From Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is Poker Night in America.
(uptempo jazz music)
- Welcome to Poker
Night in America.
The start of a brand new 
season.
I got a co-host.
It's Chris Hanson along
with Joe Stapleton.
Welcome, Stapes!
- Thanks for having me.
I really needed this job.
I have two girls in college
and those are just
ones I'm dating.
- Stapes, you're starting
off with a real doozy.
It's our Twitch celebrity
cash game in Las Vegas.
- Yeah, you're not kidding.
This is a packed
table, literally.
There is almost no elbow room
and everybody's gonna
need to make some space
for the G.O.A.T.; Phil
Hellmuth is on his way.
(poker players chatting)
- [Chris] Buy-in tonight is a
minimum of $5K and of course,
since we're in Vegas,
there is no maximum buy-in.
Pretty much anything's going
to be allowed here tonight,
on Poker Night in America.
Alright, Joe Stapleton, tell
us about this blind structure.
I'm a little confused already
on the ante from the big blind
and a deuce-seven?
- So it's No-Limit
Texas Hold Me.
Blind is $25 and $50,
with a $200 ante
paid on the big blind
and the deuce and
seven rule is in play;
win a hand with seven-two,
everyone at the table's
gonna pay you 200 bucks.
- [Dan] Starts with antes.
- [Jason] That's great.
- [Dan] $25, $75, $150.
- [Antonio] I love it.
- [Dan] The best.
- [Elky] EPT's and High Rollers
start with antes.
- [Dan] What does?
- [Jason] The high rollers--
- [Elky] High Rollers and EPT's
start with antes.
- [Dan] Yeah.
- [Elky] That's really
good, that's so much better.
- [Antonio] So much better.
- And for this deuce-seven
game we were playing,
you have to scoop it.
Not chopped, not, like, run
it twice and win with one--
- Yeah, $200, $200 bonus.
- Scoop the whole pot.
- [Antonio] Are we on
for seven-deuce?
- [Phil L.] Yeah, we are.
- [Dan] For sure.
- [Antonio] We're on?
How much is it if you win it?
- [Everyone] $200.
- [Joe] You'd be surprised
how often the seven-deuce rule
comes into play.
It's always aces or 
seven-deuce.
- [Voiceover] Sorry,
let me turn that on.
- [Pit Boss] Put your cards
side by side over here.
Over the spot.
- [Joe] I'm sure,
Randy's gonna put in
another raise, here.
- [Antonio] Are these RF, RF--
- [Dan] Yeah, RFID.
- [Chris] And Lew makes 
it $800.
- [Joe] And Randy's got
a pretty tight image,
so this should get
him some respect.
Ahh, except that Antonio
has respect for no one.
- [Chris] And we'll trim down
to two players, so Lew and
Esfandiari will see
the flop together.
- [Joe] Antonio does
have a pretty good hand
for cracking queens.
- [Chris] Is that qualified
for cracking queens, or not?
- [Joe] Apple-solutely!
Randy!
What a bad spot for him.
Top set and it's no good.
- [Antonio] You start
with five, right?
- [Chris] $900 from Lew
and a call from Esfandiari.
- [Joe] Antonio could
have raised there,
it was a draw-heavy board.
- [Chris] Both players
right now are in love
with their hands, obviously.
- [Joe] Yeah, definitely.
And Randy's almost
always betting again.
He's just never beat,
here, except for now.
Like, never, but now!
- [Chris] $1,700 the
bet from Randy Lew.
- [Joe] And I'm pretty sure we
see a raise from Antonio now.
Lew is repping a pretty strong
hand when he bets twice.
- [Joe] Randy, it's
the first hand!
- [Chris] Board's
gotta pair on the river
otherwise the entire stack
is going to Esfandiari.
- First hand, sick.
- That was the first hand
and everything all in.
- Set, a whaddyacallit, flush.
- [Chris] And Randy Lew finds
a cooler on the very first
hand, here on Poker
Night in America.
- First hand was all in.
- [Joe] Flop's a
straight, river's a flush.
