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Lederer was dealt 10-7 of spades and raised the blinds to $1,200 to go after everyone else folded the action to him. Kaplan made the call with Q-J of spades and the two saw a flop of 2d-Ah-8s. After Kaplan checked the action to Lederer, The Professor made a bold bluff of $1,300. Kaplan paused for awhile, and eventually made the call with nothing in his hand. He must have put Lederer on the bluff, or he had intentions to make a bluff of his own on the later streets.

When the turn card was the 2h, Kaplan decided to make good on his hunch and he bet out $3,000 into The Professor. Lederer was stopped in his tracks for a few minutes, but after thinking about the hand he begrudgingly made the call. The river card was another ace, the ace of diamonds, which was an action killer if you ever saw one. Kaplan had figured that Lederer must have had a hand if he called the $3,000 bet, so he checked the action to Lederer instead of firing again at the pot a second time. If he would have followed his instincts about the hand, he would have won it with another bet.

Lederer immediately recognized the opportunity that the second ace gave him and he bet $3,500 on the river. Kaplan was convinced that this bet was a pure value bet, and that Lederer must have an ace for the big boat. He folded the best hand and Lederer won a big pot of $8,200, and eventually went on to earn the $120,000 winner-take-all prize pool.

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Holding A-3 of diamonds, Montgomery pushed his remaining stack of 6.3 million. After a bit of thought, Peter Eastgate made the call with pocket sixes. After the hole cards were turned over, it looked like Montgomery would be going home. But a flop of A-4-Q gave him a commanding lead in the hand. After the turn brought another ace, Eastgate was down to two outs – or so it appeared.

At this point in the hand, Dennis Phillips decided he would tell everyone that he had mucked a six earlier pre-flop. Pocket cams showed that he indeed did muck one of the sixes, so Eastgate was down to one out, and a 2% chance of winning the hand. No one believed he had a chance, but the poker gods had other things in mind on this day.

Unbelievably, the river brought the final six, knocking out Scott Montgomery in fifth place. The crowd let out a huge gasp when the card hit the board; nobody could believe Montgomery’s bad run of luck. He still earned over $3 million, so it’s hard to feel bad for the guy. He also has one of the best all-time WSOP final table bad beat stories to tell for the rest of his life.

So now you know that bad beats like this don’t just happen at Pinnacle Sports Poker. Every game has crazy beats, even live games with hundreds of cameras on hand. Don’t feel so bad the next time you get your chips in with a big lead, only to suffer a crushing defeat. Nothing is for sure until the hand is over, or your opponent is drawing dead.

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Grospellier is better known as “Elky” online. He’s a professional internet gamer from London, U.K., who now resides in Korea. He’s one of the top-ranked players in the world for the real-time strategy game called “Starcraft”. Over the last few years he’s taken his gaming skill into the poker world and made a killing, winning over $4.1 million in only three years of play. He showed in a hand this week why he’s been so successful at poker.

Grospellier was sitting with a chip lead at the final table with five other players left in the tournament. He made a pre-flop raise and was called by William Mietz. When a flop of 9-7-4 came off, both players checked the rags. The turn card brought another 9, and Grospellier wasn’t about to let it go again. He made a bet in an attempt to pick up the pot, only to be promptly raised by Mietz, who went all-in.

Grospellier had him considerably out-stacked, but calling off an all-in with only Ace-high is no easy decision to make. But Grospellier was able to determine that his Ace was good, and after some consideration he made the call and showed A-10. Mietz turned over K-10 and was badly dominated.

The river was another 9, and Grospellier’s Ace was good enough to win the hand. It was also good enough to send Mietz home for the day, as well as adding a nice chunk to his chip lead.

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Lindgren was “in the zone” all day during the final table, and had been reading opponents with uncanny accuracy. One of the most important hands in the head-to-head battle came when the two were playing limit hold’em, with blinds of $40K/$80K. Lindgren was dealt pocket sevens and raised the $40K blind to $80K. Bonomo called with Q-8 of diamonds, and they saw a flop of 4d-Js-6s. Lindgren, who was in first position, led out $40K and Bonomo made it two bets to $80K. Lindgren begrudgingly called.

