Hellmuth Poker After Dark

Poker After Dark welcomed veteran hothead Phil Hellmuth back to the felt for two special-edition cash games. His Home Game is joined by Maria Ho, some of the biggest Silicon Valley investors, and a mystery guest. Hellmuth makes regular appearances on episodes of Poker After Dark on PokerGO both as a player and as a drop-in commentator. Hellmuth won his first Poker After Dark tournament in the first episode of the third season, winning $120,000. Hellmuth returned two weeks later and claimed his second Poker After Dark title, winning another $120,000.

Two poker legends faced off this week in a special Poker After Dark: Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu.

And there was one key head-to-head hand, one that turned the tides and basically handed the win to Hellmuth.

It started with Hellmuth raising to 18,000 chips with a pair of 7s. Negreanu, with a King-9 offsuit, calls. Not the strongest hand in heads-up, but when he sees the flop, he’ll be happy.

It’s a King-Queen-7. Negreanu has landed top pair … but he wouldn’t be so happy if he realized Hellmuth has three 7s. After Negreanu checks, Hellmuth — with his chip lead — bets 25,000. Negreanu thinks about it and calls.

The next card is a six of diamonds. Again: A Negreanu check followed by a Hellmuth bet. This time it’s 70,000. Negreanu seems to know something’s up and he looks at his cards. He calls.

The river is … a KING! Negreanu has walked right into a trap. He’s got three Kings, a hand that would be perfect in this situation. But Hellmuth has a full house. Negreanu checks one more time, Hellmuth bets a whopping 220,000 chips.

This is where Negreanu starts chattering, a signature move in which he tries to get any information out of his opponent to help him make a decision. Hellmuth has his fists over his face and doesn’t budge. Negreanu calls and loses all but 5,000 of his chips. Ouch.

Phil Hellmuth Poker After Dark

Negreanu tweeted about the hand and took us inside his thinking:

The closing episodes of Poker Afer Dark’s Dream Table week with amateur poker player Ken Light were full of surprises, firsts and new records. Almost everyone chipped in to provide some very good poker and twists.

The fall out began almost half way through the fourth show when Daniel Negreanu limps in first position with KhKc, Mike Matusow calls on button with Ac8d, Scotty Nguyen calls the small blind and Ken Light checks the big blind.

Those 4 players see a flop of 6c 7c 6s. It is checked around, Daniel slow playing kings and Matusow bets $800. That was enough to get Nguyen and Light out and Negreanu only calls. The turn brings the Ks and Daniel again checks his now full house, and Matusow, drawing dead, bites and bets $1,200. Again, Negreanu only calls. The river brings the Ad and one more time a check from Daniel. Now pairing his ace, Mike “the mouth” bets $2,000 leaving him very little left. This time Negreanu pulls the trigger and check raises Mike Matusow all in. With very little left, Mike calls and is first of the six to leave the table.

At the end of the fourth show we had surprise number one, Jennifer Harman, at one time as low as 5000 in chips is still in and one record tied, Mike “the mouth” Matusow is 0-6 lifetime at PAD, tied with Hellmuth for worst record.

1. Negreanu – 58K
2. Hellmuth – 21K
3. Nguyen – 18k
4. Harman – 13K
5. Light – 10K

The last episode starts with Daniel Negreanu raising to $4,500 with pocket 3’s only to find Scotty Nguyen re-raising all in with pocket jack’s. Daniel eventually calls and no help comes doubling up Nguyen early and putting him in second place.

The very next hand, again Daniel raises, this time with Ad9s and it folds around to Ken Light in the big blind that wakes up to find KhKc. He goes all in for $9,600 and again Daniel calls the $5,600 more, no help for Negreanu and Ken Light now has new hope.

Quickly Daniel went from king of the mountain to middle of the pack with the new chip count being:

Poker After Dark Phil Hellmuth

1. Nguyen – 31k
2. Hellmuth – 26K
3. Negreanu – 22K
4. Harman – 21K
5. Light – 20K

A few hands later it was time for another surprise. Daniel in the small blind calls with Js6s and Hellmuth checks the big blind with KsTh. The flop comes Jc Kh 6c and Daniel moves all-in and is instantly called by Phil. The turn brings the 8s bring Daniel closer to a double up but the river Tc reverses any momentum and the suck out reduces Daniel Negranu to $1,300.

On the button next hand Daniel goes all in with ThTc. Hellmuth calls in small blind with Qh7c but Jennifer Harman raises the big blind to $10,000 with KdJd. The flop shows two diamonds and our next surprise of this week comes on the turn with another diamond sending Daniel Negreanu home in 5th place after 4 episodes of complete domination.

With blinds going up, Scotty Nguyen goes all-in for $10,600 with AsJh and it is folded to Hellmuth in the big blind who looks at one card Ah and calls. Scotty rolls the AJ and Phil shows every else his second card….Kh. In a little twist of fate only poker could bring, Phil hits his king on the flop, Scotty picks up a straight draw, the turn brings Phil a flush draw and the river gives Scotty Nguyen the straight but unfortunately also gave Phil the flush and Scotty goes home in 4th place.

Now down to the final three a couple more surprises, Ken Light the online poker qualifier is still hanging in, Jennifer Harman who was down to $5,000 chip earlier is neck and neck with Phil Hellmuth whose PAD record is 0-6.

The final players counts are:

1. Phil Hellmuth – 52K
2. Jennifer Harman – 50K
3. Ken Light – 18K

With the action heating up it is only fitting that the final hand would be a show stopper. Jennifer Harman raises to $12,000 on the button with QcTh, Ken Light, in the small blind goes all-in for $8,600 with 9h8h and Phil Hellmuth calls with 9c7s. The flop comes Tc 5s 7 d and here is where it got real interesting.

The all got something from this flop, Light has a straight draw, top pair for Harman and middle pair for Hellmuth. Hellmuth muttering to himself, “I can’t check” and even asks himself if he could fold if Harman moved all in, bets $6,000 and after thinking for a while, Harman then moved all-in. Hellmuth eventually calls to the surprise of Ken Light who openly asked why they didn’t check it down and see if they could get him out.

The turn brought the 7h and the river Ks sealed another suck out for Phil Hellmuth and eliminated both players making him Poker After Dark Dream Table Champion and $120,000 richer. So now Phil finally has the PAD monkey off his back with his first win. Jennifer Harman finished second after a remarkable come back and the Full Tilt poker online qualifier Ken Light survived his dream line up to finish a respectable 3rd.

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