In poker you are not supposed to talk truthfully about your hand while in life you are supposed to talk truthfully regardless.  Recently, a study was done that showed people in dim lighting and dark places are far more willing to commit moral transgressions than people in well lit places.  In a study that placed college students in well lit and darkly lit rooms with an envelope, $10, and a test they graded themselves to win some of the $10, the students were more likely to cheat in the darkly lit room than in the well lit room.

Scientists believe the darkness liberates the person to be bad, one because it’s less likely they’ll be seen and two the feeling they have from not being seen.  It encourages feelings of anonymity, like a member of a mob feels less like an individual and more an anonymous member of a group, which in turn encourages behavior that would never be done alone.  They came to this anonymity conclusion by testing the generosity of students wearing sunglasses.

In the second study, students wearing sunglasses were less likely to share as big a  portions of real money with a random stranger if they were protected by sunglasses than if they had clear glasses.  Here being able to hide behind the shades encourage misbehavior.  Carnival revelers and mask party invitees can attest to how costumes up the ante so to speak and lower the morality of events.  Apparently, sunglasses are masks enough.

How does this fit into poker?  All players conceal the strength of their hands but it stands to reason players in sunglasses will bluff more often and lie more casually than other players.  Immediately, you can widen their ranges when making a decision knowing they feel safer misdirecting their opponents behind the comfort of their sunglasses than a player without them.

As with all rules in pokers, the overriding rule is there are no rules, but generally with less information at your disposal you can be on the look out more for players that are slightly concealed.  In the past, research has shown people wearing hoods are more likely to commit crimes and engage in other bad behaviors, so this extends to the poker table too.

Wearing a hoodie and concealing a player’s face, means they are to be trusted even less than if they are just wearing sunglasses.  The unabomber look is encouraging the player behind the hood to act a little more aggressively in thievery on the poker table too.  These players need to be called more often.

Think back to when you’ve sat down at a table and worn sunglasses or a hoodie, did you feel more confident bluffing or c-betting?  Some pros sneer at this garb as hiding and that is a successful viewpoint that encourages those pros to look up the other guy in semi-disguise.  The better players will play back at the guy under wraps more because they think they are weak, and while that might not be the correct rationale, playing back is successful because those players are betting with less more often than others.

Though Jonathan Little’s career is young, and he is noted for transitioning from online poker to live poker rapidly, he wasn’t quite the overnight success his results might indicate. In his first year, he put up no results and his adaptation he believes came a little too slow. He started the multi-table tournaments like he would a sit ‘n go which was probably too tight, he admits in retrospect.

He also cites an early result at his very first live tournament, a 22nd place in a huge field (Grand Casino Tunic Poker Tournament – WSOP Circuit event), as perhaps giving him a little over-confidence that his online skills would transition quickly to live poker. Cashing again two days later, only reinforced that belief. Once, he got in tune with the patience that live poker requires and adjusted to the slow pace of play, his live results started to mirror his online results (which include a second place in a Sunday Millions).

One of the holes, if there are any, in Little’s career is a lack of bracelets. With the bulk of his live success coming in the WPT, Little attributes that to being able to astutely play solid competent players and struggling a bit with the inexperienced, tentative players that come in as dead money to the World Series of Poker. That being said he’s still cashed six times in the World Series.

After banking his second place in the Sunday Millions he attacked the World Series in ‘06 for his first four WSOP cashes. Again, he had success from the start. He cashed in event two with a huge field but only for a little under 3500. He followed that up with 26th place in event 4, returning to his Limit Hold’Em roots, and banking a little under 10k. Event 17 was another massive field and another min cash for Little winning barely more than his buy-in with $1578. Event 22 brought a 37th place finish good for $8,621. Those were just unsatisfying nibbles to jcardshark though.

The following year he added two more No limit Hold ‘em cashes both in big fields for little over the minimum. In Event 19 he came in 93rd for $3,844 and in Event 49 128th for $4,731. Juxtaposed against his million dollar scores on the World Poker Tour the World Series had to be confounding for Jonathan, and indeed it’s a testament to his abilities that even though he struggles with lesser players he’s still been able to wade through the huge fields to pick up some cashes.

