We’re just two episodes into the fourth season of FullTilt’s “Million Dollar Cash Game” and there have already been a slew of huge pots including a $500,000 battle between Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius. The show is currently airing on Sky Sports in the UK and will find air time on Fox Sports later in the year. This year’s line-up is just as strong, if not stronger than in the past three seasons. For those looking for suspense when this airs in the states, the rest of this blog contains spoilers.
The current table has a great mix of tournament professionals like Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Mike Matusow, and Allen Cunningham as well as respected cash game professionals Dwan, Antonius, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, and Andrew Feldman. Ferguson won the 2000 WSOP Main Event and just like Cunningham, has five WSOP bracelets to his name. Matusow is well known for his antics on television, but he does have plenty of skill to back up his mouth, having won three bracelets in the past. Andrew Feldman is the most unfamiliar face at the table. He first honed his talents online and recently became a member of Team FullTilt Poker.
Interestingly enough, a lot of the action has come from the tournament professionals. Chris Ferguson, notorious for his tight style, has been opening up his game post flop with a repertoire of bluffs, value bets, and other advanced plays. Allen Cunningham has also mixed things up nicely, getting all of his money in before the flop a few times, including a spot against Dwan where he lost $75,000 with AQ against his opponent’s AK. Matusow, as always, has been quite talkative at the table. Unfortunately, most of that talk has been about how bad he runs at poker and life. The cards seemed to be heading in his favor until he lost a large pot to Feldman when both players flopped strong flushes. That was not the first cooler the two had played, as just before that pot they were each dealt Pocket Aces and got all of the money in before the flop only to chop the pot.
As one can expect, a lot of battling has been going on between Ivey, Antonius, and Durrrr. These three have played numerous six-figure pots without showdowns, as each one seems intent on taking down every pot they enter. In the second episode, Antonius and Dwan got into a pre-flop raising war. With each player holding over $250,000 Allen Cunningham started the action with a $2,000 raise from under the gun. Durrrr, directly to his left, re-raised to $7,200 holding Pocket Aces. After Matusow and Ivey folded Patrik looked down and found Pocket Kings! With such a strong hand he had no choice but to four-bet to $19,000. The action folded around to Durrrr who then made a five-bet to just over $47,000. Antonius took little time in setting Durrrr all-in and we had the first $500,000 pot of the season. All was not lost for Antonius as the flop contained the King of Spades, handing him a half-million dollar pot and Dwan a pretty tough bad beat.
Gus Hansen was the last player to join the table, but his presence was felt almost immediately. A strange hand occurred when Dwan opened pre-flop with Pocket Kings and was called by Cunningham (who also had Pocket Kings) as well as by Hansen holding pocket Jacks. The flop came 9-4-4 with two spades and Dwan bet about $6,000 into the $12,000 pot. Cunningham called the bet and the action was upon Gus. Looking to use his image to his advantage Hansen shoved his entire $100,000 stack into the pot. Wasting little time Dwan called the bet which forced Cunningham to fold his big pair. The board bricked out and Gus (who had only been dealt a few hands) was already calling for more chips.
A final note on the table, it seems in future weeks the french businessman who goes by “Cyril” will join the action. This will be the public’s first look at the man who went toe-to-toe in Bobby’s Room with the likes of Ivey, Antonius, and Dwan this summer for millions of dollars. It sounds like he enjoys action and is quite the amateur poker player, making him a great addition to the line-up when he finally arrives.