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Classic poker hands |
 In the fifth season of Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, the actor that played Samwise Gamgee in the blockbuster trilogy The Lord of the Rings showed a certain lack of wisdom in his poker game. |
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Bravo’s hit show, Celebrity Poker Showdown is in it’s sixth season, and co-host and poker pro Phil Gordon continues to dispense advise that is worth listening to. |
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Nothing rousing. Sad Sadie bets $3, only two players dare to call with this flop (others - fold), Cranky Jack raises. The rest - call. They hope the turn will help them. But in vain. |
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The only one think Cranky Jack typed after that was: "...aah... and you stayed in game with that?" |
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We can say that Jack has already won. I don’t know what hand can beat him now. |
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What is the best possible hand now? Straight. Against Jack’s Kamikaze... |
 In the beginning of the Poker Superstars III final table, Todd Brunson and Antonio Esfandiari were as two unfamiliar boxers, trying to get a feel for the other person’s ability and reach. |
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Small Blind again wanted to get a free card. And again – in vain. |
 Some think that these are TT pairs through 77. Others say these are JJ through 88. |
 Because if it there was then there is only one question I want to ask you: “Why are you still in game?” |
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It was once said that a Big Slick is a hand that doesn’t have strength but does have potential… |
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Pocket pair is not a bad hand. Even when it’s not a big pair. |
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On the flop Small Blind bet, Big raised. I think it’s understood that Jack called… |
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Again Jack decided to check-raise and trap Jill. |
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He couldn’t give anyone a free play. That’s why he bet. |
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Two other players called pre-flop and the possibility they think the same way is very high. And one more thing – Doyle Brunson won with this hand at the 1976 WSOP main event. |
 Howard Lederer is not called "The Professor of Poker" for nothing, and his expert analysis and forward looking guesses play well with sports commentator Chris Rose who keeps things moving along and asks the right questions. |
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In the ever-popular Bravo series, Celebrity Poker Showdown, it often seems to provide more in celebrity entertainment than exciting poker hands, but from time to time poker expert and pro Phil Gordon offers an instructional gem. |
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While the five players, who included Simpson’s voice regular Hank Azaria, and two of Saturday Night Live’s “Not Ready For Prime Time Players” Seth Meyer and Amy Poeler, are all celebrities it does not mean they are weak poker players. |
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Phil Gordon, pro poker player and co-host of Bravo’s popular Celebrity Poker Showdown, often dispenses great advice during play, and season Six of the hit show shows no sign of him slowing down. |
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Celebrity Poker Showdown, the hit cable show aired by Bravo, can be a lot of fun. Dave Foley, co-host along with poker pro Phil Gordon, keeps things light and the celebrities playing are almost always entertaining, regardless of their skill at poker. |
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There are probably a lot of reasons poker legend Phil Hellmuth gets angry at the poker table, which makes it a lucky thing for him his wife is a psychologist. |
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The debate will most likely never end regarding poker and luck versus poker and skill. Those who play poker for a while come to understand (some quicker than others) that poker is indeed a game of skill, one that is certainly affected by luck. |
 In a best five out of seven match up it was the first round, and Antonio had bullied Todd seven hands in a row, with Todd picking up one hand weakly to break the streak. In this hand Esfandiari had a chance to either show some guts or just get there with luck. |
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Someday, perhaps, someone will study the psychology behind why celebrities are so hot for playing poker. Certainly the answers will be along the same lines as why non celebrities play, but there have to be some interesting differences along the way. |
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Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown is a show that many poker players can’t decide about. Some think it is a big sham, with very little actual poker playing going on (or at least, very little GOOD poker playing) while others just appreciate it for the humor and novelty of watching stars play poker. Sometimes, such as when Ray Romano and Brad Garret shared the table, the show is funny AND has good poker. |
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When playing Texas Hold ’em, especially No Limit Texas Hold ’em, the board can be your enemy just as easily as your pal, and while you may love it when someone calls your all in and you are in first position, that can quickly change down the River. |
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Sometimes you can’t avoid a bit of bad luck; in poker that is understood. But there are times when it seems like bad luck is out to get you, that it has a vested, personal interest in making you suffer a bit before doing you in. In one hand observed in an online poker tournament it seemed just so, as fate teased one player, giving him a taste of victory that surely resulted in rebel yell of relief, only to dash his hopes against the rock in the River. |
 Poker TV is almost always interesting, but it gets much more interesting when the players all know each other, and then even more so when they are friends. |
 There would only be one more match after this one in Poker Superstars III, where Antonio Esfandiari and Gus Hansen struggled to move on to the championship round, where last year’s second place finisher, Todd Brunson, would be waiting. |
 The Poker Superstars III season had been a long one, but soon the championship game would be underway - first Antonio Esfandiari and Gus Hansen had to fight it out to determine who would move on to face Todd Brunson in the final match up. |
 Anyone who wins the World Series of Poker is going to get a certain amount of respect, but in some circles that respect is limited. But Chris Ferguson gets plenty of respect. |
 In an online private table game, six regular players sat down for a game of No Limit Holdem and played their hearts out. By the time the blinds were at $15 and $30, one player was out of the running. |
 Joining the mix of Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, David Grey, and Daniel Negreanu, were Lakers owner Jerry Buss and poker commentator Gabe Kaplan, both poker pros in their own right. |
