A Poker Tournament Swung On A Devastatingly Brutal Hand During Heads-up Play

Poker can be both cruel and beautiful. A recent hand, observed in prominent fashion, absolutely fit that description and it arrived in an instance that would help to decide a $5.1 million prize.

The 2019 PokerStars Players Championship was heads-up at the final table and Julien Martini was leading Ramon Colillas as far as chip count was concerned. In short order, the advantage flipped and, to put it plainly, it was devastating timing for Martini.

As you can see in the video above, Martini nailed the flop, combining his 9-6 of hearts in the hole with three suited cards to form a flush and take a massive lead. His opponent, Colillas, made only a pair of queens and, as a result, the broadcast indicated that the hand’s underdog had only a three percent chance of emerging victorious in what became a pivotal pot.

On cue, Colillas nailed the turn in the form of a third queen but, even then, he had only a 23 percent chance at victory, needing to acquire a fourth (!) queen or pair either the board or his second hole card to grab a full house. That was the first point of danger for Martini, who was in total command of the hand previously, as there was virtually no way his opponent was going to fold trips on a board that had “only” three hearts.

Then, the river arrived with a five of diamonds and Colillas picked up his runner-runner full house. Without any way of knowing this, Martini fired his entire stack into play, putting Colillas all-in at the time, and a quick call produced a 48.3 million chip takeaway for the player that was previously in big trouble in the heads-up battle.

It is absolutely worth noting (and remembering) that Martini still had a theoretical chance to recover but, eventually, he succumbed to Colillas. Martini did win $2,974,000 for his trouble but, despite that massive payout, he had a swing of more than $2 million and the biggest blow (by far) was a hand in which he once had a 97 percent advantage. That can’t feel great.