The last few episodes of High Stakes Poker season 4 on GSN; features some of the biggest high limit players in the world. The game has a required straddle and a min-buy-in of $500,000. According to Doyle, the only person in the game not playing above his bankroll is some fruity French guy Guy Laliberte. Guy is the founder and owner of Cirque Du Soleil.

The latest episode on high stakes poker shows Doyle Brunson getting bluffed by the man that wants to be the worlds biggest bluffer aka Jamie Gold. Note: Each played started the hand with around $500,000 and blinds are $300-$600-$1200 with a $100 ante.

Here is the hand summary:

Gold is UTG+1, calls $1200 with

9♠7♠ Brunson right to his left calls,

10♠8♠ Esfandiari calls,

Q♦8♦ Farha calls $900 out of the SB with

9♣6♠ Benyamine calls $600 from the BB with

A♥3♥ Antonius checks with

2♥2♦

Flop:

K♠4♠J♦

4x checked to Brunson, who bets $6k into the $8k pot with
Everyone folds to Gold who calls with

Turn

A♠

Gold checks
Brunson bets $25k into the $20k pot.

Gold raises by $100k to $125k.
Brunson asks: “Are you gonna show it to me, if i throw it away?”

Could Doyle Brunson really have thought Jamie had the queen high flush? The jack high flush most likely is not plausible, knowing how Jamie plays, he would definitely bet his pair and flush draw on the flop. So I guess Doyle figured “the worlds great bluffer” really had the nuts this time and folded his 3rd nut flush.

Here is what Barry Greenstein had to say about the hand: After the flush hand with Doyle and Jamie, Dolye leaned over and asked me what I thought Jamie had. I told him I thought Jamie had an Ace high straight. When Doyle told me he could beat that, I told him I wouldn’t have folded. Doyle said, “I know by the way Jamie was acting that he thought he had the nuts, but I hope he didn’t misjudge his own strength.” Later when Jamie tells Doyle what he had, Doyle gets steamed up and costs me money with a play he wouldn’t ordinarily make.

PokerStars player Belragazo, who went out of his way to trash talk , has surrendered to the pressure and has apologized to Greg Raymer. During the World Championship of Online Poker, Belragazo made aggressive statements such as “Kill Him!” and “yes!!!!” when Raymer was eliminated. He actually succeeded in upsetting the Fossilman, as Raymer responded to the taunts with “bel, you’re a jerk, jerks always lose in the end” in the PokerStars chat. However, his once-ballsy demeanor evaporated as the atmosphere of his home country of France seeped into him and resulted in him backing down and apologizing. In a post on the PokerListings forum, he states his apology:

“First of all, I would like to apologize to all of you. I think my behavior was excessive and I did not want to hurt anybody. It was very early in the morning at 8 am and I was extremely tired when the controversy happened about my ‘kill him‘” writes Belragazo.

Contrary to his previous assessments, he claims that he has a lot of respect for the Fossilman as a poker player. He further justifies his comments by degrading himself and admitting that he was shaking in fear like a French soldier: “I did say that I was happy that Greg was out because I felt that I was scared of him and that it made me hesitate to play in situations I would usually win the hands.”

He further states that he became frustrated when Raymer got lucky in a few pots. Rather than apologizing in the chat, he saw fit to wait and post it in a forum for fear of “losing his concentration”. All of this was for naught, however, as he was eliminated, as Frenchman always are.

Related Links: PokerStars Website

The Sunday main event of the WCOOP was highly anticipated and nearly 3,000 players joined in on the action at PokerStars. The total prize pool was just under $7.5 million, which makes this one of the biggest online poker tournaments ever to be played.

The final table began well into Monday and another PokerStars team member made the final table. Vanessa Rousso is not only a BIP Poker Babe, she is also a PokerStars team member. She plays under screen handle as LadyMaverick and was seated in seat 1 when the final table began. PokerStars were banking on Vanessa to win this event as Greg Raymer won the WCOOP Omaha Rebuy tournament a little while back.

