Tom Wood
One of professional poker’s most notorious players lost $759,000 at the table during a single session at a recent game. Here's how it all shook down in the end.
If you know about professional poker – which is admittedly a long shot – then you might already be aware of Nik ‘Airball’ Arcot.
Airball styles himself as the ‘King of LA’ and frequently goads and trash-talks his opponents, calling them out – sometimes even just by ‘b**ch’ - and threatening to bankrupt them.
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Until recently, Airball had made around $1.1 million in profits from his appearances at some of the biggest cash games in the USA, playing on the hugely popular Hustler Casino Live stream.
However, like all classic villain arcs, he eventually got his comeuppance, losing $759,200 in a single high-stakes sitting in Southern California.
The bulk of Airball’s losses came from only two hands, and on both occasions he was trying to bluff.
Oh dear, oh dear.
In poker, getting into a weird mindset where you make large and costly errors is known as being ‘tilted’ or being ‘on tilt’.
It can be down to frustration, or simple lack of clear thinking, but it’s usually damaging to a player.
In one hand, after Airball was already down most of his stack, he continued betting upwards of $6,000 despite the fact that he had nothing really.
Then, after getting called, he continued to bluff by betting another $30,000.
Still, his opponent called, with the total pot at $85,200.
Airball then made the rash decision to keep going, betting $160,000 – nearly two times that pot – to test his opponent across the table.
Airball said: “I've bluffed all night. I have to have it one time.”
That made up his opponent’s mind, and he called, taking the whole $405,200 pot in the end.
Then, he tried to bluff another opponent, betting $10,000 before the flop – before the first community cards are dealt – before ramping things up again, betting $30,000, then $110,000, before losing the whole $312,000 pot.
Either way, whatever you think of Airball, he eventually managed to see the funny side of things, getting philosophical on Twitter, writing: “Sometimes you're the artist, sometimes you're the punter.”
When all was said and done, he’d lost a whopping $759,200 in just a single session.
And fans were quick to console him, too.
One said: “You're the man Nik - last night was a fluke. Everybody has a bad night.”
Another wrote: “Cheer up bro. You will get it back. You deserve to get it back anyway.”
A third commented: “My man I love your style. Embrace being the enemy! It’s clear you’re having fun. We all love you brother.”