Sometimes, you just have to go for it.
That sounds like a speech you make after your bold bluff gets called and you’re on the way to the payout line. Yet, that’s not how this story unfolded.
At the World Series of Poker Main Event, on one of the feature tables, Daniel Vampan ignited poker fans by bluffing for it all.
“Oh my god, you’re insane”
The hand picked up on the turn on PokerGO coverage. With a board reading 5s6hQh10c, three players were battling for a pot of 450,000; Nick Rigby in the small blind, Toby Lewis under the gun, and Daniel Vampan in the cutoff.
- Nick Ribgy – Ks8s
- Toby Lewis – Ah10h
- Daniel Vampan – 8c7c
Though we don’t see the preflop action, the size of the pot tells us it was a single-raised pot. Likely, Lewis opened to 100,000 from under the gun, and Vampan and Rigby called while the big blind folded.
As he so often did over the last couple of days, Rigby led the flop with nothing. This time, neither of his opponents would get out of his way. Rigby bet 325k.
Lewis just called with his nut-flush draw. This is when Vampan decided to step out. He min-raised to 750k in position with his open-ended straight draw. It’s bold, but it seemed like a good time to make a move.
He correctly deduced that Rigby often has air here. Then, because Lewis just called as the preflop raiser, Vampan likely thought he wasn’t very strong either. However, if he expected his turn bet to take it down, he was wrong. He had more work to do.
Rigby folded, but Lewis called to see a river.
The river fell the 5h, completing Lewis’ flush, but also pairing the board. Lewis checked.
We’ve all been in this spot. You decide to make a move, and suddenly you’re on the river with eight-high and only one way to win the pot. Vampan rose to the occasion.
He moved all in for 2,285,000, almost exactly the size of the pot. This sent Lewis deep into the tank. He made his hand, holding a flush on a paired board, and had his opponent covered. Would he really let this go?
“I have a flush, you know that right?” said Lewis. “King jack of hearts or something, it’s the only fucking hand I beat,” he muttered. He went on to list many possible hands, but couldn’t make sense of what Lewis could have.
“It’s weird when it makes so little sense, it sort of feels like they have it in a weird way,” said commentator Nick Schulman.
“It would just be an outrageous bluff,” said Lewis. After thinking some more, he did toss his cards in one at a time, and Lewis celebrated immediately.
“Seven eight baby, let’s fucking go,” said Vampan as he clapped and went to his rail.
The first railbird he greeted said what all of us were thinking: “Oh my god, you’re insane.” Lewis was left quiet as the players headed to break.
“I tried to torch it,” said Vampan.
“You did try to torch it,” replied Lewis standing up from the table.
“But, I’m a fucking monster,” said Vampan.
Reaction from Paris and beyond
In huge moments at the Main Event, when a big hand goes down, time seems to stop within the poker community. Within the venue, several reaction videos were posted when this hand went down on the big screen. Enjoy a few of the best below.
Inside of the Horseshoe, during the daily DeepStack, Patrick Leonard shared the uproarious crowd reaction.
Players sounded off on Twitter on the hand. Popular player and steamer Kevin Martin was in there with the immediate reaction.
If you want to watch the full hand go down, check it out here courtesy of PokerGO.
