With High Stakes Poker Season 7 on the way, we’re busting out the wayback machine for a look at the highlights of the first six seasons, which have provided – without a doubt – some of the most memorable televised poker in history.

Below we’ve got five of the most memorable hands from the last few seasons of the show that feature at least one member of Season 7’s cast.

Top Pair, Easy Game

The $500,000 buy-in cash game at the end of HSP Season 4 featured some of the biggest pots the HSP viewers had ever seen, and one of the biggest involved the Godfather of Poker and a pot that can buy a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom pad in Hawaii (seriously, Google “$818,100”) which certainly dwarfs those $300 pots you and I win in our local $1/$2 games. After Guy Laliberte (A5h) and Jamie Gold (J7o) limped in, Brunson (A10d) popped it up to $11,200 on the cutoff. Amazingly, the blinds (Sammy Farha with KJo and David Benyamine with K5s) both called, as well as both limpers, putting a $57,100 pot up, 5 ways, with the best hand between the bunch a motley suited ace. The flop was Ac Js 4d, giving Laliberte and Brunson top pair, and after the action was checked to the Texan, he fired a continuation bet of $40,000, which only Laliberte called.

The deuce of diamonds fell on the turn, giving Brunson the nut flush draw and Laliberte a gutshot to the wheel. Laliberte checked, and Brunson came out with a second big barrel, firing $110,000 into the $137,100 pot. After about a 10 second tank, Laliberte came out with a raise to $310,000! With little hesitation, Brunson moved all-in for his last $30,500 on top of that, Laliberte called, and Brunson had a massive advantage (75% to Laliberte’s 11%, with 14% going to chops) with one card to come. After agreeing to run it twice, Brunson held on both cards (Qs, then the 10h) to rake a massive pot with just a pair of aces, marginal kicker on the turn. When asked about why he was quick to stick his money in on the turn, Brunson remarked, “When you don’t make a pair for 8 hours, you go crazy.”

WTFClayAiken!

Phil Galfond makes a living teaching players on his BlueFire Poker coaching site and crushing foes at the highest stakes online. His first excursions on the HSP felt, however, haven’t gone quite the way he’s probably hoped, and he’s found himself in a few bad spots in his 2 appearances on the show. In one hand, David Benyamine had already raised to $4,200 with a pair of tens, when Galfond decided to get a little out of line and three bet to $16,000 with K5o. Unfortunately, he ran into Eli Elezra in the small blind and his kings, and he popped it up to $40,500. Benyamine made a good fold of his tens, and Galfond, with deep stack and position, elected to call the large raise with his king-rag.

The flop was gin for Elezra; K99, giving Eli a boat and Galfond top two. Eli bet $33,000, and Galfond called. The turn was another 9, giving Galfond an inferior boat, and the action went check/check. The river was the queen of spades, putting an unlikely straight flush/flush out there, and Elezra, after a quick tank, came out with a big bet of $110,000 into the $154,600 pot. Galfond said “Pocket queens?” and tanked for a short time before releasing the hand, a disciplined laydown after a very questionable three-bet/call with the king-rag. But that wasn’t the last misstep for Galfond.

The Only Guy Negreanu Can Beat

Galfond may have had a tricky time with Elezra, but his ordeals with Daniel Negreanu were even rougher on his bankroll; and Kid Poker’s not exactly known for running well on HSP, as you’ll see in a future article. There are two major missteps by Galfond, the biggest in a hand where Doyle Brunson opened to $4,500 with A2o, ElkY called in the small blind with A3h, Galfond called in the big blind with 97d, and Negreanu called in the straddle with 107o. The flop was a monster; 10107, two hearts, giving ElkY the nut flush draw, Galfond top two pair, and Negreanu the nut full house. Everyone checked to the turn, which was the six of clubs, giving Galfond a gutshot to go along with his top two pair.

ElkY led out at this point with a $11,000 bet, which was called by Galfond. Negreanu slammed his chips on the table, then raised it to $41,000 after some thought. ElkY made an incredibly disciplined laydown, while Galfond elected to call the additional $30,000. The king of spades hit on the river, which weakened Galfond’s hand down to middle two pair. He checked, and Negreanu bet a hefty $80,200 into the $112,400 pot. After commenting “I thought you were gonna give up on the river…” he finally committed the chips and found out that Negreanu had his favorite hand, and lost a $272,800 pot to Kid Poker. Galfond’s going to be looking to rectify his mistakes from previous appearances; will he be able to improve?

Bad to See Ace Queen

Andrew “good2cu” Robl also had a run in with one of the top high stakes pros in season 6. After Lex Veldhuis straddled to $1,600, Phil Ivey opened it to $7,000 with the K10d, and Robl flatted with AQo. Patrik Antonius then woke up with aces and decided to reraise to $30,400 with his monster hand, probably hoping to get Ivey in a pot and expecting Robl to get out of the hand. Ivey actually insta-folded when the action came back to him, and Antonius probably assumed he had no shot of getting paid off at this point.

But Robl had other ideas. Known as a tight, methodical, thinking player online, he assessed the situation as follows; Ivey had been playing loose and aggressively, and Robl, who had been playing a bit tight and passive, had flatted. Antonius had also been playing aggressively as well, and may have sensed an easy pot to steal, and chose to just attempt to steal the pot with the big raise. After putting everything together, Robl chose to make the advanced play and limp/shove with his AQ for $144,300, which Antonius snapped called. Robl lost both runs of the board and a $299,600 pot. This isn’t the first of those seemingly awesome plays that backfired, however…

No Mercy for Mercier

Jason Mercier has only played in the most recent season of HSP, but he was given quite the initiation into the HSP realm courtesy of one Phil Ivey. During one of the last hands of the night during his session, Gus Hansen raised it to $4,200 with the Q6o, Eli Elezra called on the cutoff with the 95c, and Ivey flatted on the button with two nines. Mercier, in the small blind, had been playing incredibly tight all night and tried to use his image to his advantage by popping it to $22,100 with the A4h. Everyone folded back to Ivey, who elected to call the extra $17,900 with his nines.

The flop (237 rainbow) was as dry as it could get for Ivey’s nines, while giving Mercier a gutshot straight draw to go along with his overcard. He led out for $28.700, and after a brief tank, Ivey came out with a raise to $78,700. Mercier could have given up on the hand there, but sensing his ability to make a play based on his image, he elected to instead ship it all in for a whopping $185,100 total. The line that Mercier had taken in the hand, combined with his table image, would’ve made many players quickly toss those two nines in the muck, fearing overpairs or sets. But Ivey either felt priced in, had a soul read, or (as evidenced by his directing his chips toward Mercier and uttering a small stream of expletives stating that Mercier had to have him beat) just didn’t care period and called, his nines actually a 68% favorite to take the pot.

When the board bricked out, Ivey had won a $425,200 pot, and Mercier’s short stint on HSP had come to a soul crushing close. With Ivey out of the way in this season, and Mercier’s added HSP play on the PokerStars.net Big Game, this is the player to watch out for this year on HSP, in my opinion.

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What’s all of this mean for this season? There’s some players that have been itching to get some redemption this season, even Brunson (who last season ended his televised cash game winning streak) and many of the foils that thwarted them before won’t be appearing this season. Expect the newcomers and the many amateurs to spice up the action this year on HSP.