18 Jan 12

The Top 5 Best TV Poker Hands

Ahead of our interview later on this week with legendary TV poker commentator Jesse May, we recap on the five most talked about, most memorable, and most entertaining televised hands in the history of the game.

5. Gus Hansen vs Daniel Negreanu

There have been many bigger pots televised since this first aired in 2006, but this was a hand which really got everyone talking. At the time, it was the largest ever televised pot at $575,500 between two of the icons of the game. It also was perhaps the hand which put cash game poker on the televised map.

Negreanu has lost to quads three times on High Stakes Poker, but this one was by far the most memorable.

4. Tony G vs Ralph Perry

The hand itself was by no means a classic, but the drama that accompanied it will never be forgotten. This hand not only showed TV audiences the more visceral side of the game, it also put one of TV poker's greats, Antanas 'Tony G' Guoga, on the map.

3. Chris Moneymaker vs Sam Farha

The moment Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP main event was without doubt the biggest moment in the history of the game. But, the hand that won it for him was not the most memorable. Instead, this hand just before it, where Moneymaker bluffs all-in on the river with a missed flush, was the one that had poker players talking.

"You must have missed your flush huh?" - how history would have been different if Farha gone with his read.

2. Tom Dwan vs Barry Greenstein vs Peter Eastgate

This was one of the most talked about hands ever from the history of High Stakes Poker, not because it featured high drama, bad beats, or record breaking sums of money. No, this was simply one of the most skillful hands ever played on screen. Tom Dwan put himself on the map by knowing full well he had the worst hand out of the three with top pair, but still managing to find a bluff with it, against two very intelligent opponents.

1. Hellmuth runs it four times vs the Loose Cannon

We have had drama, record breakers, pure skill, and history being made - but this hand is just plain funny. If there are truly Poker Gods out there, they all came together to put this hand on TV - the slowroll, the amateur, the multiple outdraws, the blow up, the needling - poker does not get more entertaining than this.



by Barry Carter