The fourteenth season of poker’s most popular TV show, High Stakes Poker, started on PokerGO last week. The same group of players that kicked things off were back for another session this week, with more than $2,000,000 on the table to start the day.
Last episode ended with a massive bad beat for Jared Bleznick, who lost the biggest pot of the night after flopping the nuts, as recreational player Marc Kulick rivered a higher straight.
The Blez was back with revenge on his mind, while the likes of Brandon Steven and Andrew Robl looked to take advantage of a lineup that included a few less experienced players.
The stakes were set at $200/400, but the deep stacks quickly made the game quite a bit bigger with $800 straddles on in nearly every hand of the day.
As expected, this led to quite a few big hands and fun moments, as well as a couple of huge coolers for Justin Gavri, whose luck on High Stakes Poker has been less than stellar to date.
Seth Gottlieb Makes the Right Plays
With several highly experienced poker professionals at the tables, one would not expect entrepreneur Seth Gottlieb to be the one catching attention for his outstanding plays.
Yet, it was Seth who started this week’s HSP episode with some exceptional plays, the first of which came up in a hand against the Blez.
The hand stared with Gottlieb calling a $3k raise from Brandon Steven with his K♠10♠ in the small blind and Kulick joining from the big blind with his 6♣3♠.
Jared Bleznick was sitting in the $800 straddle and decided to pounce on what he perceived as weakness, as he re-raised to $20k with his J♦7♦.
The 3-bet managed to get rid of the original raiser, but both recreational players made calls from out of position, blowing the pot up to over $60k before the flop.
The board brought A♥J♣9♦ and the Blez was the only player to connect with the flop. When Gottlieb and Kulick both checked to him, Jared fired out a bet of $25k, which may have worked against a different duo.
Yet, Seth decided to peel a card with his gutshot straight draw and this made the pot $113k in total before the dealer put out the A♣.
While this card technically favored Bleznick’s range, Gottlieb decided to fire a donk bet for $30, which somewhat surprisingly forced Bleznick to fold his two pair, likely because he was not willing to pay off the remaining $90k of his stack on the river.
In the very next hand, Gottlieb was dealt what looked like a huge cooler, as his pocket jacks were up against the pocket queens of Gonsalves.
Yet, Seth was able to mitigate his losses by only calling the $8k re-raise preflop and calling a single bet on the river for $18k, after the board brought both an ace and a king to slow Gonsalves down.
The entrepreneur made another fantastic play in the first half of the episode when he flopped a set of deuces in a multi-way hand, only to correctly fold it when Kulick made a flush on the river.
Kulick’s $50k river overbet was a signal enough to Seth that something was wrong, and it allowed him to get away from a hand that most other players would have lost their stacks with.
The lines took by Gottlieb in all of these hands were less than conventional, but having made the right play in all three scenarios, his overall style seems to be working well against this particular player lineup.
Gavri on the Losing End of Two Massive Coolers
While Gottlieb was making right plays and getting some help from the deck, everything was going wrong for Justin Gavri, a player we have grown accustomed to seeing in big TV poker games.
One of the most joyful characters in the game, Justin brought his usual energy to the table, but had a hard time maintaining it to the end, as the deck simply seemed to work against him.
Gavri’s misfortunes started when he put down a $1,600 re-straddle and saw Andrew Robl open to $5k, which both Steven and Bleznick smooth called. Gavri joined the action with his 6♥5♥ and the four players went to the flop.
Much to Justin’s dismay, the dealer put out a disaster flop of 10♦6♣5♣, which meant he was drawing dead while holding flopped two pair.
It was the Blez who opened betting action with a $6k bet. Gavri decided to protect his hand with a $25k raise, which was probably the best play, all things considered.
Brandon Steven had a bit of a decision to make with his 8♥7♦, but eventually made the right play and got rid of his cards. Bleznick recognized that Gavri’s hand was likely strong enough to go all the way with and put in another raise to $70k.
Unsurprisingly, Gavri put the remainder of his $142k stack into the middle and quickly got the bad news, as he could only win with runner-runner quads.
Gavri’s luck looked to be turning around when he flopped a straight in a 3-way pot with his J♥10♠ on a board of K♣Q♠9♣ while Kulick held bottom two pair.
Kulick fired out an $8k bet, which Gavri wisely smooth called, which took the two to a safe 8♦ turn card. Kulick once again bet $23k, and Gavri once again called with the nuts.
With just $65.2k behind, Gavri was going to win it all on many rivers, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. The dealer put out the Q♦ on the river, and Justin could do nothing but make the call and lose his remaining chips to Kulick.
This put an end to an episode that revolved mostly around Gottlieb and Gavri, the two players who were involved in all of the biggest pots of the day.
The same group comes back for even more action next week, while the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Alan Keating still await their appearances on High Stakes Poker in 2025.
