There are some situations in poker where reasonable people can disagree, and where the finer points of the rules of poker can be up for debate. This latest shenanigan from the attention-grabbing, often volatile player Sam Kiki AKA Senor Tilt, isn’t one of them.
In Episode 3 of High Stakes Poker Season 15, Sam “Senor Tilt” Kiki pulled a move that would get laughed out of any normal poker room in the world. If I’d pulled this move at my local $1/2 game, there’d be no defence, and rightly so.
Yet because it happened under bright lights, in a televised cash game, and involved a recognizable high-stakes regular, we’re suddenly expected to treat it as some kind of ethical gray area.
It isn’t.
The Senor Tilt Angle Shoot That Would Never Fly at $1/2
Let’s strip this down to its essentials.
On the river, facing a likely losing situation, Senor Tilt grabbed a stack of chips, motioned forward and crossed the betting line. He was committed bet. Only after seeing his opponent’s visible reaction did he pull the chips back. The question should be: if his opponent had not reacted, would Kiki have continued with his $100K bet? The only answer is: yes!
At your local casino playing $1/$2, this isn’t a debate. The floor would get called, surveillance checked, and that bet is ruled binding. End of story.
No amount of smiling, laughing, or ribbing changes that. Poker rules don’t magically loosen because the blinds are bigger or the cameras are rolling.
This Wasn’t a “Joke Bet”: It Was 100% Information Fishing
Defenders will rush to label this as a “joke bet,” echoing past televised nonsense where players pretend obvious betting motions don’t count if they later claim they were kidding. But let’s be honest: the intent is irrelevant once you introduce action-changing information.
The moment Senor Tilt moved chips forward and saw Feinstein react, the damage was already done. Whether he intended to bet or not, he gained real-time feedback he would not otherwise have had access to.
What makes this especially frustrating is how quickly standards slip the moment the game becomes exclusive. If the rules only apply when it’s uncomfortable to break them, then they aren’t rules at all. There still exists such as thing as poker etiquette.
Sam Kiki’s Double Standards
And here’s where this crosses from annoying into absurd…
This is the same Senor Tilt who recently had a very public blow-up on Hustler Casino Live, loudly objecting to Alan Keating over a barely perceptible infringement of the Stand-Up Game rules. Technicalities mattered then, just not when it’s in Kiki’s favour. Enforcement mattered.
Fast-forward to High Stakes Poker, and suddenly we’re told to relax, that intent matters more than action, and that obvious betting motions can be waved away if the vibes are good. You can’t have it both ways.
You don’t get to demand strict adherence to the rules when it benefits you, then pivot to moral relativism when you’re the one clearly in the wrong.
