Hellmuth's Home Game Season 2 has opened with a premiere that included a rapper's early exit, a river bluff, back-to-back aces on the river and a royal flush. The new season of the poker cash game show airs on CBS Sports on Monday nights, sponsored by BetRivers, and the first episode featured rapper 24kGoldn joining a table of professionals and amateurs.
Here is a recap of the Hellmuth's Home Game premiere and, more usefully, what each hand can teach a player at home.
The Setup
The episode was filmed at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, with no commentary. That format puts the focus on table talk and the cards themselves, giving viewers a sense of what a private home-style game feels like.
The blinds were $25/$50 with a $50 big blind ante. The players and their starting stacks were:
| Player | Starting stack |
|---|---|
| Phil Hellmuth | $5,000 |
| Phillip "P3" Hellmuth III | $5,000 |
| Dan "Jungleman" Cates | $20,000 |
| Ethan "Rampage" Yau | $25,000 |
| 24kGoldn | $5,000 |
| Steven Jones Jr. | $5,000 |
| DJ Washburn | $7,000 |
Stack sizes matter. Cates and Yau started with far deeper stacks than the rest, meaning they could apply pressure to the shorter stacks and absorb variance. That is a common feature of real cash games, where a few deep stacks dominate the dynamic.
The Key Hands
24kGoldn's early exit
The rapper's night ended quickly. He held ace-king, A♦K♥, and ran into Phil Hellmuth's pocket aces. The players ran the board three times, a common way of reducing variance in large pots, but the aces held up.
Ace-king against aces is one of poker's most familiar "cooler" situations. Ace-king is a strong hand, and a player is unlikely to fold it preflop in a deep-stacked game. The lesson for amateurs is that winning big pots needs good cards but also tolerance for the occasional disaster. Our poker odds calculator shows how often ace-king beats aces: not often, but not never. Running the board multiple times does not change the expected value, but it narrows the range of outcomes.
Dan Cates' river bluff
Cates bet $3,500 on a four-spade board holding 7♥2♥, with no spade, and forced both opponents to fold. This is a bluff with the worst hand in poker, but it works because it tells a clear story. On a four-spade board, a player representing the flush needs to have it in the range. If the opponents hold weak spades or no spade at all, they cannot call comfortably.
What makes the bluff clever is that the bet size is large enough to make a call painful but small enough to risk a modest amount compared with the pot. Our guide on how to bluff explains how to pick spots like this, and our page on pot odds shows what price your opponent is getting on a call.
Aces on the river, twice
P3's pocket queens fell to Steven Jones Jr.'s ace-jack, A♠J♥, in back-to-back runs, with aces landing on the river both times. The first time is bad luck. The second time, in the same hand when running it twice, is the kind of result that makes a player feel the game is rigged, even though it is just variance.
Ace-jack against queens is a pre-flop underdog, but it is not a huge one, and a river ace is a standard way to beat queens. The takeaway is that even the best hands lose frequently, and the way to deal with that is through bankroll management and emotional control. Our page on tilt discusses how to avoid letting a bad beat change your decisions.
Quad aces
DJ Washburn flopped trips with A♦A♣ and improved to quads on the turn. This is a rare hand, and it demonstrates how hard it is to get paid with a monster. The more obvious your hand looks, the less action you receive, and in a table of professionals players are wary of big bets on dry boards.
If you ever hold a monster, think about how to extract value. Often it means betting small, giving opponents a chance to bluff or call with weaker holdings. Our poker strategy hub covers value betting in more detail.
Cates makes a royal flush
The standout moment came when Cates made a royal flush on the river holding A♠Q♠, scooping a $10,725 pot. For context, a royal flush in seven cards happens about once in every 30,940 hands, so it is a once-in-a-lifetime moment for most players. Our poker hand rankings page lists the odds of each hand.
Royal flushes also tend to be bad for the player who loses, which is why the pot was only $10,725. A strong hand like a flush or full house can give opponents the confidence to put in money, and the result in the episode was a sizable but not enormous pot.
The Final Results
When the night ended, Ethan "Rampage" Yau was the winner at +$15,900. Dan Cates finished as runner-up at +$11,175, and DJ Washburn was the biggest loser at -$20,000.
Yau's win is a reminder that even in a game filled with eye-catching hands, the biggest winner is often the player who quietly accumulates small edges. Cates' royal flush helped his result, but Yau still finished ahead. Meanwhile, Washburn's quad aces did not save his night, which shows how volatile cash games are.
Why These Shows Matter
Poker on television has gone through several phases, from hole-card cameras in the early 2000s to the streamed high-stakes cash games of the past decade. Hellmuth's Home Game fits a more relaxed model: a private-game feel, a mix of professionals and celebrities, and a focus on conversation.
For the poker industry, programs like this keep the game visible and attract new players, especially when a celebrity like 24kGoldn joins. Sponsors such as BetRivers also link the show to regulated online poker and casino products in states where those are legal. If you want to see where else poker airs, our poker on TV guide lists the regular broadcasts and streams.
What This Means for Players
You can learn from a show like this without trying to copy it. Here are some practical points.
- Stack depth changes strategy. Cates and Yau began with deeper stacks, which allowed more bluffing and more flexibility. If you play cash games, pay attention to effective stacks before deciding how aggressively to play.
- Do not fear the cooler. Ace-king against aces and queens against ace-jack are normal events. A sound bankroll lets you absorb them.
- Bluffs need a story. Cates' four-spade bluff worked because it represented a believable hand. Think about the story your bets tell.
- Do not rely on one hand. A royal flush is thrilling, but results are the sum of many decisions. The player with the most chips was not the one who made the rarest hand.
If you are looking to practice similar situations, start with low-stakes cash games, review your hands and use equity tools. Our bankroll management guide will help you set limits for each stake level.
What to Watch Next
With Season 2 now under way, the next episodes will likely bring more guest players and more big hands. The mix of high-stakes pros and newcomers makes the show a good source of discussion material, and each episode offers examples of both smart play and variance.
For poker fans, the premiere sets a high bar: a celebrity guest, a royal flush, a brilliant bluff and a night where the biggest winner was not the player with the biggest hand. If this is the start of the season, it should be an entertaining ride on Monday nights.