This week, “The Cash Game” continues on the NBC franchise “Poker After Dark.” The second week of action began on Monday night at 2:05am ET with a good old-fashioned Twitter fight between UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth and DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson. Hellmuth told his elder, “I’ll side bet you that I can get 75,000 more Twitter followers in the next three months just by hosting freeroll tournaments.” Hellmuth offered to bet $1 million and Brunson countered with $10,000, but no agreement was reached.
Hellmuth’s comment was in part a jab at Brunson for growing his Twitter following using promotional tactics. In case you’re wondering, Hellmuth has 39,000 Twitter followers, while Brunson has nearly ten times that total at 340,000. Brunson began the episode up over $130,000 from last week’s action, while Tom “durrrr” Dwan was down $150,000. At one point, over $1 million was spread across the table, $350,000 of which was contributed by Dwan.
On a flop of Q-6-4, Dwan bet $3,600 with 6-4 for two pair and Eli Elezra called with Q-9 for top pair. The turn was a king and Dwan once again led out, this time for $9,300. Elezra called behind and spiked a nine on the river, making a better two pair than Dwan. The youngster fired out $22,800 and Elezra begrudgingly called, saying, “I guess I ran into the flush” when the board showed three hearts. However, Elezra raked in the $76,100 pot, received some ribbing from his tablemates for his flush comment, and Dwan reloaded for another $100,000.
Then, it was Hellmuth’s turn to shine. On a flop of 9-9-J, Hellmuth fired out a continuation bet of $7,000 with A-3 suited and Phil Laak made the call with 9-8 suited for trips. The turn was another jack and Laak led out for $4,700. Hellmuth called behind and the river was a three. Laak bet $23,000 and the Hellmuth theatrics began. The 11-time bracelet winner removed his sunglasses and dramatically pondered the situation before ultimately deciding to call. Laak raked in the $75,700 pot with a boat and Hellmuth lamented, “What the f***? Wow. 9-8 of hearts? Wow.”
Dwan righted the ship, leading out for $10,400 with 6-5 of diamonds on a flop of Q-3-A with one diamond. Brunson called with A-2 for top pair and the turn was the nine of diamonds, improving Dwan from air to a flush draw. Dwan bet $27,600 and Brunson insta-folded the best hand, shipping a $63,000 pot to Dwan.
In the hand of the night on Monday’s episode of “Poker After Dark,” Elezra raised to $3,300 pre-flop with Q-10 of hearts, Hellmuth called with 8-7 of spades, and Dwan put in a $12,700 squeeze play with pocket jacks. Full Tilt’s Gus Hansen 4bet to $33,800 with pocket tens and Dwan put the Dane all-in for another $60,000. Hansen called and the duo agreed to run it twice.
In the first board, Hansen made a flush on the river to scoop half of the $191,700 pot despite being a 9:1 underdog pre-flop. In the second board, Dwan’s wired pair held and the two players chopped the spoils; each netted about $3,500 in the process. By the end of the night, Laak was up $130,000, while Brunson was up $120,000.
The second week of “Poker After Dark: The Cash Game” airs daily at 2:05am ET on NBC. This is the last week of new episodes of the NBC poker series until August. If you’re a fan of shows like GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and PokerStars’ “Big Game,” then you’ll love the cash game version of “Poker After Dark.” Whereas many of the tournaments on “Poker After Dark” are unexciting, the cash game has a high-octane pace.
