Poker After Dark: Aussie Matt Steals the Show

The return of fan-favorite Poker After Dark had the poker world buzzing with the return of Tom Dwan to Las Vegas high stakes poker this week. Three nights of unprecedented cash game action, exclusively on PokerGO, featured six-figure pots with Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Robl all in action, but Matthew Kirk stole the show Wednesday night.

Tom Dwan, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Klein and Lauren Roberts played all three nights, while Doyle Brunson and Kirk each played a single night – with much different results. Robl finished Wednesday night with nearly $1.6 million in front of him while Kirk ended as the night’s second biggest winner. 

Wednesday night’s action saw some of the biggest action with the $100,000 minimum buy-in blown out of the water with over $3 million on the table. Kirk’s big-bet action even slowed down Dwan after he steamrolled the table for the first two nights.

“He’s known for bluffs and big pots,” Bellande said of Kirk. “It’s so painful for him to check back.” There seemed to be a six-figure pot twice an orbit.”

“After tonight I’m going to forget everything I thought I knew about poker,” said commentator Ali Nejad late in the action. “The last time I moved numbers like these around I was playing Monopoly.”

Are Aussie Matt’s kings @TomDwan‘s kryptonite? ?? #PokerAfterDark continues on PokerGO! pic.twitter.com/Yn4Dmvo777

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) August 17, 2017

“Poker After Dark is about raw poker,” Bellande added. “It’s not about announcing, it’s about players. It’s a fly on the wall experience – the same as any other night in Ivey’s Room.”

Klein echoed Bellande’s enjoyable experience. “Well, my golf game is fine,” he said joking. “The poker is pretty much what I expected it to be, but I’m having a good time. JRB beat me up all three days pretty good.”

Near the end of the night, Klein and Kirk clashed for a near $1 million pot that left the table to finish five-handed. Klein held pocket aces and went to a flop of five-four-four against Kirk holding ace-four of hearts. A check-raise saw each player put $175,000 in on the flop, a deuce came on the turn and Klein moved all in. Kirk snap-called, Klein was felted and sent just under $500,000 across the table.

?????? $980,000 pot alert ?????? #PokerAfterDark pic.twitter.com/xqbzY2OkS3

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) August 17, 2017

Dwan did have the hand of the week when he took down a $700,000 pot against Esfandiari and Negreanu. Dwan held aces, Esfandiari was coolered for his whole stack holding pocket kings and Negreanu correctly folded pocket queens preflop.

“@TomDwan with aces in a live poker game is just not right.” – @BrokeLivingJRB ?? #PAD pic.twitter.com/mLc0koehVq

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) August 15, 2017

Bellande is famous for his “Broke Living” lifestyle, took a beating on Monday night, got “unbroke” on Tuesday night – even after a set under set loss to Dwan – and rallied for a strong finish on the week after Wednesday’s action.

The first week of Poker After Dark wrapped up after another six hours of action, with all three days available in full on PokerGO. The live action picks up with a brand-new lineup of six players on Tuesday, August 22 for another three consecutive days of live winner-take-all sit and go action.