Rick Salomon Scoops $928K Pot on ‘Poker After Dark’

This week, TV show Poker After Dark reached another high point after a huge pot was played between Rick Salomon and Aaron Zang, with other players gathered around the table also including Bill Perkins, Brian Rast, Haralabos Voulgaris, and Phil Galfond.
In the $500/$1000 cash game with a minimum buy-in of $300,000, Perkins put a raise in under the gun, leading to a three-bet by Zang holding pocket eights, and a call by both Salomon and Perkins. After the flop fell 3dh-6s-8d, Zang then led out with a $15k bet, inducing a call from Salomon with 5h-9h.
The 7c on the turn subsequently filled in Salomon’s gut shot straight, and after Zang bet $50,000 into a $60,000 pot, Salomon opted to re-raise to $175,000. Salomon had shown himself to be a highly aggressive player earlier on in the game, and so unconvinced over the strength of his opponent’s hand, Zang deliberated for a few minutes before moving all-in.
Salomon quickly called off with his remaining $257,000 stack, and after seeing the bad news, Zang accepted Salomon’s suggestion to run the hand twice. Nevertheless, no additional pair was forthcoming for Zang who then ended up on the losing side of the $928,200 pot.
Despite the monster pot, however, it would appear that Rick Salomon booked either a relatively small win or loss at the end of the five-hour session, which according to commentator Ali Nejad was somewhere in the range of -$45,000 to +$55,000. Aaron Zang, on the other hand, was the episode’s biggest loser, having finished down by some $280,000 or $380,000.
Meanwhile, Bill Perkins booked a $270,000 profit for the session, followed by Brian Rast up by $145,000, and Haralabos Voulgaris up $130,000. Phil Galfond did not have the best time of things, though, and lost $300,000 of his money to the other pros at the table.
For those unaware, Rick Salomon is a former producer who has won a total of $6,394,283 playing live tournaments, most of which has come via two huge scores. In 2014, he finished the $1 million entry Big One for One Drop in 4th place for $2.8 million, while in 2016 he booked a 3rd place finish at the €1 million Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza for €3 million ($ 3,307,206).