A WSOP kings fold hand from Day 3 of the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event is already being talked about as one of the wildest preflop pots of the summer. With more than 3,000 players still alive on July 9, 2026, three players found themselves tangled in a four bet, five bet war that ended with one man drawing dead, one man folding kings face up, and one man stacking up for a huge run into Day 4.
A Preflop Firestorm on Day 3
According to PokerNews Brasil, the hand started innocently enough. Arnaud Mattern opened the pot for 5,500 from his seat, a fairly standard raise size for the blind level in play. It looked like just another preflop raise in a $10,000 buy in tournament with thousands of players still grinding away.
Then things escalated fast. Delmiro Toledo, sitting with a pair of kings, three bet to 20,000. Matthew Radcliffe, also holding a pair of kings, came back over the top with a four bet to 70,000.
Mattern, who held pocket aces the entire time, simply called. He was letting the pot build while sitting on the best possible starting hand, a decision that would define the rest of the hand.
The Betting Breakdown: Raise, Three Bet, Four Bet, Five Bet
With Mattern flat calling the four bet, Toledo was not done. He fired a five bet to 150,000, a massive commitment given the stack depths at play. Radcliffe answered by moving all in for 153,000, putting his tournament life on the line with kings that he had no way of knowing were duplicated by an opponent still in the hand.
Mattern then raised to 300,000, a bet that effectively isolated him against Radcliffe’s shove while still leaving Toledo to make a decision with real chips behind. The progression is a useful reminder of how quickly preflop pots can balloon once multiple premium hands collide. It is also a good moment to brush up on the fundamentals at poker hand rankingssince the entire hand hinges on the fact that aces beat kings, but only if no king shows up on the board.
Toledo, staring down a five bet pot with a shove still to act behind him, tanked and eventually folded his kings face up before mucking them. The table buzzed. Two players had shown or were about to show kings in the same hand, and a third had just called off a massive raise without blinking.
Why Toledo’s Face Up Fold Was Actually Correct
On the surface, folding kings face up in a hand this large looks gut wrenching. Kings are the second best starting hand in hold’em, and watching them hit the muck after that much money went into the middle can look like a mistake to railbirds who do not know what the other players are holding.
But Toledo’s read was sharp. Facing a call from Mattern after a four bet and then a shove from Radcliffe, the range of hands that make sense for both opponents leans heavily toward aces or kings themselves. Toledo could not beat aces, and against Radcliffe’s shoved kings he would have been racing at best.
Given that Mattern still had chips behind and had shown no hesitation through multiple raises, folding was the disciplined play. It is easy to criticize a face up fold from the outside, but the math and the reads both supported getting away from the hand.
The Rare Coincidence of Two Kings and One Set of Aces
Set aside the strategy and just look at the cards. Delmiro Toledo held king clubs and king diamonds. Matthew Radcliffe held king spades and king hearts. Between them, they accounted for all four kings in the deck, while Mattern held aces of spades and diamonds.
The odds of two players at the same table holding pocket kings simultaneously, while a third holds pocket aces, are vanishingly small. It is the kind of hand that poker rooms remember for years, not just because of the money involved but because of how rare the card distribution was in the first place.
Mattern’s Chip Surge Toward Day 4
The board ran out 9 spades, 6 hearts, 2 clubs, 7 spades, and jack diamonds, with no ace or king appearing. Radcliffe, all in with kings against aces, was drawing dead the moment Mattern called. No runout could save him, and he was eliminated from the 2026 WSOP Main Event.
For Mattern, the hand was a launching pad. According to PokerNews Brasil, he was sitting on 877,000 chips immediately after the pot concluded, firmly among the chip leaders on Day 3. He kept building and bagged 1.3 million chips at the end of the night, setting up a strong start to Day 4 of the Main Event.
The Broader Lesson: Deep Stack Preflop Poker at the WSOP
Hands like this one are a reminder of just how violent preflop poker can get once stacks are deep enough to support multiple streets of raising before a single community card is dealt. A four bet and five bet sequence with three players still involved is rare even in high stakes tournament poker.
For recreational players watching from home, the takeaway is not that folding kings is always correct, or that calling with aces is always safe. It is that reading betting patterns, stack depths, and opponent tendencies matters more than the raw strength of any two cards. Toledo’s fold looked painful in the moment, but it was the kind of decision that separates deep tournament runs from early exits. Mattern’s patient call with aces turned into one of the defining pots of his Day 3.
Frequently Asked Questions
What hands did each player hold in this WSOP kings fold hand?
Arnaud Mattern held pocket aces, Delmiro Toledo held pocket kings, and Matthew Radcliffe also held pocket kings. Both Toledo and Radcliffe had the same pair at the same time, an unusual coincidence in a hand also involving pocket aces.
Why did Delmiro Toledo fold his kings face up instead of calling?
Facing a call from a four bet plus a shove from another player, the range of realistic holdings pointed toward aces or matching kings. Toledo read the situation correctly and folded to preserve his stack, a decision that proved correct once the cards were revealed.
What happened to Matthew Radcliffe and Arnaud Mattern after the hand?
Radcliffe was eliminated from the 2026 WSOP Main Event after the board ran out with no king or ace. Mattern moved up to 877,000 chips right after the hand and finished Day 3 with 1.3 million chips bagged for Day 4.
