The Online Poker Pro

This is the second in our series of notable poker hands from TV shows. This hand is from High Stakes Poker:

The hand begins with everyone folding to Phil Hellmuth who bets $3,200 with the ace of diamonds and the 2 of spades to make the pot $4,900.

Daniel Negreanu calls the $3,200 with the king of diamonds and the 10 of diamonds. The pot is $8,100.

Antonio Esfandiari raises to $12,000 with the jack of diamonds and the jack of clubs. The pot is $20,100.

Phil Hellmuth folds and Daniel Negreanu calls the additional $8,800. The pot is now $28,900. The flop is the queen of spades, the 6 of spades and the 10 of clubs.

Antonio’s jacks are still best. After Daniel checks, Antonio bets $15,000. The pot is now $43,900. With only a pair of 10s and an over-card on the board, Daniel comes over the top and puts Antonio all in. The pot is $173,900.

Daniel showed a lot of confidence when Antonio didn’t call immediately, making Antonio believe that Daniel had a pair of queens. Daniel Negreanu is one of the best poker players in the world and can usually chat at any point in any of his poker hands without giving anything away. But this time he agreed afterward with many of the players that he may have said too much, because Antonio picked up something and made a great call.

The turn was a 2 of diamonds, but unfortunately for Antonio, the river was a king of hearts, giving Daniel two pair and the win.

Both players have their poker strategy down cold, so they made great plays. And Antonio did everything right, including making a terrific read and a great call. But as you know if you’ve played poker for more than an hour, the river can really be unkind. Ah, but it’s always good to have outs.

Check out the first hand we covered from High Stakes Poker, which also featured Daniel Negreanu, plus Barry Greenstein, Tom Dwan and Peter Eastgate.

Playing card clip art courtesy of Dave Schloss

Check out these other High Stakes Poker hands:

• Phil Ivey, David Williams and Brad Booth
• Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate and Barry Greenstein