- Wow. Wow.
- I don't think I've ever 
flopped like that in my life.
- Flopped a joint
with back doors,
he flops top set.
- How are we,
are we tipping later?
- [Joe] There's a
reason why Antonio
is the winningest
player of all time
and that reason is because
he won 18 million dollars
in one tournament.
But he's also pretty good.
- [Chris] That will
bump you up quickly,
no doubt about it.
So now we'll have to see if
Randy, with a fresh rebuy,
goes after Antonio
Esfandiari and tries to get
some of that money back.
- Nine-ten spades.
- What can I do?
- It came eight, jack,
queen, I'm thinking,
"Wow, that would be nice
to have nine-ten here."
- Never mind nine-ten
of spades.
- Come back in, when it's
your big blind, you play.
- That makes sense.
- 'Cause then it's just always
easier to enter on big blind.
- It's easier to enter the game.
- [Joe] The straddle is on.
Elky raising blind under
the gun's gonna get him
positioned before the flop.
- It's really not a big deal.
I think it's better this way.
- [Chris] Phil Laak
limps in with ace-jack.
Esfandiari with ace-jack
suited makes it $500.
Phil Laak to $4,550.
- [Joe] These two guys
have the same hand!
These two!
This is so them!
- You might as well get all in,
because the fear of me having
two-seven is too strong
in your veins, I can feel it.
You don't wanna see
the deuce-seven.
It's the only way
out, is to go all in.
- (inaudible)
- [Phil] That's your way out.
- [Joe] I don't
think he's folding.
- How much more is it, four?
- Yeah, four.
- [Chris] Antonio's only
in this hand for $500.
- [Elky] I like how
the game is starting.
It's pretty...
It's pretty strong already.
It's pretty strong already.
- We got some feisty
players in here.
- [Chris] A re-raise from
Antonio goes to $8,600.
- [Joe] And normally, if this
was any other two players,
I would say they're turning
ace-jack into a bluff,
but against each
other, I have no idea.
- He just tossed a $50 in
there or something, yeah.
- He raised 13?
I can't see it.
Oh it's four.
Are those purples or fives?
Okay, yeah.
Six, seven, eight.
Four, five.
- [Joe] Make no mistake, Chris,
when this happens in real
life, you're supposed to fold.
- Okay, all in.
- [Joe] (laughs)
Okay, not move all in.
- [Chris] Ace-jack
off suit, that is
your opportunity to 
say goodbye?
- [Joe] I mean, the
first four thousand
shouldn't have gone in.
- We have to see 'em.
- I don't have a very good
hand, I'm embarrassed.
- Really, we don't
have to do that here?
- We're gonna see it
in 15 minutes anyway.
- I mean, we've got just
one hand a piece probably.
- You're gonna maybe
see one hand.
- [Joe] They're both
too embarrassed to show.
- Ace, I don't know,
probably not good.
- Maybe it's good.
You might have a set of queens.
(laughter)
- Now I have to fade queens
I think.
- [Joe] This is so funny,
they both think they're gonna
win this pot.
Oh!
- I might not be good.
- [Joe] Now they're both
gonna think they're losing.
- You like to chop?
- No, you have ace-king?
It's gonna be--
- You wanna chop or no?
- [Joe] You don't have 
a choice!
- [Antonio] Yes or no?
- No.
- Well how--
- [Joe] It is a chop.
- [Bleep] knucklehead gets
$15,000 in there with
ace-jack.
What an idiot!
- [Phil L.] I thought I
was ahead or chopping.
- Yeah, when I re-raise you
there, your hand's, like,
really good all the time.
- [Phil L.] Okay, keep putting
it in with ace-jack,
let's see how far you go.
- What a numbnuts.
By the way that was
really well played,
just raise it $4,000
with the ace-jack.
But just to win $500 and
some of the time you lose
your whole stack.
You are so hopeless,
it's amazing.
- [Chris] When we come back,
14 Bracelets sits down at our
Poker Night in America table,
when Phil Hellmuth
joins us next.
