Is Alan Keating a Better Poker Player Than You Think?
Alan Keating has become one of the most popular poker players on any livestream. But many fans view him as an inferior poker player than his true skillset, according to a YouTubing poker coach.
The Michigan native who became must-watch TV when he first appeared on Hustler Casino Live in April 2022, coincidentally on the 11th anniversary of Black Friday, is considered to be a "whale" by some. He's seen to several poker pros and livestream viewers as someone with a whole lot of money to just splash around.
Marc Goone, an HCL commentator and owner of Hungry Horse Poker, a poker coaching site, has a different opinion of Keating's game. He went so far as to analyze 100 hours of the high roller's play, and he came away impressed.
Analyzing Keating's Poker Game
Keating's initial Hustler Casino Live appearance, in a $200/$400 game, was a disaster, from a financial standpoint. He lost nearly $140,000, but he was beginning to make a name for himself within the mainstream poker world, although he'd appeared about a dozen times on Poker After Dark from 2019 to 2021.
The livestream results for the popular high roller have been mixed. According to the HighRollPoker.com database, Keating has profited $358,425 across 207.50 hours of play. That doesn't include the $335,000 he won in a recent Cash of the Titans game on PokerGO.
So, he's up a little over $690,000 lifetime playing in televised poker cash games. That might seem like a ton of money, but it's less than one buy-in in many of the games he plays. Still, he's been profitable, and Goone showered Keating with praise in a YouTube video.
"Most players think (Alan Keating) is a whale, and that's exactly what he wants you to think," Goone said.
Goone then explained that he "watched over 100 hours of his hands, looking for punts." But what he found instead "may shock you."
"This might be the most misunderstood high-stakes player in the world. Because, underneath the chaos, the wild plays he makes, they are built on ruthless logic," Goone claims.
Goone, in his video, showed numerous hands involving Keating to explain what he liked from the plays. The first hand, from Hustler Casino Live, saw a board of Q♣6♥6♣K♠7♦, and Keating three-bet preflop with 9♣2♦ and then continued aggression on the flop and turn against J.R., previously a regular in the biggest games on HCL.
With $154,000 in the pot, Keating went for a bet of just $32,000 with nine-high, seemingly too little to get folds from many hands J.R. could have. But Goone explained why he liked the bet.
"Because Keating chose a small size on the turn, J.R. is going to get to the river with hands like pocket 9's, pocket 10's, queen-x, ace-high flush draws, jack-high flush draws. All these hands are just going to fold if Keating breathes on the pot. So, he doesn't actually have to go huge here to have a very profitable bluff spot," Goone said.
J.R. had A♣10♣ for a missed flush draw and raised the river to $100,000, which forced Keating to fold. But the poker coach, who said he doesn't want to be results-oriented, called the bet-sizing a "slam dunk 10 out of 10."
"I think you can use this and bring this into your own game when players get to the river with a very, very strong range, and you get there with eight-high, nine-high, 10-high, you can just use a small bluff size instead of giving up to target the weak portions of their range, and it's going to be much more profitable than just giving up," Goone said.
In another hand, with the board showing 8♠4♦2♥9♥ and $9,800 in the pot, Keating bet nearly double the size of the pot with 8♥2♣ for two pair against Matthew Honig ("Hanks"). Goone liked the oversized bet because Hanks would be unlikely to fold with an 8 or 9, and if he just had a hand like king-high, he likely would fold to any bet.
Goone, among the dozen or so hands he analyzed, showed one where Keating made a brilliant river call against his rival, Peter. The board showed A♣K♠7♠6♥4♥, and all Keating had was 9♦7♦, which wasn't much considering the bloated pot had reached $440,800. Peter bet $235,000 on the river.
Most players would likely fold in that spot, but Keating knew his opponent and correctly called against 6♠3♠ to take down the $911,000 pot.
Keating has always been known to play with a high VPIP. He doesn't like to fold, and he has lost a plethora of monster pots in livestreamed games with marginal hands. But is he the "high-level" player Goone claims? That's a question for the poker community to debate.