His 2009 year perhaps didn’t measure up to the successes he enjoyed in the lightening quick start to his career but again it’s all about perspective. Many players would call winning around 200k a great year, but for a guy that has won 2 million in a year its a lull. There is no reason to believe Jonathan won’t soon be climbing the mountain top again and its only a matter of time before his wrists get weighted down with some World Series bracelets as well. Though his been at live tournament poker for half a decade and many kids are modeling their careers after him, he’s still a young up and comer and one of Poker’s top young guns.

Just as he did with limit hold’em he decided to advance himself by starting at the low buy-ins and working his way up. He set a number of games to play at each level and then after conquering each level moved up. In no time he found himself playing buy-ins of $100 and $200. His dedication to strict guidelines is a model for aspiring poker players to utilize careful bankroll management as they incrementally improve their games.

Little, known by online handles FieryJustice and jcardshark, quickly made a name for himself dominating those sit n’ gos. When he transitioned to live tournament play and started final tabling everything that experience was a big help to him. His first cash in the season VII of the WPT just like in season VI was for a victory. He won a little over 1.1 million at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. He also showed some Heads-Up prowess finishing 7th in the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship. Good for another 75k. It became apparent that it didn’t matter where the tournament was being held the young circuit player had the potential to go deep.

In a Cardplayer interviewafter winning the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Little discussed his skill set:

JR: You are known for being an excellent sit-and-go player. With the blinds and antes as high as they were, did you basically hit a point where you were on autopilot?

JL: I made a fold earlier in the heads-up match that I normally wouldn’t have made had it been a sit-and-go. I held pocket fours, and he pushed for about 25 big blinds. I didn’t think he was playing very aggressively heads up, so I decided to fold and wait. Had I been playing an aggressive player, I would have definitely called and taken the shot at busting him right there. So, while I do know those push-fold situations back and front, they don’t always apply to live tournaments.

This a revealing comment that gets to the heart of Little’s poker acumen. Many online players are on so called autopilot, making decisions in live tournaments as though they were multi-tabling four tournaments online, but Little is able to play the player, the situation, and adapt to the moment. The difference between winning and losing can be minute, and clearly auto-calling with pocket fours might have been a huge mistake.

Live players’ leak at times is an inability to know the math and play in the moment perhaps too much, whereas Little can do both. His is representative of the new generation of players that got their start as teenagers learning the correct moves in an environment that rewards pushes small edges and winning due to volume, then transitioning to live poker where playing the player can be equally as rewarding.

Little is certainly a pacesetter for all the new young hot shots that have followed in his footsteps. Many have followed the exact same career arc, winning in sit ‘n gos, transitioning to big multi-table tournaments, and then at 21 attacking the live poker scene. It’s no surprise that Little has now become a poker coach, teaching the very tenets that made him a big winner from an early age. His blog can be read on www.gulfcoastpoker.net, and his lessons can be gleaned at www.floattheturn.com.

Little’s success in poker tournaments happened mostly in one place the World Poker Tour and that started in Januaray of 2007.  At the Caribbean Poker Adventure he placed fifth and won $317k.  It was an event that featured many of the best players who play poker tournaments online and were too young to play live poker tournaments.  At the L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino he added another 35k to his bankroll.  Though the cashes came early in his poker career it actually didn’t feel like it.  Prior to it, he confides he had been running a little bad and hadn’t won anything.  Already down nearly 250k before the event the money came at just the right time.

The next year was even better for the youngester.  In 2008, the WPT named Little the World Poker Tour Season VI Player of the Year.  He started that season off with a win at the Mirage Poker Showdown.  Taking down over one million in winnings hinted at the bright future he’d have in live play.  The fact that he conquered a final table featuring Phil Ivey, Amnon Filippi, Darrell Dicken and Jon Friedberg had to be as much a confidence boost as the million was a money boost.  In fact, the win motivated him to give living in Vegas a shot. 

