PokerStars Big Game Week 7
Posted by PokerBigGame on Friday, October 22, 2010
Following a short break to recharge its batteries, the PokerStars Big Game was back again for 7th week of TV poker magic. As ever, five of the world’s best poker players gathered around the felt in Las Vegas, with the sixth seat filled by a Loose Cannon. This PokerStars Download qualifier is given $100k to play with and is allowed to keep any winnings he makes on that stack. If he ends the week in the black he has the choice of taking his winnings home or coming back to play again.
The amateur player making his bow this week was Russell Harlow from Connecticut. The bakery truck driver works the graveyard shift, delivering all manner of delicious bready goods in the dead of night. He also plays a lot of PC and Mac Poker online. Clearly a big win on the Big Game would make a huge difference to his circumstances. He had three kids and a wife cheering him on. Talking to Amanda Leatherman about his battle-plan, Russell sounded confident. He also revealed that he had a secret target profit. If made money without reaching that amount, he promised to return next week for another shot, rather than retreating back to the cash games at top texas holdem sites.
Russell was going to have his work cut out for him. His top class opponents would be aching to take his stack from him. Representatives from the best US poker sites were out in force. Isaac Haxton, Jason Mercier, and Antonio Esfandiari were all present, as were old sparring partners Phil Hellmuth and Tony G. And so it proved, going into the final episode, with the Loose Cannon still down $7,000. He needed to claw his way back into the black in just 30 hands. Anything he’d learnt watching PokerStars free poker training videos was going to come in handy now.
2009 Bluff Player of the Year, Jason Mercier was on great form all week. He was by far the biggest winner from the session. In the week’s final episode, Jason took his foot of the accelerator and just marvelled in his own excellence for 40 minutes. Jason is a member of the PokerStars Marketing Code sponsored team. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the man hogging the most camera time was Phil Hellmuth. He took some more cash of the Loose Cannon, easily picking off a bluff by rivering a full house. That left Harlow down over $40k, with only 15 hands left.
It was almost all over for Russell, taking his last shot with just 5 hands remaining. With KQ, Harlow put in a raise only to be re-raised by Phil Hellmuth. The duo saw a flop of K-5-K fell. A few hands earlier, Phil had been agonizing over whether to call an all-in bet from the loose cannon with a just a flush draw. He took almost 15 minutes to make the decision, prompting Tony G to berate him from the sidelines. Phil wasted no time in this hand, unwisely shoving all-in with only Ace high. It was a snap call for Russell, who dodged Phil’s few outs and racked in a big pot. Phil would have been dying for some PokerStars Rakeback after that hand.
At the end of the night the Loose Cannon had a shade over $100k. Enough for him leave with money or come back next week. Russell decided that he hadn’t won enough yet and opted to return to the Loose Cannon seat for another week.
PokerStars is one of the world’s top money poker sites and you can qualify now for future episodes of the Big Game by playing in one of their free qualification tournaments.
At the end of Week 7, the winners and losers were:
Jason Mercier (+ $150,800)
Ike Haxton (+ $33,600)
Tony G (+ $20,200)
Russell Harlow (+ $16,400)
Phil Hellmuth (- $89,300)
Antonio Esfandiari (- $131,700)
The amateur player making his bow this week was Russell Harlow from Connecticut. The bakery truck driver works the graveyard shift, delivering all manner of delicious bready goods in the dead of night. He also plays a lot of PC and Mac Poker online. Clearly a big win on the Big Game would make a huge difference to his circumstances. He had three kids and a wife cheering him on. Talking to Amanda Leatherman about his battle-plan, Russell sounded confident. He also revealed that he had a secret target profit. If made money without reaching that amount, he promised to return next week for another shot, rather than retreating back to the cash games at top texas holdem sites.
Russell was going to have his work cut out for him. His top class opponents would be aching to take his stack from him. Representatives from the best US poker sites were out in force. Isaac Haxton, Jason Mercier, and Antonio Esfandiari were all present, as were old sparring partners Phil Hellmuth and Tony G. And so it proved, going into the final episode, with the Loose Cannon still down $7,000. He needed to claw his way back into the black in just 30 hands. Anything he’d learnt watching PokerStars free poker training videos was going to come in handy now.
2009 Bluff Player of the Year, Jason Mercier was on great form all week. He was by far the biggest winner from the session. In the week’s final episode, Jason took his foot of the accelerator and just marvelled in his own excellence for 40 minutes. Jason is a member of the PokerStars Marketing Code sponsored team. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the man hogging the most camera time was Phil Hellmuth. He took some more cash of the Loose Cannon, easily picking off a bluff by rivering a full house. That left Harlow down over $40k, with only 15 hands left.
It was almost all over for Russell, taking his last shot with just 5 hands remaining. With KQ, Harlow put in a raise only to be re-raised by Phil Hellmuth. The duo saw a flop of K-5-K fell. A few hands earlier, Phil had been agonizing over whether to call an all-in bet from the loose cannon with a just a flush draw. He took almost 15 minutes to make the decision, prompting Tony G to berate him from the sidelines. Phil wasted no time in this hand, unwisely shoving all-in with only Ace high. It was a snap call for Russell, who dodged Phil’s few outs and racked in a big pot. Phil would have been dying for some PokerStars Rakeback after that hand.
At the end of the night the Loose Cannon had a shade over $100k. Enough for him leave with money or come back next week. Russell decided that he hadn’t won enough yet and opted to return to the Loose Cannon seat for another week.
PokerStars is one of the world’s top money poker sites and you can qualify now for future episodes of the Big Game by playing in one of their free qualification tournaments.
At the end of Week 7, the winners and losers were:
Jason Mercier (+ $150,800)
Ike Haxton (+ $33,600)
Tony G (+ $20,200)
Russell Harlow (+ $16,400)
Phil Hellmuth (- $89,300)
Antonio Esfandiari (- $131,700)
Tags: online poker pokerstars big game
