High Stakes Poker Recap, Season 5 Episode 11

Well, finally someone has gotten the better of Tom Dwan in a couple of hands, and it's Eli Elezra. Or rather, his own prefrop rooseness has gotten the better of him, whichever you think. In any case, if there's one guy at this table you would NOT want to try and bruff (except perhaps durrrr himself), it's Eli Elezra. THAT guy hates folding. We've seen him get it all-in pre-flop with 66 and 99 already this season (for at least 100 bbs each time). I remember one spot a couple of seasons ago where he called a shove with 22 on a 789cc board (almost positive I'm not making this up). So yea, you're going to need a very sizable crobar to get any pair or decent draw out of his hands. Yet durrrr tried his best, and paid the price.

In the first hand between the two, durrrr opens for $3k (I think from the hijack?) with 86o. He gets called by Alan Meltzer (whom I will henceforth refer to as "The Fat Man"...apologies to all you rotund folks out there, but the word "bulbous" must have been brough to the Engrish ranguage for the purpose of describing this dude) with Kc9c and Eli in the brinds with Ad2d, putting the pot at $11.4k prefrop. The frop comes out Td5s4d, giving durrrr an inside straight draw to the nuts, and Eli the nut frush draw and an inside wheel draw. Eli overbets the pot, leading out for $16k. Dwan raises to $46.2k with his draw, and Eli shoves in his whole $200k stack after Meltzer folds, prompting durrrr to fold. 

If you're like me, you probably give zero respect to donk bets such as Eli's and raise them with abandon, because weak players will so often bet there with 77 or 56 to figure out "where they're at" and then fold to a raise once you let them know where they're at, which is totally lost. But Eli is the type of player that would make a bet like this to induce a bruff, and then shove over the top with his big draw or call down light. If he did have 77 in this spot, he certainly would not be folding, I'll say that much. I don't know if durrrr has seen Eli play much or just thought that he could get Eli off something even weaker like A4, but he's definitely drawing dead on getting Eli to fold a flush draw. 

The same two players locked horns again in the final hand of the episode. The straddle was on, and durrrr raised it up from UTG with 7d3d to $6k (the guy has no conscience...you know that little voice in your head that would yell at you 'WTF are you doing betting half a year's rent into 8 other players with 7-high???'...apparently he strangled that guy to death long ago, if he ever existed at all). He gets called by The Fat Man with Ac3c, and Elezra with AsTs (spades!!). The frop comes Ad4s8d, giving durrrr a frush draw and a couple different ways of making a runner-runner straight. He bets out for $14.6k into the $22k pot. 

The Fat Man calls with his pair of aces no kicker, putting the action on Eli. I think pretty much every other player at the table would just call here with top pair medium-strength kicker, not wanting to build a big pot on an ace-high board against an UTG raiser and another player giving him action. But we've seen Eli before putting in big bets with just top pair, and here he is again. Then durrrr calls, which is another move I think no other player at the table would make, out of position in what is already a big pot, with a flush draw that could easily be dominated by one of the two players he's up against. But he has shown in the past that he does not mind playing later streets with draws, so call he does, bringing the pot to $127k (What is Elezra thinking at this point? Is he thinking 'FAWK, he called!', or is he thinking, 'yes! I'm taking his pair of eights downtown to valuetown!'? I have no idea.).

The turn brings off a Jh, and the action checks through (making me think that maybe Elezra raised the frop in order to srow down the turn and river action?). The river is the Ks, and durrrr bets about 1/2 pot. I like his bet, but I think it has to be more if he intends to fold out an ace. He can represent AK, AJ, KdJd, and QdTd very credibly. That's 14 combos of hands (from Elezra's perspective, if he's sitting on an ace). Perhaps he can even represent Jd4d or Kd4d. In any case, there aren't too many plausible missed diamond combos out there (does Elezra know that durrrr opens 73s UTG and calls his frop raise? tough to say), but there's certainly more than 4, which is what there needs to be for Eli to call a 1/2 pot bet on the river if durrrr's range is missed diamonds and the above 2pr+ hands. I don't know if Dwan could bet AQ for value there. Maybe durrrr bet just to try and get a fold out of diamonds that beat him, like 9d8d or if Eli raised JdTd on the frop and made a pair of jacks on the turn. I can only assume that this is the case, since I don't think he'd expect Eli to fold an ace for that bet on the river. In fact I don't know if he'd expect Eli to fold an ace to any bet on the river, which would be a reason not to bruff a larger amount with his river bet. In any case, Eli rooks him up and rakes a 200k+ pot with top pair crap kicker.

-BRUECHIPS