We at POTD are trying to find the biggest punt of the World Series of Poker Main Event. This post will be a running thread of all the contenders. The comments will be open to all, so if you have a submission, please post it here or reply to this post. If you suggest a hand, please link me to a live update or a video clip or legibly write out the HH. I don’t want to see a million messages that read “Mike Matusow’s bust out hand”. I will also briefly share my thoughts and give a grade, I normally grade on an A-F scale, but that is when I am grading my own play. Here I am grading the size of a punt and will be grading on a 0-100 scale. 0 is a perfectly played hand, 25 is a well played hand, anything over 50 is something with a clear mistake. Grades are a living breathing organism and may change throughout the tournament based on future play, changing my mind and persausion of readers like you. There is no tried and true formula for what makes an 100, but some criteria that will be considered
Stakes matter: Almost every hand played on stream on Day 1A is a hand that if I played myself, I’d give it a D or worse, but a true 100 needs to be for high stakes deep in the tournament. The gold standard for this type of hand is Joe Cheong's bustout hand in 2010
Quality of player matters: I am going to be grading pros who “should know better” a lot harsher than Joe or Jo Pokers on the run of their lifetime. Kristen Foxen's 2024 bustout hand is getting a higher score than Darvin Moon's three bet calling QJs heads up in 20091
Hands where a player is eliminated will be graded harsher than ones where they lose a large chunk of their stack
However, hands where the punter manages to win the hand in spectacular fashion might get an upgrade such as Nicholas Rigby's dirty diaper bluff in 2021
A hand where several players punt will get a bonus
Some hands have a particular Main Event Magic. An ineffable “I know it when I see it” quality. Mark Newhouse busting 9th again on a bluff(?) after declaring he wouldn't do it again. That’s Main Event magic.
Last updated July 11th 2025 1:15 PM. Hands Through Day 5 of the Main Event
Contenders
Day 5
Yesterday I was disappointed that all the big punts were really tight folds. Today, we don’t have that problem, we have some good old fashion torches. There are so many to write about that I need to keep this preamble short.
No grade, because I don’t know the action, but that is a lot of money to get in with a bare gutshot on a double FD board. A reasonable candidate to two barrel and bluff shove the river, but shoving is a punt
Another punt on a double FD board
I’d guess the action here is LRC BvB, x/c flop, x/rai ott. There is no reason to checkraise the turn with J8, you are ahead of his bluffs and dead vs his value. Let’s see what Michael Hawker does with his chiplead.
Brad Owen busts. Another hand on a double FD board
Hand starts at 3:17:42
I’m going to write about this one for the main blog, getting a lot of money in with a big draw like this can never be too bad, but this is not the way to do it. 70/100
Someone limpraises UTG is that strong?
I have to give credit to Bryan Chen. I’ve seen it all in my time in poker, but it’s really rare to see someone 4bet bluff shove into an UTG limp raise. I don’t think this is “just bad luck” that he ran into it, however if UTG is limpraising hands that KJo does okay versus, like AQs, shoving KJo is a 4 alarm torch instead of a 5 alarm torch. 84/100
This could be a massive punt that got lucky or a great exploit. Not close to POTWSOPME, but I wanted to share this excellent hand. I love that he windmills over a bluff and seems to sincerely apologize to his opponent for bluffing him. Great poker hand, not necessarily a punt 51/100
Greg Merson Fold #1 Fold #2 Fold #3
Hand 2 starts at 2:45, Hand 3 starts at 4:02
I’ve met Greg a handful of times and like him. Generally I like spreading the wealth around and if someone is going to win $10,000,000, I’d like to root for someone I like and someone who hasn’t already won $10,000,000 (8.5M technically). So I was agnostic on whether or not I should root for him. Then I saw him fold three three pure calls where he was bluffed every time and he’s been downgraded from “slightly rooting for” to “slightly rooting against”. Some good play from Day 6 onwards could get me to change my mind.
