Boxer Ryan Garcia made his long-awaited return to Hustler Casino Live on Wednesday, sparring with HCL regulars including Mariano Grandoli and Andy Stacks.
Garcia, who is 23-1 with 19 knockouts in his professional boxing career, most recently stepped into the ring back in April when he went up against Gervonta Davis in a high-profile pay-per-view bout between previously unbeaten champions. Davis got the KO win in Round 7 with a stinging body punch, as Garcia suffered the first loss of his career.
Since that time, Garcia popped up on the poker radar as part of the field in the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event. Garcia made his way into the money in that tournament, finishing 567th for $32,500.
Despite showing up late in the game on Wednesday, which was playing at stakes of $25/$50/$100, Garcia had an immediate impact. Over the course of just a couple of hours, Garcia, who wore a balaclava-style ski mask all night, got involved in a pair of big hands in which he pushed all in on bluffs, to varying levels of success.
On the first hand, Garcia four-bet all-in with 
, attempting to drive out Andy Stacks and Linglin Zeng. Andy Stacks re-shoved with 
to isolate Garcia and drove Linglin’s pocket nines out.
With the $25,000 pot pushed in his direction, Garcia continued to stay in the mix over the hour that followed.
Late in the night, Garcia got involved in another pot with Linglin. After Linglin opened the betting with 
, Garcia three-bet from the cutoff with 
and Linglin called. Garcia proceeded to bet every street on a board that ran out 
. Despite missing his small heart flush draw, Garcia made a pot-sized shove all in for $16,225 on the river – putting Linglin, who was down big on the night, to the test.
With his second big bluff of the night falling short, Garcia made his departure from the game. His first appearance on HCL in nearly a year was done, but Garcia, who has also cashed in a variety of poker tournaments at Wynn Las Vegas and locally throughout Los Angeles over the last two years, seems likely to pop up again in the poker world soon.