Poker Star Denies Premature Handshake, Then This Happens
Table Of Contents
A hand is never over until the final card is dealt or one player is drawing stone dead. Cary Katz learned that lesson, but in a good way, in a crazy hand during the first round of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which is now available on PokerGO.
The iconic 64-player heads-up tournament returned for the first time since Mike Matusow won it in 2013. Episode 1 featured some intense battles between high-profile poker stars and celebrities. There were some upsets, including heads-up legend Doug Polk falling to Xuan Liu and actor Kevin Pollak besting Liv Boeree.
World champions Chris Moneymaker and Michael Mizrachi, and near-world champion David Williams were among those who competed in the Diamonds bracket of the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament.
There were a handful of epic hands that made it into the first episode of Season 9, but none could top the runout in a hand played between Katz and Josh Arieh, at least not in terms of entertainment value (although Arieh would likely disagree).
The Kiss of Death
Players began each first round match with 250,000 chips. Arieh had built a slight lead with the blinds up to 5,000/10,000 when the high-stakes foes each picked up premium heads-up NLH hands.
Katz, on the button with J♦J♥, raised to 21,000. Arieh, holding A♣Q♣, put his opponent all in for 231,000 and a snap-call was made. The flop came out 4♣8♣A♠, leaving the PokerGO founder drawing to just one out.
Realizing the likeliehood of his fate being elimination, Katz reached across the table to shake Arieh's hand in congratulation. But Arieh, who has seen plenty of one-outers hit in his 30-year poker career, kept his hands in his pocket, denying the handshake.
The 8♥ on the turn gave Katz one extra out, but he remained a heavy underdog, until the J♣ hit on the river, which gave Arieh a flush, but it gave Katz a winning full house. Arieh was left with less than four big blinds and would be eliminated moments later in the single-elimination tournament.
There are four 16-player brackets to cover the first round, each with separate episodes on PokerGO. The entire National Heads-Up Poker Championship is available to watch on-demand.
Diamonds Bracket Results
| Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
| Xuan Liu | Doug Polk |
| Cary Katz | Josh Arieh |
| Kevin Pollak | Liv Boeree |
| David Williams | Victoria Livschitz |
| Randy "3Coin" Savage | Michael Mizrachi |
| Shaun Deeb | Alan Keating |
| Igor Kurganov | Chris Moneymaker |
| Charlie Hook | Dan "Jungleman" Cates |
