Wow, I just saw a huge three way pot on Poker After Dark, on the same table as last time. Before you look at the fragment, remember to watch at the terrible body language from the amateur Dee Tiller. He really has no clue between those pros, who are all kinda laughing with this guy. He doesn’t even know what’s going on when they have to split a pot. Let’s watch, starting around 2′15″:

Eli had a huge winning streak last time, but on this episode he experiences the opposite: he loses almost every pot he’s involved in. But of course he’s not going anywhere in this pot with this typical Eli-hand: low suited connectors. Eli flops the absolute nuts and makes a good check behind Kaplan, because he knows exactly that Tiller made a continuation bet in EACH pot he raised preflop. But it’s Gabe Kaplan who check-raises and Eli + Dee both call. When the turn comes the ten of hearts, everybody knows all the money goes in with Dee and Gabe having the nuts and Eli adding a flush draw to his straight. It’s kinda typical for a losing streak that Eli insta calls here, maybe he knows he’s beat but he just doesn’t wanna believe it. And there’s the flush draw of course. G-r-e-a-t pot.

Last time I showed you one of the best single plays I’d ever seen on television. This time I ‘ve one of the greatest ‘on a roll’ sessions from a single player who’s sitting down and playing with the pros, from Eli Elezra on Poker After Dark.

Eli is ruling the table for about half an hour long in this show, starting after about five minutes in the fragment below, where he busts Lederer’s toppair by spiking a set of fours on the turn. Btw, it’s funny to see how the players (and Elezra and Brunson in specific) are trying to start a round of live straddles each time and Howard Lederer being the only one who constantly resists

After that hand , Eli wins about 80% of the following hands, which you can see in the fragment right here, where the episode continues. What Eli does very well is not showing his big hands (because he’s hitting reasonably good), but showing his bluff with the 86 of diamonds for example. The consternation on the face of Howard Lederer is priceless

That’s one of the basic rules in poker. If you don’t follow it, it will have its influence on your discipline and will certainly cost you money in the long run. Nevertheless does it happen to even the greatest players in the world. Even Phil Hellmuth.

It’s in that same cash game on Poker After Dark (episode 5) that Phil is creating a certain rage against Tom Dwan. It has been going on for a while already and it has costed him a lot of chips, when he collides again with Durrrr in the following hand (starts at 7′30″):

Dwan raises it up preflop again with Q7 suited again and Phil insta calls with AT off. Of course, if Phil really thinks Dwan is raising too many hands, why doesn’t he reraise here with a decent hand like AT? Mike Baxter and Guy Laliberté also enter the pot and ‘Silent Mike’ flops the nuts while it’s checked around. Dwan leads out on the turn and Hellmuth INSTA raises to 30k with the OESD. While Dwan gets out of the way, Hellmuth loses an extra chunk of his stack to Baxter this way, who’s the laughing third. This happens a lot when two players get after eachother all the time. Bad move.

Everybody in the poker world knows of course Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan by now, after his appearances in High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. It was in that last show where I saw him make a nice play yesterday.

It was during episode of Season 4, when the PAD Cash Game is being introduced. Watch the fragment yourself below (hand starts at 5′):

While Phil Hellmuth is still telling the rest of the table why he’s the best player in the world , Allan Cunningham raises it up with AT suited but the raise is too small to prevent a family pot. He does flop top pair, but Tom Dwan makes a good play there: he has a gutshot straightdraw (and 6 high) but that doesn’t matter. Tom knows here that Allan can’t call this bet with just Aces in a family pot: Dwan could have easily flopped two pair, a set or even a wheel. This is a perfect example of playing the player instead of playing your own hand.

When you’re playing tournament poker, you will be confronted now and then with the phenomenon of shorthanded poker. Because more and more players will get eliminated, the number of players sitting down at the table will decrease each time somebody leaves. You have to switch gears at those moments, because you’re playing a totally different game from now on: shorthanded poker.

Basically, you can recapitulate the essence of shorthanded poker in one sentence: play more aggressively.  On the one hand because your own hand increases in value (there are less hands to beat) and on the other hand because the other players will play more aggressively because they also realize this fact. This was perfectly demonstrated by Phil Hellmuth on Poker After Dark (after 1′20″):

Phil limps from the small blind with an ace. So why do that if your hand increases in value during a shorthanded game? Because he has won 11 WSOP bracelets and knows that Jean Robert Bellande, who was playing fairly aggressive, also realizes his hand increased in value. So Phil knew Bellande was going to make a move again when he would pick up something and raises all-in instantly. Good play from the master.

Yeah, what DID they think? It’s Phil Hellmuth ladies and gentlemen, playing his best game on Poker After Dark during season 3 (episode 13). I saw the Poker Brat making two consecutive  great plays during ‘Hecklers week’. It all starts in the movie below after two minutes:

First Phil raises it up preflop with KQ off and his friend/enemy Sam Grizzle exactly does what Phil was expecting him to do: to pick on him early in the tournament. Phil performs a little show and then moves in, forcing Sam to lay down his crappy Ace. Subsequently he raises it up again with AT and Shawn Sheikhan defends with A2. The Sheikh outflops Phil but makes his standard horrible play by just calling Phils continuation bet with obviously the best hand. On the river, Phil is right again: he only needed a quick glance from Sheikhan to know he was going to get called by the worst hand because Phil’s bet would be perfectly disguised as a bluff. That’s why he has 11 bracelets.

Now I’m not that big an Ivey fan, I rarely understand why he’s always called one of the best players in the world. But I saw a good play on an episode of Poker After Dark the other day that clarifies why Ivey is a good player, especially in live games.

Here’s the fragment, the hand is played after approximately 2′20″:

So Phil just limps with Q9 suited on the button and it’s interesting to know that Barry Greenstein was playing fairly aggressive when sitting in the blinds. Now after he limped Phil immediately observes that Barry is suspicious about this. Now Barry has a real big hand this time (4 handed), but Phil knows it doesn’t matter: unless Barry has AA,KK,QQ or AK Phil can probably pick up this pot here with a decent reraise and so he does. Good play by Ivey.