I already showed you a good play from Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan on Poker After Dark, but after seeing the first episodes of season 5 of High Stakes Poker, I completely understand the fuzz that arised around his person the last couple of months in poker world.

Now this play on episode two is really one of the GREATEST plays I’ve ever seen. Dwan is really in the zone and is pushing the table around like he already plays for ten years with this guys. You obviously see experienced guys like Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein and even Daniel Negreanu feeling uncomfortable with the presence of Dwan. A new hand starts (at 2′50″ in the video below) and the very tight playing Greenstein makes a standard early position raise with AA. Because the players to the left of Barry call the pots odds grow and it becomes a family pot:

The raise on the flop from Dwan looks kinda stupid at that point, but after he only gets called by Eastgate and Greenstein, Dwan knows he can take this pot with an enormous bullet on the turn. That’s exactly what he does and with this great and courageous bet he takes this pot in a magnificent way. Notice the relief on Dwan’s face after Eastgate’s fold, as he knows this guy had the best hand, just like he says after the hand. This is poker on another level.

The last hands of the biggest poker tournament of the world, the World Series of Poker, still have to be played in November, during the final table of the Main Event. But all the other events are behind us now, good moment for a round-up of the results of my four favorite players. Starting today with Phil Hellmuth and Eli Elezra.

First of all, Phil didn’t manage to win his 12th bracelet and that will be a great dissapointment to him. However he cashed five times this year, four times playing Hold’em, resulting in $62.181 prize-money. The events where Phil finished in the money:

-Event 11 (NLHE, 2k buy-in): 29/1646

-Event 34 (NLHE, 1,5k): 113/2095 (Roland De Wolfe finished 5th in this event, cashing $112.957)

-Event 38 (LHE, 2k): 17/446

-Event 48 (PLO H/L Split 8 or Better, 1,5k): 14/762 (Brandon Cantu won this event, cashing $228.867)

-Event 56 (NLHE 6-handed, 5k): 24/928

However, Phil biggest victory might be his entrance at the World Series. After arriving in a sports car (2007) and accompanied by an army (2008), he made his entrance this year as a Roman Emperor. Great TV .

What about Eli Elezra. This guy is best known for his cash game appearances, but he also cashed three times during the WSOP this year, playing three unusual types of poker. He cashed $18.664 total in the following events:

- Event 3 (PLO H/L Split-8 or Better, 1,5k): 20/918 (Freddy Deeb finished 8th in this event, cashing $27.028)

-Event 30 (PLO, 2,5k): 33/436 (Ross Boatman (4), Theo Jorgensen (8) and John Juanda (9) were all at the final table in this event)

-Event 47 (Mixed HE (L/NL), 2,5k): 46/527 (Barry Greenstein finished 5th in this event, cashing $57.671)

Next time we’ll look at the results of Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu.

When two players share a certain history which eachother, regarding poker confrontations in the past, a hand can be played completely different than in any other normal situation. This was showed exactly by Sammy Farha and Patrick Antonius, on High Stakes Poker (S04E16). I have the fragment right here for you:

Where Barry Greenstein folds his AJ, Sammy wants to play with his K6 against Antonius. The Finnish player makes a continuation bet on the flop, but Sammy is not scared with his middle pair, this obviously is a great call. Not because Sammy’s just a loose player but because he actually is convinced he has the best hand there. Antonius however sticks with his read that Sammy is not that strong and fires two more bullets on turn and river. Sammy makes two great calls. Those two guys will without any doubt collide again in the future.

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.