Most Memorable Hands from High Stakes Poker, Part 2
Previously, PokerNews introduced the first half of the most memorable hands from GSN's famed High Stakes Poker, which can be found here. We're back to finish out the list with the remaining six and reveal the number one most memorable hand from the series' past five seasons. Let's have at it.
6. Farha and Antonius Flip for a Cool Million
Only a million dollars was on the line in a virtual coin flip during this hand. Involved was none other than Sammy Farha and Patrik Antonius.
Farha raised preflop to $4,200 and Antonius three-bet to $16,000. Action got back around to Farha and he made the call, bringing the two to a flop of 9♦6♦3♣. Farha held K♦Q♦ for a flush draw and two overcards while Antonius flopped top pair with the J♥9♥.
Looking to check-raise Antonius, Farha tapped the table and Antonius bet $20,000. Farha then had his opportunity to check-raise and made it $100,000 to go. Not about to be run over by Farha, Antonius moved all in and Farha quickly made the call. Before anyone could really understand what happened, the pot swelled to $998,800. The two then began to discuss their hands on how many times they wanted to run the turn and river. After a few minutes of debate, the two settled on running it four times. Each separate run was worth $249,700.
On the first run, Farha turned his flush with the 3♦, but Antonius rivered a full house when the 9♣ landed and stole the pot right back. The second run belonged to Farha when the 5♦ turned followed by the A♥ on the river, allowing his flush to hold up this time. On the third run, the 2♠ and 6♥ fell to keep Antonius’ pair of nines ahead and lock him up at least half of the overall pot. He could now break even at worst if he were to lose the last run. Luck was with Antonius this time, when the last run came with the 4♠ and 5♥ allowing him to win a third time. He won almost $750,000 from the nearly one-million dollar pot and Farha was left with just under $250,000.
5. Doyle Rakes in Massive Pot
A list of the greatest hands on High Stakes Poker wouldn’t be complete unless the legendary Doyle Brunson was included. On this hand, Brunson locked horns with Guy Laliberte.
Laliberte holdingA♥5♥ began the action with a limp and Jamie Gold (J♦7♠) followed suit. Brunson (A♦10♦) then pumped things up to $11,200. Farha (K♣J♥) called, David Benyamine (K♠5♠) called and then the two limpers also called. Before the flop was even dealt, the pot sat at $57,100.
The dealer dealt the A♣J♠4♦ in the middle of the felt. One by one, each player checked and play moved over to Brunson. He fired a continuation bet of $40,000. Only the Cirque du Soleil CEO came along for the ride and the pot grew to $137,100.
After the 2♦ fell on the turn, Laliberte check-raised a bet of $110,000 from Brunson to $310,000. Brunson wasted little time in sticking all of his chips into the middle. His all-in raise was only $30,500 more for a total of $340,500. Laliberte made the cheap call. Having the best hand with the better kicker and also holding the nut flush draw, Brunson was well in the lead. Laliberte did have a gutshot straight draw to the wheel, but was still a heavy underdog. The two agreed to run the river twice.
First, the Q♠ fell and Brunson locked up half of the pot. The second run also netted Brunson a win when the 10♥ peeled off and he was awarded the entire pot worth $818,100.
4. Antonius’ Broadway Straight Not So Gold
Patrik Antonius and former World Series of Poker Main Event winner Jamie Gold locked horns in a pot worth nearly $750,000. Antonius started the action with a raise to $4,000 holding the A♠J♦. Gold woke up with K♠K♦ and reraised to $14,000. Antonius made the call.
The flop came down Q♦10♥3♠ and Antonius picked up a gutshot straight draw. He checked over to Gold who held the overpair. Gold fired 15,000 and with the pot at $30,800, Antonius was getting 3:1 on his money and tossed in the chips.
The K♥ which fell on the turn seemed almost as if it was set up by television to give Antonius his straight and leave Gold with a second-best top set. Antonius elected not to slowplay and fired 45,000. Gold raised all in and Antonius quickly called, creating a pot of $743,800 between the two players. When Antonius insta-called, Gold knew he had the straight and the two agreed to run the river three separate times. Each time was worth $247,900. Nothing like running it three times with each one being worth the price of a modest home.
On the first run, the Q♥ fell and gave Gold a full house and one-third of the pot. On the second run, the 3♦ fell and Gold won gain with the board pairing once more. Antonius couldn’t believe it and just like that, he was out at least two-thirds of the pot. The third time, the river blanked with the 8♠ and Antonius was able to win some money back after losing the first two.
3. Booth Gets Ivey to Fold Kings
Not every memorable hand on High Stakes Poker is built around a massive six- or seven-figure pot. Sometimes all you need is a brilliantly timed bluff to do the trick. That’s exactly what Canadian Brad Booth pulled off on the player everyone considers to be the best in the game, Phil Ivey.
David Williams started off the preflop action with a raise to three times the big blind, making it $1,800 to go holding the J♠9♣. Booth looked down at the monster that is the 4♠2♠ and reraised to $5,800. Acting from the small blind was Ivey and he looked down at two cowboys, the K♦K♥, and put in a third raise to $14,000. Williams got out of the way and then Booth verified how much Ivey was playing in his stack. Ivey informed him that he had about $280,000 left in his stack and Booth made the call.
The flop came down 7♠6♦3♦ and Booth picked up an inside straight draw along with a backdoor flush draw, but was still about a 4:1 under dog to win the hand. Ivey continued his aggression with a bet of $23,000 in the $31,100 pot. After about fifteen seconds went by, Booth announced that he was all in and stacked three giant bricks of cash worth $100,000 each in the middle of the table. Ivey went into the tank for just over two whole minutes before tossing his hand away and letting Booth push him off pocket kings.
2. Negreanu’s Full House Loses to Quads
Making a full house in poker usually has a player licking his chops and dreaming about how much money he will pull in, especially when that figure can amount to a few hundred thousand dollars. For Daniel Negreanu though, he was left feeling sick to his stomach rather than full of dough in Season 2.
Gus Hansen raised up the action from early position to $2,100 with the 5♦5♣. Negreanu was next in line and reraised to $5,000 holding the 6♠6♥. Action fell back over to Hansen and he made the call. The flop was a big one, landing with the 9♣6♦5♥ to give both players a set. Hansen decided to get tricky and checked over to Negreanu who bet 8,000. Hansen then popped in a check-raise to 26,000. Negreanu just smooth called.
The turn brought the 5♠ and just like that, Hansen was in the lead with quads. Hansen fired out $24,000. Now with a full house, Negreanu made the call. After the 8♠ fell on the river, Hansen played things cheeky with a check. Negreanu was now going to try and extract the most value he could out of Hansen. He decided on a number of $65,000. Hansen then check-raised Negreanu for the second time in the same hand. This time, the raise was worth a lot more. He moved all in for $232,700 total.
Now, most people would have beaten Hansen into the pot right here, but much to Negreanu’s credit, he smelled something fishy going on. In fact, it took Negreanu over a minute and a half to finally make the call. When he did, he was shown the bad news by Hansen, who tabled the stone-cold nuts. Negreanu showed the table what he had and how much of a sick cooler it was. After counting down the chips, Hansen was awarded with a pot worth $575,700.
1. Dwan Bluffs Eastgate and Greenstein
The most talked about hand on HSP has to be the one that developed between common counterparts Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Barry Greenstein. Toss former World Series of Poker champion Peter Eastgate into the mix and things get even better.
Greenstein started off with a raise to $2,500 holding the A♥A♣. Dwan called from the net seat with the Q♣10♣ and everyone else at the table called as well. Benyamine called with pocket threes, Eli Elezra called with J♦9♠, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies held 7♥6♠, Daniel Negreanu held K♦4♦, Eastgate called with 4♥2♣ and then Doyle Brunson finished off the waterfalls of calls, putting his money in with A♠9♣.
The flop came down 10♦2♣2♠ and Eastgate picked up trip deuces to take the lead. He checked and Brunson checked as well. Greenstein fired just about half the pot for $10,000. Dwan raised to $37,300 and everyone else folded, but Mr. Eastgate with his trips. Eastgate decided to just flat call Dwan’s raise and then Greenstein called as well, bringing the pot to six figures.
The 7♦ fell on the turn and Eastgate and Greenstein checked. Both had better hands than Dwan, but that didn’t stop him from firing away. Dwan made it $104,200 to go. After tanking for a while, Eastgate slid his trips into the muck, believing the story Dwan was telling. It was now Greenstein’s turn to tank and he did so for a long time, agonizing in every moment of it. He eventually folded and Dwan was able to pull off one of the best bluffs of all time.
Although the pot didn’t reach monumental numbers or involve some crazy suck-resuck action, the poker community blew up when the episode aired. The forums went into a frenzy discussing the inside and outs of the hand, while everyone and anyone in the poker industry were discussing Dwan’s play. Greenstein even talked about the hand in depth on PokerRoad in an episode of Tips from the Bear. He also started a thread dedicated to the hand where he went back and forth with top players including Isaac Baron, Justin Bonomo, Jimmy Fricke, Todd Terry and Mike “SirWatts” Watson. Even Dwan and Eastgate got involved in the thread to weigh in with their two cents.
That wraps up PokerNews' version of the most memorable hands from HSP. Be sure to check out the new season scheduled to air on Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
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