PokerStars Big Game Week 7

Following a short break to recharge its batteries, the PokerStars Big Game was back again for 7th week of TV poker magic. A quintet of the game’s best players arrived with hundreds of thousands of dollars in their wallets to play against a Loose Cannon who pitched up with nothing at all. This PokerStars Download qualifier is given $100k to play with and is allowed to keep any winnings he makes on that stack. If he ends the week in the black he has the choice of taking his winnings home or coming back to play again.

This week’s contestant was Russell Harlow from Connecticut. He works as a night time bakery delivery driver, ferrying crusty loafs and springy muffins around the state. He also plays a lot of PC and Mac Poker online. A big win on the Big Game would be enough change his life. He had three kids and a wife cheering him on. Talking to Amanda Leatherman about his battle-plan, Russell sounded confident. He also revealed that he had a secret target profit. If made money without reaching that amount, he promised to return next week for another shot, rather than retreating back to the cash games at top texas holdem sites.

Russell was going to have his work cut out for him. His top class opponents would be aching to take his stack from him. Representatives from the best US poker sites were out in force. Isaac Haxton, Jason Mercier, and Antonio Esfandiari were all present, as were old sparring partners Phil Hellmuth and Tony G. As the final episode started it had proved to be a tough week for Russell. He needed to claw his way back into the black in just 30 hands. Anything he’d learnt watching PokerStars poker videos was going to come in handy now.

2009 Bluff Player of the Year, Jason Mercier was on great form all week. He had more than $100k over his nearest opponent. In the week’s final episode, Jason took his foot of the accelerator and just marvelled in his own excellence for 40 minutes. Jason is a member of the PokerStars Bonus Code sponsored team. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the man hogging the most camera time was Phil Hellmuth. He took some more cash of the Loose Cannon, easily picking off a bluff by rivering a full house. That left Harlow down over $40k, with only 15 hands left.

With only 5 hands to go, a big hand gave the Loose Cannon a glimmer of hope. With KQ, Harlow put in a raise only to be re-raised by Phil Hellmuth. The call was made and a flop of K-5-K fell. A few hands earlier, Phil had been agonizing over whether to call an all-in bet from the loose cannon with a just a flush draw. He took almost 15 minutes to make the decision, prompting Tony G to berate him from the sidelines. Phil wasted no time in this hand, unwisely shoving all-in with only Ace high. The Loose cannon gladly called and missed any suckouts. Phil would have been dying for some PokerStars Rakeback after that hand.

At the end of the night the Loose Cannon had a shade over $100k. Enough for him leave with money or come back next week. Russell decided that he hadn’t won enough yet and opted to return to the Loose Cannon seat for another week.

PokerStars is one of the world’s best online poker sites and you can qualify now for future episodes of the Big Game by playing in one of their free qualification tournaments.

At the end of Week 7, the winners and losers were:

Jason Mercier (+ $150,800)
Ike Haxton (+ $33,600)
Tony G (+ $20,200)
Russell Harlow (+ $16,400)
Phil Hellmuth (- $89,300)
Antonio Esfandiari (- $131,700)