Hand of the Week: Alan Keating Stuns Doug Polk with Savage Hero Call for $675K

In recent years, Alan Keating has built a reputation and standing within poker that is usually reserved for high-stakes live tournament players.

For most of the poker boom, TV poker shows invited legends from years gone by, such as Doyle Brunson and the late Chip Reese, and the guys who were winning the big events consistently, like Phil Hellmuth.

It was tough to break through into this pool of players purely by playing cash games behind the scenes.

Okay, Tom Dwan built his reputation playing cash games online but he is the exception and not the rule. We can say the same about Jungleman.

But Alan Keating is never seen in a poker tournament; he just shows up to huge cash games on a livestream and crushes the opposition with incredible skill.

Whether it’s Hustler Casino Live or High Stakes Poker you can guarantee Keating is the man the rest of the table fear clashing with the most.

🤯🤯🤯 @MISTER_KEATING IS NOT HUMAN!!!

High STakes Poker presented by @ClubWPTGold goes out with a bang. pic.twitter.com/4Erm67DUN7

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) November 9, 2025

Alan Keating Soul Reads Doug Polk

The game is $200/$400 NL Hold’em with a $1,600 straddle in play for Jennifer Tilly and the action begins with Santhosh Suvarna calling and Lodge Card Club co-owner Doug Polk raising to $4,000 on the button with $313,000 behind.

Gavri makes it $20,000 in the small blind, holding A♥J♥ and $483K deep, and Alan Keating quickly snap calls to come along with his 4♠2♠, covering the other players.

Tilly and Suvarna both fold and Polk throws in the four-bet, bumping it up to $75,000.

Gavri wanted no part of this pot, even holding a pretty hand, and quickly mucked his cards.

That left only Keating to take on Upswing Poker co-founder Doug Polk and he pleased both the commentators and viewers by making the non-standard call.

The pot was now $172,800 and Polk had $282,000 left behind.

5♥4♣Q♦The turn was the J♣ and now the commentators remind us that Polk has been getting needled by the table for being too tight.

Maybe with that in mind, Polk reaches for more chips and fires out a second barrel of $70,000. The commentators are now astounded when Keating instantly makes the call with a confident look on his face.

The 3♥ river is good for Keating and he checks to Polk again. And with limited thought Polk now shoves in his remaining $137,000 to leave Keating muttering out loud how he might have overplayed his hand.

After barely a minute’s thought, though, Alan Keating smiles and throws a single chip into the middle to signify a call and Doug Polk’s face says it all.

A great hand played between two great players.

Monster pot alert! 💰💰💰 @Mister_Keating faces maximum pressure from Peter in tonight’s episode of High Stakes Poker.

All seasons available on https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG . Use code HSP14 for $20 off your first year.

What a freakin’ hand! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/et7vZImS8X

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 25, 2025

Is there nothing that Alan Keating cannot do on High Stakes Poker? Back in March he pulled off this exact same trick against Peter Wang in a pot worth $911,000.

A month later and he broke the record for the largest pot ever seen on the show when he scooped a whopping $1.4 million.

With a hand reading ability as finely-tuned as this, surely it’s only a matter of time before we see him dipping his toes into the world of high roller poker tournaments.