Last Updated on September 3, 2026 by Bala Kumar
Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek has publicly apologized for how he reacted after bluffing off the biggest pot in the 20-plus-year history of High Stakes Poker.
The hand went down on the Monday, August 31 livestream on PokerGO, where Moncek fired a seven-figure river shove into Eric Wasserson and ran straight into a flush. The pot finished at $4,260,000, a new record for the show, and the largest televised poker pot ever recorded in the United States.
What followed was not a graceful exit. Moncek accused Wasserson of pulling off “maybe the biggest nit-roll of all time,” and the two went back and forth at the table for several minutes. Two days later, Moncek took to X to say he was out of line.
How the record $4.26 million pot played out
The game was running at $2,000/$4,000 with a $20,000 big blind ante, the kind of structure that turns ordinary hands into life-changing ones.
Wasserson opened to $20,000 holding the nine and seven of diamonds. Moncek three-bet to $80,000 from the button with ten-seven of clubs. Wasserson called.
The flop came nine of clubs, king of diamonds, ace of diamonds. Moncek had nothing but ten-high; Wasserson had flopped a pair of nines with a flush draw. Wasserson checked, Moncek continued for $100,000, and the call came quickly.
The turn was the four of hearts, a total blank. Moncek fired again for $330,000. Wasserson called again, putting more than a million in the middle.
Then came the five of diamonds on the river, completing Wasserson’s flush. He checked. Moncek, sitting ten-high and roughly $1,046,000 already in the pot, decided he couldn’t win it any other way and moved all in for an effective $1,607,000.
Wasserson went into the tank. He talked through it out loud, openly worried he was running into a bigger flush, the only holding that could actually beat him. Then he called, and the largest pot in High Stakes Poker history was pushed his way.
What is a nit-roll in poker?
If you’re new to the term, a nit-roll is when a player agonizes over a decision, tanking, sighing, acting pained, while holding a hand they were never folding. It’s the cautious cousin of the slowroll. The slowroll rubs it in on purpose; the nit-roll just looks like it does.
That’s the accusation Moncek threw at Wasserson seconds after the call. Wasserson’s defense was straightforward: he’d announced at the time that he had a big hand, and he’d simply never played a pot that large in his life. A two-minute think on a $4.26 million decision, in his view, is just a human being processing a $4.26 million decision.
Most of the poker community sided with him. Some fans did feel the tank was theatrical given the strength of his hand, but the general read was that Moncek’s reaction was normal tilt after an enormous loss, not a character flaw.
The apology, and the reply nobody expected
Moncek posted his apology on X, and it caught people slightly off guard because he doesn’t have a reputation for berating opponents. He’s known for playing an extremely loose, fearless brand of poker and for taking beats well. Losing $1.6 million on a stone bluff, on camera, is a different test.
Wasserson accepted it immediately and then went further, essentially telling Moncek the apology was unnecessary, that anyone who thought his reaction was out of bounds has never gambled for real money. Coming from the guy who took the pot, that closed the story about as cleanly as it could close.
Eric Wasserson’s record-breaking week
The $4.26 million hand was the headline, but it was one piece of a genuinely historic run for Wasserson.
- He broke the High Stakes Poker record twice in three days. On August 29 he took down a $2,478,000 pot against Andrew Robl, beating the previous show record of $2,421,500 set by Santhosh Suvarna in Season 16. Two days later the $4.26 million pot nearly doubled his own mark.
- The pot also broke the record for the largest televised poker pot in U.S. history, passing the $3.1 million Tom Dwan won on Hustler Casino Live in 2023. The global livestream record still belongs to Esti Wang, who won a $5 million pot at the King Poker Cup Million Dollar Cash Game in Jeju, South Korea.
- Across four sessions during the special High Stakes Poker run, Wasserson won two and lost two but finished up roughly $3.2 million.
- That week pushed his lifetime livestream ring-game profit to around $10 million, moving him past Andrew Robl — who entered the week at $7.9 million — as the winningest ring-game livestream player ever. Dan “Jungleman” Cates has won more on livestreams overall at $14.3 million, but the bulk of that came from a heads-up match against Ossi “Monarch” Ketola rather than ring games.
Texas Mike walked away roughly even
Right after dropping the $4.2 million hand, he won a $2.3 million pot against Andrew Robl, and by the end of the week he’d clawed his way back to roughly break-even. For a player who was down seven figures midweek, that’s a serious recovery.
Moncek is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner with four Circuit rings and more than $8.3 million in live tournament earnings. Despite the nickname, he’s not from Texas, he’s from the Chicago area, and picked up the moniker after attending the University of Texas in Austin. The burnt orange Longhorns hat has been a fixture at the table ever since.
The takeaway
Bluffing a million and a half into a river flush is going to draw a reaction out of almost anyone. What made this one worth writing about wasn’t the outburst, it was how fast both players moved past it. Moncek apologized without being pushed into it, and Wasserson refused to accept that anything needed forgiving.
FAQs
What is a nit-roll in poker?
A nit-roll is when a player takes a long, visibly agonized think with a hand they were always going to play, making the decision look far closer than it was. It’s less deliberate than a slowroll but produces a similar reaction from the opponent.
How big was the record High Stakes Poker pot?
$4,260,000, won by Eric Wasserson against Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek on the August 31, 2026 livestream on PokerGO.
What did Texas Mike hold in the $4.2 million pot?
Ten-seven of clubs, which never improved past ten-high. He bluffed all three streets and shoved the river for an effective $1,607,000.
Did Eric Wasserson accept the apology?
Yes. He accepted it publicly on X and told Moncek no apology was needed, calling the reaction completely normal for a pot that size.
Who is the winningest livestream cash game player?
Eric Wasserson now leads all ring-game livestream players at roughly $10 million lifetime, having passed Andrew Robl during this run.
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