- Yum-yum, boys!
Woo-hoo-hoo!
- For more from Poker Night,
visit pokernight.com
or find us on Twitch,
Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube
Where you can see complete 
episodes and un-edited live
streams
- [Chris] Welcome back to
Poker Night in America.
- Yum-yum, boys!
Woo-hoo-hoo!
- [Chris] And finally
arriving is the one and only
Phil Hellmuth.
- Phil, I hope you have an
extra one of 
those shirts, [Bleep].
- [Joe] The G.O.A.T.!
Been selling a lot of these.
(Dan laughs)
- You have to say you love it.
- I do love it.
- He's got his money like--
- [Antonio] It's good for me.
- (laughs) It's good for you,
yeah no (bleep).
- Pretty good first hand.
That was a sick first hand.
Ace jack against ace jack
for 15K.
- [Antonio] Phil and
I got in $15K each.
With ace-jack.
You would not have approved.
(laughter)
He played it like
a real genius, too.
- Well I had two flush
draws, he only had one.
- I had a little edge.
- Antonio, don't start
talking (bleep) already, okay?
I mean, you know, the last
time we played, I won, like,
$24,000 in this cash game and
you lost, like, $20,000 right?
- Last time?
Where was that?
- [Phil H.] Yeah,
you have a bad memory
when it comes to
losing, don't you?
New York.
- [Antonio] I don't remember.
- [Phil H] Turning Stone.
- [Antonio] I didn't
lose in New York.
- [Phil H.] You
didn't wind up losing?
Well, when I left,
you were buried.
Once I left, it was
a lot easier for you.
- [Phil L.] He
always gets unstuck.
It's Mr. Esfandiari.
- [Antonio] Pretty sure I
ended up winning, I don't know.
The one with Frankenberger?
- [Phil H.] Yeah.
- It's Randy, I gotta
put in.
- [Antonio] I think I won.
- I gotta play with Randy.
- By the time we quit yesterday,
Phil, it was $25, $50, $100,
$200 on the button,
$50 from every player,
with the seven-deuce game.
That is juicy.
- Come on.
- Sounds fun.
- Come on.
- We're playing
seven-deuce to start.
- Yeah, we're
playing seven-deuce--
- [Dan] And $200
on the big blind.
- $200 on the big blind, yeah.
- Can you rank the best
to the worst players
at the table, please?
We'd like to know your ranking.
- Can I guess what
Phil's rankings are?
- Come on, everybody's strong.
- Can I guess what
Phil's rankings are?
- [Antonio] Guess his rankings?
- [Jason] Yeah, I wanna
guess Phil's rankings, okay?
- [Antonio] and then
we want your rankings.
- [Jason] No, no, no, no, no.
- [Dan] Start number one.
- [Jason] Start number one,
well Phil ranks himself
number one, obviously.
- [Antonio] Obviously.
I mean, that's
not even just him ranking,
I mean, it's just clear.
- [Jason] Number two, I think
he would rank you over Elky,
I think it's two, three--
- [Antonio] No shot,
by the way.
- [Jason] No shot, you
think it's two, three?
- [Antonio] He
thinks I'm terrible.
- [Jason] He thinks
you're terrible?
Okay, maybe that's the thing.
It's gotta be, it's not even
close, maybe it's two, three.
- I think he gives
Dan number two.
- No way, Dan is in the bottom
four of Phil's expectations.
I'm just saying.
Come on.
- Bottom four, really?
- Yeah, I think Dan is
the bottom four, too.
(laughter)
- Okay.
- I mean, what Phil thinks.
- So Elky number two, alright?
- Yeah, so okay, so
let's say, Elky, two,
you, three, four--
- All, like, the worst.
- He might think Randy's towards
the bottom actually,
after yesterday, I think
Randy starts the bottom.
So, sorry, Randy.
- We've had our moments.
You know, Phil, when the
Shooting Star took place,
I don't know, 15 years
ago, he had a party
for all the Shooting Stars,
and he hired me as a magician
to work the party.
