Large pots In Season 2,
Gus Hansen won
$575,700 with four fives, beating Daniel Negreanu's full house. Hansen raised to $2,100 with , and Negreanu re-raised to $5,000 with , which Hansen called. The pot was $11,700, and the flop came . Hansen checked his set of fives with a 4% chance of winning the hand, and Negreanu bet $8,000 with his set of sixes and a 94% chance of winning. Hansen raised to $26,000 and Negreanu called, bringing the pot to $63,700. The turn came , making Hansen quad fives, leaving Negreanu a 2% underdog with his full house. Hansen bet $24,000, and Negreanu called, slow playing his full house. The pot was now $111,700. The river came . Hansen checked, and Negreanu bet $65,000. Hansen then went all in for his remaining $232,000, bringing the pot to $408,700. Negreanu called, and Hansen won the pot of $575,700. This was the largest pot before the $500,000 minimum buy-in game played during Season 4. In the November 12, 2007, episode of Season 4,
Jamie Gold won $495,867 of a
$743,800 pot that developed between Gold with three Kings on the turn card, and
Patrik Antonius with a straight on the turn card. Antonius held and Gold had pocket K. After the flop and turn, Antonius was a 4-to-1 favorite with his straight vs. Gold's three kings. Gold moved all-in and Antonius called. With such a large amount at stake, the players agreed to run the river (deal the river card) three times. The first river card, , and the second river run, , both paired the board to give two wins to Gold with a full house. The third river run, , kept Antonius' straight in front. As a result, Gold won $495,867 from the pot and Antonius won $247,933. Antonius' calm demeanor after the hand prompted host A.J. Benza to comment, "I'll tell you one thing: Patrik can take a punch. Imagine if that was Phil Hellmuth." (pictured) won a $919,600 pot against
Barry Greenstein In the November 26, 2007 episode of Season 4,
Doyle Brunson won a
$818,100 pot against
Guy Laliberté. Brunson held and Laliberté . The flop came and the turn was . Brunson bet the turn, and Laliberte raised and Brunson moved all-in and was called. The players agreed to run the river twice. Brunson was a 75% favorite with his better kicker and flush draw, and he won both times to take the entire pot. After the hand, Brunson said, "When you don't make a pair for eight hours, you go crazy." Later in that same November 26, 2007, episode of Season 4,
Patrik Antonius won $749,100 from a
$998,800 pot that developed between Antonius with a pair of nines on the flop, and
Sammy Farha with a king-high flush draw. Antonius went all-in after the flop and Farha called. The odds were roughly even, and the players agreed to run the turn and river four times. Antonius won three times to take three-quarters of the pot, $749,100, while Farha won $249,700. In Season 4,
Guy Laliberté and
David Benyamine created a pot of
$1,227,900 — the largest in
High Stakes Poker history — before negotiating a reduction of the pot to "only" $238,900. David had and Laliberté had and the flop came giving Laliberté top two pair and Benyamine the nut flush draw. Acting after Farha, Benyamine raised to $43,000 and Laliberté reraised to $168,000. Farha folded his , Benyamine went all-in, and Laliberté called, bringing the pot to $1,227,900. After turning the respective cards over, Laliberté, knowing he was the favorite, offered to run it once or twice. After further negotiation, Laliberté offered to take the pot previous to the raises of $238,900. Benyamine agreed.
Antonio Esfandiari and a couple of other players wanted to see the turn and river, but Laliberté and Benyamine refused. In Season 5,
Tom Dwan won the biggest pot —
$919,600 — to be played straight up (with no side-deals or multiple runs). Dwan won with three Queens, beating
Barry Greenstein's two pair – Aces and Queens.
Peter Eastgate was the original raiser with , with Greenstein re-raising to $15,000 with , Dwan calling with and Eastgate calling behind him. The flop came , causing Dwan to bet on his pair of Queens and a King high flush draw, Eastgate to fold, Greenstein to raise with his pair of Aces and backdoor straight draw, Dwan to reraise, and finally Greenstein to push all-in, which Dwan quickly called. Greenstein had turned down Dwan's offer to run it twice on an earlier hand (in which Dwan had the best hand when they went all-in, though Greenstein ultimately won), and this time Greenstein again wanted to run it only once, but offered to take some of their money back, which Dwan turned down stating "sorry...no" Commentator Gabe Kaplan noted the comparison with the earlier hand when Greenstein would not run it twice. At this point, it was almost an exactly even race. The turn was the , and the river the , so Dwan won the pot of $919,600.
