Tom Dwan Drops $413,000 Pot on Poker After Dark: The Cash Game

This week, new episodes of NBC’s “Poker After Dark” returned to airwaves featuring a high-stakes cash game. Over $1 million was spread across the table and the blinds stood at $300/$600 with a $100 ante. Ali Nejad had the call of the action, which emanated from the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas and airs nightly at 2:05am ET. The cash game will air this week and next week.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan was abused for most of Monday’s kickoff episode. In the largest hand of the show, which weighed in at well over $400,000, Dwan straddled pre-flop to $1,200 and record executive Alan Meltzer inadvertently min-raised to $2,400 with pocket tens. Meltzer didn’t know that Dwan had straddled in the hand and after announcing a raise, just bet the minimum.

Dwan came over the top to $8,000 with K-Q, including the king of hearts, and Meltzer responded by making it $24,400. Dwan called and the action flop came Q-J-9, all hearts. Dwan checked, Meltzer bet $28,000, and Dwan looked at his cards before shoving all-in for $181,000 with top pair and a flush draw. Meltzer, holding flush and straight draws of his own, called all-in to create a healthy $412,900 pot.

Meltzer told Dwan that he wanted to run it once despite being a sizable underdog and Dwan obliged, only to watch a king on the turn fill Meltzer’s straight. The river was a black eight and Meltzer scooped over $400,000. Dwan asked tablemate and fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius for a reload and bought back in for $100,000.

Meltzer promptly shipped a portion of his newfound net worth to Eli Elezra, seated two to his right. Meltzer raised to $2,800 before the flop with A-J of spades and Elezra just called with Big Slick. The A-Q-5 flop gave both players top pair and each checked to a six on the turn. Elezra led out for $9,000 and Meltzer called behind to see a deuce on the river. Elezra bet $15,000 and Meltzer called, giving Elezra a $54,500 pot.

In the second largest pot of Monday’s episode of “Poker After Dark,” Elezra called pre-flop with 7-4 and “High Stakes Poker” host Gabe Kaplan raised to $2,800 with 9-6 of hearts. Then, Dwan popped it to $10,300 with 3-2 of spades. Elezra got out of the way and Kaplan called to see a flop of 7-3-A. Dwan continued his aggression by betting $14,300 with bottom pair and Kaplan raised to $38,000 with just nine-high.

Dwan called and the turn put a second ace on the board. Both players hit the brakes and checked and the river was a deuce. Dwan checked, Kaplan fired out two bricks of cash worth $50,000, and Dwan mumbled, “Such a weird line.” “Durrrr” tanked for about a minute before sending his hand into the muck and Kaplan immediately showed the bluff to scoop the $148,000 pot.

Antonius played his first pot at the tail end of the episode, raising to $3,700 with J-10. Elezra, who had limped pre-flop, came along with A-9 and the flop was J-5-5. Elezra check-called a $5,000 bet from Antonius, who held jacks-up, and the turn was a four. Both players knocked the table and the river was a six. Elezra checked, Antonius counted out $13,000 and fired it into the middle, and Elezra called with ace-high to give Antonius a pot of $44,300.

You can catch new episodes of “Poker After Dark: The Cash Game” nightly at 2:05am ET on NBC.