Vanessa Rousso played a great game and wound up finishing 3rd taking down nearly $464,000 for 3rd place. TheV0id from the United Kingdom took first place and was paid over $1.2 million. It has also been rumored that 6th place finisher was Josh Arieh who was playing under screen handle ‘nitbuster’.

And of course there is always seems to be some sort of controversy in these big events, like there was with the Greg Raymers’ win. He was disconnected, then came back and gave everyone a foam finger. Any who, posters at 2+2 and pocket5’s are saying that Rousso and poker player/announcer Chad Brown were colluding. Well, we aren’t exactly buying into this one, but it made a good read at 2+2.

The winner of the event ‘TheV0id’ is rumored to be under investigation. One poster at 2+2 said that Mark Teltscher and his ’sister’ were both playing in the tournament under the same IP address. Another poster had something similar to say that Mark Teltscher was playing 5 different accounts and the winnings have already been frozen and there is ongoing investigation. We will bring you more information as this story develops.

Related links: Vanessa Rousso Pics + Bio – PokerStars – Greg Raymer Wins Omaha Rebuy

Matt Giannetti just finished up a prop bet where he had to stay in a pool for 12 hours. During the last few minutes of the bet Sean McCabe and Mark Seif were creating a new prop bet that would be a lot more difficult. The bet is that Sean McCabe could stay shoulder deep in the Atlantic Ocean for 24 hours without food. Now think of this, cold water, waves, sharks, and salt in the mouth for 24 hours straight!

It took some battling to get both McCabe and Seif to agree on a $100k. At first Seif only wanted to bet $50k, but McCabe insisted that he would only attempt this crazy prop bet for a minimum of $100k. With both guys being sick degenerates they finally agreed on $100k.

With no other knowledge, one would assume that Seif has a huge edge in this bet. The missing information which favors McCabe is that, he is a certified rescue diver and his experience of putting long hours in playing live tournament poker, this will certainly help him deal with the boredom he will endure.

There are 3 main conditions in this prop bet, Sean McCabe has to enter the water no later then 2:00pm. Seif felt this was the optimal time for harsh conditions. McCabe must stand in shoulder deep water the entire 24 hours. McCabe is only allowed to drink cold fresh water, which will be brought to him on his request. A doctor will be on hand to protect the safety of McCabe. He will use his own discretion on his safety, if he gets pulled out for any medical reason he will lose the bet.

As if this bet was not crazy enough as it stood, these two decided to spice it up even further. Seif has been given the option to alter the state of the Ocean if he gives 2 to 1 odds. This could be a big advantage to Seif, as you’d expect if he exercised this option he would chum the ocean with blood and fish guts in an attempt to attract Sharks and other sea monsters.The WPT and Cardplayer will provide live updates on the bet. Click here to visit WPT for more updates and details about this bet.

———-Update———-

WPT reported BJ Nemeth just recently spoke to Sean McCabe and it looks like the bet may have sunk. Mark Seif and the other people involved are having 2nd thoughts about placing the bet. According to McCabe its not about the money, its about the safety of himself and no one wanted to feel responsible if McCabe got hurt.

McCabe is still trying to keep the bet alive, he is looking for anyone or a group to put up a total of $100k for 1-1 odds.

PokerStars has been hosting their version of The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Last night, Greg Raymer won event 6, which was the $320 Omaha Pot Limit Rebuy event. He battled through 772 Omaha donkeys and 1062 rebuys with 544 add-ons. Raymer took down a first place prize over $168k. Daniel Negreanu was also in the event but wasn’t commenting on online poker players poor play this time.

In other news, the new European WSOP Main Event Champ Annette_15 is gaining a lot of popularity. We don’t know why, she does look like her, her or her. But apparently, she has quite the cult following. Cardplayer.com is claiming that she has recently won a 179 man + 1 woman $4 Sit and Go on PokerStars, without looking at her hole cards the entire time. Check out Pocketfives.com for more talk about this accomplishment…

The WPT Borgata Poker Open is now running. There are 55 players remaining out of the 560 entries. Alan Goehring and Victor Ramdin are the chip leaders with only 20,000 in chips difference. Mark Seif is also currently in 8th place and its reported that he has not turned on the Absolute Poker super account yet. Look for this when Seif starts losing a few pots. For up to date chip counts click here

And a picture of Megan Fox because she is so fucking hot!

