On Saturday, the 16-person playoff field was determined in the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship on GSN. The show airs new episodes every Saturday at 9:00pm ET. Over the weekend, the final two qualifying matches for the playoffs were held.
Teammates alternate action by street on Doubles Poker and cannot talk strategy at the table if they have cards. Instead, each team is given one 30-second time out to banter about a hand. Each player bought into the made-for-television tournament for $50,000 and David Tuchman and Full Tilt Poker pro Brandon Adams have the call of the action.
In the first match, Tony G teamed with Phil Gordon, Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar teamed with Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen paired with Johnny Chan, and Carlos Mortensen teamed with Erik Seidel. The group consisted of three former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champs. Chan was a perfect 3-0 in preliminary matches and players jockeyed to get to 35 regular season points, which would likely be needed to make the playoffs.
Mortensen folded pocket jacks pre-flop to try to allow Seidel to climb up the points ladder and avoid a fourth place finish, but it wasn’t meant to be, as they were eliminated first after flopping top pair with 9-4 on a board of 8-2-9. Tony G and Gordon held pocket tens for an overpair and Seidel and Mortensen were sent packing with zero regular season points.
Then, Hansen 3bet all-in pre-flop with A-4 and Tony G, a PartyPoker pro, made the call with a wired pair of queens. Chan and Hansen could not improve and they were eliminated in third place. As a result of the four-point boost, Chan secured his position atop the overall leaderboard at 64 points.
To end the first match of the one-hour show, Rajkumar and Hellmuth took down the title after their pocket sevens held against Gordon and Tony G’s 5-4 on a flop of 3-J-4. The turn was an ace and the river was a ten, giving each of the winners 20 points towards the regular season standings. As a result, Rajkumar, Tony G, Gordon, and Chan all eclipsed the 35-point plateau and earned a playoff birth.
In the second qualifying match, Andy Bloch teamed with Nick “The Takeover” Schulman, David Chiu paired with Phil Laak, Howard Lederer teamed with Greg Mueller, and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond teamed with Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari.
In just the second hand of the match, Bloch and Schulman elected to gamble with A-Q all-in pre-flop and ran into Chiu and Laak’s Big Slick. However, Bloch and Schulman flopped a queen and no king came for “The Unabomber” and Chiu on the turn or river to save the day. They busted in fourth place, leaving Laak to lament that he hadn’t even played a hand.
Galfond and Esfandiari got it in with 9-7 on a board of 10-10-8 with two clubs. After some deliberation, Bloch and Schulman called with J-9 for an open-ended straight draw of their own. The turn was another club and, with Bloch and Schulman holding the only club, the card left Galfond and Esfandiari drawing thin to the river. The final card was a blank and Galfond and Esfandiari hit the rail in third place.
Mueller and Lederer ultimately won the match and Bloch came up short of his must-win bid for a playoff spot. Now, the post-season field is set in the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship on GSN. Here are the pairings:
Johnny Chan and Erick Lindgren
Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad
Greg Mueller and Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar
Nick Schulman and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger
Tony G and David Benyamine
Huck Seed and Allen Cunningham
In addition, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, and Toto Leonidas, who are all knotted at 35 points, will play a match to break the tie and two of them will move on to form the final playoff team.
You can catch new episodes of the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship every Saturday at 9:00pm ET on GSN.