Hand 1 looks appears to be WP by both, but AJ mixes on the river vs a larger bet and I think snap folding without thinking about it and seeing a chop is pretty brutal
Hand 2 you are getting such a good price that you have enough equity to call vs hands he could be value raising here. The board is connected enough that certain rivers will kill action and not that much money will go into the pot and the guy was actually bluffing you with a reasonably ambitious bluff.
Hand 3 is also quite close. It makes almost nothing to continue and a lot of Qx/Jx fold. However combined if you get bluffed three times on streams with hands that pure continues. You get some sort of Nit Trophy for the day 70/100
However the nit trophy of the day goes to Roy Monahan. He open folded 88, he open folded AJo, he folded A6 suited in the BB facing a minraise. He has the two other folds pictured above. He hasn’t cashed a live tournament since 2017, so I don’t want to beat him up too much, but when you make five preflop folds that make me double take, including one that cost you a triple up. You get an entry in POTD 80/100
Azolay Folds Top Pair
Hand starts at 33:15
Sverko has shown some aggression and you’re facing a third pot raise. You have top pair with backdoor straight and flush draws. You cannot fold. Folding here loses around 10bbs vs the solver and you cover Sverko by 2M chips. This fold began a downward spiral from Azoulay and he did not make day 6. What could have been? 85/100
If Jung wanted to bluff he could have at least picked a larger size that would have put pressure on value bets. He has enough chips behind where he could have made life really tough for Hobold’s overpairs. Instead he makes a bluff that might only get other bluffs to fold. He probably just should have folded the flop and he definitely should have folded the river. I think this is a really bad bluff, but I’ve seen a lot of people make some really big folds so I’ll give it a slightly more favourable grade 88/100
Fabrice Bigot can make some big calldowns and might frequently lead the river if he backdoors a flush. You cover him by a lot. Checking the river here is a ~3bb mistake and while there are circumstances in the main event where I could be convinced checking is best. Not versus this opponent with these stack configurations.
I think factoring in stakes, we have the biggest punt of the tournament thus far. The first hand is a brutal cooler and there’s nothing 99 could do. Schulze could have worse for value or be bluffing. The second hand begins with a very loose preflop call, that’s not even a good type of hand to expand your range with. I’d call 32s before I call K6o here. Once you get raised on the turn Schulze is representing a bluff or a hand that has you drawing dead. Many of his bluffs wil havel equity versus you, but denying them equity is not worth so much you’d want to shove 200% pot. There is no reason to shove any hand on the turn, but certainly not a bare 6. I tried to see how much EV shoving a 6 lost, but the number the solver spat out is meaningless, because the solver never shoves and the CO response in this fake node involves regularly folding flushes, but occasionally calling sets. Getting boat over boated happens, but it does not need to be a tournament defining moment for you. If you’re on such tilt that the very next hand you make a horrible preflop call and then get in 80bbs drawing dead. That is a punt for the ages 97/100
Kottler goes wild with K2o
YouTube
In a shocking turn of events, I am going to defend this hand. The preflop play is terrible. Calling the flop checkraise, also terrible. The rest of the hand, totally fine. He almost got 55 to fold and his common bluffs for chips are hands like Kd6d. There’s a weird mechanic on the river in the hand where Chen is frequently supposed to lead all in because he has a lot more Jx than Kottler, but even if you force Chen to check Kottler still bluffs hands with the Kd regularly. We’ve seen tons of punty preflop play and calling the flop check raise is not the move, but the turn and river bluffs are good poker players and he almost got a fullhouse to fold. 73/100
Chen raises, Padron three bets, Chen four bets non-AI, Padron calls and check folds the flop. Please just 5bet shove or fold preflop. Playing AKo OOP with 1.5x pot to play is very hard to do. I think there are players in the main event you could hero fold preflop to, but calling is clearly the worst option here. However I expect to see a hand like this on day 5 of the main event every year. 60/100
To me, this is a much worse hand than Kottler with K2o. Two very bad preflop calls followed by a bad flop call, and then you get hero called on the river. At least Kottler made Chen tank with a fullhouse. 92/100
Hyul goes nuts with AdTd
Hand starts at 4:49
Tahiou(3.1m) UTG+1 raises KsTs to 65k, Hyul(1.9m) AdTd calls from the SB, Michael Mizrachi(3.6m) BB 6c3h calls
FLOP (225k): 8sKh5s: Hyul checks, Mizrachi checks, Tahiou bets 65k, Hyul makes it 180k, Mizrachi folds, Tahiou calls.