And I was hanging out with
all these poker stars,
and I was like, in La La
Land, I'm like, oh my God,
that's so-and-so, that's
so-and-so, you know?
I was doing magic, he hired me.
- That's awesome.
Great story.
- True story.
- And then, he wanted to
play heads-up for the fee.
- [Antonio] I said, you gotta
play me for my fee for doing
the magic, double or nothing.
- So I did play him
heads up for the fee.
I finally, he was playing
like a maniac even then;
raise, raise,
raise, raise, raise.
His usual tournament style,
not his cash game style.
And finally, I picked up
aces, and I came like, the
king, deuce, deuce, and
we put most of it in,
and a five came.
And he just, whoosh, and I
just snapped 'em in there,
and he showed me pocket fives.
Double up on the fee.
- Typical kid play.
- The kid, you know?
- Yeah.
- [Antonio] Uh oh.
First squeezer moves in,
second squeezer in the tank.
This is--
- [Phil L.] That's nice.
- [Antonio] I love
squeezer battles, you know?
(Phil H. laughs)
- [Phil L.] Squeezer battles.
- Squeezing you.
- [Phil H.] Have you ever
noticed that how Phil Laak
influences the action
in the deuce-to-seven
game all the time?
- Yeah, he gets involved.
- But no, I mean it
influences the action, because
he doesn't want to pay the
$200, so he can't help himself,
I noticed this yesterday,
I didn't say it out loud.
So every time he has to
suggest that someone might have
deuce-seven, so that he
might not have to pay $200.
- Well yeah, king--
- -that's been like,
pre-established for a while,
right, Antonio?
Deuce-seven, when
some raise happens,
you're allowed to go, "Ahhh..."
- You're allowed to do that.
- We can chop right
now if you want.
- [Joe] Man, if Jamie
loses this and gets shown
seven-deuce, he may not
survive.
- Oh, you're dead.
You're dead.
Phil H.] It's worth $11.
- It's pocket nines
grouped with ace-king?
- [Joe] Antonio is
priced in, by the way,
if you're wondering
why he called an all in
with seven-deuce.
Uh-oh, diamonds!
Ace-king holds.
- You win.
I had outs.
(laughter)
- On the turn, he
picked up the world.
- $2,850.
- [Chris] And Jamie Staples
is elated to double up
through Antonio Esfandiari.
- [Joe] He survives both
figuratively and literally.
- I wanted to hurt you
guys so bad on that one.
You were all in potential pain,
you know, you had no idea.
- [Joe] We'll be
back with more action
from the Twitch Celebrity
Cash Game right after this.
- There's no reading
ability, there's no math,
there's no logic.
Just Antonio on Tilt.
- Yeah, we call it A.O.T.
Antonio on Tilt.
- Antonio on Tilt.
- [Chris] Thanks for coming
back to Poker Night in America.
Let's return to the cash game.
This is our Twitch Celebrity
Cash Game.
- [Joe] It's like a bunch of
young kids have been adopted
by their three weird uncles.
- Do I owe $250?
Is that how it works?
- [Chris] Who are the three
weird uncles, by the way?
- [Joe] Antonio, Phil, and 
Phil.
- You want a sweet potato?
-Cooked?
- [Chris] A sweet potato
brought to the table
for Antonio Esfandiari,
who has been complaining
that he's hungry.
Phil's taking care
of that, looks like oatmeal,
not sure what's on top.
Do you have any inside
information on that?
- [Joe] I do not, but
I will try my best
to get to the bottom of it.
I once ate Phil
Hellmuth's leftover Oreos.
That's the end of the story.
- [Dan] I got a $50
discount yesterday.
- [Chris] Scott Ball makes
it $300 with ace-king.
- It's $300 open and that's it.
- [Phil H.] Phil, you
wakeboarded all night?
- Just from four
'till nine-thirty.
- [Chris] A raise to
$900 from Dan O'Brien.
- [Joe] And Dan has dominated.
- What exactly is wakeboarding?
- Wakesurfing.
