WPH #568: NO WAY Did Andy Stacks Just Do THIS?!?

Heads up poker is seen by many as the purest form of poker, just two poker players battling it out where there can be only one winner and one loser. During the heads up part of GGPoker’s Game of Gold, Andy Stacks and Josh Arieh battled it out, each vying to crush the other. No way did Andy Stacks just do this after he finds himself with top pair on the river facing a bet from Arieh! Will Tsai make the correct call or do something that shocks his teammates railing backstage?

When you are considering betting with a poker hand like middle pair on the flop, it is generally better to bet when your hand is vulnerable to being outdrawn. If you flop a pair of eights on an ace high flop, many overcards on the turn could improve your opponent’s hand. However, the higher your second pair, the less inclined you should be to bet for protection, as fewer turn cards are likely to improve your opponent.

Andy Tsai or “Andy Stacks” as he is more commonly known in the poker world is a popular professional poker player originally from Taiwan who currently resides in Los Angeles, United States. Over the last decade, Andy Stacks has established himself as one of the most recognizable poker faces on live poker streams playing regularly on ‘Hustler Casino Live’ and ‘Live At The Bike’. Andy is known for being an ambassador for GGPoker. He has a very calm and quiet demeanor at the poker table and was given his nickname “Andy Stacks” as he always has huge stacks of chips when playing in live cash games.

Josh Arieh is a professional poker player from America. He has won over $12,500,000 in live poker tournaments, putting him in the top 150 on the all-time money list. He has 6 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and finished 3rd in the 2004 WSOP Main Event, the year that Greg Raymer ‘Fossilman’ won.

Filmed in Seoul, South Korea and hosted by experienced poker broadcaster Ali Nejad, Game of Gold combines high stakes poker with survival reality TV. Over the course of the 12 episodes, the sixteen participants competed across various poker formats, including Sit & Go’s, Heads-Up games, Indian Poker and a standard tournament poker game.

The poker players on the show included Daniel Negreanu “KidPoker”, Jason Koon, Fedor Holz “CrownUpGuy”, Kevin Martin, Kyna England, Josh Arieh, Daniel Cates “Jungleman”, Lukas Robinson “RobinPoker”, Nikita Luther, Charlie Carrel “Epiphany77”, Johan Guilbert “YoH ViraL”, Olga Iermolcheva, David Williams, Andy Tsai “Andy Stacks”, Michael Soyza, and Maria Ho.

Round 2 was the heads-up team battle part of the show – there were 4 teams with three players on each team. After one match, the losing team would put up their next poker player. After one team had lost 3 matches, they would be eliminated to the losers bracket with the winning team advancing to the winners bracket. The 3 players on the losing team from the losers bracket would be eliminated from the show.

The final six players competed in a winner-take-all format Sit & Go (SNG). This was unique as it meant there was no Independent Chip Model (ICM) pressure on any of the poker players.

Game of Gold Results 1st: Maria Ho – U.S.A – $456,000 2nd: Daniel Cates ‘Jungleman’ – U.S.A – $0 3rd: Johan Guilbert ‘Yoh Viral’ – France – $0 4th: Fedor Holz ‘CrownUpGuy’ – Germany – $0 5th: Kyna England – U.S.A – $0 6th. Josh Arieh – U.S.A – $0

Preflop: Josh Arieh raises to 160,000 with Q8o from the button, which is also the small blind during heads up poker. Andy Stacks calls with A3 of clubs as they head to the flop.

Flop – Ad 8d 4d: An ace high monotone hits and Stacks flops best with his suited wheel ace, making top pair with a backdoor straight draw. He checks, and Arieh checks back, opting not to continuation bet with his pair of eights which is currently middle pair.

Turn – 2c: Stacks picks up a wheel draw on the 2 of clubs turn. He checks with his pair of aces again and Arieh fires out a delayed continuation bet of 120,000 with his second pair.

River – 6s: The 6 of s