TURN (585k) 9s: Hyul bets 265k, Tahiou calls
RIVER (1.15m) Kc: Hyul bets, 450k Tahiou calls
To compare this to the K2o bluff. K2o is a much worse preflop hand, but at least turn and river bluffs are both credible and he has good cards to be bluffing with. In a three way pot you need a spade or a boat blocker or to at least bet a larger size on the river that might generate a fold. The only hands he is really targeting here are hands like AsQx or hands like TT-QQ with a spade. I’ve seen people make crazy folds in the main event, but Tahiou does not seem like that guy. 90/100
Day 4
I thought the types of punts we’d see on day 4 would lean more towards lighting stacks on fire, but it turns out we’d see a series of baffling folds that were bad in theory and every one included here was also the best hand (technically AKo folded preflop when 55 was in there, but you know what I mean) when they folded.
Let’s start with a punt that was sent to me by a couple Twitter users
Despite the PokerNews headline, this hand easily could be made up. T8 offsuit is a bad hand to three bet and the way he got all in postflop is not the way to do it, but once you flop second pair in a three bet pot and have 3x pot to play, getting all in is not that unreasonable … if your opponent is capable raise folding the flop around 30% of the time like the solver HJ does.
The solver doesn’t have Ts8h here, but it does have Ts8s and once they blocked the flop and got raised it would pure call the flop raise, check call or check shove the turn with a gutshot and check/call all-in on the river for quarter pot. Bad preflop play with T8o, but shoving the flop only loses 1bb and not nearly as bad as it appears. 66/100
Folding AK preflop to Stephen Chidiwck
2HR 41M of Part 1 of PokerGo footage
This hand is from the 2HR 41 Minute mark of part 1 of the PokerGo Footage. Just go all in with AK you have 60bbs and there are 15 in the pot and I’ve heard Stevie can three bet squeeze with air sometimes. 75/100
17M mark of Part 2 of PokerGo footage
You could fold some Jx on the flop, but not Jx with a backdoor flush draw and not AJ. Boivin was bluffing with a hand that had three outs vs Ramsey and there’s no reason Boivin couldn’t be raising a worse J himself. This fold is very costly. 70/100
1H 23M of Part 2 of PokerGo footage
UTG9 raises the LJ flats and the HJ squeezes 99 off 33bbs, UTG9 fold, the LJ flats TT again and check folds to a shove on 632. If you wanted to hero fold TT preflop it would be very tight, but is a solid play versus the right opponents. Once you call and hit such a good flop. You gotta go with it. Parsi has to be kicking himself. 87/100
Mariwalla folds the Nut Flush Draw
2 HR 0 Min in PokerGO stream Part 2
Some big folds people make are because they don’t want to risk their tournament life. This is not one of them. He declares “I had the nut flush draw”, so we know he didn’t misread his hand. If he had to call the raise and was not allowed to put money in the pot unless he has the nuts. He should still call the raise. This is a good reminder that even a guy who folds TPTK, can still bluff and you cannot fold a nut flush draw to anyone facing a less than half pot raise.
