The latest season of High Stakes Poker continued Monday night with Episode 2.
After last week's season kick-off, the same lineup of players were back in action. Jennifer Tilly and Andrew Robl were the headliners, but the supporting cast of Sameh Elamawy, Bo Brownstein, Masato Yokosawa, Sean Dempsey, and Justin Gavri played their parts to perfection.
Elamawy and Gavri, in particular, rose to the occasion to provide the impetus for the big pots and the outstanding moments. With a salt-on-the-rim margarita in hand, Gavri piled chips into nearly every pot he was involved in. Elamawy, meanwhile, took on his Episode 1 nemesis, Robl, in another hotly-contested pot.
Gavri likes the gamble
Jennifer Tilly's raise to $3,000 with 
was met with a three-bet from Gavri and his 
— $13,000 to go. The action folded back around to Tilly, who made the call.
The 
flop connected with both players but left Gavri with the lion's share of the equity despite having no pair. He fired out a continuation bet, $16,900 into the $27,700 pot. Tilly, not one to be pushed around, reached for a $50,000 brick of cash and dropped it over the betting line to raise $45,000.
Gavri wasted no time in moving all in over the top, drawing a grimace from Tilly as he put her to the test for all of it. As Tilly mulled her options and counted out her stack, Gavri downed the rest of his margarita.
Eventually, she opted for a fold and the two players asked the dealer to rabbit hunt the runout. As it turns out, Gavri would have got there — both times, if they ran it twice.
Robl vs. Elamawy, again
Robl's straddle to $800 brought in three callers in the forms of Elamawy with 
, Dempsey with , and Gavri with 
. When the action came back around to him, Robl pounced on the perceived weakness and made it $10,000 to go, undeterred by his subpar 
.
Elamawy, perhaps anticipating this response, bumped it up to $32,000. Dempsey and Gavri moved out of the way, but Robl showed no fear in the face of a limp three-bet. Instead, he reached for bigger chips and raised it up to $85,000.
Elamawy clearly came into this hand with a plan in mind and he made the call, bloating the pot to $172,100. Somehow, Robl had the best hand with five-high. Nick Schulman on the comms said it best, "He's got Sameh dominated with 5-3 off. Buck-seventy in the middle, not a six in sight."
The 
flop shot Elamawy into the lead and Robl seemed to give up on his bluff with a check. A $60,000 bet from Elamawy was enough to get the job done and he took down another pot at the expense of Robl.
Photos courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
