On 10/29, GSN aired the 10th episode of the 4th season of High Stakes Poker! After you saw Gabe and AJ arguing, they went to the felt. It had the same players seated as last week (Eli Elezra, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Brandon Adams, Sammy Farha, Jamie Gold, and Phil Galfond). As soon as the show started, AJ made an announcement that should make the next episodes very interesting, “This is the last time the buyin will be $100,000, starting next time the buyin climbs to $500,000.” There will be a minimum of $4,500,000 on the table, I can not wait to see that!
The show starts off with Farha posting the mandatory $1200 straddle, and action folds to Galfond who makes it $4,500 to go in MP with T
7. He had been playing very tight and he had only played two hands in the previous episodes (QQ and JJ). Everyone must have thought he had a big hand and they had some implied odds, because he was called by 5 people. Elezra had 7
6, Negreanu Q
9, Harman 44, Adams 44
, and Fahra with his monster 83. The pot was $27,800 and the flop came out 7 K A giving Negreanu a flush draw and Galfond/Elezra a pair of sevens. Still there wasn’t much for anyone here and it checked around by everyone. The turn brought the J, and again it checked around. On the river the J fell and everyone checked again. At showdown this hand should have been chopped by Elezra and Galfond, but Galfond mistakenly tossed his hand into the muck. I’m sure he thought there was no way his pair of 7s would win, but goes to show you that you shouldn’t much your hand until you know for sure you’re beat (once your hand is in the muck it is dead.) Elezra ended up winning the $27,800 pot and for some reason gave $4,500 to Jennifer afterwards.
Later in the show, 4 people limp to Hellmuth who has the $1200 straddle on and Hellmuth makes it $16,200 with AA. Fahra calls with K9 and Negreanu obliges with 74. Negreanu checked in the dark, and Phil also checks a flop of TJ2. Phil had been trying to trap Sammy for the last 5 or 6 episodes and for the most part it had been working (last episode Phil said he was up about $400,000 and most of that came from Sammy.) However, Sammy instantly checked. The turn came the J and Daniel fired out $25,000. This had to have scared Phil a bit with the Jack pairing, so he just called. He could have also been just calling here hoping Sammy would come along with some random pair. Sammy folded, and the river fell the 3. Daniel quickly checked and Phil value bet $30,000 with his Aces. He knew there was no way he was beat once Daniel checked the river, and Daniel quickly folded earning him another pot, this one worth $131,800. After the hand Phil confirmed he was again trying to trap Sammy saying, “I checked the flop incase Sammy wanted to bluff at it.”
Later in the show, Gold was the $1200 straddle and 4 players limped to him. Jamie must have sensed weakness and wanted to steal the pot, so he made it $8,200 with his K7. However, everyone that limped in also called, Elezra with 97, Harman with T9, Adams with 86, and Farha with A9. After everyone called Jamie did one of his talks saying he has absolutely nothing and wishes he didn’t raise now. However the flop came 373 giving him and Eli top pair, Adams and Farha checked and Gold bet $20,000 into a $41,800 pot. Eli though for a while because he had three people behind him, but decided to call and everyone else folded. The turn came 2 and it went check/check, the river fell the 6 and it went check/check again. I think Jamie missed a bet here and Gabe also commented on it saying, “I think some of the people who want to be the best bluffers in poker should learn to value bet once in a while.” This wasn’t the first time on this show that Jamie missed a value bet on the river. Gold commented in an earlier episode this season about how he wants to be known as the best bluffer in poker, and knowing that as your image you need to squeeze out some more value when you have the best hand. This is more on what I was saying last week about your table image, you can value bet more light because people will call you lighter, just like you can get away with some more bluffs with a tighter image.
The very next hand you get to see Hellmuth doing more of this trapping. It is a prety dangerous play, especially if it checked around, but Phil is confident with his post flop game well enough to try plays like this. Negreanu limped in MP with QT, and Hellmuth limped in right behind him with KK. This causes Adams to limp on the button with 97o, and Sammy decides to fall right into Phil’s trap again. He says “It’s getting late, I’m going to gamble,” and makes it $11,200 with J7. Negreanu calls and Phil instantly says “I raise $150,000” making it $161,200 to go. Sammy does his typical chip dance then folds, and Negreanu folds. I think Phil bet way too much here, and tried to make it look like he was steaming or something. Sammy is the kind of gambling player to call a raise up to $40,000 so I he might have missed out on some value here. But then again, if Sammy would have had any pair like 8s or 9s or something he probably would have called.
This next hand just shows how much of a degenerate gambler Sammy is. His preflop hand selection is not one I would advise, and he plays many hands that I consider absolute junk for large raises. Sammy made is $4,000 with Q7, Jamie called with 44, and Eli re-raised up to $23,000 with 88. Now Sammy’s raise isn’t so bad, he was the first into the pot. But when someone comes back over the top, it’s time to let go; but not Sammy. He chose to call the $23,000 and Jamie did as well making it three to the flop with the pot at $71,900. The flop of K6Q was checked through, bringing the turn 5 and Sammy fires out $40,000. Even though Sammy plays crazy, his strength is being able to make value bets when he is ahead like this. Jamie folded and Eli called after some deliberation. The river brought a blank 2, and Sammy bet the rest of Eli’s chips, which was $41,000. When Eli called on the turn he was pretty much committed and was getting almost 5:1 on the river (pot was $191,900), but thought for a long time. He eventually decided to fold, and it was the right move because he was beat. But it is very hard folding on the river for such a good price. As Gabe said, it had a lot to do with Sammy’s demeanor.
The last hand wasn’t very exciting but took about 8 minutes to complete because Hellmuth was trying to do his typical insurance deal getting in while ahead. He had K7 against Eli’s K9 on a board of TQK7, and Daniel maked a funny comment saying “What is it about money that you hate?” Phil is known for making this deals, and he always gives them in other peoples favor. If he is a 4.5 favorite he will give 3.5 odds, etc. I guess he likes to win money when he gets sucked out on, but its just a sucker bet that must cost him a lot of money for the stakes he plays. The river ended up chopping the pot anyway, so no money was lost.
And that did it for episode 10 and this session. If you like this show, you will not want to miss the remaining episodes. Starting next week, they are raising the minimum buyin from $100,000 up to $500,000! That means with 9 players there will always be at least $4,500,000 on the table. There very well could be pots over $1,000,000, which will make this easily the largest cash game ever on television! Also, other high stakes players will be joining the table for the first time this season, such as Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein and billionaire Guy Laliberte. I can not wait to see the action and huge pots, so be sure to watch next weeks episode!
High Stakes Poker runs every Monday at 9:00 PM ET on GSN .