Kevin Hart Misreads his Hand and Wins

Actor, comedian and PokerStars “hype man” Kevin Hart got into a very interesting hand in the PokerStars Championship Cash Game challenge against fellow amateur Mila Monroe: he decided to call a river all-in 3-bet with King high for very non-GTO reasons…

Kevin Hart, star of many blockbuster comedies such as Ride Along, Get Hard and the Wedding Ringer was signed by PokerStars to promote the room back in April, after Stars cut ties with their Team Sports Ambassadors - which featured Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo among others. Since then Hart has played in many high profile poker tournaments, including the Aria Super High Roller Bowl - where he knocked out Fedor Holz - and many PokerStars high rollers.

Hart also played in the PokerStars Championship Cash Challenge in Monte Carlo back in May 2017, but the British-Irish Twitter account for PokerStars just now decided to share a very interesting hand from that cash game match.

The table featured Daniel Negreanu, Liv Boeree and German amateur Mila Monroe who got into the game through PokerStars’ video submission contest - as a promotion, Stars bought two people in for their high stakes cash game, picked based on the videos they submitted explaining why they want to play in the game.

Hart’s memorable hand started with Negreanu straddling up to €100, Hart flatted with K3 suited, then Mila raised it up to €485 with 6-deuce off, knocking everyone out but Hart. The board came 10Q5 rainbow, then A and another 10. Monroe barrelled two streets with 6 high, Hart called both times. On the river, the action got crazy: Monroe bet once again, €1,200 this time, Hart re-raised to €3,200, then Monroe moved all-in for her remaining €17K stack. Back to Hart with K3, he called and tabled his cards exclaiming:

“I’ve got a straight”. 

But he did not have a straight, he was missing a Jack, he only had King high - but the misread worked out perfectly for the stubby comic who beat his opponent’s 6-high bluff.

The situation was especially cruel since Monroe won a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in front of cameras for very high stakes through a contest, and her experience ended abruptly because her opponent couldn’t even read his hand properly. Hart understood what Mila went through and generously gave €15K to her from his own stack, topping it off with a joke saying:

“I’m giving this to you so I can take it one more time”.

Mistaking a straight draw for a straight has happened on higher levels of poker as well: in the 2004 WSOP, at the final table of the $5K PLO event Ted Lawson made the same giant poker error, but went on to win the tournament anyway.