Alan Keating Snubbed from High Stakes Poker Livestream?
Alan Keating is a fan favorite on any poker livestream, but he wasn't included in the lineup for Friday night's High Stakes Poker game on PokerGO.
The game involving comedian Kevin Hart, Andrew Robl, and Sam "Senor Tilt" Kiki kicked off at 8:00 p.m. PT, hours after Keating threw what appeared to be some shade at Kiki's low VPIP during the Thursday night game.
It was the first tweet Keating had sent out in two months, and it appeared to take a dig at Kiki, whom he beefed with a few months back during a Hustler Casino Live stream. Senor Tilt, in a response video, defended his tight play, claiming he isn't a pro and doesn't have much time to study. He also spread a rumor about Keating's absence.
"I want to learn, I want to make mistakes and grow from them, and I'm actually very proud of how my ring game's developed," Kiki said after mentioning the tough players he's faced. "Mr. Keating, on the other hand, was notably absent in the first two days (of High Stakes Poker). Why, you might ask? Rumor is, and I can't confirm this, but he thought that the lineup was a little too tough."
High Stakes Poker Commentators Address the Rumors
Keating was surprisingly absent from the $500/$1,000 no-limit hold'em game on Friday, although he did play Thursday night. He didn't say much in response to Kiki's video, but he did appear to dispute the notion that he hasn't been interested in playing much this week due to the tough competition.
"Poker politics - no seat for me today. GL all," Keating tweeted.
PokerGO commentators Brent Hanks and Nick Schulman addressed the Keating absence and theories that PokerGO may have been involved in blocking Keating from the game.
"I think we can unequivocally see Keating in the game. He's tremendous action. He's extremely watchable. It's just not really up to us, you know. We don't really have leverage like that. We can't go out there and gamble for these guys. PokerGO simply televises it, and pays Brent and I to, you know, hangout with you guys," Schulman explained during the stream.
Hanks opined that "Keating had to say something because Kiki's talking s**t all day." He then said there's no way Keating is trying to dodge Kiki and echoed Schulman's comments on how the lineups are created. It remains unclear why Keating didn't make the cut Friday, but Hanks did note that Keating and Hart don't have much of a relationship.
Kiki also engaged in a nasty feud on X with sports talk personality and avid poker player Nick Wright, who piled on Senor Tilt's low VPIP and then got personal, attacking his character and low YouTube viewership. That sparked a heated response from Kiki, who called Wright a "little deeb. Short, ugly af, mediocre intelligence at best and zero aura."
The High Stakes Poker livestream is available on PokerGO's YouTube channel. Kiki, at the time of publishing, was down nearly $275,000 about two hours into the game. Hart, the headliner, still hadn't arrived.