Large bluffs In Season 3,
Brad Booth with executed a successful bluff against
Phil Ivey, (then) leading with , in a pot that stood at
$31,100 pre-flop. The flop came , Ivey's overpair was a 79% favorite to Booth's inside straight draw and backdoor flush draw. After Ivey bet $23,000 on the flop to make the pot $54,100, Booth raised to $300,000. Ivey folded. At the beginning of Season 4, the players agreed that anyone who won a pot while holding the weakest possible hold 'em hand (2–7) would be paid $500 by every other player at the table. This led to several five-figure bluffs that were calculated to pick up the $3,500 bonus (and the respect of the table).
Phil Hellmuth won the 7-2 bonus in the second televised hand of the season, making a $40,000 bet on the river that caused
Mike Matusow to lay down pocket Kings. The biggest unsuccessful bluff occurred as a result of this $500 for 2–7 rule. Amateurs Antonio Salorio and Brian Brandon went to a raised flop with 2–7 and K-K respectively. When Brandon flopped the best possible hand with K-4-K, Salorio continued to bet hard on his 2–7 bluff, eventually losing more than
$100,000 of his own bets before giving up when Brandon raised on the turn. In Season 5,
Tom Dwan executed a successful bluff against
Barry Greenstein and
Peter Eastgate in a pot that stood at
$133,500 pre-bluff. Dwan won with a pair of tens against
Barry Greenstein's higher pair of Aces and
Peter Eastgate's (then) leading trip deuces. Greenstein, with , opened the play
under the gun to $2,500 and was quickly called by all players. Before the flop came out there was $21,400 in the pot and at this point, Dwan jokingly offered to chop the pot. The flop was . Eastgate, with trip deuces on his , and
Doyle Brunson with , both checked. Greenstein led out with $10,000 after some thought, and with seven people behind him, Dwan raised the pot to $37,300.
David Benyamine (),
Eli Elezra (),
Ilari Sahamies () and
Daniel Negreanu () all quickly folded. The action came back to Eastgate, who called, as did Greenstein. With the pot already at $133,500, the turn came a , and Eastgate and Greenstein quickly checked. After some thought, Dwan (a 95% underdog at this point) bet $104,200, causing Eastgate and Greenstein to reluctantly fold. Following the hand, Dwan was quick to announce he was bluffing by stating, "Peter had the best hand, I'll make a sidebet that Peter had the best hand." Doyle Brunson accepted, and eventually lost $9,000 when Peter, after a $1,000 bribe from Dwan, announced he had a trip deuces a few episodes later. After the hand was done, commentator
Gabe Kaplan said that the only other person he knew who would have made a similar move was "maybe the late
Stu Ungar.” In Season 6, Tom Dwan executed a successful bluff against Phil Ivey in a pot that stood at
$408,700 pre-bluff. Tom Dwan () raised $25,000 preflop and got called by Phil Ivey with (). After a flop of (), Dwan fired another $45,800 and Ivey called, making the pot $162,300. The turn came (), and Dwan fired again, this time $123,200. Ivey again called with his flush and inside straight draws, creating a pot of $408,700. The river came (), leaving Ivey with a small pair and Dwan with 9 high. Dwan bet another $268,200. Ivey considered calling for over 3 minutes (according to the TV show), but ultimately folded. In Season 7, amateur player
Bill Klein opted to see the river in a
$192,800 pot, by calling the re-raise to $67,000 by professional Phil Galfond of his $28,000 bet. Klein held for a flush draw, and Galfond, holding , had a straight on a board that read . The river card was the , which prompted Klein to take a glance at Galfond from under his hat. "Looks like Klein's creative juices may be flowing", quipped commentator Norm Macdonald, as Klein slid a tower of 30 $5,000 chips forward equalling $150,000. After Galfond folded, Bill Klein showed the bluff and received a standing ovation and fist-bumps from around the table.
Quick loss In a single episode of Season 6,
Daniel Negreanu lost a total of
$380,000 in two hands, both to
Mike Matusow. In the first hand, Negreanu went all-in on trip nines, holding on a board. Matusow, however, had flopped a full house since he held . In the second hand, Matusow went all-in as the favorite on a flop of holding for a flush draw and two overcards. Negreanu called with . The players agreed to run the turn and river twice; Matusow completed the flush both times. == Episodes ==