Min Zheng wasn’t even going to play the complexly titled $160 Mega Millions Quantum Reload at the Bicycle Casino, but she had hit the Dragon Bonus in the cardroom’s baccarat lounge and figured she’d buy in to day two.
The Mega Millions is not just complexly titled but also adopts a structure where players can buy directly into day 2 directly for $4,300. Now Zheng found herself heads up against Ari Engel, and in her hand was a beautiful sight, two black queens.
Up to this point the tourney had been smooth sailing, a nice accumulation of chips, a double elimination to jump from 11 players to the final table, and then a steady rise to a 3-2 chip lead against Engel.
But now Engel had her covered and the board read 5-5-3-9 with two diamonds. Engel raised Zheng’s 5 million bet to 11.5 million and with a massive overpair Zheng called. The turn fell the ten of hearts, no flush and no possible straights.
Zheng fired out a small bet of 5 million again, was re-raised and feeling confident shoved her 25 million chip stack in.
With just another 9.5 million to call Ari went into the tank.
Outrageous Slowroll
Bear this in mind: he has over 4-1 odds and – spoiler alert – the A-5 for trips. The only hand that can beat him are pocket threes, nines, tens or a misdeal.
And he tanks.
Confused by the pause, Zheng asks:
“You got tens?”
And Ari eventually calls raking in $315,000 for the win. Unsurprisingly the slowroll got a bit of attention online. While the first prize does represent Engel’s third biggest win, it is hard to imagine he was in much doubt that he was going to snap the lot off.
You can argue that his tanking the decision was due to higher level pro play (please make such arguments in the comments), but it’s hard not to view the whole hand with a slight distaste in one’s mouth.
In spite of that, I suppose congrats are still in order, Ari.