Nine high like an annoying chatter box Preflop Flop
3HR 0M in part 2 of PokerGo footage
Captain Thomas Kelly is a former firefighter with $56 in lifetime cashes before the Main Event. Thank you for your service, Captain Kelly, but when you have 30bbs and the third best preflop hand in a hand where one player is opening 95o, please, just go all-in. When you get to the flop, please at least call one bet. Will Kassouf has 2.5M chips, I have no idea why he is raising 95o or calling a three bet. I suspect we will see a bigger punt from him than this later in the tournament. 91/100
Francis Anderson has the wrong reads on Eric Afriat
3H 15M in part 2 of PokerGo footage
Eric Afriat has been around for a while and has played on stream during this main event. If you’ve played with him for an orbit, you know you cannot fold AdJd to Eric Afriat here. Francis says “KT that’s it”, if you think that’s that case you still might need to call, but you certainly don’t know how Eric Afriat plays. 75/100
Day 3
As we approached the bubble we saw some cautious play and not too many spectacular punts, I suspect that will change in the coming days once players have locked up a $5k profit.
I can’t imagine calling a three bet here, flopping top pair and then folding the flop. Maybe you picked up a live read, but then you got shown K5s. It’s a really big mistake, but it’s a small pot. 75/100
There will be no number grade because we did not see the whole hand— I wish we could see the whole hand. I’d guess Hellmuth three bet, bet twice and gave up. It’s always good to go after one of the best players in the world with one of the worst hands in poker. I bet when Hellmuth is bemoaning the “one outer” that knocked him out of the tournament, he won’t mention torching 25% of his stack with 73 offsuit.
Leon Sturm gets bluffed by Michael Garner
Poker News Update
Leon was the recipient of a Phil Hellmuth punt, but he’s not immune to punting a little himself. I bet Leon knows that Garner is supposed to play big bet or check on the flop and Leon tried to exploit Garner potentially auto-cbetting a small size on the flop. Leon got a little greedy and opened the door to let Garner bluff him. 51/100
Folding here loses 2bbs vs the solver. Daniel started the hand with 16bbs. His opponent made a loose bluff shove. There are probably hundreds of worse preflop folds that were made in the WSOPME, but this one involves a famous player and was on stream. 65/100
Chance Kornuth's Main Event Run Ends
I’m mostly including this one because Stapes suggested I write about it and because Chance prides himself on being a live read specialist. 88 is a mixed call on the river at equilibrium, but not versus this customer. I had the benefit of seeing Luke Chung’s hole cards, and saw that he just limp folded 54s BvB. Chance had the benefit of playing with him for several hours and I think he could have solved the puzzle and concluded that Chung is not a bluffer. This hand is interesting enough that it might get the main blog treatment in coming days.
Day 2D
Folding Trips on Stream for less than pot on the river
BU vs SB if you have a 9 on A9792 and pot to play you cannot fold. Folding here is probably losing more than 10bbs and he got bluffed, by a bad combo to bluff with, which means Neilson is certainly over bluffing. 80/100
Folding a Set on Stream for a 30% pot raise on the river
Cabrinini raises UTG9 2k, Adeniya calls 9♠️9♥️ UTG7 2k, Hadad calls HJ A♦️8♣️.
Flop 9♦️5♦️2♦️ (8.5k): Check, Adeniya 2.5k, Hadad 6.5k, fold, call
Turn 7♥️ (21.5k): Adeniya checks, Hadad 12k, Adeniya calls
River K♣️ (45.5k): Adeniya leads 14.5k, Hadad 37k, Adeniya folds.
In theory monotone boards play really cagey when deep. In theory players don’t overcall A8o in the HJ facing an UTG9 raise and UTG7 flat. The river block from Martins Adeniya and snap folding to a raise when he needs 19% equity to call is crazy. If you’re so worried about getting raised, why block in the first place? Just check. Once you get raised why are you snap folding a set? You’re getting an amazing price. Given that Hadad would probably not have overbet the river, Adeniya found the one line that let him get bluffed off this hand. If this were played by a recreational player it wouldn’t be on my radar, but from a pro who is Daniel Negreanu's Player to Watch. It’s a punt 85/100
Folding KK facing a three way all-in
Tristan Wade is still mad that he had to watch this KK fold. KK should have three bet pre and folding the flop to this action is rough. I’ll also add that while TT played this hand fine O’Brien has already seen (YouTube) Graham played a hand oddly with a medium strength pair. So even if it were the type of hand where you could hero fold an overpair, Graham is not the right customer. 93/100
Rob Kuhn makes ACR ask. Should we rehire Nacho?
