High Stakes Poker S8 E12: The Greatest Laydown in HSP History?

"High Stakes Poker" was back last night on PokerGO, but in a departure from the past few episodes, it featured a mostly new crew of players.

Gone were the likes of Tom Dwan and Jason Koon, who were at the center of much of the prior action, and in their places were Phil Ivey and Doug Polk, making a rare appearance outside his favored online battleground. A few holdovers like Phil Hellmuth and Jake Daniels were back, though.

Action started off at $200/$400 and pretty much without a straddle the entire time.

Here's how stacks looked early on:

Hellmuth Bluffed Off of Kings

Hellmuth opened the action with a limp from early position holding k♦️

Everyone else folded, and the flop came 4♣️

"I'm just gonna bluff it off now," he declared.

"This kinda doesn't feel fair," Hellmuth griped. "Man. I almost stuck the whole hundred [thousand] in before the flop."

"I wish you did."

"I don't have anything at all," Hellmuth said, flashing the kings and mucking.

"Good fold," Bord said, casually tossing in his rags, much to the delight of the rest of the players.

"Good play Bordy," Hellmuth allowed.

Bluffing into a Straight Flush

Hellmuth limped in late position with j♥️4♥️, Brandon Steven made it $2,100 in the small blind with 9♦️8♦️, and Bord called with 4♠️2♦️ in the big.

Hellmuth let them go heads up to 6♦️j♦️10♦️. Steven bet $3,000 and Bord called. Steven nailed the q♦️ on the turn and bet again with $5,000. Bord responded with a sizable raise to $17,000. Steven stuck around with a slowplay but Bord didn't put any more money in on the 7♥️ river, so Steven cursed and showed his nutted hand with a smile to win the $45K pot.

"Didn't have another barrel in ya, huh?" he asked.

"I had value," Bord replied.

Old-Fashioned Three-Barrel from Dwan

Steven opened to $1,100 early with a♠️j♥️ and faced a three-bet to $4,000 from Dwan, who had recently sat with what looked like $100K, on the button with 9♠️7♠️.

He peeled and they went to a flop of j♠️4♥️8♠️. Dwan flicked in a $5,000 chip and they continued to the 3♦️. Steven check-called another barrel of $14,000, and the river bricked off with the 3♣️. Dwan had $62K left, a bit over the pot, but he opted for a smaller bet of $30,000.

Steven snapped it off and Dwan could only shake his head and show his bricked combo draw, with Steven winning a pot worth $107,000, the biggest of the session thus far.

Aces Cracked?

John Andress took Phil Ivey's seat and hadn't been down long before he looked at the dream: a♠️♦️a on the button. Bord already had opened to $1,100 with 7♥️7♣️, so Andress made it $3,500.

They went heads up to 7♦️q♣️5♦️. Andress bet small with $2,500 and Bord check-raised to $10,000. Andress peeled and the turn was a 4♠️. Bord fired a pot-sized bet of $30,000 and Andress continued to the river, which brought the a♥️.

Andress had only about $57K left with almost $90K in the pot, and he snap-called it off when Bord shoved. Bord knew immediately something had gone wrong.

"A cooler then?" he asked as he tossed his sevens in. "Yeah."

Ship the $203,200 pot to Andress for the dreamiest start possible.

Massive Cooler

Hellmuth opened in the hijack to $1,100 with the q♠️10♥️, Bord called on the button with 2♣️2♥️, and Polk tagged along out of the big blind with 10♦️7♣️.

The j♠️9♠️8♦️ flop arrived to give Polk and Hellmuth straights. But it was Bord putting in money with $2,000 after they checked to him. Polk made it $7,000 and Hellmuth moved all in, splashing a pile of $5,000 chips casually in there.

"How much is that?" Polk said with a smile. "I'm almost certainly calling but let's just see how much it is first.

"This is insane. It's just such a monster raise. Phil, whaddya got over there?"

It was $97,200 and Polk winced as he continued thinking.

"Phil, I'm considering making a very big laydown here," Polk said. "Very, very big laydown."

"I mean, I could easily have..." Hellmuth trailed off.

"What could you easily have?" Polk asked skeptically. "You just bet a lot into very, very little."

"I could have a set."

"Could you have a set? I don't think you could have a set here. Come on Phil, you're better than that."

"I could have the blockers, the tens."

"God, now you're busting out blockers. If I fold this and I'm wrong, oh my f****** lord."

"I mean I think I'm either dead — and I think I'm dead a lot, given this — or like, you just have a ton of equity against me. This is gonna look so dumb if this is...this is completely absurd. He has to get through him then he has to get through me. Nah, this is just a fold."

He tossed his hand in, much to the shock of some of the other players. Steven in particular wondered how he could let it go.

"If he's got queen-ten, he's got queen-ten. Pay the man and let's go on to the next hand."

Commentator Gabe Kaplan called it the greatest laydown in the history of the show.

Relive the hand here:

Stacks to End the Episode