I think you’re right when you state that Joe Hachem’s accent is quite irritating. But I also think Hachem is one of the best Main Event winners from the past ten years. If you’re still not convinced on this point, have a look at the following fragment (hand is played after 10 minutes):

No I think this is a very strong play from Hachem, if you consider the extreme tight image of ‘the Nitty Professor’, Howard Lederer. First of all I like his play preflop, just calling with Jacks, a move I also often make. The same action follows on the flop, with Hachem just calling Lederer’s bet on an all spade board. The play from Lederer is horrible on the flop: he checks first and follows that up with an obvious feelerraise. Hachem notices this and has the guts to make a nice reraise here, making Howard throw away his flush. I think Lederer won’t appear in any season of HSP anymore.

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.

I didn’t write a lot about one of my heroes Eli Elezra yet, but today I have one fantastic move from this poker phenomenon. It dates from the first episode of High Stakes Poker Season 5.

Now first of all, what an impressive personality is this guy on a poker table? I mean look at that leather jacket and that magnificent accent. You can place this guy without any problem right next to Silvio Dante in the Soprano’s . His appearance also plays an important role in the following hand (first hand to play completely):

As Gabe Kaplan already mentions, this is great body language by Elezra. After he has raised the straddle from Tom Dwan, he acts very artificially distracted on the flop, like he has indeed flopped top pair top kicker, two pair or a set. You can perfectly see the reaction on Durrrr’s face: he thinks he immediately figured out this hand and folds quickly. But Tom’s still young and has a lot years in front of him to learn from this guys .