Per the Pokernews update
"This might be the worst played hand ever," he said to himself while thinking.
Rob said it not me. That’s a lot of BBs to get all in with not a very good hand. Raising the flop is fine, but not necessary, raising the turn is a torch. I guess you beat bluffs on the river, but it’s a spot where it’s very hard to be bluffing as the PFR. 91/100
I don’t know the action, here, but either A7 made a bizarre turn check or QJ check-called the turn and led the river ensuring he got stacked for some reason. No grade because I do not know the action, but I am including it in case Maurice sold 200% of himself for the Main Event.
Bet Folding Top Pair vs Nut Low
When someone is raising 43o and declaring they want to bust the tourmanet. You should not take a line that makes it more likely you fold top pair.
Hero Call and Crazy Value Shove
I do not understand this hand. I know Sean is playing very wide preflop, but this is not heads up no limit. Sean is value shoving a hand that is supposed to have 31% range vs range. I know Sean has a wildly different preflop range, which includes a not more unpaired lowcards, however when the baseline is. Sean value shoves a hand that has 31% range vs range equity for value and Shabelnyk calls with worse. It’s hard for this not to be a punt from both sides. I’d bet Shabelnyk thinks the Ah blocker is good because it can be in Sean’s value, but shouldn’t be in his bluffs. Do you really think Sean is just going to wave the white flag with a missed NFD here? A river played baffingly on both sides 79/100
A very thin river bet from A7, gets looked up by K7. At least wait for KQ Jon. 68/100
Day 2ABC
Folding the second nuts to one bet
Mr. Elliot did not realize he had a straight and folded it to a small bet. As bad a mistake as you can make, but since it was a careless error of misreading your hand and not a full on punt. It’s not really in contention for the biggest punt of the series, but it’s certaintly one of the most avoidable ones. 90/100
The type of citizen journalism we want at POTD
I want as many details about this hand or hands like it as possible
Day 1D
Chopped Pots Can Still be Punts
I love this hand so much. A 2 minute hand likely involving two -50bb mistakes where they both had the same hand. Had a Feder backdoored a flush this would be a real contender, but since he didn’t. I’ll give is a 92/100
5 betting KJo (The Second Hand in the Update)
5betting KJo over a cold four bet is a special play. Calling the 5bet with AQo is also a bad play in theory, but a good play vs someone who might have KJo. Postflop is standard. If Da ends up going on a deep run this could be upgraded, but for now 75/100
Getting in a lot of money preflop with a bad hand is something that often happens, but JTo not just bad beating QQ, but having it dead on the turn is funny to me. Mostly posting this here in case Mr. Kim goes on a deep run. I’m also keeping an eye on Mr. Ho 80/100
An instant classic stream hand, especially since the PokerGo crew interviewed him after the fact and caught him walking around The Horseshoe telling his bad beat story, you can watch the hand here and watch Blez recount it here. If Locquet goes on a deep run, this grade could easily be upgraded. For now, I’ll note a minor technical thing here, the five bet and six bet sizes here are way too large. However given we’ve seen people get in a lot of money preflop with JTo, AQs and KJo, I don’t think this is quite as big a punt as some other plays, but when you make quads and bust one of poker’s more colourful characters in chip lead pot. It get’s an upgrade 84/100
The three bet with 66 is an odd play, calling the four bet is fine, but not if you think you need to bluff 66 on a ten high board and Andrew King verbally says “I do not believe you” before calling, which is worth some bonus points. However this kind of looks like a normal poker hand 66/100
It’s never good to fold to a half pot shove and be shown a worse value bet. An extremely costly and bad fold, but since I don’t know the whole action I’ll refrain from grading it.
