranen continues to quietly extend his lead, winning a small pot from Rutter and Paul.
What has Dan Smith been up to?
Dan Smith plays an A-A against Andrew Liporace’s J-T of clubs. The flop reveals 2KK. Liporace is just one card away from a flush.
Smith makes a small bet which Liporace accepts. When the 9 is revealed on the turn, Smith holds back while Liporace goes all in, aiming to intimidate Smith. However, Smith chooses to call. At this point, Liporace’s chances of getting a flush stand at 25%.
Liporace exits in 159th position, taking with him $52,141. Meanwhile, Smith is nearing a total of 3M chips. The 7 of hearts has been drawn.
Smith currently holds K-9 suited against Jeffrey Chang’s K-T.
Chang has the upper hand in 76TJ5, but Smith successfully bluffs him by going all-in. Smith’s total reaches 3.2M.
Not the Side Action Championship again
Following a round of rapid trading, Hellmuth and Matusow are neck and neck for the top spot, and I cannot feign that this is genuinely worth our time.
Margolin’s suited 7-6 and Keranen’s wired Jacks are more worth our time.
624Q8. Keranen successfully lures Margolin by feigning passivity, only to pressure him later on the river. With his unwavering focus, Keranen further develops, contradicting the notion that Rystadt’s campaign of irritation is working.
Rystadt has pocket tens while Joseph Lacarrubba holds Q-T of clubs. Cowbow Joe decides to go all-in and the pot now stands at 541K. The community cards are KA989.
Lacarrubba is no longer participating, and he will contribute a portion of his earnings to the charity, Imus Ranch.
Nguyen holds a 9-8 suited, while Newhouse has an unpaired 6-3 but chooses to play regardless. The pot astonishingly escalates to 884,000 with a 5A46 on the table. Newhouse pressures Nguyen for an all-in move, but Nguyen, being more cautious, decides to fold. Despite Newhouse’s stack growing to 2.2 million, Norman still openly expresses his skepticism towards him.
Winding down
The night is nearing its end with both Leif Force and Griffin Benger having over 4M.
Maria Ho, bluffing Jack Schanbacker with a dead-eye stare, reaches 1.6M.
It’s intriguing to think about how ESPN might have altered these episodes, if not for the fortuitous tension that occurred. Draftkings.com presents their second King of the Night accolade to Kyle Keranen for refraining from physically assaulting Curtis Rystadt.
We have finished for tonight, we will see you next week as we proceed with Day 5.