As seems to be a life truth for Little, the future came quickly. Shortly after his Mirage Poker Showdown he was going deep again.   He just missed a final table when he came in 7th at Gulf Coast Poker Championship played at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi.  That was a homecoming of sorts as Pensacola is a short drive away.  He still banked 93k but regretted bubbling the TV final table.  He made up for that in no time as he made yet another World Poker Tour television broadcast later that year.

He finished 2nd at the North American Poker Championship and won 680k. Suddenly, he had gone from a kid with a lot of potential to maybe the most feared player on the tour. In his first five cashes, he had a 5th place, a first place win, a seventh place, and a second place. There are professionals who grind a living for twenty years without those kind of results he had reached in his first two. A min cash at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic all but assured him the WPT Player of the Year Award and added almost 30k to his bankroll.  For the year he won just short of two million dollars. 

Prior to devastating live poker tournaments, Jonathan Little spent some time in school studying pyschology at the University of West Florida.  Perhaps, his studies translated to getting a feel for his opponents as empathy at the table is an often overlooked skill.  Playing in a game at school, including five dollar tournaments and 25-50 cent cash games, he dove head first into the thought behind poker and cites The Theory of Poker and other books by David Sklansky as one of his early influences. 

Little started playing online poker and quickly grew his bankroll to 35k.  It didn’t take long to realize he might have found his calling and a career.  Getting active in poker forums was a another big help in advancing his game.  Reading other up and comers thoughts on situations and new ways to look at poker honed his game. 

Another positive influence comes from good friend and talented professional poker player Shannon Shorr.  Shorr, a Tuscaloosa native, gives Little a run for his money as the best young player from the Gulf states.  Little cites Shorrs calm and even demeanor, in the face of bad beats and in winning big hands, as one of the stronger characteristics he admires in him.

For review the rosters includes: Patrik Antonius, Eric Baldwin, Andy Bloch, Doyle Brunson, Joe Cada, Johnny Chan, Don Cheadle, Allen Cunningham, Pieter de Korver, Annie Duke, Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Jamie Gold, Phil Gordon, Barry Greenstein.

And to continue: Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Orel Hershiser, Jesper Hougaard, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Gabe Kaplan, J.P. Kelly, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Jason Mercier, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Darvin Moon, Greg Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Brock Parker, Dennis Phillips, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, Kara Scott, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, Mike Sexton, Gavin Smith, Jennifer Tilly, Paul Wasicka, David Williams, Leo Wolpert, Jerry Yang.

Match-Up number one: Poker Couplings. Let’s start with first round matchups between Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak. The Unabomber vs. the movie star. Once upon a time at the World Series Laak lost a bracelet to Johnny Chan while his girlfriend Tilly was busy winning the ladies event. Laak was running back and forth coaching his lady yet couldn’t get it done on his own. Laak still doesn’t own a bracelet but his girlfriend does. It would be fun to see her best him again.

In a field short on female players these are pseudo-couples. Kara Scottand Gabe Kaplan. While it would be more fun to see Scott vs. deposed High Stakes Poker host AJ Benza this match up would still have a lot of appeal. Kaplan and Scott could square off to settle who is the better player host/host player on the show. Given Scotts two Main Event runs many might wrongly think it’s her and ignore Kaplan’s bracelet history.

The next “couple” would be Howard Lederer vs. Annie Duke. Again, many of her Apprentice foes, Joan Rivers and Donald Trump might have more sizzle, but everybody loves to see siblings squabble. In what would be a rematch of all their board game battles growing up Annie and Howard could settle an old score. Duke, like any sister, obvious adores Howard but that’s never stopped her from getting the best of him in poker before.

There are several Main Event Champions and runner ups. Rematches are always fun. Paul Wasicka who has a great record in the Heads Up Event could get another shot at Jaime Gold, and you just know David Williams would love to go after Greg Raymer again. Both pairings in the rematches would pit players with divergent histories since their Main Event clashes.