The turn card was a scary 6h, and once again Bonomo pushed the action with an $80K bet, sensing that Lindgren had missed the flop. Lindgren made the call and they saw a river card of 5c. Once again Bonomo fired $80K into Lindgren’s lowly pocket sevens. Somehow Lindgren put Bonomo on nothing, and after some thought made the final call.

Lindgren was facing an opponent who had raised pre-flop, check-raised the flop and bet out the turn and river, yet he still made the incredible call to win a $640K pot. All betting indications said that Bonomo had a hand, but Lindgren could see through the internet prodigy’s continuation bets and didn’t back down. It gave him a commanding lead that he carried on to the victory. Poker doesn’t get much better than that hand.

Bonomo will have to wait to win his first WSOP bracelet, but it’s obvious that he will eventually own one. For Lindgren it was a big monkey off his back, and the hardware further solidified him as one of the best hold’em tournament players in the world.

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Demidov was in the small blind and made the call of 300,000 with K-7 of spades. Phillips and Schwartz had already folded, and then Eastgate checked his option to raise from the big blind because all he had was 3-2 off-suit. The pot was $1.5M, and they saw a flop of 7h-3d-6s.

Both players got a piece of the flop, but for some reason Demidov decided to check his top pair. Eastgate then bet out 850,000, which was quickly called by Demidov. The turn was the king of diamonds, giving Demidov an even bigger lead with kings-up.

Once again Demidov slow played his lead and checked into Eastgate. Eastgate seemed to realize that his pair of threes was no good, and he checked the action to the river. The river brought Eastgate one of two possible outs to win, the three of clubs, giving Eastgate trip threes and the lead in the hand. Demidov, thinking his hand was good, came out betting 1.65M in chips with his two pair. Eastgate then made his move, raising it another 3.85M, bringing the pot to $10,325,000.

Somehow Ivan Demidov was able to give Eastgate credit for the trips. He surprisingly folded his two pair with very little hesitation. It was an important fold in the game because it allowed Demidov to remain in a dominant position, which eventually contributed to his second-place finish and a payday of over $5,790,000.

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After an opponent doubled up on him, Koral found himself in a hand with A-8 of diamonds against Gary Leibovitz. His chip stack was a bit low and he couldn’t afford too many more mistakes. After a flop of J-2-8 came off, both players played it cautiously and checked the action.

The turn brought a K, and this time Leibovitz wasn’t going to let the hand get away – not without giving Koral a tough decision to make at a crucial point in the tournament. Leibovitz bet all-in, putting the pressure on Koral to make a call with only third-best pair.

After a lot of thinking, Koral made the hero call with his small pair. Leibovitz turned over an open-ended straight draw semi-bluff, with a 10-9 in his hand. After another King came on the river, Koral had doubled up and raised his stack to second place with 785,000 in chips. Shortly after that he called an all-in bet from Kyle Schertz and managed to knock him out after pocket nines held on for the win, elevating his stack to over 1.2 million.

To call off your stack with such a small piece of a board is no easy feat. Leibovitz easily could have had a King, when one considers how the betting went down in the hand. But Koral wasn’t buying it.

It’s the kind of play that separates the best from the rest. If you want to learn how to make calls like that, practice your skills at Pinnacle Sports Poker’s wide selection of tournament action.

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Patrik Antonius and online high-stakes cash-game player Andrew “Good2cu” Robl played a hand of Pot Limit Omaha that just didn’t seem fair. It started when Antonius raised the pot to $3,500 pre-flop on the button, and Robl re-raised to $12,000 from the big blind. Antonius called, and the flop was Ad7s4d.

Robl bet out $16,000 and then Antonius raised the pot $72,000. Robl then moved all-in for $103,000, which Antonius called. Since it was a cash game, the two players decided to run it out four times.

They turned over their hands and Antonius was holding 9h8d6d5d while Robl had AsQsQdJc. Even though Robl had the lead at that time, Antonius was a 68.45% favorite to win the hand. Despite only having 31.55% to win, Robl picked the right time to get all his chips in the middle of the table because the deck was certainly on his side.

The first run of turn and river cards was Kh, 2h giving Robl one fourth of the pot. He knew he wouldn’t lose any money when the second run was Jd, Ac giving him at least half the pot. The third run was 10h, Ks and Robl had won three times in a row for three-quarters of the $225,000 pot. Then everyone was surprised when the fourth run was 3s, 10s giving him the entire pot and the double through.

