Deuce-Four defeats Jean-Robert Bellande

 In the latest episode of "High Stakes Poker," Rick Salomon raised with deuce-four, Bellande three-bet with pocket queens, and Salomon quickly re-raised all-in. After agonizing a bit, Bellande folded. 

And this is Bellande's face after Salomon showed: 

Now, this doesn't make sense. If Bellande were any good at poker, he would be exhibiting relief. He would know that QQ doesn't stand a chance against 2-4, and that he made the right decision. 

Impressive fold

Saturday was the last episode of this season of "High Stakes Poker." As always, there was plenty of good stuff. But what impressed me most was, of all things, a fold.

Watch this:

I suppose I might have been able to fold in that spot, but I certainly wouldn't have been able to do it so fast. Johnny Chan had not even announced an amount; he just said "raise" and Phil Laak flicked his cards into the muck. He had had a few seconds' warning that a raise was coming, because of how Chan was counting out chips, but it was still fast. I think I would have had to take time to ponder whether Chan would raise with, say, trip aces with a king kicker, or maybe K-10 for the Broadway straight.

In the long run, we all get dealt the same cards. You can't rely on getting better cards to be a winner in poker. Instead, you have to figure out (1) how to win more money than other people when you have the best hand, (2) how to win pots when you don't have the best hand, or (3) how to lose less when you don't have the best hand, or some combination of those three things. I have become convinced over the years that #3 is both the most important and the most difficult. It is the one that I think most definitively separates the long-term winners from the long-term losers.

Phil Laak seems to have that all figured out.

Aha!

A month ago I opined that the fountains seen through the "window" in the set of "High Stakes Poker" were not what they appeared, but were actually video footage played in the background, or added in post.

In the newest episode, there is conclusive proof that I was right:

This is being shot somewhere inside the Bellagio, but behind the fountains you can see--the Bellagio! This view is from the street or sidewalk.

I'm suspicious

I just watched the newest episode of High Stakes Poker. Something I've been noticing this season, the first season they've been at the Bellagio, is that the famous fountains seem to be running continuously, as seen through the window.

I'm calling shenanigans.

First, I doubt that the set is in a room that just happens to be facing out on the fountains. I don't know a whole lot about television production, but I would think that actual glass windows would cause all sorts of problems--reflections from the bright studio lights, changing outside light conditions, odd things going on the background, unappealing-looking weather, etc.

Second, the Bellagio fountain shows run for about three minutes, every 15 or 30 minutes, depending on the day and time. Even at peak hours, then, they're running only about 20% of the time. But on the show, they're dancing at least 80% of the time.

I think that the "windows" are actually a screen on which is being back-projected a continuous loop of footage of the dancing fountains. Or perhaps they're added digitally in post to a green screen.

While I'm at it, last week was a new batch of "Poker After Dark," and I noticed that the pile of cash they occasionally show in the foreground as part of the set looks like bundles of fake $100 bills. Not much detail is shown, but just inside the portrait oval the shading is much darker than it is on real $100s. I suspect they are using the same movie-prop fakes that the World Poker Tour does (see here and here).

Is nothing real anymore?

Why play the 6-3?

Because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Poker gems, #412

Johnny Chan, on "High Stakes Poker," commenting on Phil Ruffin's rather astonishing call of David Peat's $100,000 river bluff, holding just second pair with a bad kicker. It's pretty hard to bluff a billionaire.

Clean hands, see?

I'm watching "High Stakes Poker" from last weekend. I was intrigued by this disclaimer, which came in the middle of an ad for the Bellagio spa. (HSP is taped at the Bellagio now.)

My guess is that this message has a very small target audience--specifically, the members of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. It seems to be saying, "Hey, we just provide the table and cards and chips here, as we are properly licensed to do. We have nothing whatsoever to do with those patches on the players' clothing. We would never, ever enter into a partnership with a law-breaking place like PokerStars, the way that nasty, naughty Venetian did. We are good boys and girls, and want Santa to remember that fact come Christmas."

The suckiest poker news of the year

That's what this is:

http://buzzerblog.flashgameshows.com/norm-macdonald-to-host-high-stakes-poker-show-goes-3d-for-season-seven/

(Hat tip: Jess Welman.)

Poker gems, #358

Phil Galfond, on the final episode of High Stakes Poker, season 6, after twice folding full houses to a river bet (correctly, in both instances):


I just don't like calling with full houses. I like one pair, or ace high.

That Dwan kid needs a lesson from the Grump

On last night's "High Stakes Poker," Tom Dwan showed us how to misplay the Deuce-Four. He flopped two pair. Nobody bet. He added a flush draw on the turn. Nobody bet. Antonio Esfandiari bluffed the river, Eli Elizra called. The little flip of the wrist you see going on in the screen shot above is Dwan throwing away the best hand. After he saw the winner, he said, "I play so bad."

Well, at least that time you did, Tom. But do not worry. I can coach you on how to play 2-4 for fun and profit.


