High Stakes Poker – a look back at the best HSP hands

With a new season of High Stakes poker set to air soon, featuring a revamped commentating crew (AJ Benza is replaced by Kara Scott) and many returning as well as new poker professionals, the time has never been better to take a look at some of the most memorable HSP hands ever played.

Sammy Farha’s pocket Ks cracking Barry Greenstein’s pocket rockets certainly earn a spot on this list. On the very last hand of the session, the two above named players picked up the monster starting hands. Knowing that he was in control of the situation, Barry Greenstein raised to $2,500 preflop and Farha re-raised him. A re-raising war ensued which eventually got both players all-in. By that time, the pot had grown to $361,800. Farha offered to run the board twice but Greenstein naturally refused. The K which landed on the flop gave Farha the lead though and the rest of the board failed to bail Greenstein out.

The set over set encounter between Amir Nasseri and Ted Forrest was undoubtedly highlight reel material too. Nasseri had a pair of 5s in his pocket, faced with Forrest’s pocket deuces and with Daniel Negreanu’s Jc, 10c. The three players saw a flop of 5,4,2 rainbow, and Negreanu made an attempt to steal the pot. Nasseri made it obvious for the Canadian that he had no business being in that hand though and Negreanu promptly acknowledged the situation by folding. The two sets got their respective owners all in, before the turn card landed. The turn and the river did nothing to further Forrest’s case and Nasseri picked up the $206,600 pot.

When it comes to large pots, few players can best Tom Dwan. Endowed with an incredible knack to make monster pots happen, Dwan once locked horns with Greenstein over a $548,700 pot on HSP. Peter Eastgate was the one who ignited the action, as Greenstein tagged along on a Q,8o and Dwan was more than happy to be involved with his pocket rockets.

The flop of J,10,3 found only Dwan and Greenstein in the hand though, both of them willing to go all the way. The 9s which fell on the turn, gave Greenstein a straight against Dwan’s overpair and the 5d on the river sealed the deal for good.

Stay tuned for more memorable HSP hands in the second part of the series.

Steve Larson, an online poker player from Canada, visit his rakeback site for more useful information.

Poker Strategy – WSOP satellites

“Satelliting” your way into the WSOP’s Main Event or into one of its side events (more and more poker rooms offer super satellites for such side events lately) is probably the best kind of approach you – the average online poker player- can adopt. Buying into these events directly costs a lot, and even if you had the money for it, you’d still have to overcome some pretty unbelievable odds to have your investment turn any dividends. The problem is, the WSOP is too much of a long-shot for an average Joe.

Fortunately, online poker satellites offer an alternative way in, and thus they’ve opened a whole world of possibilities for average players. By the time the WSOP draws near, most online poker rooms will have pinned WSOP qualifiers onto their promotions schedule. There will be plenty of opportunities, but you’ll have to do your best to optimize your chances, because not all WSOP super satellites are created equal.

Some of them feature a freeze-out format. There’s only one seat offered by these WSOP events, which means that the winner takes all. Regardless of how few players seem to play in these freezeout format satellites, you’re still better of playing in an event which offers multiple seats to the top finishers. Sign up for rakeback too. There’s no telling how many tries it’ll take you to get your hands on that coveted seat, and make no mistakes, you’ll be paying tournament fees on each and every one of those satellites. Rake back will give you a rebate on those tourney fees and it may just save you enough money to let you play in one additional satellite that may turn out to be the missing piece.

Strategy-wise, early stage satellite play is about the same as early-stage MTT or SNG play. Your primary objective is to protect your stack. Try to avoid all-in situations as much as you can and play good old TAG ABC poker which will allow you to chip up every now and then, preferably in time to keep up with the escalating blinds. The Harrington system is a great starting point when it comes to satellite strategy. Read up on it a little and you’ll see that you’ll be able to apply its teachings at the tables.

Unlike in regular MTTs though, where even past the money bubble it is in your interest to advance as far as possible, in satellites, once you’ve made the bubble you’re home free. Therefore, your only objective is to make it past the bubble. This goal requires a different kind of approach. By adding up the number of registrants and by multiplying the result with the size of your starting stack, you’ll find the total number of chips in play. Divide that number with the number of WSOP seats available and you’ll find your “magic number”. All you need to do is to multiply that by 0.75 (to take the existence of large stacks into account) and you have a stack-size which would guarantee you a seat. Once your stack reaches that size, tighten up like there’s no tomorrow and protect your chips by all means. Avoid locking horns with other big stacks at all costs. Once you reach your magic number, all that’s left to do is to sail into the harbor. Don’t let some macho bullshit sabotage your achievements.


Steve Larson, an online poker player from Canada, visit his rakeback site for more useful information.