High Stakes Poker: Minieri Takes The Charge

The young gun Tom "durrrr" Dwan (pictured right) was certainly silenced in the
latest episode of High Stakes Poker. With Eli Elezra at the table, he
found himself a match in terms of craziness and willingness to gamble,
but what he didn't count on was Alan Meltzer.

Meltzer proved that he is capable of making big bluffs and great calls
in tough situations, both in the same episode. His big bluff came in a
hand which saw almost the whole table joining in, but action on the flop quickly narrowed the play down to a mind game between Meltzer and Mike Baxter.

Pre-flop action saw David Peat making a raise to $2,500 and everyone opting to just call. The flop came and players checked to Meltzer who decided to make a move and bet $7,000. Baxter immediately fired a raise to $21,000 which pushed away everyone except Meltzer, who thought for a second before announcing a raise to $58,000.

Baxter found himself in a tough spot, making the call here with didn't seem like a good idea and he decided to fold. Meltzer couldn't resist showing his bluff and turned over which drew a "Wow!" from Elezra. The biggest bluff of the night came at the cost of Baxter's money and nerves, as he seemed to pull that hand through his head for the rest of the night.

Meltzer took another five minutes of glory when he found himself in a hand against Dwan and Doyle Brunson. Dwan held , Meltzer held and Brunson held .

After everyone checked down to the river, the board finally read and Dwan was the first to act. He decided to continue with the checking game, but Meltzer scratched his head and figured this might be a good opportunity to take the pot down. He fired a $2,000 bullet to see if anyone actually had a hand.

Brunson folded and Dwan decided to make a bluff by raising to $22,000. Meltzer looked at the chips already in play and threw in another $20,000 to make the call. Dwan wasn't hoping for this kind of result and Meltzer took down the pot, proving he is capable of making some great calls.

Ever found yourself in a tough situation? Phil Laak has a solution to that, don't play anything but pocket aces and once you do get pocket aces, immediately raise to $50,000 just to make sure that nobody calls you and then gets lucky on the flop which will only lead to having regrets "Why didn't I end it right there, why did I slowplay my aces?"

While the idea might look good on the paper, in practice it proved to have some flaws as Laak seemed to be out of touch in most of the hands he played. First, he got bluffed on the river by David Peat and then he demonstrated the aces-tactic when three players limped in before the flop and he raised to $50,800 with pocket aces.

Nobody showed interest in making the call, not even Dwan who held . Phil Laak dragged the few extra chips to his stack, happy as if he had won a half a million pot.

Elezra seemed amused by the whole situation, but on the other hand he also found it funny when Peat made rabbit ears with his fingers to Laak, which Gabe Kaplan commented, "That rabbit ears deal hasn't got to Israel yet. Still real funny around the Middle East, you do that in Jemen and they'll scream."

The man who seemed to be the most "in the zone" at the table was certainly Dario Minieri (pictured left), a young pro from Italy. Unlike the last episode, this time he made moves at the right time and picked up most of the pots he played in.

In one of such hands, he got Elezra completely confused. Action began with Meltzer limping in, Elezra made an unusually small raise to $1,600 with , Minieri re-raised to $9,200 with , Meltzer folded and Elezra called.

Elezra checked in the dark and the flop came . Minieri bet $14,000 and Elezra stared down at the cards on the table, thinking what to do and his decision turned out to be a call. The turn brought , Elezra checked and Minieri bet $37,000.

Elezra looked confused at this point but eventually, he concluded, " I see something on you I can't explain, you have the best hand here. You have a big hand." The high stakes veteran managed to get himself out of this one, as Minieri took down the $87,000 pot which could've been a lot bigger.