This is the 9th episode of High Stakes Poker and there are the same players as last week for episode 8. (Eli Elezra, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Brandon Adams, Sammy Farha, Jamie Gold, and Phil Galfond).
The first hand of the night starts off with Eli Elezra limping in with QQ on the button, which is a pretty strange play, especially for Eli. I’m sure he was hoping Negreanu or Hellmuth would raise so he could come over the top, but neither fell into the trap. Instead, Negreanu calls in the sb with T6 and Hellmuth checks his A6 in the bb. The flop came down A
J
8, where it went check/check, Eli bet $1,500, Daniel folded and Phil called instantly. Phil checks the turn in the dark, which he has been known to do a lot, and Eli bets $4500 when an 8
falls. Phil thinks for a moment and calls again (pot is now $14,600). Phil checks a blank 3 on the river, Eli fires $7000 and Phil instantly calls winning a $28,000 pot. I guess Eli made the 1/2 pot bet on the river because he put Phil on a Jack instead of an Ace, since that was really the only hand that would call that he beat. Phil played the hand well making the most if he was ahead and losing the least if he was behind.
The very next hand was an interesting one. Brandon Adams put on the $1200 straddle and Farha put on the $2400. Harman then comments to Gold to put on the $4800, which he declines. Sammy actually offered to put on half, but then took it back when Jamie agreed (typical Sammy). When Gold looks down at his cards, he says “Aye yi yi!” because he wishes he would have now looking at AK
, and he raises to $12,400. It folds around to Hellmuth in the sb who is holding AK, he asks for a chip count from Gold who says he has $270,000 behind (I believe Hellmuth had him covered). He then decides to just call the raise, which is pretty much what Hellmuth would always do there. Many people would re-raise with the AKs there (I probably would as well) but Phil has a much different style then most players. He likes to see flops and rarely re-raises preflop with his hands. It has its strengths and weaknesses, but it must work for him having 11 WSOP bracelets. He also could have put Jamie on a really big hand because of how he was acting. Harman and Adams fold, and of course Sammy defends his straddle with 87o.
The flop is a monster for Hellmuth, 4 7 K and he instantly checks. Sammy also checks and after some thinking Gold bets $30,000 into the $39,800 pot. Once it gets back to Phil he announces a re-raise and makes it $150,000 to go but doesn’t put any chips in. Fahra folds and Gold seems frustrated because Phil did not put the money in the pot. Gold tells Phil “I’m not folding, so just put the money in.” Phil finally does saying “alright I guess you got me,” and Jamie goes into the tank. He keeps talking about how he thinks they have the same hand or is being free-rolled (which is the case.) While Gold was thinking, Gabe Kaplan says “I think what happened here is Phil bet too much money” and I agree with him. If he put Jamie on a king, especially a strong one like AK he should have made it $70,000 – $80,000. I really don’t think a worse hand ever calls here. One reason I think Phil made such an over raise is because he wanted to commit himself. Also he wanted to make it look like a drawing hand, perhaps a spade draw. (Later in the show Phil also says he wanted to raise Jamie out incase he had Aces). After much deliberation Gold says “I guess I’m either chopping or drawing dead” and makes a really good laydown. I think the only hand Phil could ever have here that he would be ahead of would he a KQ, but that’s pretty much it. Phil scooped up the $219,800 with a big smile on his face.
Later in the episode Jen Harman plays a hand that shows she is paying attention to her table image. If you are familiar with the first 8 episodes of High Stakes Poker, you will see the extreme differences in style between Harman and someone like Farha. Jen Harman plays very tight, and waits for good hands, and Farha is a complete degenerate playing any two cards. Both have their advantages, but what matters the most is knowing what other people think of you. In this hand, Jamie has the $1200 straddle on and Elezra called with K9. Negreanu raises to $5600 with AT, and it folds to Harman on the button who makes it $10,500 with QJ. Whenever someone makes a min-raise like that the first thing people think is KK or AA and with Jen’s tight image she can get away with plays like this. Plus QJs isn’t a bad hand to do this with either, if she hits the right flop she can win a lot of money. It folds back around to Daniel who calls the $4900 raise. The flop comes 7 9 K, Daniel checks and Jennifer bets $20,000 into a $25,100 pot. Daniel instantly folds and Jennifer scoops the pot. (Eli would have flopped top two!)
Later in the show, Galfond posts the straddle and it folds to Adams on the button. He makes it $4200 with 87 and immediately Farha re-raises to $20,000 with 99 in the sb right into Gold who holds AQ in the bb. Gold decides to just call the $20,000 and Adams folds. (This must have been frustrating for Adams, he was playing very tight and every time he raised he seemed to get re-raised.) The flop came T2Q and it goes check/check. I like this check from Gold, especially against Farha who seems to fire chips at any sign of weakness. The turn drops a 6 and Sammy bets $25,000 into the $46,200 pot. Gold immediately announces raise and makes it $75,000 to go. Sammy thinks for a short time and says “If you have a pair you got it” then calls and checks dark. Gold immediately checks the 5 on the river and wins the $196,200 pot.
Later in the show Phil Hellmuth starts complaining about how some of the players are playing way too tight. He was referring to Brandon Adams and Phil Galfond (who is OMGClayAiken on Full Tilt) when he said “Maury [the shows manager] is suppose to invite rich billionaires to this game and he invited the tightest person he could find.” This whole conversation started by calling Hellmuth a nit, and I guess Hellmuth feels it doesn’t matter if he plays tight because he is “Phil Hellmuth” but the other players need to loosen up. Right in the middle of this conversation Harman raised to $5000 with A7 and Adams didn’t know what to do with his KK, but eventually made is $16,000. Harman thought and said to Adams, “When is the last time you played a pot?” and eventually just threw it away preflop. I wonder if this hand would have played out differently if he wasn’t being called a nit right before he re-raised.
Well that pretty much did it for the big and interesting hands from this show. This episode seemed to be a bit more snug than the others and Sammy toned down a bit. So far this season has been full of action and we are about half way through. The preview for next week shows Phil Hellmuth in a lot of pots and action, and in one shot he raises $150,000 against Sam Farha. Can’t wait to see the hands!
High Stakes Poker runs every Monday at 9:00 PM ET on GSN, so be sure to catch the new episode next week!