On the latest episode of TV show High Stakes Poker, Guy Laliberte and Doyle Brunson went toe to toe for an $800,000 pot.
The minimum buy-in was raised to $500,000 a few weeks back and Cirque du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberté has been one of the most active players at the High Stakes Poker table ever since.
Doyle Brunson, however, doesn't play very many big pots and his overall tendency is to play cautiously. In this hand, Brunson raises to $11,200 with Ace-Ten of Diamonds and gets called by four players, including Laliberte who held Ace-Five of Hearts. The flop came Ace of Clubs, Jack of spades and the Four of diamonds. Brunson bet $40,000 and he got one caller, Laliberte.
"The Godfather of Poker" fired another bullet when the turn brought the 2 of diamonds, and this time the bet was a little richer, $110,000.
High Stakes Poker announcer Gabe Kaplan said that he didn't believe that Laliberte would call such a huge bet. He was right.
The Canadian who now had a gut-shot straight draw to go with his top pair reraised to $310 000! This would put Brunson nearly all-in. Doyle thought for a bit and pushed his remaining $340,500 into the pot.
Laliberte called.
As is common on High Stakes Poker, they "ran it twice"*. When Laliberte didn't get any help on both, Brunson took down the biggest pot in High Stakes
Poker history.
* "Ran it twice" is the agreement between usually 2 players and it involves dealing the remainder of the hand twice, and is done when one of the players is all-in. This occurs mostly in big pots when both players would like a chance at not going bust. Reduces variance.