While I'm on the subject, I did a little 2-4 evangelizing at Sandia casino in Albuquerque yesterday. A four on the turn gave me bottom pair, so I check-raised the original raiser when he bet (as I thought he would). He folded and I showed. Just a couple of hands later, he flopped two pair with his own 2-4 and won a nice pot. The gospel continues to spread everywhere I go.

Poker faces

From the new episode of "High Stakes Poker," this week's contestants for best poker face are Gun Hansen (doing his Viffer impersonation) and Tom Dwan (who always seems to make an appearance in these posts).

Confidential to Kara Scott

Kara:

On the above board, As-Qs is not the "nuts," and Ks-2s is not the "second nuts," as you said.

I know it's your first episode of the new gig, but really, you have to pay more attention. People notice these things.


Your pal,

Grumpy

Poker gems, #344

Phil Hellmuth, on "High Stakes Poker," season 6, episode 1:


Hellmuth: Durr [Tom Dwan] and I gamble, buddy. We put in 16,000 each when the blinds were 200 the other day. He had 10-jack, I had 9-7 offsuit.

Antonio Esfandiari: How did that work out for you?

Hellmuth: Not well.

Poker faces, #5

From this week's episode of High Stakes Poker, we have a tie!

First up is Tom Dwan (a recurring contestant). This week he is giving us his version of "Eli called my big bluff on the river. How did he know?"







Our second equally deserving contestant is new to this series. It's none other than David "Viffer" Peat, doing his rendition of "I have top pair top kicker, and the fishy fat bastard is raising me. WTF is up with that?"







Strong work, gentlemen!

Poker faces, #4

SPOILER ALERT!!

I just watched next Sunday's episode of High Stakes Poker (season 5, #9), which GSN accidentally released prematurely on YouTube, and which was thus captured and re-released at other sites of questionable legality. So if you want to watch it without knowing how any hands turn out, avert your eyes now.

Below is Howard Lederer's confusion and consternation upon learning that not only did Tom Dwan outdraw his A-K with trash, but Dwan had put in the fourth raise pre-flop with 8-6 offsuit.




The rest of the table, though, finds the whole thing highly amusing.




Daniel Negreanu points at Lederer and says, "You just got Durrrrrrrred!"

Poker gems, #233

Gabe Kaplan, on the 4/5/2009 installment of "High Stakes Poker." (For more on Hickok and his final hand, see here. To see the biggest pot in televised poker history ($919,600 cash), watch part 2 here.)


I had a big rivalry with Wild Bill Hickok. Bill used to come over the top of me all the time. I was sad when he got shot, not because he got shot, but the flop on that hand came A-10-8, and I had A-10. I thought I was gonna win a lot of money finally, y’know, and boom, and it was over. Flop top two pair and the guy gets shot in the back.

Confidential to B.W.O.P.

C.K.:

Despite your three recent posts with yet more evidence for the theory (here and here and here), both Daniel Negreanu and I learned from last night's "High Stakes Poker" that crubs do not, in fact, always get there, even when you run it twice!

Shocking, I know, but poker is full of astronomically unlikely events.

Be careful out there with the crubs.

All the best,

Grumpy


P.S.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took the crubs up against the mighty 2-4? Kind of like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Superman battling Supergirl. Matter colliding with antimatter. It might open a rift in the fabric of space-time, or something like that.

Deuce-Four triumphs again on HSP

It seems that this year the poker gods are trying to demonstrate to the world the power of the mighty Deuce-Four. See how reigning world champion Peter Eastgate wields it as a bluff to take down a pot, after wrongly losing faith in it mid-hand on a previous episode.

Poker faces, #3

From this week's episode of High Stakes Poker, we see more of the faces of poker.

First, this is how you execute the fake yawn to look bored when you have pocket aces:




But then when your aces get cracked for $548,700, you first look away to hide your disgust...




...then turn back around to reluctantly settle up:








If you're Barry Greenstein and you got all your money in bad but sucked out for half a mil, you display true facial minimalism thusly:




On one of the early HSP episodes, after a big pot, Gabe Kaplan commented that Greenstein is such a consummate pro that you couldn't tell by looking at his face whether he had won or lost that hand. That's not always true--he will occasionally crack a smile or shrug his shoulders--but it is indeed usually the case, as demonstrated here. Tom Dwan, to his credit (especially given his age), is barely more animated, either in victory or defeat.

Imagine Phil Hellmuth in that spot. Oh wait--you don't have to imagine it. Just replay what happened when Dwan got lucky and cracked Hellmuth's aces, here. See if you can tell which of them is more mature, the 21-year-old or the 43-year-old.

Every time I watch Dwan play on television, I end up liking him more. I admire both his phenomenal skill and his devil-may-care attitude.

Poker faces, #2

David Benyamine gets inducted into my new "poker faces hall of fame" on this week's "High Stakes Poker." As Gabe Kaplan comments, "That's the quads look."