The cash games at Pinnacle Sports Poker don’t let you play a hand out four times, but you may not want that option when something like that happens to you. At least Patrik Antonius can afford the beats; he’s up over $2M in online cash games so far in 2009.

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Antonius raised the $1,000 blind to $3,500 to go from under the gun, and “world1969” promptly re-raised it to $12,000. That was enough to get Phil Ivey and “MR B 2 U SON” out of the hand, and after some thought, Antonius made the out of position call. With a pot that was already $25,500, they saw a flop of 8h-Js-Ad.

Antonius checked the action to “world1969” who quickly bet out an amount that was around half the pot; $12,750. Antonius must have figured he had the best hand because he raised it to $63,750, an over bet that easily put “world1969” all-in for the rest of his chips.

Subsequently “world1969” didn’t hesitate to call Antonius’s bet, and put in the rest of his $13,498 in chips. The pot was $78,494 once “world1969” was all-in, and the two players’ cards were revealed.

Patrick Antonius showed As-Qh, while “world1969” had the better hand of Ac-Ks. Antonius was dominated and needed a huge suck out to recover his chips. Accordingly “world1969” was an 85% favorite to win the hand, but fate had a different plan for the two high-stakes players.

The turn card was a meaningless 7d, reducing Patrick’s odds down to 6.82% to win. He needed one of only three possible cards to take the hand away from “world1969”, and that’s if none of the other players mucked a queen pre-flop.

As you’ve probably already figured out, the river card was the queen of clubs, giving Patrick Antonius two pair and the big pot. The hand busted “world1969”, while Patrick Antonius added another $78,494 to the $200,000 + he already had at the table.

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You would think that UltimateBet.com would have gotten all their ducks in row following the recent scandal the company had to endure during the ‘super account episode’. But apparently all the bugs are not worked out, despite CEREUS now powering UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. In a hand that occurred on December 20, 2008, Phil Hellmuth mucked a pair of deuces, but was awarded the $5,600 pot. His opponent, DOUBLEBALLER, was holding three of a kind and would have easily won the hand.

When asked about the incident, Hellmuth said, “The only time in my life where I’ve had one pair beat three of a kind is when I made a big bluff in a poker tournament and now because of a software malfunction in online poker. I am one of the most watched players on the Internet, and all I can say is that it is pretty obvious that there was no malicious intent and even more obvious that UB handled this problem well.

“Sometimes these things happen on the Internet. The important thing here is that I continue to have a ton of trust in UB’s software and new management team.”

UltimateBet reviewed the hand and awarded the other player the winnings. They explained the event by saying that the other player exited the table at the precise instant that the hand was being awarded. They have since corrected the issue, and promise that it can’t happen again now that the code has been changed.

They are also reviewing hands in their database to see if the malfunction occurred in the past. If it has, everyone involved will be properly compensated. During the fix, some code made the problem even worse and 36 hands were messed up until it was corrected.

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After that card hit the board Minh Lee backed off and checked the action to Negreanu, who was sitting with top pair and a straight draw. He wanted to find out here he stood, so he made a bet of $8,000 which Booth quickly called. Minh Lee saw that his small pair wasn’t any good and mucked out of the hand. The river card was the 8h, improving Negreanu’s hand to a straight. Once again he came out betting, this time throwing out $16,000 in chips into Booth’s straight flush.

Booth raised Negreanu back another $30,000, causing Negreanu to immediately say, “I knew you had the flush, I have a straight.” Yukon Brad then said. “I have a straight flush,” even though Negreanu hadn’t folded out yet. Negreanu didn’t seem to believe that Booth had the straight flush, and thought that perhaps his statement was meant to throw him off a bit. Negreanu pondered over the decision for a little while before eventually mucking his straight, and giving the pot of $66,300 to Booth.

You may not play too many straight flushes at Pinnacle Sports Poker for $66,000, but you could certainly hit one of your own if you play enough hands. The odds of hitting one are 1-in-64,974 hands; much more difficult to hit than the 1-in-4,165 hands it takes to hit four of a kind. But you will hit one eventually, and hopefully it pays off for you like it did for “Yukon” Brad Booth.

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