Doyle Brunson Begins High Stakes Poker ComebackDoyle Doubles Up on Final Hand of the Episode |
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Depending on your point of view (and your sense of humor), the big winner on Sunday’s episode of High Stakes Poker was not Tom Dwan or Doyle Brunson. Nor was it Daniel Negreanu or Mike Matusow.
The big winner was High Stakes Poker commentator Gabe Kaplan, who delivered a number of memorable lines at the expense of the competitors of the big game.
“Nit alert, nit alert, nit alert,” Kaplan cried out, after Matusow threw away king-queen suited before the flop in lieu of playing against Bertand Grospellier, who had opened betting with a modest raise of $3,000 and suited connectors.
And when Phil Galfond sent a large portion of his stack over to Negreanu after calling two big bets on the turn and river that were designed to look like bluffs, Kaplan quipped, “Oh my God, Clay Aiken went for it,” parodying the online pro’s OMGClayAiken handle.
Kaplan’s one-liners were about as much entertainment as viewers could find, as the most recent episode of High Stakes Poker failed to really produce any monster hands or jaw-dropping action.
Negreanu won the biggest pot of the night in the aforementioned hand against Galfond for $272,800 in a hand that Galfond probably wishes he could redo. Dwan and Grospellier also played an interesting pot, but ultimately chopped it up when they discovered they were holding identical hands.
OMGClayAiken vs. Daniel Negreanu
In Negreanu’s hand, Brunson opened up the action preflop to $4,500 with A
2
. Grospellier called with A 3, as did Galfond with 9
7 and Negreanu with 10 7
from the straddle position.
Negreanu flopped the nuts when the board came out 10 10 7. The action checked around, and the turn was a 6. Grospellier gave it the old college try and attempted to steal the pot with an $11,000 bet, but he quickly saw that wasn’t going to work after Galfond called with his two pair. Negreanu declined to slow-play his monster, check-raising it to $41,000.
Brunson and Grospellier got out of the way, but Galfond didn’t give Negreanu credit and made the call. A K river didn’t complete any draws, and Galfond checked the action over to Negreanu, who fired out a hefty $80,200 bet into the $112,400 pot.
That definitely confused Galfond, who muttered, “I thought you were going to give up on the river.” Galfond thought about it and then made the crying call, sending the quarter-million-plus dollar pot over to Negreanu.
durrrr vs. ElkY
In arguably the most interesting hand of the night, Dwan almost pushed Grospellier off the same hand when the two players both held pocket tens in the hole.
On a Dwan straddle, Brunson opened to $5,500 with 9 8 from under the gun, and Benyamine called with pocket fives. Grospellier, perhaps concerned about the strength of Texas Dolly’s hand, decided to play it safe and just called with his pocket tens in position. When the action came around to Dwan and he discovered two tens, he didn’t hesitate to re-pop it to $24,800. Brunson was in a gambling mood, and he made the call. With so much money out there, Benyamine and Grospellier soon followed, producing a $101,800 pot before the flop.
An A A 3 flop came out, and Dwan — first to act — fired a probe bet of $22,800, just a little more than one-fifth the pot. Brunson and Benyamine threw their cards into the muck, but Grospellier made the call.
“It’d be great if another 10 came up, then we’d really see some action,” Kaplan said, delivering the dry line while knowing that at least a few amateur viewers out there would probably not realize that hypothetical was impossible with a legitimate deck.
A 9 came on the turn. Dwan checked, and Grospellier checked.
A third ace came on the river, and Matusow, seemingly thinking at least one if not both players needed to have an ace to be involved in such a massive encounter, burst out, “Now that card I didn’t expect to see.”
Dwan bet $58,400 into the $147,400 pot and Grospellier thought for a bit before making the call.
“He has to have an ace, doesn’t he,” Matusow could be heard whispering, after Grospellier made the call. Whether Matusow was talking about Dwan or Grospellier, it didn’t matter because neither had an ace and they wound up taking their money back when they saw that they both held the same hand.
The hand was perhaps more interesting for the reactions it caused amongst the players rather than the action that occurred on the felt. After Matusow saw both hands face-up, he proclaimed loudly and sincerely, “Wow, what a call.”
But neither Dwan, nor Eli Elezra was impressed.
“How can you fold?” Dwan asked. “People must be playing a different game than I am.”
And Elezra piped in: “ElkY, I’m sorry, but I would call faster.”
Matusow Leaves, Doyle Doubles Up, and Higher Stakes
Matusow packed up his belongings and left the table a few hands later, leaving this season of High Stakes Poker as one of the tightest players on the show — but, more importantly to him, he also left as one of this season’s biggest winners.
In the final hand of the night, Brunson won a sizable pot to give himself a chance of escaping this season with a small profit. He check-raised a flop of 6 4 3 all in for just shy of $70,000 total after Negreanu bet out $10,500 with top pair and a backdoor flush draw, J 6. Negreanu called and was surprised to see Brunson holding the nuts, 7 5. The players decided to run it twice, but it didn’t change anything.
Brunson doubled up, but he is still down overall for the season, so he’ll need to do some work if he wants to keep his televised cash-game profit streak alive. Luckily for him, the stakes are going up next week.
Check back to CardPlayer.com every Monday for a recap of the newest episode of High Stakes Poker.
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