Another exciting episode of High Stakes Poker Season 9 aired this week on PokerGO, with Doyle Brunson proving yet again that age is just a number. “Texas Dolly” won multiple pots, so did Daniel Negreanu. Things still didn’t go well for Tom Dwan who ended up at the bottom of the chip stack as the night came to an end.
Let’s take a look back at some of the main highlights of Monday night’s Episode 3 which saw some of the most popular poker players in the world set the show on fire.
DWAN FAILS AGAIN
Most of the players that we saw during the previous episode were back on Monday night. The star-studded cast featured Brunson, Negreanu, Dwan, Phil Ivey, Jean Robert-Bellande, Jonathan Gibbs, and Patrik Antonius. Notably, Koray Aldemir, the winner of the 2021 WSOP Main Event wasn’t part of the action.
Dwan was looking to redeem himself after losing major pots during the first two episodes, and indeed the night started well for him. He won the first three hands, one of which had a pot valued at $60,800. But that was it for the online high-stakes legend. In the events that followed, luck was clearly not on his side.
In the last episode, Dwan took a beating from Bellande in two run-outs. The same happened to him on Episode 3, but this time courtesy of Negreanu. Dwan battled it out with Negreanu in a massive $272,000 pot. He limped under the gun holding AcJs, prompting Antonius to raise to $2,000 with 10s8s. Negreanu called with KsKh, and then Dwan limp-raised to $14,000. Antonius let his cards go while Negreanu decided to four-bet to $32,000.
Dwan proceeded to play with his top pair. With the flop coming out 10c4hJd, Dwan was in trouble. Negreanu four-bet to $32,000 and Dwan pushed all of his remaining chips to the middle. Negreanu called and the pair agreed to run it twice. The first board was won by the GGPoker ambassador with Qh on the turn followed by the 4c river.
Negreanu went on to win the entire pot after the second board ran out Qs and 7s. That represented another massive defeat for Dwan who has been stuck on the losing end when running it twice since Season 9 began.
After Negreanu’s encounter with Dwan, he got involved in the only other six-figure pot of the episode. This time he was unsuccessful as the $104,800 pot went to Bellande.
STELLAR PERFORMANCE FROM BRUNSON
As the episode drew to a close, one player stood out and he’s no other than Brunson, the “Godfather of Poker”. The Poker Hall of Famer managed to win some pots through aggression.
There were instances when he would successfully make large raises holding top pair, chasing away possible drawing hands. When there wasn’t any major action, he initiated an $800 straddle which Bellande doubled to $1,600. First to act, Dwan made it $5,000 holding 6s3s. Negreanu then called Dwan’s $5K with Qd9d. At this time, Gibbs folded his Ad8d.
With the pot now valued at $13,200, Brunson continued the action, three-betting to $30,500 with his 7s7h. Bellande surrendered; Dwan and Negreanu did the same. Brunson won the pot, earning compliments from his opponents. The 10-time WSOP bracelet winner “still works at 88”, according to Bellande.
Overall, Brunson won six of the final 11 hands shown during the latest episode. While the pots involved weren’t that big, Brunson proved that he still can play and he can still beat younger opponents despite his age.
The action continues next Monday at 5pm on PokerGO. A new face is set to join the star-studded line-up, Los Angeles pro Garrett Adelstein who is popular for his deep runs in high-stakes live-streamed games.
