The eleventh episode of High Stakes Poker Season 13 brought a few fresh faces to the PokerGO set, including that of Phil Hellmuth. With the Poker Brat, Chamath Palihapitaya and Jeff Housenbold also joined the table, taking their seats alongside Nik Airball, Jennifer Tilly, Sameh Elamawy, Stanley Tang, and Andrew Robl.
After last week's episode saw more than $4.5m on the table, the stakes have dropped slightly as stack sizes reset with the addition of new players. Still, with nearly a million dollars on the table and $200/$400 blinds with a $500 big blind ante, the action was all but guaranteed to come fast and furious.
All the kings and two aces
The first clash of the episode came when Elamawy raised to $2,000 with 
before Tilly looked down at 
and put in a three-bet to $6,000. Housenbold, next to act, picked up 
and raised to $20,000. The action folded around to Palihapitaya in the big blind and he moved all-in over the top for $97,500 with 
. Tilly put the rest of her chips in, of course, and Housenbold followed suit. With $297,600 in the middle, Tilly found herself in a dreamlike spot to triple up and the 
flop left both her opponents drawing stone dead.
"That's a television hand. If this was a home game, I would say, 'Hmm, let me check that deck.' Well, I wouldn't say it if I had the aces, I would think to myself," said Tilly as she celebrated her win.
Hellmuth catches the bluff, but loses the pot
It was only a matter of time before Hellmuth began to mix it up, choosing his time to strike with an attempted bluff catch against Elamawy. Airball started proceedings with a raise to $1,200 with 
and Elamawy kicked off the calling train with . Housenbold came along with his 
and Hellmuth called from the big blind with 
.
The 
flop didn't connect strongly with any player and the action checked through to the 
turn. Hellmuth opted to lead out into the field for $800 with his underpair to the board, forcing a fold from Airball. Elamawy, however, raised to $2,500. Housenbold fled the scene, but Hellmuth put in the call and the 
river completed the board. After a check from his opponent, Elamawy bet $5,500 into the $10,500 pot and Hellmuth took a moment to think it through before tossing in two chips for a call.
"Six," announced Elamawy.
"You're good," replied Hellmuth.
"Really?" asked Elamawy, a look of disbelief coloring his face.
As the table realized what had occurred, jokes and laughter came from all corners, at Hellmuth's expense. Quickly, he formulated his reasoning for the call: "I told myself today I'm going to pick off all Sameh's bluffs. I've been letting him get away with it, until today. I'm going to pick him off."
Robl makes a move
After a relatively quiet start to the episode, Robl chose a perfect spot to ramp up his aggression in a war of preflop raises against Tilly. The action started with a raise to $2,000 from Airball with 
, picking up action from no less than three callers. Elamawy was in first with 
, Tang behind him with 
, and Tilly sneakily flatted with 
. Robl, in the $800 straddle, looked down at and, with heaps of dead money in the middle, put in the three-bet squeeze to $16,000. Both Airball and Elamawy returned their cards to the dealer, but Tang made the call. After downplaying the strength of her hand, Tilly sensed her hand best and put in the back-raise four-bet to $75,000.
Robl took a moment, checked his cards, and then uttered the magic words. With action back on her, Tilly entered monologue mode as she broke down the preflop action and debated her options. Robl offered her the chance to see one of his cards if she managed to correctly guess both the rank and suit. Unfortunately for her, she called for the queen of clubs and, after a few more seconds, tossed her cards back to the dealer.
Hellmuth vs. Elamawy in an $86,300 flip
The final hand of the episode brought the fireworks as Hellmuth and Elamawy squared off once again, this time getting all the money in the middle before the flop. Elamawy started the hand by raising to $2,000 with 
, picking up two callers in the form of Tilly's 
and Housenbold's 
, before the action folded around to Hellmuth in the big blind. The Poker Brat looked down at 
and bumped it up to $12,000.
With the action back on him, Elamawy asked Hellmuth how much money he had remaining before four-betting to $50,000. Tilly got out of the way, as did Housenbold, but Hellmuth wasn't done with the hand and he slid the rest of his $40,800 stack over the betting line. With $86,300 in the middle, the two players agreed to run it twice, per Hellmuth's decision.
"My instincts say once, but I'm consistent," said Hellmuth.
The dealer spread the flop on the first runout, offering no immediate help to Hellmuth. On the turn, however, Hellmuth picked up several outs to the winner. The 
river wasn't the card he needed, though, and now Hellmuth needed to connect with the second runout to claim half the pot.
The second flop came down 
, giving Elamawy top set and leaving Hellmuth with a narrow path to victory. Once again, Hellmuth added outs to his arsenal on the 
turn, but the 
river bricked out to leave Hellmuth looking for rebuy chips.
High Stakes Poker episode 11 stack sizes
| Player | Starting stacks |
|---|---|
| Sameh Elamawy | $200,000 |
| Andrew Robl | $200,000 |
| Jeff Housenbold | $150,000 |
| Chamath Palihapitaya | $100,000 |
| Nik Airball | $100,000 |
| Stanley Tang | $100,000 |
| Jennifer Tilly | $100,000 |
| Phil Hellmuth | $100,000 |
Images Courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
