$6000 pot in 2/5 NL
The Palms casino near my hotel has a 2/5 NL game with a buy in cap of $1000. A couple nights ago, I happened to be at a table that saw the biggest 2/5 pot I have ever seen. Joe Awada was at the table with ‘Jack’, another bracelet winner from last year and the preflop action was very heavy. Preflop bets of $100-$200 routinely received 3-4 callers because of the crazy action induced mostly by ‘Jack’ who was also the owner of a casino and his daughter.
Jack opened the betting for $25 on this hand in particular. He was called by the ‘loose cannon’ of the table and his daughter. On the button was a tight aggressive player who raised to $150. All three players called his $150 of course. The flop was K83 with 2 hearts. Jack checked and the loose cannon bet $150. Jack’s daughter pushed all of her $500 worth of chips into the pot at this point. The button called, Jack folded and the loose cannon called. The pot now has over $2100 and both remaining players have about 2k remaining in front of them. Their stacks were the result of earlier battles with Jack and Joe.
The turn brought a non heart 6. Loose cannon checked and the button bet $500. The loose cannon thought about 2 seconds and shoved. Now the button showed a pained expression on his face over the difficult decision he has to make. He has seen the loose cannon win at least one huge pot with 36 offsuit when it hit two pair against an overpair when huge, ($150) preflop action occurred in a hand. The button went into the tank for about 2 minutes at which point he turned over 2 aces. No ace of hearts and he tried to get a read on the loose cannon. No read seemed possible from what I saw. Another 3 minutes or so passed and button finally said, ‘I call’. A non heart 7 hit the river and neither the loose cannon or Jack’s daughter immediately flip their cards. The aces held! After some prodding the loose cannon flips 9T hearts and Jack’s daughter shows Q4 hearts. The button scoops a huge 2/5 pot which may well have been the biggest of his life! He treated it as such since he left the table within one orbit of stacking it.