Despite the high-stakes action and non-stop chatter, the appearance of Phil Laak stole the show this week on the PokerStars-sponsored “Big Game.” The series airs nightly on FOX and features a “Loose Cannon” online qualifier squaring off against a table full of sharks. PokerStars stakes each “Loose Cannon” with $100,000 and qualifiers keep any earnings from the felts after 150 hands. Chris Rose and Joe Stapleton serve as hosts, with Amanda Leatherman conducting interviews from the floor of the “Big Game” suite in Los Angeles.
Laak was fresh off his ATV accident when the show was filmed and was in the midst of having his arm confined to a sling for six weeks. He also sported a pink mohawk and was mainly forced to use one arm to look at his hole cards and place bets. Despite his various ailments, Laak was his usual garrulous self.
The $200/$400 game is Pot Limit pre-flop and No Limit thereafter and features a $100 ante paid entirely by the player on the button. Thirty-five year old cancer survivor David Fishman is this week’s “Loose Cannon” and made his presence felt early, firing three barrels against PokerStars pro David Williams on the third hand of Monday’s kickoff episode. He ultimately pushed out a bet of $10,000 on the river with a busted straight draw and forced Williams to lay down a pocket pair to win a pot of $21,000.
In the largest pot of the episode, UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth check-called a bet of $20,000 from entrepreneur Bill Perkins with pocket tens on a board of 3-J-5-6 with two clubs. Perkins held K-2 of clubs for a flush draw, but whiffed when a red deuce came on the river. Both players checked and Hellmuth raked in a pot worth $76,000. Perkins was quickly down $49,000 on his “Big Game” debut.
Also debuting this week on the “Big Game” was a segment dubbed “Couch Cannon.” In it, all players’ hole cards were concealed except the “Loose Cannon’s.” In the “Couch Cannon” hand, Laak ultimately raised on the flop with air and Fishman, holding top pair, second kicker, shut it down to scoop a $40,000 pot for the win.
After 4betting before the flop to $25,200 with A-K, Perkins laid down pocket fives and Hellmuth was quickly up $51,000 on the night. Perkins, however, clawed back towards even after drawing out on the river in a hand against Williams. Perkins check-called a bet of $4,600 from Williams with 4-3 on a board of 9-2-7-4 for a pair of fours. Williams held 9-6 for top pair and the river came another four, giving Perkins trips. Williams bet $11,400, Perkins min-raised to $22,800, and Williams called, giving the $61,000 pot to the businessman and amateur poker player.
2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Joe Cada is also part of this week’s cast, but was extremely quiet during the opening episode. Late in the night, Cada boasted an Aggression Factor of 0.0, the least active player at the table, while Perkins was the most active player at 9.0.
By the end of the night, Hellmuth was up $54,000, Fishman was up $30,000, Cada was up $1,000, Perkins was down $22,000, Williams had lost $28,000, and Laak was down $34,000. Every player started with a stack of $100,000. New episodes of the “Big Game” air late night every day this week on Fox in most markets. Check your local listings for details.