 The action was picking up in the Group D match of the Super Sixteen during Poker Superstars III. Daniel Negreanu and Carlos Mortensen were the last two in the match up, each striving for a $15k prize and the right to move on to the quarter finals. |
 Fox Sports Network’s ultra popular series Poker Superstars returned for a third season, and the invitational poker event was filled with pro player interaction, including the table that put two of the Ladies of Poker in the action while a third one commentated. |
 In this particular hand the match-up was between Daniel Negreanu and Cyndy Violette - the hands were almost always heads up, as players tended to stay out of each other’s way in the hopes that they will survive while the involved player is eliminated. |
 In the 6th elimination match of the Poker Superstars III, two powerhouse lady pros were ruling the table - until they butted heads and one felted the other. |
 In Elimination match 6 pros such as Greg Raymer, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Cyndy Violette had hit the skids, collecting a few points and no cash, leaving very good pals Jennifer Harman and Daniel Negreanu to battle it out for first place - a finish that came with 10 points and $10,000. |
 One might wonder if it is an advantage to be playing heads up against a good friend, or a disadvantage. During this hand the question went unanswered. |
 Poker is often about who is the favorite, and that difference is often about only a few percentage points. Over time, those percentage points add up, and a proper player will take what seem like huge risks based on a small edge. |
 When the show Poker Superstars entered it’s third season, new faces were introduced into the format, including 2005 World Serires of Poker champ Joe Hachem. |
 In this particular elimination match the six pros had been whittled down to two buddies, Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Harman. With blinds at $30k and $60k the heads up action was bound to be short, and with Daniel at the table it was bound to be entertaining. |
 In this particular hand Jennifer Harman showed how much she, at least, is like the average player in an average home game - setting aside her incredible skills at the game, of course. |
 Daniel Negreanu had sat back and quietly accumulated chips, and points, and just waited for the right hand to deal the death blow to his opponent. |
 During a preliminary match of the Poker Superstars III, commentator Howard "The Professor" Lederer showed why he is heralded as a teacher of mastery in the game of poker. |
 During the short handed elimination rounds of the Poker Superstars TV show, during its third season, Jennifer Tilly showed why it is so important to pay position along with cards. |
 The Poker Superstars show is one that gives a different experience to the poker fan, watching poker pros battle it out not for top dollar but for top positioning, earning points in short handed games to get into the final Super Sixteen. |
 During the seventh match of the elimination rounds during Poker Superstars III, Johnny Chan showed some of the multi level thinking that lead him to back to back World Series of Poker victories in the Nineties. |
 When a poker player sits down to a no limit table, one question he is going to have to answer at some point is, "Am I prepared to go broke?" |
 Ted Forrest’s luck had kept him in the match much longer than it might be assuming some of the plays he made, but in a one-two punch, Forrest finally said goodbye. |
 Poker Superstars features the fast action and there does not seem to be a lot of it, as the only players are pros who all know the game of poker very well. Fold, fold, fold, all in, call, bust seems to be the pattern at the table, and during Elimination Match 7 during Season Three it was no exeption. |
 Sometimes all you want are two live cards, and such was the case with Mike Sexton during season three of the Poker Superstars show and tournament. |
 During elimination match number seven, Sexton had survived a few all in moves, doubling up but never quite getting in striking distance of the lead. Now he was faced with a tough choice when sitting in the small blind position - to go all in or limp in? |
 During the seventh elimination match of the third season of Poker Superstars, Todd Brunson showed in his play that he was worth of the name Brunson, making some daring moves that paid off and kept him afloat. |
 With Barry Greenstein and Mimi Tran - the best of friends - at the same table it would be interesting to see the dynamics as both players needed plenty of points to move on to the Super Sixteen. |
 Playing against the other pros who were in need of points, players who were crafty and had good timing could use their image and the other pro’s reluctance to pick up much needed chips. |
 Daniel Negreanu is a player used to doing odd calculations, and he went into this event with one singular goal - to finish three points ahead of Barry Greenstein. |
 A top four finish would guarantee a player a spot as the chip leader in one of the final tables and some players, like Daniel Negreanu, played their last elimination game not with the goal of making the super sixteen, but of hitting the top four. |
 During the Poker Superstars III, in Elimination Match 19, Daniel Negreanu played a creative hand with Cyndi Viollete, and was honest with her - in the end. |
 In Elimination Match 18 former World Series of Poker champion Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen butted heads with Card Player Magazine exec Jeff Shulman, locking horns to see who would go home. |
 Whenever Mike "The Mouth" Matusow sits at a table, the other players know they are in for an exersize in patience. |
 In one of the final elimination matches in the Poker Superstars third season, Joe Hachem was unhappy. Coming into his last event of five, he needed to get at least 19 points if he wanted to move on to the Super Sixteen. |
 All the pros playing got five chances to build up points, and the top sixteen players would move on to the finals - Mimi Tran was not one of them. |
 Todd Brunson looks unhappy most of the time sitting at the card table, but every once in a while his sense of humor breaks his studied expression of discomfort. |
 Poker Superstars III was always an interesting concept, but when they managed to get a table with Gus Hansen, Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow together, it was bound to get very, very interesting. |
 Every player that participated in Poker Superstars III was a bit of a poker superstar, but some were more superstar-like than others, and the two heads up at the end of Group D in the Super Sixteen were among them. |
 During the course of the Poker Superstars III event, Gus Hansen became known for yet another affectation - saying "Boom" when he moved all in. |
 Sometimes a player thinks he is bluffing, but he actually has the best hand - and that was the case for Mike "The Mouth" Matusow during elimination match number 13 out of 20 during Poker Superstars III. |
 Gus Hansen is a crowd favorite, and it is for many reasons. His Danish good looks, his ability to play crazy poker with horrible cards and win, and his good natured attitude all have something to do with it, and he was showing off all of his attributes during Poker Superstars III. |
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