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.

That’s what I saw David Benyamine doing the other day during an episode of High Stakes Poker (season 4 episode 17). He’s playing against one of my absolute favorite players, Daniel Negreanu. The actual hand starts towards the end of the fragment you can see right here and continues here .

Daniel calls David’s preflop Aces raise with T9 off and hits toppair on the flop. When Benyamine makes a continuation bet on the flop, Daniel just calls. I think he doesn’t really think he has the best hand here, but thinks he can make a move on the turn. After all, Benyamine didn’t play that many hands so Daniel must give him credit for like… Kings?! That’s exactly his speech on the turn when he raises another big bet from Benyamine.

I think Daniel thinks he can perfectly represent TT or 88 in that spot. Then the speech even gets better: “I don’t say I have Kings beat.”, actually true . However Benyamine shows some serious guts when moving all-in over the top and the “oh boy” from Daniel already is a classic^^.

Later on in the episode, Daniel himself shows some serious skills, when guessing exactly Doyle Brunson’s hand (a set of 3’s), right after Antonio Esfandiari exactly says what Daniel had in the hand before, where Daniel’s 88 was quiete disguised. I love those guys!

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.

I saw some great piece of non-verbal as well as verbal action on episode 14 of High Stakes Poker (season 4). The first hand starts at around 5′20″ and the next one follows right after it:

Now in the first hands it’s professional gambler Sammy Farha against his wannabe-friend Jamie Gold. Sammy exactly shows in this hand why he’s the master and Jamie the student. After it’s checked on the flop they both make toppair and Sammy further improves his hand to top two pair on the river. Subsequently Sammy makes a great bet on the river first (making it look like a bluff) and then gives Gold a suspicious smile. It pays off.

In the following hand, the hand is again checked around at the flop and Sammy makes a set of deuces on the turn, while David Benyamine completes his straight flush. Farha makes a big raise on the turn and Benyamine’s speech gives him the feeling he has the best hand there. This had to cross his mind  when he calls the reraise. Good play.