Sunday, March 8th brought episode two of High Stakes Poker on GSN. There was plenty of action on this week, with Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Peter Eastgate being involved in some of the biggest pots once again.

This week’s episode featured the same players as episode one: Daniel Negreanu, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Tom Dwan, Illari Shahmies, Barry Greenstein and David Benyamine.

The first interesting hand occurred after Eli put on a sleeping straddle.  Daniel and Doyle both called with 96s and KK, repectively. The flop came Jd5h5d and Eli check raised a bet from Daniel and call from Doyle with A6o from 8,500 to 25,000. Daniel folded his 96s and Doyle flat called 25,000. Eli felt that Daniel was taking a shot at the pot and thought Doyle was relatively weak, either with Jx or a flush draw. Eli could easily represent a 5 as he was in the straddle in an unraised pot. It was a pretty good move by Eli.

With the pot at 77,700 on the turn, Eli decided to carry on representing the 5 with a $55,00 bet.  Doyle quickly called. At this stage, Doyle had to be thinking, “If he’s lucky enough to have a 5 then so be it.” I thought he would be calling most triple barrels on blank cards. A Jack or Diamonds were the only possibility of Eli winning the pot. The river was a Deuce of Hearts and Eli gave up after Doyle checked to him. Doyle shipped the pot.

The second interesting hand occurred when Dwan raised KQhh to $3,000 and Shahmies 3bet A3o on the button to $10,000. Dwan floped a straight on a TdJcAc board and both players checked the flop. 7c came on the turn and Dwan checked his straight again.  Shahmies checked too. A 5s came on the river and Dwan sneakily checked for the 3rd time. Shahmies bet $16,000 on the river. Dwan wasn’t scared of the flush as Shahmies would’ve bet his draws on the flop. Dwan check raised the river to $60,000. After much deliberation, Shahmies decided that there is no way he could have had a hand and made the call.

The last and best hand of the day has sparked many comments from a lot of players and has been talked about extensively on many different forums. Barry opened the pot UTG for 2,500 with AA and all 7 other players called to see the flop. The flop came 2cTd2s and Barry lead out with $10,000 into a $21,600 pot. Dwan, to Barry’s immediate left, tanked and raised to $37,000 with QTcc. Peter Eastgate called with 4h2d in the blinds and Barry called.

The turn came 7d and Peter and Barry check. Now, at this stage, Barry and Peter’s hands were pretty face up. Barry obviously had JJ+, maybe Tens full, but it’s doubtful he’d lead with that on the flop. Eastage obviously had a weak Deuce or Tx hand that wasn’t that strong, and Dwan thought he could get them both off it. Dwan bet $104,200 into a $133,500 pot.  Eastgate, being $500k deep, folded as it was likely all his money was at stake with a weak Deuce.  Barry folded the AA. What a great play by Dwan! After the hand, Dwan even says that Eastgate had the best hand and bet Doyle on it.

You can hear Barry’s post game analysis of the hand here: http://pokerroad.com/radio/tips-from-the-bear/player/hsp-season-5-episode-2-aces-vs-dwan-and-eastgate