Hand Reviews – The Best Poker Hands of 2024

High Stakes Poker: Gavri v Adams

The first hand takes us to High Stakes Poker where Justin Gavri tangled with Brandon Adams for a pot worth almost $1 Million! Gavri decided to raise pre-flop with ducks, while Adams found two ladies and laid a trap, only calling from the big blind.  The flop brought a check-raise from Adams, and a pot sized bet on the turn, putting $135k in the middle. 

The river paired the turn and both had boats, and Gavri put it all into the middle after Adams again put out a pot sized bet which was quickly called.  Set over set is always going to make for great TV but when those sets turn into full houses, expect all the money going into the middle.  Adams walked away with a $933k pot and Gavri walked away to the ATM.

Photo Credit: PokerGO

High Stakes Poker: Tilly v Housenbold

Staying with High Stakes Poker, if you could dream of the most incredible situation to be in – what might it be?  Aces over kings perhaps??  How about aces over kings – and kings!! Jennifer Tilly found herself in exactly that spot!  Second to act pre-flop, Tilly three-bet her aces up to $6k only to find Jeff Housenbold waking up to the two red kings immediately to her left and four bet her to $20k. 

Folded over to the big blind, newcomer Chamath Palihapitiya finds the two black kings who shoves for his entire $97.5k stack!  Tilly, with 96% equity at this point, shoves her slightly bigger stack into the middle and Housenbold calls. The guys wake up to 2% equity in the hand each and hoped for a miracle – which did not come.  The flop came jack high with two diamonds (Jennifer had the ace of diamonds) and the kings were drawing dead, handing Tilly almost $300k in chips.

Photo Credit: PokerGO

World Series of Poker: Hunichen v Ausmus

Next, we head to the World Series of Poker where we saw the power of reverse psychology on full display! In the $100k NLH event we are three handed for the bracelet and find Chris Hunichen tangling with well known pro Jeremy Ausmus. They get all their chips into the middle pre-flop – Hunichen with pocket 5’s whiles Ausmus had AJ. 

When Ausmus hits his ace on the turn, Hunichen, dejected, try to shake Ausmus’ hand and wishing him good luck but Jeremy wanted to part of it – he knows better than to celebrate early. However, the gesture worked and Hunichen pulled a five on the river, winning the hand and remaining in the tournament while all Jeremy could do was laugh as Hunichen celebrated for real with his rail.

World Series of Poker: Spitale v Carey

Staying with the WSOP, the Millionaire Maker brought us one of the loudest ends to a tournament we can remember! Franco Spitale beat Justin Carey for the bracelet in a heads-up battle that lasted multiple levels – but the length didn’t take any of the energy out of the rail!  On the last hand, they get it all in with Spitale holding Ace Ten and Carey had pocket two’s. 

Spitale’s rail called for Messi – they are from Argentina after all, while Carey’s rail held up oversized 2’s – and the dealer obliged dealing out a ten high flop with a deuce.  Spitale’s rail started chanting even more once an ace peeled off on the river, begging for Messi to save their man and Messi came through, bringing a second ace on the river and counterfeiting Carey’s boat for the bracelet.  It was one of the most entertaining final tables and heads-up matches you can watch and both rails created a fantastic atmosphere!

Photo Credit: Hayley Hochstetler & Danny Maxwell

No Gamble No Future: Hellmuth v Humboldt

No Gamble No Future generated a lot of news in 2024 but no story was bigger than the Phil Hellmuth blow up – you knew this had to be on the list. Hellmuth got his AQ all in on the turn against Humboldt Mike’s pocket jacks on a Ace-7-8-9 board, and the poker brat suffered a brutal bad beat for a $51k pot. 

Mike seated next to Phil had a front row seat for one of Phil’s most epic meltdowns.  At first it seemed like Phil would remain composed but a comment from Mike regarding Bitcoin set Phil off that resulted in him storming off the set, berating Mike and refusing to re-buy. We can’t remember Phil doing this recently, but this moment reminded us that the rage Hellmuth can bring to a poker game when the moment presents itself.

Photo Credit: PokerGO

Triton $25k WPT Global Ultimate Slam: Dvoress v Brewer

Now we’re off to Monte-Carlo and the Triton $25k WPT Global Ultimate Slam where we find this juicy hand between Canadian Daniel Dvoress and American Chris Brewer. We are early in this $25k buy-in and blinds are 1k / 1500 / 1500 BB ante and both players have more than 200k in chips. Brewer was on the button with AJ of hearts, while Dvoress has 88. 

Pre-flop saw the cut-off raise; Brewer three bet and Dvoress four bet from the big blind.  We see a board miss both players – King-Queen-Four, all spades, with the King of diamonds and the 3 of hearts comprising the turn and river.  What puts this hand on our list was the river action.  Dvoress checked while Brewer bet 80k – roughly 2/3 of the pot. 

