The bad run kicked off from the very first hand that Nik Airball played — jack-four offsuit, known in Hustler Casino Live circles as “The Robbie”
With the stakes at $100/$200 and holding J♣ 4♦ in the small blind racing a raise of $1,000, Airball raises it up to $5,000.
He ends up seeing a three-way flop of 2♠ 2♥ Q♠ against Turbo and VC Sam who calls the c-bet with K♠ 5♣.
Incredibly, VC Sam calls again on the 10♠ turn with only king-high and a one-card flush draw.
The river was the K♦ and Airball fired out a bet of $36,300 to make a pot of $92,100. VC Sam was undeterred against the large bet and confidently made the right call to leave Airball down more than $60K after just one hand.
Not long after, Airball finds himself able to get Peter all-in for $87,800 when he has A♦ K♣ only for the Chinese player to flip over K♠ K♥ and deal Airball another blow.
After a few hours of relatively unremarkable play, the action heated up somewhat and Nik Airball was about to suffer one of the worst days in poker that he’ll likely ever have.
Peter is in the straddle with 3♥ 3♦ and turbo comes along with A♣ 5♥ in the HJ followed by Jellyfish on the button with Q♥ Q♦.
Nik Airball looks down at A♦ K♣ in the small blind and is ready to take no prisoners with $865,900. So he bumps it up to $7,000 and Peter quickly calls.
Turbo now goes for a four-bet of $45,000 with $440,300 of his own left behind.
Seizing the moment, Jellyfish sees no other path than to get his last $213,100 into the middle with his queens.
Now the action is back on Airball in what is not the easiest spot to play when over 200 big blinds deep with one of the players who has shown strength.
After a short think, Airball declares himself all-in, though his face betrays his real emotions here. This is far from a fist pump maneuver.
Turbo folds and Airball and Jellyfish watch the dealer roll out the board of 8♥ 8♣ 9♦ 9♣ J♦ to leave Airball down another $266,400 in brutal fashion.
Only minutes later and it’s now starting to look like Airball is approaching monkey tilt, unable to lay down any reasonable hand.
Up against Big Mike who bets flop and turn and jams the river on a A♦ 7♦ A♣ 6♠ 7♣ board, he sees K♦ J♠ as a perfect bluffcatcher. Unfortunately, though, when Mike flips over A♥ Q♦ is just more bad news.
That was a pot of $337,600 and the second of that size lost by Airball in back-to-back hands to leave him down by more than half a million dollars.
Could it get any worse? Of course it could.
After hitting on the river with K♥ Q♥ on a board of 5♠ 7♦ 9♦ 10♦ Q♣, Airball paid off Turbo who rivered a straight and raised by $100K more.
There was one glimpse of a turnaround a few hands later. Defending his big blind with 8♣ 7♥, Airball flops the nut straight draw on 2♠ 6♣ 9♦ and it checks around.
The turn is the 10♠ and Airball checks, leaving Big Mike to do the betting for him in a four-way pot. Mike duly leads out for $5,000 with 6♠ 5♠ and it folds around to Airball who raises to $25,000.
Mike made the call and we see a 3♠ river, delivering more bad news for Airball — just how can he lose here?
The pot was $55,200 and Airball puts Mike in for his last $145,400, almost three times the pot! Mike makes the call and Airball cannot believe what he sees.
At one point during the session Nik Airball was down $900K and ended his day down $755,800 on his return to Hustler Casino.
