Doyle Brunson and Mike Matusow Tangle on High Stakes PokerElky and Beyamine Also Get Involved in a Couple Big Pots |
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Mike Matusow was running bluff after bluff, although almost entirely with his mouth as opposed to his cards. He bemoaned the fact that he wasn’t getting any cards to play, not even suited connectors, moments after he mucked 7
5 to a standard preflop raise.
He was playing unapologetically tight, and his opponents were taking advantage of it. Daniel Negreanu pulled a Tom Dwan and raised preflop with 8
3 to steal Matusow’s straddle, and David Benyamine pushed Matusow off the best hand on the turn when a third heart came out to win a modest $25,400 pot.
But Matusow’s patience looked like it was about to pay off, thanks to a gift from the poker gods. But the gods giveth, and then the gods taketh away.
After Matusow surprised everyone with his self-initiated straddle, the gamblers at the table decided to have a little fun, and before long there was a triple-straddle on the table (Negreanu straddled to $1,600, Eli Elezra double-straddled to $3,200, and Dwan triple-straddled to $6,400). And that was the setting of the biggest hand of the night.
Elezra and Dwan tried to goad Doyle Brunson into quadruple-straddling, but the Texan admitted honestly that he had already looked at his hand. With so much out there already, Brunson decided just to push all in with his A
Q and $152,600 stack. The table laughed, thinking the drama was all but over, as it seemed unlikely that anyone would call Brunson’s big push.
But the table soon got quiet when Matusow, who was next up, said, “I’m all in, too” as he waved his arms toward the pot. “Oh no,” Brunson said, realizing immediately that he was in bad shape. Sure enough, he was, up against Matusow’s pocket kings.
The two players decided to run it twice.
The first flop of J
3 3 was good for Matusow, but an 8 made things a little scarier for him on the turn. Brunson, having a little fun with the situation, playfully said “boom” just before the river came out. And a “boom” it was, as a 6 completed Brunson’s flush and gave him half the pot.
Matusow won the second hand with a full house over Brunson’s trip aces, but surely he was wondering what could’ve been.
Besides that major encounter, there were plenty of interesting smaller pots and two players who kept running into each other were Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and David Benyamine.
Although they traded jabs in the episode, ElkY showed his creative side in one particular encounter, extracting close to maximum value from Benyamine in a deceptively played hand.
Four players saw a flop of 3 3 2, and Elky tried to win it right there with his two small over cards and gutshot with 6 4 and an $11,000 bet. But Benyamine, who flopped a flush draw with 8 6, wasn’t going anywhere, making the call.
A 4 turn gave Elky the best hand, but the action went check-check. A 4 turn improved both players’ hands dramatically, giving ElkY a boat and Benyamine a small flush.
With $41,600 already in the pot, most viewers probably wondered how much ElkY was going to bet on the river. But instead, the online pro decided to check his full house to the Frenchman. Certainly thinking he had the best hand now after two straight checks from ElkY, Benyamine fired $16,000 on the river.
But ElkY surprised him and the rest of the table with a significant check-raise to $56,000. “Hello…” Matusow piped in, after witnessing ElkY’s move. While he couldn’t beat much more than a bluff, Benyamine still made the call and sent a $153,600 pot over to the PokerStars tournament pro.
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