Faced with a call for half of his remaining stack, Dvoress finds a call and scoops a massive pot!  You have to love Brewer’s effort to steal this one away from Dvoress, but the Canadian found the call somehow in one of the bigger tournament buy-ins of the year.

The Lodge: Liu

Xuan Liu was playing $5 / $10 cash at The Lodge when she finds herself in an insane multi-way pot!  Finding pocket aces in the high jack and pops it up to $400 after an early position raise to $35 and a call.  She gets two callers before the UTG+2 player four bets all in to $1,415.  Liu calls – as do the other two players!  We are four way to the flop with one all in and a pot that is now over $6,000 – and this is a $5 / $10 / $10 game! 

The flop comes all spades – Jack-Four-Three and we get the other two players in the hand betting & calling while Liu sits back with the aces in a $8k pot and keeps the party going.  Now with over $12k in the middle, the board pairs the four and again the other two players bet and call a $3,300 bet – building an overall pot of $16k before Liu decided enough is enough and shoved $12k.  She gets one caller – holding Queen-Jack of clubs for top two but the other player in the hand – holding the nut flush and the best hand – folds! 

They run it twice, Liu winning both times to scoop a $34k pot while the winning hand sits in the muck!  And who says the biggest hands have to come from the biggest games out there??

High Stakes Poker: Suvarna v Robl

Don’t tell Santhosh Suvarna online poker is rigged – he’ll tell you that live poker can be just as cruel.  Earlier this year High Stakes Poker put on a show as he tangled with Andrew Robl in the biggest pot in the show’s history – a staggering $992k which Suvarna got all the money in on a 442 board with 45 against Robl’s AK. 

But poker being a cruel game that it is, the board ran out King-King sliding Robl the almost 7 figure pot and leaving Suvarna wondering how soon the wire transfer could come into re-buy.

Photo Credit: Regina Cortina

World Series of Poker: Seidel v Bechahed

Speaking of taking a sick beat, Erik Seidel has taken many in his long and celebrated poker career but 2024 brought a new level of pain for him at the World Series of Poker. Event #16, the $5k NLH 8 handed event, Seidel defended his small blind with Queen-Four of spades against Sami Bechahed’s Nine-Seven of spades. 

The flop came Queen of Diamonds and two spades – the Ten and Two, while all the rest of the chips went into the middle on the Jack of spades turn.  Seidel was miles ahead and almost safe when the poker gods decided to deal chaos, giving Bechahed his only out – the Eight of spades for a straight flush, and sending Seidel straight to the rail!

Photo Credit: Tomas Stacha

Hustler Casino Live: Moncek

Back in May, Hustler Casino Live put together another top-notch lineup for its Million Dollar Game. But to play at the highest of nosebleed stakes doesn’t take guts to just sit down – you still have to play poker and that involves bluffing.  “Texas” Mike Moncek showed everyone that he was afraid of no one in this insane hand. 

After running up his stack to $1.3 million, Mike decides to play with fire, finding the Doyle (Ten-Deuce) UTG after straddling for $2k and calls a raise to $6k. The flop comes Ace-Four-Five rainbow and after checking, he calls a $5k bet. The Six of spades on the turn brings another check from Mike and a decision on a $16k bet – his opponent is holding Seven-Eight for the nut straight – but Mike chose chaos and raised to $52k which was called. 

With $136k now in the middle, the dealer peels off another ace.  Mike again checks and again he’s bet into, this time for an overbet of $160k. Mike acting like he has a boat, fires $734k into the middle, putting his opponent to the ultimate test in a $1.029 Million dollar pot.  Holding the nut straight but facing a paired board with aces, “Hook” goes into the tank – and folds the best hand. To make matters worse, Mike showed the bluff, collected the pot and sent Hook on tilt

WSOP Paradise: Boeree v Moneymaker

Recently the World Series of Poker went back to The Bahamas in December for their second bracelet event at Atlantis and poker threw back the clock in the $25k Super Main Event as we found Liv Boeree get into a massive pot with Chris Moneymaker with only 11 players left. 

Moneymaker found Ace-Jack off-suit in the small blind and got all his chips into the middle against the dominated Boeree who shoved in front of him, holding Queen-Jack of clubs.  But the flop brought Liv top two, and the turn added a flush draw for her and the river bricked out, securing a massive double up for Boeree and sending Moneymaker down to 10 big blinds. She’d finish him off only a few hands later when Chris’ pair of nines couldn’t improve over Liv’s pocket jacks, sending the 2002 WSOP champ to the rail and Liv to the biggest cash by any female in poker history!