Esfandiari vs. Perkins Headlines "The Prestige" Curtain Call

The end of “The Prestige” on Poker After Dark incorporated all three acts of a magic trick with Bill Perkins pulling a rabbit out of his hat. Perkins crushed the game on the first night of action and set his scope on friend and rival Antonio Esfandiari this time around.

Every good magic trick requires three parts and Perkins utilized this process to full effect tonight on the PokerGO live stream. The $50/$100 blinds served as a starting point with straddles reaching as high as $1,600. To accommodate the action-filled game, all players in the lineup had at least $100,000 in front of them for most of the night.

The full cast of characters returned to ARIA for tonight’s session with the exception of Randall Emmett. Philanthropist Darol Rodrock found himself seated next to Perkins and managed to stay out of the way of ‘Perky’ throughout the game. Bob Nouri hit the exits sooner than expected and an adequate replacement jumped in right away.

His reputation precedes him everywhere he goes and tonight, high stakes cash game legend Eddie Ting made his first-ever appearance on Poker After Dark. If you missed any of Ting’s performance, you might want to go and watch the episode on-demand. Ting is a pure shark.

Ting battled with Perkins a few times and before Ting took his seat, Perkins clashed with Esfandiari for the first time in this game. Using the “pledge” tactic of magic, Perkins ran a river bluff on Esfandiari. The bet took some time for ‘The Magician’ to decipher and he used his own collection of skills to suss out what Perkins was up to.

Siegfried and Roy!
Penn & Teller!
Perkins and Esfandiari?!@bp22 and @MagicAntonio pair up to create some magical #PokerAfterDark action.
Watch "The Prestige" cash games LIVE: https://t.co/4E2f3MYHuj pic.twitter.com/UjwiVf5tP9

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 18, 2018

Perkins was in rebuild mode for the remainder of the show and made his way back to even up until the final orbit. By this stage, Perkins was in the “turn” mode of his act and used that street to get there on Esfandiari. Having caught the bluff the first time, Esfandiari thought he had a bead on Perkins but the long con was on. A pot of over $250,000 breaks out with the years of poker history between the two coming to a head in a must-see moment.

From start to finish, "The Prestige" week was @MagicAntonio vs. @bp22. Their final ? led to an over $250K pot.
Watch #PokerAfterDark cash games now! https://t.co/4E2f3MYHuj pic.twitter.com/P8311a7bCL

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 18, 2018

Former NBA player Bob Sura put together another solid outing and booked his second winning session of the week. At least until next time, Sura wins the battle of Texas against Austin’s own Robert Sanchez.

Former #NBA first-round pick Bobby Sura is close to booking back-to-back #PokerAfterDark wins!
Can @BobbySura3 keep ballin'? Watch LIVE! ?https://t.co/4E2f3MYHuj pic.twitter.com/HGUZ53E6X2

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 18, 2018

“The Big Three” wrapped up a strong week of “The Prestige” on Poker After Dark and may soon return as part of another lineup in the coming weeks. Follow PokerGO on Twitter for all updates on future lineups and Poker Central content.