Rob Gronkowski folded the best hand twice. Both times, Antonio Esfandiari was the one applying the pressure.
The retired New England Patriots tight end made his televised poker debut in Season 2 of PokerStars Big Game on Tour, a $100/$200 no-limit hold’em cash game. Esfandiari quickly singled out the four-time Super Bowl champion as his primary target, and after 23 hands, Gronkowski was down $14,400 while Esfandiari was up $12,500.
“This is the Gronk’s first time playing cards on TV,” Esfandiari said before sitting down. “If the right opportunity rises where I can put him to the test, I will act on it.”
He did, more than once.
The Two Bluffs That Shaped the Session
In the first key hand, Gronkowski limped the cutoff with A♠7♦. Esfandiari raised to $800 on the button with 9♣4♣, and Luke Wakelin called from the big blind holding A♣8♣. The flop came 3♠4♠7♣, pairing Gronkowski on top and Esfandiari on the bottom. Gronk led for $1,500 and both players called.
The J♣ on the turn gave Wakelin a nut flush draw. Action checked to Esfandiari, who jammed $50,000 into a pot of roughly $7,300, nearly seven times the pot. Wakelin was drawing to the nuts but faced elimination if he called and lost, so he folded. Gronkowski let go of top pair as well, and Esfandiari scooped with the weakest hand at the table.
In the second hand, the board ran out 6♣9♥J♦ on the flop and Q♠ on the turn, giving Gronkowski top pair, top kicker with A♥Q♣. He checked the river with $14,500 in the pot and $45,900 behind. Esfandiari moved all in as a bluff with just 9♠7♠ for third pair. Gronkowski folded the best hand again.
The Table
Every player bought in for $50,000 except Esfandiari, who started with $100,000. The lineup also included Phil Hellmuth, sports media personality Nick Wright, Rania Nasreddine, who reached consecutive EPT final tables in 2024, and Wakelin, a Florida-raised Brit playing as the staked Loose Cannon.
Before the first hand, Nasreddine walked Gronkowski through basic card security so his opponents could not read his hole cards. He played tight throughout the session, typically folding to a bet when he missed the board, though Esfandiari’s oversized aggression made that approach largely irrelevant. Wakelin made several plays more aggressive than a typical Loose Cannon, but remains down $17,400. Under the show’s format, he can only collect winnings after 150 hands.
Nasreddine finished the session as the table’s biggest winner, up $14,000.
Up Next
The second episode featuring the same six players will air on March 15, 2026, on the PokerStars YouTube channel.