Daniel Negreanu becoming a Canadian Bad Boy of Poker? Well just on Poker Stars and on his Full Contact forum. What a tough guy.

Daniel has been dipping into the high stakes cash games on PokerStars. So far he hasn’t been to impressed with the level of competition. Well, read for yourself what KidPoker had to say: here are some Negreanu’s posts from Full Contact Poker

Not saying this to be mean at all, but are you serious??? I felt like he was one of the weakest heads up players I’ve ever faced and don’t see how he could ever beat a good player heads up. I’m starting to wonder how good all of these online superstars really are because the ones that seem to be touted as excellent, play in such a way that I find easily exploitable.

I’m sitting, waiting for whoever, but my confidence is growing after playing some of these guys and leaving thoroughly unimpressed overall.

And here is another post, keep in mind that he has only been playing the 100/200 NL for a few days on Stars now.

There is a lot of hype surrounding the online players and I think I may have bought into it a little bit myself. A lot of them are excellent players I’m sure, but I genuinely believe after talking to several, and playing with them from time to time, that there is stuff I know that most of them don’t.

Compared to playing live poker, I absolutely suck online. Having said that, I believe I’d easily be a winning online player playing 100-200 NL. My “horrible” online play is still better than most, especially heads up.

Oh and Bob? My worst game is NOT limit hold’em! Are you insane? Just because you used to call me down with Ace hi and win all the time doesn’t mean I suck. I lost to Patrick in a realitively small sample playing limit hold’em because A) he was very good, he was more comfortable online, and C) He ran insanely lucky!

I’ve never lost money online playing NLH. Actually, the only real money I’ve lost online has been in PLO and limit hold’em vs a great player in Patrick Antonius. This 100-200 NL game, from what I’ve seen, isn’t very tough at all.

As for my perception of ADZ, I played 250 hands vs him and his strategy heads up vs me was horrendous. Maybe he is good and doesn’t match up well with me, or maybe he was “feeling me out,” but either way, if he plays that way against on a regular basis without completely changing his approach he has no chance whatsoever.

The final 32 players came out to play down to the final 9 at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event on Saturday. There were several big name players in this field. Although, all of these players busted before making the final table. Except Annette_15 who is an 18 year old woman, who is dominating tournament poker online.

Patrik Antonius dominated Day 2 of the £10,000 event and came into Day 4 with an average sized chip stack. Late in the day he went broke when he lost a coinflip to Magnus Persson and finished 29th. Kenny Tran got knocked out by Annette_15. Annette’s 77 held against Tran’s AK. Gus Hansen went busto and was the final table bubble boy of the tournament. His pocket queens ran into Matthew McCullough’s pocket kings.

Other notable player finishes were Jamie Gold 35th, Annie Duke 21st, and Phil Hellmuth made it quite deep as well. His 12th bracelet will have to wait.

Annette_15 is considered a heavy favorite in this event, even though she is a chick. She has probably played more final tables then any of her competitors, even though she is only 18. Annette_15 has be playing online poker and dominating since she was 15 years old. She built her bankroll up from playing freerolls offered by poker sites. She is near the top of the leader boards on every major site and is now looking for her first WSOP bracelet.

The only thing that would make Annette_15 better, is if she was good looking.

Final table seating:

Seat 1 - Johannes Korsar (Sweden) - 1,134,000
Seat 2 – Oyvind Rissem (Norway) - 664,000
Seat 3- John Tabatabai (UK) - 982,000
Seat 4 - Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad (Norway) - 697,000
Seat 5 - Dominic Kay (UK) - 490,000
Seat 6 - Matthew McCullough (NJ, USA) - 1,278,000
Seat 7 - Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) - 605,000
Seat 8 - Magnus Persson (Sweden) - 1,231,000
Seat 9 - James Keys (UK) - 172,000