Maybe the German Max Heinzelmann can become such a poker star in the near future. He’s already known as an ultra agressive online player (nickname: HotKarlMC, lol), but we haven’t seen much of him on TV yet. However, in April 2011 he became runner-up in TWO EPT Events, in Berlin as well as San Remo. Another big name in online poker is Shaun Deeb (from the state of New York), who is one of the most feared online tournament players (total winnings over 3,5 million). At day 3 of the WSOP Main Event they sat down together at the feature table.

Deeb suddenly wakes up with Aces after the American Kay raised it up with TT. Kay succeeds to get out of the way but Heinzelmann has other plans, sitting right behind Deeb with A6. Have a look at a young man without any fear (at 6’40″):

Historical poker moment!

Personally I think it’s certainly possible to fold Kings preflop in some rare situations. For example in a cash game, being very deep stacked and the tightest rock on the table reraises you for like the third time. I know it’s hard but if you sense this guy has Aces, you have to stick with your read and fold the Kings. Take your time, analyze the situation and if you’re convinced you’re beat, you can for one time lay down this monster.

What if you’re playing a tournament? You don’t get dealt Kings that much during the limited time you’re playing so it’s harder to lay them down. But what if you’re playing the WSOP MAIN EVENT and you’re absolutely sure you’re against Aces? Sam Barnhart from the US shows it’s possible to fold Kings when he got reraised by the Brazilian Denilson Menezes (at 7’45″):

Sometimes you aren’t a chicken when folding Kings, sometimes it takes guts to fold Kings.

The hand was played during an Event of the World Series of Poker 2010. Look at this total madness:

So in the end there’s a STRAIGHT FLUSH on the board. What happens next is awesome television: Antonio tries to take the pot with a 3k bet, but then Daniel raises to 9k . Antonio knows of course that they will always chop this pot except if Daniel is holding the six of spades. Whether Daniel had it or not, we’ll never know, but fact is that Antonio Esfandiari is folding a straight flush here. I guess you’ve never done such a thing before in your poker career.

This fragment also reminded me of an earlier clash between those two awesome players, when they played at High Stakes Poker. Look at one of the finest moments in this show’s history:

Till next time!

This poker show has one great advantage: you’ll never get bored of seeing the same table all the time. Ok, and another great advantage: ALL the famous poker pros participate, which is already entertainment guaranteed in some cases. The sickest hand I’ve seen in the 2009 Championships must be the next one, between Sammy Farha and David Williams:

It’s the first hand they show from these guys in this part of the 8th episode. Williams flops the nuts and Sammy should be ready to pay him off to the maximum. Williams plays the hand the best he can, but Sammy catches his three-outer on the river. This is obvious a sick beat for Williams, holding the second nuts in an heads-up game (!) against the only hand that beats him. Also notice the priceless acting from Farha on the river!!

Haha like I said earlier, Daniel must be the most pleasant guy to sit on a poker table with. I even think such appearances say something about his reading skills. It’s not a coincedence that Daniel can impersonate some of the greatest poker players so well. It’s just a result of observing every move they make while sitting on the table. Besides, it shows that Daniel can perfectly relativize things and that he’s a very smart guy. I mean, funny people are nearly always very intelligent people and I think Daniel’s the perfect example of it. If there only wasn’t a Phil Ivey on this planet Daniel would be the greatest!

A very nice extra feature of the hand I have for you is that the commentator is actually one of the best poker players of the world, Daniel Negreanu. The hand is from the High Roller PCA Championship and it’s basically between the great Eli Elezra and French pro Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier. Let’s watch:

As you see, sweating with a player gives you a lot of extra insights in the game, which you can use when playing on your own. Good example is the leading out of Elezra on the flop with his middle pair (Daniel explains why) and what’s going through Eli’s head when Elky raises the river. You have to considerate all those things Daniel explains when making your own decision in the same spot. In this case, it was indeed only AT which Eli had to fear. Btw: did you notice Eli’s ‘Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone’ voice after Elky’s raise on the river? Awesome!

I actually came down to this subject while watching the 2010 WSOP Main Event. While watching, I noticed that there isn’t an episode of ‘The Nuts’ in every episode, while this is one of the best things about the WSOP. So ESPN, please bring us more episodes of The Nuts! Look at this one, dating from 2006, for example (about impersonations, of Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen and Phil Ivey):

Now this really is great television, especially from Daniel, who’s a master in impressions. So I searched a little more and found another impression of Scotty by Daniel

LOL, Daniel, you are a strange guy, but I would love to sit down at the poker table with you one time!

It was against one of my other favorite players, Antonio Esfandiari. Esfandiari shows the opposite in this movie, he takes the pot like a gentleman and somehow makes fun of Phil’s reaction, that’s why it’s an interesting movie in my humble opinion. Let’s have a look (at a not THAT interesting hand):

Pretty standard play going on, with Antonio raising it up in this shorthanded game with QJ. Phil calls and makes his typical play by checking in the dark. As you see, Phil is behind the whole hand, and of course it sucks that he also fills up to a full house on the river, but I’ve seen worse poker situations to complain about. But maybe that’s just why we love Phil.

Have a look at this:

So it’s on the second season of Poker After Dark and Jennifer Tilly makes kinda standard plays pre-flop and on the flop with her pocket Jacks, which she improves to topset on the flop. Patrick Antonius hits middle pair and can improve to a straight. But when the King drops on the turn, she immediately shuts down and checks it down to the river, while she improves to a full house! This is of course a very odd and scary play by Miss Tilly, I think she’s been influenced by her boyfriend too much or something. But the best part of the movie is the scene after the showdown: players like Ivey, Lindgren and Harman are very confused by what just happened, priceless!

I selected such an historical moment for you when I was watching some more poker of the Monte Carlo Millions. Ivey goes to the flop with Q8 of hearts against Paul Jackson’s 65 off. Let’s watch what happens on the flop:

What you see after the flop, is poker’s best player doing his job. Ivey gets reraised by Jackson TWO times, you got to give the amateur credit for this moves. But in the end, nobody fools around with the greatest player of all time. Ivey has the best nothing, and he plays it like the best nothing. Absolutely awesome.