Raymer and Wasicka have gone on to win other tournaments and go deep in big events, while Gold and Williams have really struggled. Williams less so, having won a bracelet and having a decent career but not quite the career of Raymer. What’s interesting is the Gold-Wasicka had the inverse result at their main event. Wasicka finished second but has been first ever since.

Joe Cada vs. Darvin Moon is one of the most current feuds. The kid knocked off the logger for the Main Event title but Moon acquited himself well in the battle and his wide open play would likely confuse Cada again. Plus, with the quick moving blinds these two might start the fireworks on hand one.

Course Cada may not be too keen to play Moon again, whereas a guy like Phil Ivey is probably praying for the chance to get another shot at the Maryland native. Wonder if he could have him as badly dominated as he did in the Main Event when he held AK to AQ. More match-ups to come…

Elizabeth rode the seed all the way to the semis and NBC executives had to be happy.  Her opponents Rene Angelil (Celine Deon’s husband and another pseudo-celebrity player), Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, and Humberto Brenes weren’t quite so happy.  Elizabeth’s deep run co-incided with an increase in female players.  In 2007, Annie Duke, Elizabeth, Vanessa Rousso, Cyndy Violette, Jennifer Harman, Jennifer Tilly, Kristy Gazes, Isabelle Mercier and Clonie Gowen all got invited to play.  Kristy Gazes went second furtherest of the ladies losing to Chad Brown in the quarters.

Elizabeth also fell to a finalist when she ran into Paul Wasicka in the semi-finals and the Main Event runner-up (lost to Jaime Gold) bested her on his way to a title.  Wasicka beat Eli Elezra, Joe Hachem and Tj Cloutier, Nam Le before he got to Shannon Elizabeth.  Wasicka pocketed 500k after beating Chad Brown 2-0 in heads up action.

In 2008, there was one online poker qualifier, Alisha Kunze, as well as the celebrities who had grown in number.  Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander, Orel Hershiser, and Gabe Kaplan all entered the field.  The lucky number one seed was online poker star Jonathan Little.  Little battled Erik Seidel in the first round who was seeded 64th just like he was in 2006 when Ted Forrest beat him on the way to his title. 

Little won, the beat Gabe Kaplan, and Greg Raymer before meeting Chris Ferguson in the quarter finals.  The two time finalist had lost in the first round the previous year to Scott Fischman but this year he would not be denied.  After dispatching Little Ferguson ran into Phil Ivey, who was enjoying his deepest run ever in the event. 

It seemed like everyone Ferguson faced was a sponsored pro of his company.  Round one was John Juanda, round two likable Gavin Smith, round three love him or hate him Mike Matusow.  The capper?  Ferguson played Andy Bloch in the finals.  Maybe Ferguson gleaned some of their tendencies watching them play on his online poker site every day.

While Ferguson was always a bridesmaid at the Heads Up Championship he faced a guy whose always been a bridesmaid period.  Andy Bloch once again fell in heads up action and give his track record of coming in second the most surprising thing might have been Bloch winning any heads up clashes.  Bloch fought hard and made it interesting by splitting the first two matches, but Ferguson would not be denied in the third and finally won his title.  He also made three out of the four final tables in the event’s history. 

In 2009, the lucky number 1 seed only got actor Don Cheadle one win.  He fell to 2007 Champion Paul Wasicka in the second round.  Wasicka lost in the next round to Vanessa Rousso.   He was in good company Rousso had to beat Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey to get to him.  Afterward it didn’t get any easier as Ruosso squared off with Daniel Negreanu.  With kid poker in her rear-view mirror she awaited the winner of Betrand “Elky” Grospellier and Phil Hellmuth.  The way her draw had gone you’d assume it’d be Hellmuth, instead Elky advanced.  Rousso won again.

