Maria Ho Breaks The Botez Streak On PokerStars Mystery Cash Challenge
The first season of PokerStars Mystery Cash Challenge was back for its fourth episode this weekend.
In the previous episode Alexandra Botez continued to rake in chips, bounties, and challenges. This week, the crew of Botez, Parker Talbot, Sam Grafton, Maria Ho, Griffin Benger, and Fabiano Kovalski are back for more mysterious cash action.
Standings at the End of Round 4
| Rank | Player | Stack | Profit | Bounties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandra Botez | �27,000 | +�15,175 | +�1,500 cash & an �5,300 EPT ticket |
| 2 | Parker Talbot | �13,400 | +�3,400 | - |
| 3 | Sam Grafton | �9,225 | -�775 | - |
| 4 | Maria Ho | �12,250 | -�1,750 | - |
| 5 | Griffin Benger | �10,000 | -�5,750 | - |
| 6 | Fabiano Kovalski | �10,000 | -�12,125 |
How It Works
The Mystery Cash Challenge is played out in rounds of ten hands. For nine hands of �25/�50 holdem (pot limit preflop, no limit post), the players vie for each other's cash. The winner of each of these hands earns a token.
On the tenth hand, all the players who have earned at least one token play a �100 bomb pot and the winner of the bomb pot gets to draw a bounty envelope and a challenge envelope.
So far, Botez has won all three bomb pots. In the process, she has earned �1,500 cash and a �5,300 EPT ticket from the bounty envelopes. The challenge envelopes have been more interesting.
Botez's first challenge envelope allowed her to nominate a player to remain silent for the next round, the second challenged her to win four of the next nine hands. Last week's envelope was a bit different, allowing her to swap one hole card before the flop every hand this week (except the bomb pot).
As if she needed another advantage, the chess pro and online influencer is already up �15,175 this season. That makes her the biggest winner so far.
Early Rounds
James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton called the action from the commentary booth and things got underway with Hand #1 consisting of series a quick series of preflop folds and then Botez immediately using her advantage to turn 8?4? into 8?3?.
She folded and Benger bet with played pocket jacks. Ho called, playing 8?6? and semi-bluffing into Benger when the flop gave her an inside draw. A jack on the turn gave Benger a set, which he slow-played with a call.
On the river, the pot had reached �5,375 and Ho took a third shot with a �3,400 bet. Benger called, earning himself a �6,125 profit.
Hand #2 saw Botez back in the action, snowing with 4?2? and pushing Benger's pocket eights to the limit. Botez followed Ho's lead, bluffing big against Benger on the river. Unlike the pro, Botez's bluff got through with Benger laying down his hand. After a pause, Botez showed him the bluff.
"Am I playing bad? Tell me if I'm playing bad," Benger lamented to Grafton.
Botez wasn't done, picking up pocket queens on Hand #3. After a raise from Talbot (A?J?) and a four-bet from Kovalski (A?K?) she five-bet to �5,000, pushing Talbot out.
Kovalski shoved and he was up against Botez for the biggest pot of the season. Unfortunately for Kovalski, Botez called and her queens held. She raked in the �20,575 pot and Kovalski reloaded again.
"You'll get me the third time," Botez said.
Middle Game
Things calmed down in Hand #4 with five players going to the flop and minimal action thereafter. Hand #5 didn't do much to speed things up, with Ho taking a small pot, followed by Botez raking in another pot for Hand #6 pot.
Hand #7 saw a return to action. The other players began to realize that with Botez holding three of the bomb pot tokens they were going to have to pull some tricks if they wanted a shot at an envelope. A nervous Benger check-called his top pair down to the river against Botez's pocket eights, winning a good-sized pot and his token in the process.
Not that it mattered, Botez won Hand#8 with a pair of fives and picked up pocket eights on the final hand (Hand #9). Once again she found herself heads up against Benger (A?K?) on the flop. He picked up a pair of kings, but Botez cannily checked him down, losing the minimum in a pot that had hit almost �7k preflop.
"It feels bad to lose one," Botez joked.
One became two on the final hand (Hand #7), when Kovalski picked up his token, pushing Botez off her flush draw with top-pair and a weak kicker.
Two Hands, Two Tokens
With two hands left, neither Talbot nor Grafton had won a token yet. Naturally, Botez was able to pick up AxKx both times after swapping a card.
On Hand #8, Kovalski tried a bluff preflop but had to fold when Botez came back over the top against him. Hand #9 when she once again four-bet, Kovalski got away from A?Q?, giving her five of the nine available tokens.
With that, the preliminary rounds ended, and the bomb pot began.
An Explosive Bomb Pot
Talbot and Grafton had to pay their �100 ante to the bomb pot before pushing back their chairs and stretching their legs.
| Position | Player | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Small Blind | Maria Ho | K?8? |
| Sitting Out | Parker Talbot | - |
| Big Blind | Fabiano Kovalski | 2?2? |
| Sitting Out | Sam Grafton | - |
| UTG | Griffin Benger | K?9? |
| Dealer | Alexandra Botez | 9?6? |
The dealer put down A?10?5? on the board, giving Ho the nut flush draw, Kovalski an under pair, and Benger and Botez complete air. Only Botez called Ho's bet of �400 on the flop.
The 8? on the turn gave Botez her own draw and roughly 10% equity in the pot. Ho checked and insta-called Botez's �600 bet.
On the river, the pot had hit �2,600 and Ho had hit two-pair. She bet �1,500 and Botez folded. For the first time in the series, someone other than her would get to draw the envelopes.
Standings at the End of Round 3
| Rank | Player | Stack | Profit | Bounties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandra Botez | �35,600 | +�25,600 | +�1,500 cash & an �5,300 EPT ticket |
| 2 | Parker Talbot | �11,675 | +�1,675 | - |
| 3 | Griffin Benger | �17,250 | +�1,500 | - |
| 4 | Sam Grafton | �9,925 | -�2,075 | - |
| 5 | Maria Ho | �8,525 | -�5,475 | +�250 |
| 6 | Fabiano Kovalski | �9,900 | -�22,225 | - |
Ho pulled the �250 bounty envelope and a challenge envelope that allows her to pick one player each hand who will be forced to limp preflop.
She will be using that power in the first nine hands of next week's episode which hits the PokerStars Central or PokerStars UK Youtube channels on October 7th at 3:00 p.m. CEST for free.
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