Everyone roasted Faraz for three betting 72o into QQ. Ben openeed T8o (presumably because he thought there were tight players behind) then 4bet facing a three bet and bluffed off more than half his stack vs another professional poker player. I’ll give this ten worse than Faraz. 82/100
Day 1C
Natalie Hof-Ramos folds two pair
Folding two pair here loses 8bb in vs the solver. Her opponent is supposed to frequently three bet AK on the flop and she did. This is a very bad fold. There were probably dozens of similarily bad folds made and Natalie had the misfortune of playing this one on stream and catching my attention. Also I needed some representation from Day 1C. 78/100
Day 1B
T9 on QT9: Time to get 300bbs all-in
Grading on a sliding scale because this person clearly doesn’t know how to play poker. They had so many opportunities to not get all-in here. They don’t even have top set or a backdoor flush draw. 93/100
Day 1A
Faraz's Jaka's 72o Three Bet
Bad three bet preflop, flop and turn look fine, he could maybe hero fold the river and probably should vs someone who you thought you could exploit by three betting 72o pre. I’ll get cute. 72/100
Faraz Jaka folds a flush to a set
Horrible theory play and got shown a worse value hand, but “in theory” his opponent shouldn’t fast play too many non nut flushes and if Faraz had a read his opponent was strong, the read was right as his opponent did have top set. 80/100
Top Pair Top Kicker on the First Hand: All-in]
Grading on a sliding scale because it’s early in the tournament and this person clearly doesn’t know how to play poker. If they had a backdoor flush and this wasn’t the main event this is almost defensible. 82/100
Considered, but not Contending
Matt Hunt's Big Call
I can’t grade this as I don’t know the action, but this bluff and call both seem like very big punts. However if your opponent is making a bunch of punty bluffs, calling with any bluff catcher is reasonable.
Bin Weng rockets to a big stack
Preflop is mistake here, but the flop and turn look fine. The river call is insane, but if you make a giant hero call with an okay bluff catcher and your opponent has an ambitious bluff themselves. Had he called and lost this would be in contention, but since he called and won I’ll be kind. 65/100
Jason three bets KQs, flops a flush draw and check shoves the turn for around pot with a flush draw and almost got top pair to fold. Maybe just calling is better, but this is not “clearly bad”. 40/100.
Aces vs Kings Part 1
Aces vs Kings Part 2
The thing about these hands are in theory, even for 300bbs deep KK should stack off to AA sometimes. In practice some players in the WSOPME would literally only 4b or 5b with AA, but in reality some players 4,5,6 bet with hands like KJo, JTo, 66,99 (read above) Maybe KK could have folded in these hands, but I can’t give a grade much worse than 51/100 for either.
This is the flipside of the AA vs KK coin. This is a fine bluff in theory, but if you can’t get your opponent to fold AT on the turn or on the river, it’s a very bad bluff. Brian Roberts once told me “there is no such thing as a bad bluff in a tournament”. This one is, but since it’s a solid theory bluff. Okay bluff, wrong customer. 49/100
I don’t know the action, so I won’t grade it, but looks like a bad preflop play from A2 and an okay bluff. A crazy call from JJ on the river, but if it’s a three bet pot, a normal call on the flop and on the turn. It’s live poker and I’ll defer to Matt O’Donnell having a good read.
Also because Darvin’s hand is better played than Kristen’s
Sorry if this is obvious but in the Kottler Kd2o hand I understand why the Kd is a good card to bluff on turn but why is it a good river bluff card when river wasn't a diamond?
Koon pays off Groeninger?
https://youtu.be/LIhs83NHFJo?si=3oKrNr5hksFDEdzm&t=774