Waiting for her in the finals was Huck Seed.  Seed had one of the best records of all participants in the event seemingly always able to cash.  Seed beat Rousso 2-0 and joined Hellmuth and Ferguson as Main Event Champions and NBC Heads Up Champions.  Jonathan Little, Gus Hansen, Glen Chorny, late fill in David Oppoenheim, and Sam Farha were the stepping stones to Seed’s title.

We’ve seen learned that Dwan aka Durrrr likes challenges.  We also know the online poker players like to play online poker in a heads up format.  Really, the place where heads up poker has been elevated is on the virtual felt.  People who play poker online all dabble in heads up challenges and live casinos rarely offer it.  So if NBC was truly interested in proving the best heads up player it wouldn’t be so heavy with live players.

In year one, 2005, the finals matched Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson.  Hellmuth had to get past Antonio Esfandiari in the semis and in a delicious matchup Ferguson kind of got a rematch with Cloutier.  In a throwback to the year Ferguson won his Main Event titlee again got the best of Cloutier.  In the NBC championship World Series of Poker Main Event champions clashed for the title and in the relatively early days of heads up poker it makes sense both players got so deep. 

Back then most of the heads up experience was when a tournament was on the line.  And nobody’s won more No Limit Texas Hold’Em poker bracelets than Hellmuth and Cloutier has won as many tournaments as anyone.  Hellmuth prevailed over Ferguson winning their final match two games to one.  This only cemented Hellmuth’s excellence in the eye of the casual poker fan.

Hellmuth’s route to the final started with him being named the number one seed and living up to it.  He beat old rival Men Nguyen (the Master) in the first round.  Internet millionaire and former poker junkie Paul Phllips fell in the second round.  Huck Seed, another former WSOP champion went down in the third to Hellmuth and  Lyle Berman was the quarter final victim.  Ferguson was the number two seed and he went through Cyndy Violette, Gus Hansen, Mimi Tran, and Mike Sexton before his semi-final clash with TJ Cloutier.

In year two, 2006, was deja vu all over again for Chris Ferguson.  Once again “Jesus” barrelled through five opponents  but couldn’t beat the sixth in the finals.  Ferguson bested Freddy Deeb in the first round, clipped the legendary Chip Reese in the second round, knocked off upstart Atlanta poker pro Josh Arieh in the third round, took out noted poker author James McManus in the quarters, and beat Huck Seed in the semis. 

Ted Forrest’s route to the finals was just as star studded.  Forrest, like Hellmuth the year before, garnered the number one seed in the field (randomly) but played like it.  He beat Erik Seidel and Chad Brown in the first two rounds.  Little known Ernie Dureck had his Cinderella story ended by Forrest in the third round.   Sam Farha went down in the quarters and Shawn Sheikhan couldn’t beat Forrest in the semi-finals. 

Ferguson again lost 2-1 in the finals.  However, his back to back finals appearances was probably the biggest achievement in the first two years of the event.  Consider Phil Hellmuth in his bid to repeat couldn’t get out of the first round falling to Chip Reese, and the previous year Forrest only made it to the third round.

The tournament is No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.  The players are arranged in a bracket akin to the March Madness brackets with players randomly seeded 1 through 16 in four different sub-brackets.  Players that win two matches and reach the third round win 25k.  Players that get to the Quarter-finals 75k, Semi-finals 125k, the loser of the finals wins 250k with the winner taking home 500k.

This year there will be seven online qualifiers as well as 57 pros that were selected to the field.  NBC has all the qualifiers here.  The inclusion of certain names are a bit of head-scratcher as they got in by reputation only, while others got in for being a bit of a celebrity draw.  There were certainly a lot of omissions but as we learned last year when Shannon Shorr didn’t get an invite this is a made for television event and NBC doesn’t seem particularly interested in getting the best 64 poker players in the world, the best 64 heads up poker players in the world, rather they want a compelling an entertaining product.