The boat generates waves, and
you put the board in the wave,
and you surf it, 
surf that wave.
- You wanna play your hand,
and then explain, numbnuts?
- [Joe] Oh, mean.
I think he's only
saying that 'cause he's hungry.
- [Chris] He's "hangry".
- [Joe] He is "hangry" right
now.
- [Chris] He should have
eaten that sweet potato
he was being offered.
- Wow, the great
mind of Phil Laak.
Can you imagine what's going
on up there, Somerville?
- He's just dancing in there.
- Psychic flow, psychic flow.
- You would not believe what
he did with ace-jack earlier.
I mean, it was so bad.
Even you would say it's so bad.
- I believe it.
- It was just so bad.
- Sometimes you
have to get it in,
but that was not
one of the times.
(laughter)
- That was good, Elky.
That's Elky's line.
That might be the
line of the day.
Sometimes you just have to
get it in, but with that--
- That was definitely
not the time.
He got in $15,000.
- [Chris] Phil Laak makes it
$3,300 with ace-king suited.
Coming back around
to Scott Ball.
- In half an hour,
it's on its way.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- That was sick, he
goes like, limp, hundred,
makes it $500, makes it 
$3,500--
- [Antonio] No, $4,500.
- $4,500?
- [Antonio] Yeah.
Oh, I love it,
yes! Super squeeze,
hurting Phil Laak!
- Makes it $8,500, and and
he was waiting for $15K.
- Fold.
- [Joe] Dan gets away from it.
- Pull in $3,300 from
both of us, would you?
- [Antonio] I made it like
$8,200, like I'm ever folding
for another $7K,
when he's only got--
- [Phil H.] You
had ace-jack also?
- [Antonio] I had
ace-jack of spades.
(laughter)
- [Chris] Back to this hand,
it is the same situation.
Ace-king vs. ace-king suited.
- [Joe] Except in
this situation, it's
okay to get it in.
- [Chris] Ace-jack, no
good, ace-king, that's fine.
- Yosemite would
have already snapped.
- It's gonna be worse.
I'd rather have deuce-seven
than whatever he has.
- Guys, we should have to
turn over one card for all ins.
At least one, so we have
some sort of a good sweat.
- Of course you should,
you have to turn over.
- I'm not gonna show my hand.
- Let's do it from now on,
we gotta just show one card.
- [Joe] Is that common on
Poker Night in America?
I hate it when they
don't show their hands
when I'm in the game.
Now I know what they are.
I don't care if you
show 'em or not.
- Ace-king, come on.
- [Joe] One club on 
that flop.
- [Antonio] Ace!
- [Joe] Chop it up.
- [Phil H.] It's like, 
queen-nine.
He just made nines or
some (bleep).
- [Joe] Scott can exhale now.
- [Antonio] He's got queens.
Phil's got queens.
He's not happy about it.
- [Antonio] Ace-queen.
- [Phil L.] Chop it up.
- [Chris] A couple of huge
pots have just ended in chops.
It's kind of disappointing.
- Guys, so let's turn one
if we're all in, yeah?
That seems reasonable.
- (inaudible)
- Okay, one if you're all in.
- I prefer to show both.
- [Joe] Check out the way the
dealer's chopping the pot.
It's like synchronized 
swimming.
- Now you take away
from the possibility
of slow-rolling on the river.
And in this game, there's a
couple guys that slow-roll.
- True.
- It's not a slow-roll
if it's a chop.
- [Joe] Here comes
the big finale.
- But I'm gonna
slow-roll you if I can.
- Of course.
( Joe hums the
Blue Danube Waltz)
- I feel like you
have potential.
- [Chris] Alright, that was fun.
By the way, you can
always watch our live streams
at pokernight.com.
- I don't like to
specifically needle anyone.
Except when I come after
Antonio, just for fun.
- [Chris] Lots more events
coming up this year.
It's funny how when you
watch the live stream,
you really get to see all the
hands that are being played
and these players are so good.
