Voulgaris is outplayed and Duhamel creates some action as a new crew of players come into the game. Read the full details in our recap of High Stakes Poker Season 7 Episode 6 (full video of HSP s7 EP 6 at the end of this post).

Get background and cast bios for High Stakes Poker Season 7 here.

Welcome back, action!
With the crew from last week replaced in seven of eight spots (Barry Greenstein hung around for a second session) all hope was on the new group, with two chatty amateurs and big personalities all around the table, to liven up the game and generate some big action and entertaining banter, and, while we’re still not seeing the mammoth pots like in seasons past, there was a lot more intriguing poker being played with these boys than the last five weeks have given us.

The first hand gave us an idea of the type of action we’ll be seeing with these guys from a player we wouldn’t expect to see the action from. Jason Mercier opened from under the gun to $2,300 with KJo, getting a call from Bill Perkins with A4o. Greenstein, next to act, elected to three bet big to $11,000 with 56c, getting everyone to fold and getting a lot of banter and chatter from the table; just hearing players keep things lively and seeing players willing to put money in the pot with such a wide range of hands on the very first hand was an encouraging sign for the rest of the episode. Ironically? This was the only hand Greenstein willingly played again in the episode.

“I don’t play textbook poker.”
If we learned anything from Perkins in The Big Game, it’s that he’s certainly not afraid to put money in the pot when he has the slightest opportunity to do so, and he was slinging it around in tonight’s episode, participating in two thirds of the the hands televised. He showed some speed in stealing a $12,000 four way pot on the turn of a AQQ8 board with the mighty 45o, and got bluffed holding exact same hand later in the night (on a J43 board, this time) against Mike Baxter. But the most interesting hand he played was a slightly better starting hand than his normal range; a jack nine offsuit.

Baxter opened the action to $2,500 UTG+1 with the monster J2h, getting calls from Jonathan Duhamel (AQo) Julian Movsesian (44) and Perkins. The flop came J55, giving Baxter and Perkins top pair, and Movsesian an inferior two pair. Perkins checked, and Baxter followed up his preflop aggression with a $7,000 continuation bet, getting called by Movsesian. Perkins, decided to see how strong his J9 really was, popped it up $20,000 more. Baxter made the call, and a somewhat confused Movsesian elected to lay his hand down. A blank six fell on the turn, and Perkins, undeterred by Baxter calling on the flop, led out $30,000, and Baxter finally relented, albeit with an “I’ll let you have it,” that sounded like he was nervous he was just getting bluffed off of the hand.

He then started telling everyone at the table that he couldn’t show hands tonight, then offered to show for $5,000. Not showing hands may actually be wise for Perkins; he showed a lot of hands at the Big Game and players began to adapt to him as the game progressed. By keeping his hands hidden, this new crop of players may not pick up on his bizarre, speedy play quite as quickly. Perkins was one of the breakout stars from the The Big Game, and it’s looking like, based on his banter and his play, he’s gunning to be the next David Peat of TV cash games.

…But Of Course, There Are Still Nits
Even with five sure action guys in the game, we still were treated to some nitty play, as Greenstein played one hand the entire night with some admittedly blah cards, but Bob Voulgaris was dealt three different premium hands over the course of the night, and somehow, he managed to misplay all three of them to varying degrees. In the second hand of the night, he was dealt kings, and was facing a raise from Perkins, who held J9. Voulgaris flat called, then chose to flat call three straight bets on a J/10/2/10/6 rainbow board, never defining his hand and not getting value out of Perkins beyond his price setting bets on every street. A raise preflop or on the flop would’ve helped him to create a much larger pot with his kings while he was more than sure he had the best hand. His insistence on playing the opening hand slowly led to players making plays on him in his other two “big hand” pots. His AQ, after flatting a raise from Perkins to $3,200 preflop, was tossed in the muck after Laak three bet to $16,700 preflop with the A6o.

The bigger of the two hands, however, was much more intriguing, as it made a case of how the players at the table, even the amateurs, have already adapted to his tightness. Voulgaris was facing a double straddle and held a monster hand; 1010, on the button. He popped it up to $8,500, getting Phil Laak to fold and getting Baxter to come along with a motley Q4. The flop was AA3, two hearts, giving Baxter absolute air and Voulgaris a fairly strong two pair. Baxter checked, and Voulgaris fired off a small continuation bet of $8,500; exactly what he raised preflop. Baxter, apparently sensing weakness in the small bet, called the $8,500 with a clearly defined plan in mind for the turn. When the five of hearts fell on the turn, giving Baxter a gutshot draw, he decided to represent the ace or the flush and led out $20,000 right into Voulgaris, who didn’t take very long to fold his black tens. Baxter floated a card and stole a pretty large pot off of Voulgaris by taking note of his inherent nittyness on the opening hand he played.

Various Notes and Insights
It’s good to see the straddles being brought on so early in the session, even the double straddle. Even though the pot sizes were a little small for this episode, I’ll be shocked if we don’t see more six figure pots with this group, especially if Perkins or Baxter get felted early. Those are two guys that aren’t going to think much of chucking hundreds of thousands of dollars into a pot on little more than a whim.

Interesting way of seeing where the action’s going to be generated; here’s a heat map of the amount of hands each player was involved in (VP$IP) during this week’s episode.

Perkins- 9
Baxter- 8
Duhamel- 7
Movsesian- 7
Mercier- 5
Voulgaris- 3
Laak-2
Greenstein-1
Total hands- 14

The amateurs and our reigning WSOP champion are the action guys, and Laak and Greenstein are happily chatting the cameras up and not doing much else, so far. Voulgaris has entered three pots; KK, AQ, and 1010, and he was bluffed off of two of the three. This means we’ll have two clearly defined sects of played between those 7, but where will Mercier slide? I’d err towards Mercier being a more active player based strictly on reputation alone.

When Voulgaris told Perkins, “I mean, I have a pretty good hand, it’s not like that.” in response to Perkins telling him “You got me.” in the pot with KK, did the whole table just immediately click the “bully” switch on when he entered a pot with them? When someone concedes the pot to you verbally, and you’re holding a hidden, slowplayed overpair, saying something like that is almost screaming to the table, “Hey guys, I’m playing nothing but locks and you can probably muscle me out of pots without much difficulty!” Laak and Baxter did just that in a span of just one rotation around the table. With a table filled with talkers, it’ll be interesting to see how much their chatter affects play as the session develops.

Something Norm said does bring up an interesting point about Kara Scott’s job; how horrible must it feel to have to talk to someone about a massive pot they lost, very shortly (not immediately, understanding the editing process) after it happened? Even when worded as nicely and innocently as possible, a player has to feel pretty crappy when they hear, “So, let’s talk about the hand with so and so where you lost $100,000 with the aces…”