Top 10 Hands in the History of High Stakes Poker

Author: Nick Laurrell

Watch High Stakes Poker, it is the best poker show on TV bar none. While the World Poker Tour and ESPN’s World Series of Poker regularly garner the highest ratings, the half-hour segment on the Game Show Network is by far the most interesting.

Firstly and most importantly, High Stakes Poker is a cash game, while most other shows are tournaments. On top of that, most of those shows are only the Final Table of massive tournaments. There are no losers at the Final Table of any major tournament – they are all going to be making a lot of money. And you aren’t seeing every hand, only the ones that the producers think are the most interesting. Unlike when you watch the WPT and the WSOP, every hand is shown on High Stakes Poker. And when you see a $10,000 bet on High Stakes Poker, it is a real $10,000 bet representing real money.

This difference underscores a major shift in the style of play. In a cash game, you can buy in as many times as you want while in a tournament, you can only go broke once. This opens the door for bigger bluffs, more speculative pre-flop raises and a lot of very pricey decisions.

There are also no satellite qualifiers at the High Stakes table. While this hurts the Chris Moneymaker fan in all of us, it means that every seat is filled by a wealthy guy who is not afraid to move some money. In fact, High Stakes Poker is one of the only places to see wealthy amateurs face the pros: players like Jerry Buss and Guy Laliberte are too rich to play poker for a living, but will fool around on the felt from time to time.

And then there are those unique All-Star tables that only High Stakes Poker can make happen. There are just too many people in a major tournament to end up with a final table of Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Sammy Farha, Jennifer Harmon, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth. This is an All-Star lineup that needs to be hand picked and assembled, both of which the producers of High Stakes Poker are happy to do.

So now, here is the list of the top 10 best hands in the history of High Stakes Poker. They feature big suck outs, big bluffs, great calls, huge pots and a couple of riverboat gamblers running a million dollar hand four times.

10. One of the most infamous moments in the history of High Stakes Poker occurred early in the show’s run. Daniel Negreanu was holding a K10 against Antonio Esfandiari who was holding pocket Jacks on a board that read Q 10 6. Kid Poker moved in on the Magician for almost $650,000 leaving Esfandiari to make one of the great reads in televised poker history. Too bad the deck disagreed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rut0vx-UtGI.

9. Want big bluffs? Watch the relative unknown Brad Booth bluff poker superstar Phil Ivey off a pair of pocket Kings on a board that read 3 6 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYaWCKnGd8M.

8. 1 out of every 50 or so times that you pick up pocket Kings, someone has pocket Aces. In this heartbreaking hand Sammy Farha almost gets off of his Kings pre-flop against Barry Greenstein’s Aces. Almost, but then again, maybe it was a good call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg551su1KnM.

7. One of the best parts of watching High Stakes Poker is watching the players come to arrangements about running hands twice and such. Watch in this hand as Patrick Antonius and Sammy Farha agree to run a million dollar pot 4 times. Also of note is how quickly Sammy Farha calls a $300,000 bet with nothing but a king high flush draw – and it’s the right call! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhEqem0c9A.

6. The biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history was almost this $1.2 million monster between Guy Laliberte and David Benyamine. But in the end, Guy is just too nice to be a poker pro after all. Watch for Doyle Brunson’s great line, “This represents a day in his life, it represents your life.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuzU_M8HtBU

5. If you play enough poker, you are going to get sucked out on. Not everyone gets sucked out on for $750,000 though. Watch as Patrick Antonius swallows a rivered full house from Jamie Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBm1wnq2C5o.

4. Another hand featuring pocket Aces, pocket Kings and Sammy Farha. Only this time he has the Aces and rubs up against the ever chirping 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold. The poker played in this hand is not nearly as interesting as the conversation. Then again, a $400,000 is pretty interesting stuff. There are two parts to this one as both Sammy and Jamie are chatters at the poker table.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF2P3lPSxS8
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRt_S0LxgZg&feature=related

3. All of the players at the table had agreed to pay any one who won a hand holding a 7-2 an extra $500 a piece. So naturally, poker brat Phil Hellmuth had to try. Only, he didn’t expect to run into Mike Matusow and his pocket Kings. This hand is for any one who thinks that Phil Hellmuth is a poker celebrity only because of his mouth. Watch the difference between a decent poker player with a huge mouth and great player with a huge mouth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF2P3lPSxS8.

2. Maybe the single best play in the history of High Stakes Poker was brought on because of tilt. Watch as Doyle Brunson ponies up $400,000 with top pair and middle kicker against the eccentric billionaire Guy Laliberte all because he lost a previous hand to Jamie Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csgzYv4jo6k.

1. Want crazy cards? How about a full house going up against quads? Watch this ridiculously cold deck between Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu climb up past half a million dollars. And the best part is, they both seem to know exactly what is going on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojeRwWIdQBM.

So there is a list of the 10 best hands in the history of High Stakes Poker. Check these and more out online and on the Game Show Network.

About the Author:

This article was published courtesy of RakeBreak.com.
RakeBreak.com is a newly re-launched rakeback and bonus code hub for online poker players. Players who meet monthly quotas in VIP points also receive invitations to freeroll tournaments and complimentary memberships to other sites like StoxPoker.

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