Rick Salomon Gets Carried Away with Ace-Rag in $1 Million Pot on High Stakes Poker

Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

Apr 14, 2025 4 min read

Salomon Doesn't Like to Fold
Will Keating Call Off with Ace-High?
A New Rivalry is Born
Past High Stakes Poker Season 14 Episode Recaps

Rick Salomon went to war with ace-rag against his new rival for a $1 million pot during Monday's High Stakes Poker episode, the 12th of Season 14.

The always loose high-stakes poker player brought the action in the $500/$1,000 no-limit hold'em cash game on PokerGO. Last week's roster returned to the felt with a fresh set of clothes and stacks, minus Vinny Lingham, who was replaced by Sam Kiki. Salomon, Alan Keating, Peter Wang, Justin Gavri, and Nikhil "Nik Airball" Arcot were the returning players. Chip stacks at the start of play are listed below.

Player	Chip Stack
Alan Keating	$498,000
Rick Salomon	$396,000
Peter Wang	$288,000
Justin Gavri	$261,000
Nik Airball	$250,000
Sam Kiki	$175,000

Salomon Doesn't Like to Fold

The show started in an unsurprising fashion with Salomon playing any two cards aggressively. He raised the flop on the first hand with an open-ended straight draw, forcing Airball off a small pair.

Salomon straddled the second hand for $4,000 with J♥9♦. Peter, on the button with K♣6♠, raised it up to $12,000, receiving a call only from the straddler. The flop came out 4♣7♠6♥, and the original raiser continued with a $12,000 wager. His opponent, who flopped no pair and no draw and was out of position, decided to call anyway.

"AJ, this is outside the box from Rick, what are we doing?" High Stakes Poker commentator Nick Schulman asked his broadcast partner, AJ Benza.

The turn was the 3♦, which brought four-to-a-straight on the board. Both players checked, and the Q♥ appeared on the river, improving neither hand. Salomon, with jack-high, bet out $35,000, enough to make the difficult-to-bluff player fold the best hand.

Will Keating Call Off with Ace-High?

Keating, who won the largest pot in High Stakes Poker history for $1.4 million two weeks ago, played a few interesting pots during Episode 12, as per usual.

In one such hand, Gavri raised preflop to $5,000 with A♥J♦. Kiki, holding K♥Q♠ on the button, three-bet to $15,000. Keating called from the big blind with A♦4♦, while Gavri, who has been running hot in recent weeks, folded.

The flop came out 5♦K♠2♠, top pair for the button. Action checked to Kiki, who bet $15,000. Keating, on a straight draw, bumped it up to $40,000. Kiki wasn't going anywhere with top pair, so he called before the 7♣ appeared on the turn.

Keating decided to barrel again, this time for $80,000, not enough to entice his opponent to fold. The 5♣ landed on the river, leaving Keating stuck on ace-high. He checked, and then faced an all in bet of $309,000.

"I'm supposed to call. I think I'm supposed to call," Keating mumbled as he pondered making the call, putting his opponent on a missed flush draw. He would, however, inevitably correctly fold. But he'd get some of those chips back later with pocket aces in a $223,000 pot that went his way.

A New Rivalry is Born

Keating and others played some interesting pots. But Episode 12 was really all about a rivalry brewing between Salomon and Kiki. The two gamblers battled in several monster pots, starting with a juicy hand that picked up on a 2♠J♣A♠ flop.

The pot had already hit $28,000 preflop. Salomon, holding K♠8♠, checked his flush draw. Kiki bet $12,000 with A♣Q♦ only for his opponent to check-raise to $37,000. He called, and then the J♦ hit on the turn. Salomon decided to lead for $80,000, which didn't force a fold. Kiki moved all in for $178,000, and he received a call. Both players agreed to run the river twice, both times blanks, which meant Kiki took down the $458,000 pot.

Salomon returned the favor moments later when he bluffed a six-high missed flush draw to force Kiki, founder of the Monkey Tilt online sportsbook, to fold a king-high missed flush draw. But the pot of the night occurred right at the end of Episode 12.

Keating raised to $4,000 with Q♦5♠, followed by a three-bet to $20,000 from Salomon's A♣3♣. Peter just called from the big blind with Q♥Q♣, while Kiki made it $140,000 to go with A♦K♣. Salomon then jammed all in, which convinced Peter to fold. Kiki, however, called it off for his $492,000 stack.

The players agreed to run the board twice for a $1,008,500 pot, with the first bringing a potential bad beat after the board showed 8♠4♠A♥3♠, giving Salomon two pair heading to the river. But the final card — 4♦ — ensured Kiki would get at least half the pot. He'd scoop it all after the second board came J♥9♦6♦K♠9♠.

Kiki, making his debut appearance on High Stakes Poker, took down the second largest pot in the show's 14-season history. The two largest pots in HSP history, and the only two to crack $1 million, have occurred during the current season.