The PokerStars Championship Cash 2018 took a bizarre turn last week when Kevin Hart won $40,000 on a confusing hand that resulted in King High taking the pot -- but there’s a lot more to this video than meets the eye.
Hart was a featured celebrity guest on PokerStars and got into some beef on the table with Mila Munroe, an online qualifier with Germany. The two were perfectly cordial to one another, but Hart grew weary of her almost-incessant bluffing, which nobody called her on. So Hart decided this was going to be the hand, and after repeatedly saying “I’m sick of your sh**!” he raised, and re-raised her.
There was an undercurrent to this that we all didn’t know when we first watched it. Hart was holding K,3. This was the hand after the river:
Mila obviously has trash and she’s trying to bluff her way out, but Kevin got confused and thought he was holding a straight. It’s unclear what he thought in his head because there’s no jack anywhere, but nonetheless he thought he had this one in the bag.
So when Mila went all in he responded and called her again, while having an absolutely trash hand himself. When it came time to reveal Hart confidently flipped over his card and said “straight,” before quickly realizing he messed up. The dealer confirmed that all Hart has was King High, but that was still enough to win the hand and eliminate Mila from the competition.
Hart won fair and square, despite messing up inside his head — but the whole thing wracked him with guilt. Deep down he knew that he wouldn’t have called Mila’s all in if he thought he was just holding King High. “I’m not comfortable with that,” Hart says — before giving Mila $15,000 in chips and tells her to keep playing.
“I feel bad. I feel very bad, and I don’t want you to leave. So because it’s you — anyone else and I don’t do this. Anyone else I tell them to kiss my ass. I’m going to give you $15K.”
It let Mila keep playing and cleared Hart’s conscience and all was right in the world.