Their underdogs or Cinderellas will come in the form of celebrity poker dabblers like Jennifer Tilly, Gabe Kaplan, Orel Hershiser, Don Cheadle and Kara Scott (arguably Annie Duke too) and their online qualifiers.  Don’t expect the qualifiers to get much camera time if any unless they make a deep run.  Winning a match or two won’t turn Joe Blow into the Gonzaga, Bucknell or University of Richmond of tournament poker, in fact, you probably won’t even hear about it.

The rest of the field include the big wigs at one of the big American sites; Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon (is he still a poker player?), Andy Bloch, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, and sponosred pros (co-owners?) like Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Gavin Smith.  You could argue that half those players are very deserving of their invitations and a couple are getting in only because of who they are in the industry, who they used to be as players, and for nothing else.

Once again there is an ample helping of World Series of Poker Main Event Champions and deep finishers.  There may be some confusion to the general public but Dennis Phillips and Darvin Moon despite having massive chip stacks didn’t win their Main Events.  Jaime Gold and Greg Raymer did hang onto their huge chip leads and win the bracelet and are deserved invitees but Phillips and Moon not really.  An enticing first round match up with be Moon vs. Joe Cada who like Joe Hachem, Jerry Yang, Chris Moneymaker, Peter Eastgate got invitations too.

Robert Varkoyni never got his invite in yet another reason he won his Main Event one year too early.  Other Main Event champions include the aforementioned Chris Ferguson, Huck Seed, Johnny Chan, and Doyle Brunson with Seed and Ferguson having already won this event.  Apparently, Steve Danneman’s 15 minutes of fame is up as he didn’t get an invite but other second place finishers like Paul Wasicka  (who also has won this event), Sam Farha and David Williams did.   

The remainder of the field include Eric Baldwin, Allen Cunningham, Pieter de Korver, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Gus hansen, Jennifer Harman, Jesper Hougaard, John Juanda, J.P. Kelly, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Dario Minieri, Greg Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty “Can I get a cocktail” Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Brock Parker, Vanessa Rousoo, Mike Sexton, and Leo Wolpert.

The only tweak to make it any better would be to allow some Omaha action and really put the game on crack.  Several players from the first few seasons of High Stakes Poker have never been back.  Want to see how exploitable some of the supposed best players in the world are?  Put them on this show and watch them get dominated by the guys who are supposed to be their peers.

While some of the online players sit at home and play poker on a macor a pc without a camera to catch their emotion on this show they mix it up with the live players and you get to see everything.  You hear Dario Mineri’s voice crack when asked how much he has behind, you see Tom Dwan’s eyeballs scan across the table as he considers a bluff or a lay-down, you see an online poker player from “Northern Europe” as Phil Hellmuth would dismissively say get the best of Hellmuth in live chat. 

In the most recent episode Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and others battled it out.  For video of the episodes go here.  Twas a bad day to be Phil Hellmuth.  Phil Ivey in particular got the best of the self-alledged greatest poker player of all time.  In the movie “The Usual Suspects” there was a line that went something like “And Keyser Soze showed these men of will what a true man of will really is…”  That’s what Ivey did to Hellmuth.  He had Hellmuth thinking about making a call for all his chips with AJ–preflop.  Ivey of course had QQ.

Hellmuth bought in for 200k and quickly ran through it doing little wrong.  Course the hand that busted him he would have chastised anybody else for playing preflop so he got his just deserts.  Hellmuth flopped a flush and straight draw.  Ivey flopped a bigger flush draw.  The King on the turn paired Ivey’s high card and when Hellmuth shoved Ivey called forcing the Brat to draw ultra-slim.

Gus Hansen remarked on the telecast that the exit interview they were required to do would be one of the most brutal he’d ever do because it would mean he just dropped his 200k buy-in.   Hellmuth who picked up after being played into a corner in one hand after another because of the deck (he also lost with a king high flush to an ace high flush) got to experience that very interview.

He was remarkably composed considering the Poker Brat had just lost a high stakes buy-in.  Kara Scott, a new addition to the show, did the interview.  It’s clear her poker experience elevates her from the standard pretty girl on the sideline to knowledgeable sideline reporter.  She showed an earnestness in asking the questions that was a little refreshing.  Didn’t seem like she’d stand for trite answers either.

