Setups in poker come in all forms and shapes, but none of them are as infamous as picking up a monster like pocket kings preflop, only to run it smack dab into the blades. Add the ladies in the mix and you get one of the biggest — and most dreaded — coolers in all of poker.
The three monster pairs were just dealt in the Main Event between Joshua McCully, Joakim Andersson, and Julien Martini. It was the latter who opened to 7,000 in early position. Behind him, Andersson made it 19.600 to go and action folded to McCully in the big blind.
McCully four-bet to 51,800, Martini five-bet shoved all in for 131,547, Andersson came over the top for 359,869, and McCully called all in for 308,609 to create a monster pot of over 800k in chips.
Julien Martini:
Joakim Andersson:
Joshua McCully:
McCully had both players covered and was looking at a possible 900k stack but the flop gave Martini top boat to take the lead. The on the turn changed nothing but Andersson drilled the on the river to improve to a bigger boat, sending Martini to the rail and crippling McCully in the process.