I mean, I'll just
put it out there,
they are really good players,
we're seeing a lot of
odd kind of play here,
maybe you think, but 10
hands set up each hand
that you're seeing.
- [Joe] We're just showing
the car crash hands
but there's lots of meta-game
happening in between.
- [Chris] 10s for Esfandiari.
Up to $300.
- Mister O'Brien.
- [Chris] And Dan O'Brien.
Look 'em up.
- [Joe] Dan's caught
a piece, here.
Means he's not gonna
fold on the flop.
And now Dan's got a bigger
piece, he is in fact
cracked 10s so far.
Antonio's up and down, though.
Dan's decided to lead the turn.
Which you'd often do with a
draw, so I think Antonio's
never folding.
- Call.
- [Chris] Antonio does call.
And we go to the river
which is another seven,
full house now for O'Brien.
Does pairing the board scare
Antonio at all at this point?
- [Joe] I think it
does, especially when
Dan bets the river.
Shouldn't be too much trouble
for him to get away from this.
He's not being much at all,
Dan's fired on every street,
I don't think he can
really rep a bluff either
since the board ran out with
most of the draws missing.
- [Chris] Good bet size
from O'Brien, though,
if you are gonna get
Antonio to call here.
- [Joe] Pretty small, relative
to the size of this pot.
- [Chris] It's the right
price for curiosity,
as a friend of mine 
used to say.
- Hmm, Mr. O'Brien, hmm.
- Ace-eight?
- [Phil H.] So why
were you wakeboarding
at four in the morning, Phil?
- We got an
All-American Dave's.
We just drove to Lake Mead,
you can get there in 38
minutes from Panorama
to the Lake--
- [Phil H.] I like your
precision, 38 minutes.
- [Phil L.] 38 minutes from
bed to boat, roughly, boom.
- [Joe] Hey, speaking
of boats, lull.
- [Phil L.] 4:10.
- [Joe] I thought it
was called wakeboarding
because you do it
when you're awake.
I've been getting it wrong
for a really long time.
- [Phil L.] And then
we were in the boat,
and drifting around...
- [Joe] And I got
this one wrong, too.
Antonio did not get
away from it at all.
- [Phil L.] It's right
there, he's got a boat that
generates the waves.
You need to do it.
- [Chris] Closed Captioning
is brought to you
as a public service by
Poker Night in America.
Well here's where we're
gonna end the night
for now, and everyone
who's got a green arrow
next to them is up
over 1,600 bucks each.
- [Joe] There were a
couple of car crash hands
that ended in chops which
is why I think we don't see
too many huge profits
and losses here.
Jason Somerville the
big loser so far,
and Elky is down almost $6K.
- Well that was a
lot of fun, Stapes,
but this table's just
getting warmed up.
- Well next time, if you like
acronyms, we've got some hot
A.O.T. action.
OMG, TTYL.
- And speaking of the internet,
you can find us
a pokernight.com,
where you can watch
full episodes, and check
out our Twitch live stream.
For Joe Stapleton, I'm Chris
Hanson, we'll see you next time
on Poker Night in America.
- GG.
- You offered Phil to chop,
the best he can do is chop.
- The best he can
do is chop, right?
- Because you're playing aces
and queens with a jack kicker,
the best he can do is chop.
And you declined to chop.
- Would you like to chop?
- [Phil L.] No,
you have ace-king?
It's gonna be--
- You wanna chop or no?
Yes or no?
- No.
- Well how--
- - you have to say yes.
- [Bleep] knucklehead gets
$15,000 in there with
ace-jack.
What an idiot.
- [Phil L.] I thought I
was ahead or chopping.
- That's his style.
- All he can do is
lose in that scenario.
- He's not offering it
unless it's neutral.
So it doesn't matter.
- That's not true, I have
offered many times and then
turned it over.
- Not right there, I had
a soul read on you, kid.
I know what you're
trying to do.
- [Antonio] By the way,
if someone offers a chop,
it's binding if the
other person says yes
before the offer is removed,
because I might do that
with the best hand, and
then when they say no deal,
stick it to 'em.
