Isildur1 and Joe Cada Discussed on High Stakes PokerNorwegian Player Andreas Hoivold Hits the Rail |
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The second episode of the sixth season of High Stakes Poker on GSN didn’t quite have the fireworks on the felt that the season premiere had — with 11-time Phil Hellmuth dramatically going bust halfway into the episode and refusing to rebuy — but there was plenty of action and an interesting bit of table talk.
Both Isildur1 and Joe Cada’s play were up for discussion in the highly watched cash game.
The filming of the show, which took place in November at the Golden Nugget, came just a week after the WSOP final table and right during the meteoric rise of Full Tilt Poker high-stakes newcomer, Isildur1.
Gus Hansen, who has his fair share of swings at the nosebleeds, didn’t mind ribbing Tom “durrrr” Dwan for his play against at the Swedish sensation. Dwan lost millions to Isildur1, before Isildur1 dumped most of his bankroll to Brian Hastings.
“You know, when I play six games heads-up with Isildur, I always like to spice it up and play two PLOs heads-up against Ziigmund just to make it more fun,” Hansen joked, getting a smile out of Dwan.
“Thank God I did. I would’ve been down more,” replied Dwan.
Joe Cada’s play — specifically his heads-up performance against Darvin Moon — was also a hot topic among the players. Daniel Negreanu, never shy about his opinions, didn’t hesitate to critique the newly crowned main-event champion’s play.
“Cada was … playing big pots. I was, like, shocked. I mean, what are you doing? He was guessing so much,” said Negreanu, who has won four WSOP bracelets. “Why would you make pots big against a guy who’s really going to make just dumb mistakes?”
Cada, at 21, became the youngest main-event champion in history last November after his pocket nines held up in a massive coin-flip situation against Moon’s Q-J.
But besides the table talk, there were plenty of interesting hands, as well. Phil Ivey, perhaps miffed at the WSOP November Nine talk (where he finished a disappointing seventh), didn’t hesitate to get involved in a number of hands throughout the episode.
He bluffed Dwan out of the first two hands of the episode, including one hand wherein he three-bet with 5-2. But Ivey’s bluffing wasn’t as successful later on in the show, donating a portion of his winnings to both Dario Minieri and Negreanu in separate hands.
One of the more interesting hands that played out in the episode was a trap play gone awry, when Hansen was faced with the difficult decision of five-betting his A-K, just calling a four-bet against the aggressive Minieri, or laying down his hand preflop after investing just $3,000. Hansen, known for past willingness to gamble, chose the most conservative route — laying it down and choosing to see another day.
The hand in question started out innocently enough with Negreanu, who opened with a raise in early position to $3,000 with 5 4. Hansen just called with A K, perhaps hoping to elicit a squeeze-play by one of the more aggressive young players at the table, Dwan or Minieri. He probably didn’t expect both to raise, however — and that’s exactly what happened.
Dwan three-bet it to $14,300 with a modest K 5, and then Minieri decided to invest a sizable chunk of his stack — four-betting his 10 10 from the small blind to $36,600.
Negreanu got out of the way, leaving Hansen in his quandary. The Great Dane decided he couldn’t continue with the hand, opting to get out of the way.
Dwan wasn’t as easy to get rid of. The New Jersey native called Minieri’s four-bet with his K 5, hoping to out-flop the young Italian. But the hand ended soon enough after Minieri led out for $39,000 on a Q 7 6, forcing Dwan to relinquish his hand.
In this season’s second episode of High Stakes Poker, a second player found himself heading to the rail. Norway’s Andreas Hoivold followed Hellmuth out the door when he pushed all in on a board of 3 10 6 Q. After five players saw the flop and checked it around, Hansen opened up the betting on the turn to $11,100 with bottom two pair, 6 3.
Dwan called Hansen’s first bet with his weak top pair, Q 4, but got out of the way after Hoivold invested most of his stack by raising to $50,000 with A Q and Hansen pushed all in. Hoivold put his last $30,000 into the pot, needing some help. The two players decided to run it twice, but neither river would help the Norwegian, as he was shown the exit.
Viewers can expect the action to heat up in the next few episodes. Eli Elezra, who took Hellmuth’s open seat in this episode, chastised the group for its lack of straddles this week, and the previews for future episodes show Negreanu and Dwan getting it all in against each other and the table talking about whether Dwan bluffed High Stakes Poker newcomer Jason Mercier out of a hand.
Watch Card Player TV’s feature on the filming of High Stakes Poker: