Let’s get straight to the action: In the 1st hand Daniel Negreanu flops a boat 3s full of queens. Unfortunately, facing just 1 opponent, Andrew Robl, Kid Poker wasn’t able to make much money. Seems like even when he does hit, Negreanu can’t seem to ever get paid on High Stakes Poker.
Same story unfolds in the very next hand. Daniel bluffs on the turn and gets called by Tom Dwan. Luckily enough, Negreanu hits his gutshot straight on the river, but Dwan won’t pay him off. I found it interesting that Dwan insta-folded to Daniel’s river bet after having called the turn though. Kind of makes me think he might have a pretty good read on Daniel. I wonder if Daniel realized this (or if he was just distracted by being upset that AGAIN he didn’t get paid off). Maybe he should consider switching shows?
Away from the table action, once again I liked the Negreanu Did You Know? segment about implied odds (excellent addition to the show this season!). What was even more entertaining, however, HILARIOUS as a matter of fact, was Gabe Kaplan’s post-segment commentary about “putting your opponent on implied tilt and he might give you an implied middle finger” LOL…
Gabe’s color and “off color” commentary was really “on” this episode in general. For instance, he had some true and funny criticism of online players like Lex Veldhuis, who played 160,000 hands in a week. Kaplan jibed that online players clearly can’t remember exact details of situations because of the sheer volume of hands they play. Then again, most online players don’t have Lex Veldhuis’ money, so perhaps he DOES in fact remember hand #82,146 🙂 Watch out Gabe if you’re ever sitting next to the Lex Express.
Now here’s something that has never happened to me in all my seasons watching High Stakes Poker. I could SWEAR, I saw Phil Ivey have a tell!
In the hand where Ivey had A3 vs. Andrew Robl’s A7, after Ivey bet the river $17k, he was shuffling his chips waiting for Robl to call (and, as Gabe Kaplan commented, probably realizing he had the best hand). Robl reached towards his chips and for about a split second, Ivey stopped shuffling his chips. Robl then proceeded to fold almost right away. I wonder if he happened to notice this little tell and fold rather than call as he might’ve originally wanted to do? Robl’s interview with Kara Scott didn’t reveal that he might’ve had any sort of read on Ivey though. I guess it’s different when you’re watching and can rewind and replay over and over to check if something you spotted is a tell, versus sitting right there with Ivey on your right… Anyway, while I’m proud of perhaps spotting an Ivey tell, it’s not like we’ll ever get to sit together at the same table for me to exploit it or like it’s one of the top 10 poker strategy tips you need to always keep in mind – oh well 🙂
Moving on to the hand between Dennis Phillips’ 88 and Phil Ivey’s K-10, where Ivey paired his king on the flop, Ivey’s river bet of $20k induced (another) horrible call by Dennis Phillips. I have no idea why he threw in the money – it so obviously looked like a crying call; that he knew he was beat, and beat badly. And yet Phillips paid him off anyhow… How did Ivey know he’d call that much? I’d have bet out about $12-13k, but alas, I barely have that much money to my name, so I’ll stop speculating J
Later on, Tom Dwan and Daniel Negreanu locked horns again – gotta say its becoming a very entertaining “rivalry”! So Daniel flops a broadway straight and (cue the theme of the show, surprise surprise) doesn’t get paid off. Daniel checked both the turn and river to try and induce a bet, but Dwan wouldn’t bite, even though he made his lower straight on the river. Maybe Dwan just has Daniel’s number…another mini-pot for Daniel.
Nice to finally see Dennis Philips take down a nice pot – hit top pair with king kicker against Dwan. Yet again Phillips shows the table what he had….more free information for the sharks to feast on. At this point I think Phillips really should keep his cards to himself, as well as stop talking.
Later on, in the hand between Andrew Robl and Patrik Antonius I LOVE Kaplan’s commentary about Robl’s glance at Antonius: “Like looking at Mt. Rushmore and expecting Abraham Lincoln to blink” ROFL! That having been said, I feel it was a very strange reraise all in by Robl; a HUGE misread that cost him $150k. Antonius reraised to just $30 from the original $7k raise. For Robl to go over the top for an additional $115k is just careless and stupid without a pair in your hand at the very least (or EVEN AK perhaps. At the bare minimum I’d be a little more careful with just two overcards and just call and wait to see if the flop helped me. Oh well, live and learn Mr. Robl.
Last hand between Negreanu and Dwan was SO sad to see (I happen to be a big Negreanu fan and a hater of Dwan par excellence) I hate that Dwan’s image allows other to always think he has absolutely nothing, but its an amazing image and it worked to perfection for him; gotta give him credit where it’s due. Negreanu was way off from the outset – calling with J8 to begin with was the first mistake, and it just snowballed from there. He HAD to consider at some point that as much as Dwan could’ve had absolutely nothing, it would also be possible he might have a bigger Jack? Maybe an Ace? Anyhow, Dwan pulls off his part tremendously and took a big bite out of Negreanu. To conclude, we can’t just say Daniel’s unlucky on High Stakes Poker, as this one was clearly his bad. As Gabe put it best “Dwan won almost $400k on reputation alone”.
Looking forward to next episode, I love the preview showing yet another lockup between Dwan and Negreanu, with Dwan asking “did you find a river or your balls?”…. great line!
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