The writing was on the wall heading into the third session of the new Big Game on Tour. With about two-thirds of his original buy-in gone, Luke Wakelin, the Loose Cannon, needed to find a spot and put his remaining chips to work sooner rather than later.
For the first couple of sessions, Luke couldn’t catch any major breaks. While he managed to pick up a few small pots along the way, all of his draws bricked out in significant spots, leading to his stack constantly going in the wrong direction.
You can’t really force things in poker. Sometimes cards are simply not cooperating. However, Wakelin had clearly had enough, and a few hands into the last session, he decided to draw a line in the sand and go for it. Unfortunately, once more, his timing was off.
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No Lucky Breaks for the Loose Cannon
What would end up as Luke’s final hand on The Big Game started innocently enough. He picked up pocket sixes under the gun, and with $16,000 in front of him, he decided to just limp in for $200 instead of raising.
This caused almost the entire table to limp behind with fairly mediocre hands, looking to potentially rid Wakelin of his remaining chips. The only one to get out of the way was Nick Wright.
Five players proceeded to see the flop of J-4-3, and when the action checked to him, Luke fired out a continuation bet of $1,500, over-betting the pot. This almost worked, as it got rid of everyone except for Rania Nasreddine, who paired her jack and wasn’t going anywhere with top pair.
A deuce on the turn gave Luke a gutshot to go with his pair. He checked to Rania, who proceeded to bet $3,000. Wakelin decided he had had enough and check-raised her all-in for his remaining $14,000.
While a pair of jacks with a nine kicker isn’t the strongest of hands, Rania was getting great odds, and with straight and flush draws possible, she made a fairly easy call.
Luke found himself in a rough spot. With just one card to come and six possible outs (not knowing one of his fives was folded before the flop), he decided to run it twice. Unfortunately, the poker gods did not come through on either river, and it was the end of the road for another Loose Cannon.
Despite his ambitions, Luke simply couldn’t get anything going during the 60 hands he played on The Big Game. He may have played a few spots differently, but, at the end of the day, cards were simply not falling his way, and it was just one of those sessions.
Unfortunately, it also happened to be the biggest session of his life, but that’s poker.
Old Friends’ Reunion
Seeing a Loose Cannon eliminated from The Big Game is no fun. It takes away the thing that the entire show revolves around, and it can really kill the mood.
This time around, though, there was a silver lining. Luke’s seat was filled by none other than Phil 'Unabomber’ Laak, who sat across his old friend Antonio Esfandiari.
As most poker fans know, having these two at the same table is pretty much a guarantee of a good show, and they did not disappoint.
It didn’t take long for the two to start going at it, with Esfandiari calling Phil out for “abandoning” their friendship. While it was all mostly good-natured ribbing, it does feel like there is a bit of a story between the two that happened away from the public eye, causing a disturbance in the force.
As all of this was happening, Rania Nasreddine kept winning pots, fairly quietly reaching nearly $120,000 in profit, making her by far the biggest winner of this Big Game session so far. She even managed to pull a turn bluff-check raise against Hellmuth and drill a perfect river card to win a big pot. Suffice to say, Phil wasn’t happy about it.
The Loose Cannon may be out of the picture, but there are still over 70 hands to be played before The PokerStars Big Game on Tour wraps up, and things are shaping up for some serious fireworks!
