Maria Ho Dominates As Game of Gold Becomes A Fight For Survival
Game of Gold's third week saw one team seal their winning spot in round two, while another pair of teams battled on the brink of elimination.
The lightning strike of a show continues to generate drama on and off the set as the players compete for a $456,000 first place prize in a series of poker themed team challenges.
The increased stakes seemed to have actually calmed the villain from Week TwoDaniel "Jungleman" Cateswho mostly just chatted and napped this time around. Meanwhile, as he got closer to elimination, the tension started to bring out other players' true colors as teammates Charlie Carrel and David Williams fought in the green room.
We also got a new hero this week with an astonishing display from Maria Ho who ran over three opponents in a row and jumped straight to the top of the gold coin standings.
Game Of Gold ResultsStart Of Week Three
| Position | Player | Coins |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Johan "YoH Viral" Guilbert | 190 |
| 2nd | Josh Arieh | 120 |
| 3rd | Charlie Carrel | 105 |
| 4th | Fedor Holz | 95 |
| 5th | David Williams | 80 |
| 6th | Maria Ho | 75 |
| 7th | Nikita Luther | 69 |
| 8th | Olga Iermolcheva | 50 |
| 9th | Daniel "Jungleman" Cates | 41 |
| 10th | Andy Stacks | 67 |
| 11th | Luka "RobinPoker" Robinson | 31 |
| 12th | Kyna England | 26 |
| Eliminated | Daniel Negreanu | - |
| Eliminated | Michael Soyza | - |
| Eliminated | Kevin Martin | - |
| Eliminated | Jason Koon | - |
Three In A Row For Ho
The winners' bracket was up first with Maria Ho repping Team Fedor and online poker legend Daniel Cates repping Team Johan.
Cates seemed to have calmed down a little after his first-round sook, chatting it up with Ho hand after hand. The talking may have been a mistake, as Ho made a string of good reads, folds, and bluffs, allowing her to take the lead and keep it. Eventually, Cates got it in with 64 and Ho called him off with Q5. The queen-high held and Kyna England replaced Cates at the table.
England took two hard hands right off the bat with pocket threes then ace-king preflop costing her half her stack. Ho continued her roll, knocking England out and moving on to play Johan "YoH Viral" Guilbert in a pair of insect-eye glasses.
Of the three Team Johan members, Guilbert put up the most convincing fight against Ho. Though Cates lost interest back in the green room, snoring his way through much of the match.
"I was actually meant to be meditating," he said when England woke him up.
Cates woke up just in time to see Ho accidentally slow-roll Guilbert, sending him to the rail, locking Team Fedor's spots at the final table, and earning herself and her teammates a hefty gold coin bonus.
Teams For Round Two
| Team Johan | Team Charlie | Team Fedor | Team Nikita |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johan Guilbert | Charlie Carrel | Fedor Holz | Nikita Luther |
| Dan Cates | Andy Stacks | Maria Ho | Lukas Robinson |
| Kyna England | David Williams | Josh Arieh | Olga Iermolcheva |
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Loser's Bracket
The second episode of the week had much higher stakes with both teams playing for their Game of Gold survival. The losers bracket from the first heads up round pitched Team Nikita against team Charlie.
"No negative energy," Robinson told Iermolcheva as she arrived in the Team Nikita green room.
"We have not great chances," was Iermolcheva's response.
In the other green room, David Williams and Charlie Carrel were locked in an escalating confrontation as Carrel insisted on playing first for the second time.
Carrel went first for his team, playing Iermolcheva in the first match. Some good luck early on saw him get it in with jacks against Iermolcheva's tens preflop.
Without much left in her stack, Iermolcheva was forced to gamble shortly thereafter and Carrel was able to outflip her. That put coins in Charlie's pocket and Lukas Robinson in the seat across from him.
Robinson is usually a chatty player and Carrel likes to mug for the cameras. So it was a surprise when neither spoke more than a few words all match. Robinson was determined not to give away any table talk tells and Carrel wasn't able to get him to break, though Robinson was able to break him. The match had some huge swings, but the last swing went to Robinson who, with blinds rising, got it in with K8 against Carrel's J7.
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With everything still on the line, episode two wraps up with Williams joining Robinson on the floor. Each of them was the penultimate breath of their team, but the game felt more relaxed than the previous matches. Williams and Robinson chatted away, exchanging small pots and the chip lead back and forth until a mistimed bluff from Robinson gave Williams a comfortable lead as the stacks got short.
When the inevitable 60-40 shove-call came, Williams was on the right side of it and held. Robinson went back to the green room.
Nikita Luther hit the table and after a tense hand in which Williams almost got through a massive river bluff and another where she got a semi-bluff of her own through she was in a commanding position. Williams was able to survive several all-ins, but Luther got him on the last one. Williams went to the rail and Andy Stacks replaced him.
Survivor
Everything was now on two sets of shoulders. Andy Stacks and Nikita Luther. The losing player would be sending their team home to watch the finale on Youtube, while the winners would have another stab at some more gold coins in round three.
Midway through their match, with Luther on the back foot and Andy wielding the big stack, the episode crashes into its weekly cliffhanger. Leaving us to find out how Round Two pans out and what's in store for Round Three in this week's episodes, airing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on the GGPoker Youtube Channel.
Game Of Gold ResultsEnd Of Week Three
| Position | Player | Coins |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Maria Ho | 261 |
| 2nd | Josh Arieh | 220 |
| 3rd | Fedor Holz | 195 |
| 4th | Johan "YoH Viral" Guilbert | 190 |
| 5th | Charlie Carrel | 135 |
| 6th | David Williams | 110 |
| 7th | Nikita Luther | 99 |
| 8th | Andy Stacks | 67 |
| 9th | Lukas "RobinPoker" Robinson | 61 |
| 10th | Olga Iermolcheva | 50 |
| 11th | Daniel "Jungleman" Cates | 41 |
| 12th | Kyna England | 26 |
| Eliminated | Daniel Negreanu | - |
| Eliminated | Michael Soyza | - |
| Eliminated | Kevin Martin | - |
| Eliminated | Jason Koon | - |
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