She wasn’t the only change to the episode.  There was a new mandate that there would be no prop bets on High Stakes Poker.  Last year they created some entertaining sideshows like Antonio Esfandiari’s push-ups but they also detracted from the action.  At some point, the background noise no longer was the clinking and clanking of chips it was the discussion of the minutia of prop bets.  It was a welcome change.  However, some of the players didn’t really get the memo as again in the background similar discussions occurred they were just for future prop bets away from the table.  Producers will need to re-clarify the focus is on poker.

Also, they axed AJ Benza and gave Gabe Kaplan the booth by himself.  As a solo act it’s clear Kaplan needs a sidekick and if that means moving Kara Scott to the tank with him so be it.  They really should have never fired Benza but maybe with a little time Kaplan will improve all by himself and the show will get even better.

Isildur1: lets just play 6 tables 3 6 nl instead ?
durrrr: lol
durrrr: ur too annoying to deal with
durrrr: play for hours then the second u get up u want new game
durrrr: thats ridic
Isildur1: lol, like i just to quit playing
Isildur1: wtf
Isildur1: i play plo with u all even tho i dont want
durrrr: i wanna play here obv
Isildur1: i been waiting for u at nl and u say u comming but never show up
durrrr: its obv terrible timing right after u win 250k pot
Isildur1: thats annoying
durrrr: i came to play 4
durrrr: but had 4 other games
durrrr: u hav too many rules w/e
Isildur1: ye ok
durrrr: im stuck 500 ill play here
durrrr: dont wanna move tho
durrrr: i lost a lot to gus before u came
Isildur1: ok sry to hear that
durrrr: n said to friend on aim that i hoped u didnt win early or ud quit and ask me for NL
durrrr: its k we can play another time or w/e
Isildur1: i dont use to quit plo when im winning
durrrr: ok lets play then?
Isildur1: thats just bs
durrrr: lets play then?
Isildur1: i need 5 mins then i know after
Isildur1: plo
durrrr: ok
Isildur1: would rather play nl but gimme some time i have small stuff to do
durrrr: ok np

Then Isildur1 did what he does second best and disappeared.  Unlike the previous interaction with ZeeJustin where he claimed to be tired than mixed it up for another long session, Isildur1 really did disconnect from the online poker site.  So in one of the most eagerly awaited “rematches” in recent memories from a high stakes online poker game Dwan got a taste of the same medicine Isildur1 served up last year.  For once it was Dwan that was getting taken to poker school and not his opponent.

Then Isildur1 got the rematch he was hungry for when he got to mix it up with Brian Hastings again.  You’ll remember Hastings was the player that snapped off Isildur1’s heater and took all the winnings Isildur1 took from Dwan (and others).  This go round the score was reversed. 

Hastings was the one hating life.   His bankroll got relieved of over $500k.  The biggest pot was for $274k.  Hastings screen showed him KKQ9 and Isildur1’s j1098.  The flop gave Hastings three pair with Q93.  The turn brought a brick 5.  The river was dynamite for Isildur1 as a King gave him a straight to take down the huge pot.

Then things turned a bit for the online phenom.  ZeeJustin got to try and win back some of the money he lost to the Swede and this time things went a lot better for Justin Bonomo.  Playing No Limit Hold’em with blinds of $100/$200 Bonomo was able to grind back half his losses winning a quarter million (he lost half a million the day before to Isildur1). 

Then things went from bad to worse.  Brian Townsend who allegedly data mined Isildur1 the last go round and fed the information to Brian Hastings got to sample some of Isildur1’s run bad.   In an up and down match on the $300/$600 Pot Limit Omaha tables Townsend built up a 500k lead, Isildur1 won it all back and took a lead, and then Townsend got it all back and more.  When the session wrapped Townsend had made an almost 660k profit off the Swede.

Things will continue to stay heated.  We’ll have our next update after the next twist, turn, flop, and bad beat.