Poker Amateur Andy Taylor Shines in The Big Game on Tour Season 3

PokerStars The Big Game on Tour is back for Season 3 with the first episode having aired on Sunday, May 17. The new season of the popular show came a bit out of nowhere as PokerStars did not organize any auditions that would suggest there was more Big Game to come. The reason for this became clear about a week ago when the new season was announced, explaining that the Loose Cannons we’ll be seeing in the coming weeks are actually candidates from earlier auditions who didn’t make the cut. A few of them were handpicked to receive a surprise opportunity, and the first one to take a seat at the table is Andy Taylor.

Andy Taylor, an operations manager from Canada who is also involved with non-profit work helping young athletes develop their skills and mindsets, is a poker amateur. However, from what we’ve seen during the first episode and the first two dozen hands, he has every intention of putting the time he has at the table to good use. Jumping Straight into the Mix Most Loose Cannons are somewhat shy and timid at the start of the session, folding everything but premiums as they try to get comfortable. Andy is clearly not in that group, though, as he was eager to start putting his chips to work as soon as possible. Just a few hands into the session, he was able to pick up a nice pot against O’Malley when his straight card hit on the river to take down O’Malley’s flopped two pair. This gave the Loose Cannon some additional ammo and more importantly, some confidence moving forward.

The most significant pot of the night came when he flopped the nuts with 7-5 in a hand against Shaun Deeb and ‘3Coin’. ‘3Coin’ was the one driving the action with a top pair, but the board ran out pretty scary, with a possible flush draw appearing on the turn and the board pairing on the river. Taylor may have missed an opportunity to win more money here, but he still picked up $17,000 that accumulated in the middle to put him over $21,000 to the good after the first session. We don’t know what cards have in store, but it certainly looks like Andy Taylor won’t be sitting on his hands. From what we’ve seen so far, if he catches a few lucky hands, he could walk away a big winner, as he’s not afraid to get in there and battle it out.