Confrontations With Farha, Gold, and Harman

Most poker players love the High Stakes Poker (HSP) television show on the Game Show Network on Monday nights. It is a one-hour television program that is a high-stakes no-limit hold'em cash game in which the minimum buy-in is $100,000.

HSP is shot in three eight-hour sessions on three consecutive days. Each eight-hour session turns into four episodes, so 12 episodes are shot over three days. On day two, the players were Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Sammy Farha, Bob Safai, Eli Elezra, Brandon Adams, Jamie Gold, and I.

With the blinds at $300-$600, two noteworthy pots came up. But before I begin telling the tale of these two hands, I should add that almost every pot had a live $1,200 blind, which meant that the player to the left of the blinds voluntarily put up $1,200 as a third blind, and that player then retained the option of raising. A "live blind" - sometimes referred to as a "straddle" - doubles the size of the game, and is often employed by someone who's losing a lot of money in order to try to get lucky and win a big pot. On the first hand, I was the $300 small blind, Harman was the $600 big blind, Adams put the live $1,200 blind up, and then Farha put a live $2,400 blind up. Farha wanted to gamble! Safai called the $2,400 with the A 10, Elezra called with the 8 5, Negreanu called with the A 4, and then I looked down at pocket queens. I knew that the game was wild, and therefore decided to try to win the pot right then and there, or at least charge my crazed opponents a lot of money to try to beat me. So, I called the $2,400, and raised it a whopping $25,000 more! Farha called with the K 7, and everyone else folded. The flop was K 9 4, I checked, and Farha checked. The turn card was the J, I checked, Farha bet $50,000, and I called. The river was the 8, I checked, Farha bet $75,000, and I studied awhile before I folded.

Let's take a closer look at this hand. I do not mind Safai's $2,400 call with the A 10 or Elezra's $2,400 call with the 8 5, but Negreanu's $2,400 call was a little bit too loose in my book; yet, it wasn't a bad play, as Negreanu was on the button, and therefore in great position. My $25,000 raise would normally be way too much an amount to raise, especially because the pot had only $14,000 in it. Most times, I would make a $10,000-$14,000 raise with pocket queens in this spot.

However, this game was off the hook, and players were calling huge bets with weak hands in order to try to get lucky and win a big pot. So, my big raise was designed to clear the field and protect my hand. I hate Farha's call with K-7 offsuit! He was in early position, and knew that I had a superstrong hand. I guess that he called the bet in order to try to outplay me later. The thing is, K-7 is just not the hand that you want to play for a huge raise before the flop. It is simply too likely to be dominated (for example, when I have A-K or K-Q), or to be a 2.5-1 underdog (when I have a pocket pair between sevens and queens). On the flop, I like both of our checks. On the turn, I like my check, as it simultaneously limits my losses - if Farha has a king - and induces a bluff from him. I love Farha's $50,000 bet, and my call was a natural one. On the river, my check was by the book, and Farha's $75,000 bet was genius. He somehow knew that his kings were the best hand, and he bet an amount that I could easily call. I made a very nice fold when I decided to trust my instincts and my read on Farha, which was this: Farha seemed like he wanted me to call!

The second pot of note came up on the very next hand. Farha put the $1,200 straddle on, and Gold called $1,200 with A-K. Everyone else folded to me, and I loudly announced, "Raise it again!" I then pounded out $9,000 in chips with the A Q. Since I had just lost a big pot to Farha the hand before and had another strong hand, I shouted a bit and forcefully pounded the chips on the table because I wanted it to seem like I was on tilt. Harman made it $32,000 to go with the J J. Gold studied for a full minute before he moved all in for $263,600. I folded immediately, and Harman studied for a while. It would cost Harman her last $120,000 to call. Finally, she folded. I believe we all played this hand well. Gold was sneaky, then properly aggressive (after all, Harman didn't have A-A or K-K, and he forced her to fold); I was deceptive; and Harman made a good reraise, but then was forced to fold.