Solving Situational Saturday: What Did Will Tonking Do?

To get fans primed and ready for a summer full of poker, Poker Central has rebooted “Situational Saturday.” Each week, we’re taking a hand from a PokerGO live event and giving you a chance to put yourself in different high stakes situations from “Poker After Dark,” Poker Masters, and more. Then, we’ll solve the situation and give away a PokerGO subscription in the process.

Our next Situational Saturday hand was taken from the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event. A year after Mark Newhouse finished 9th, Newhouse was back at the final table and looked poised to best his early exit from 2013. Then, two big pocket pairs were dealt and collided in a massive pot that not only changed the dynamic of the 2014 final table, but that will also live on in Main Event history.

Newhouse and Will Tonking start the hand with over 40 big blinds, with Tonking having his November Nine counterpart covered. Tonking is the aggressor before and on the flop, but then Newhouse takes over. On the river, Newhouse shoves for just over 20 big blinds and Tonking is forced to make a decision for a majority of his stack with queens.

You are at the final table of a tournament. You have your opponent covered, but face a shove on the river for a majority of your stack.
Do you call w/ queens?
Tell us what you'd do in this #SituationalSaturday spot & we'll randomly select someone to win a FREE month of @PokerGO! pic.twitter.com/Bj9Gti0ej4

— Poker Central (@PokerCentral) May 5, 2018

If you watched the 2014 WSOP Main Event live or have been following along with PokerGO’s recent release of ESPN episodes, you know that Tonking’s queens were good. He was up against pocket tens and “Mr. November Ninth” was eliminated.

Tell us what you’d do in this situation with an over pair and then watch how this legendary hand played out. For more World Series of Poker action and high stakes situations in the world’s biggest events, subscribe to PokerGO now.