Although most eyes in the poker world have been on the ongoing World Series of Poker flagship event this month in Las Vegas, earlier this week, there was arguably an even bigger spectacle playing out in California.
Over the weekend, the popular Hustler Casino Live poker stream hosted arguably its most star-studded lineup yet.
Players hitting the felt at the Celebrity Legends Special in Los Angeles on Saturday included Neymar, Brazilian soccer star and one of the world’s highest-paid athletes, social media playboy Dan Bilzerian, boxer Ryan Garcia, regular NBA all-star Jimmy Butler, and video game streamer Ninja.
Through dozens of hands and several big moments, Neymar came out on top with the biggest profit as play closed at 1:00 AM on Sunday.
The Brazilian national soccer team’s all-time top scorer took home $306,000 in profit over the night. Others who walked away with a profit included Bilzerian, Jimmy Butler, and social media star Jon Vlogs.
Ninja Slow Roll
The eight-hour poker session, all livestreamed on YouTube to hundreds of thousands of viewers, saw several highly memorable moments to fit the famous line up.
In the first viral moment, popular video game streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins made a mockery of lightweight world champ boxer Ryan Garcia.
In poker, one of the most disrespectful moves you can pull is called a slow roll. When you have a hand known as the nuts, meaning the calculated best possible hand given the board state, it’s customary to force all-in and play out the hand fast, given that it’s a foregone conclusion you will win.
Slow rolling is when a player with the nuts acts like they aren’t guaranteed the winning hand, checking or upping the ante to prolong the hand before going all-in and revealing that they were bound to win all along.
This is what Ninja did to Ryan Garcia on the live stream. Showing some hefty nuts of a different kind to troll a world champion boxer for thousands of dollars in front of tens of thousands of live viewers.
Several minutes before Ninja showed his hand, the commentators realized he had the nuts and was going to win.
Despite that, Ninja’s slow roll succeeded and Garcia confidently got up from his chair and danced, thinking he had the better hand.
“This money might go all-in. Here we go, snap. He’s slow rolling him? He’s slow rolling him! Garcia’s dancing” said commentator Christian Soto.
Then the dealer asked the players if they wanted two or four cards on the flop. “Do it once, because I have the f*****g nuts,” Ninja responded coolly, before showing his hand and taking the $31,650 pot.
However, neither player would go on to cash out for a profit.
Neymar Flipped
That hand was outshone by a nosebleed series of unfortunate calls from popular Hustler Casino Live poker regular and financial tech investor, Alan Keating.
In a head-to-head with Neymar, Keating chose to flip seven consecutive river cards at $50,000 to $75,000 at a time, searching for the winning hand.
He lost them all, ending up handing $360,000 over to the Brazilian soccer star. The drama of the scene was ratcheted up by the comparison between the two players’ reactions.
Keating remained cool despite losing hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile Neymar was literally jumping and up and down screaming by the time Keating went all-in and lost the seventh flip. “The most epic hand in poker history,” Hustler Casino Live wrote in a social media post, obviously with some interest in bigging up the action.
Shortly after that, all the other players bowed out, leaving Neymar as the overall winner of the night. Keating, meanwhile, was the biggest loser at $478,850 down.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
