Poker Night in America - Episode 27 Recap – The Usual Suspects of Poker

It’s time to turn back the clock at Poker Night in America, round up the usual suspects of poker and revisit some lost hands from the beginning of the season. We go back to Turning Stone Resort in upstate New York and rejoin some of the favorite pros from the beginning of the season.

There’s a bunch of new/old faces around the table this episode:

• Will Failla
• David Baker
• Eli Elezra
• Phil Laak
• Lauren Billings
• Layne Flack
• David Williams – WSOP 2004 Main Event runner up
• Shawn Buchanan

The players all seem to be in good spirits as the poker gets underway, but there are some hands (and some needles) that change the mood around the table.

In the first hand of the night starts off with Layne Flack getting dealt pocket kings (K ♦ K ♥) and being the first to act, raises to $300. Will Failla jumps in with K ♠ Q ♠, Eli Elezra joins too with J ♦ 9 ♣, and Phil Laak completes the circle by calling with 5 ♥ 3 ♦. Pre-flop there is over $1,200 in the pot and the flop of 10 ♠ K ♣ 8 ♥ puts Flack in control but both Failla and Elezra have an open-ended straight draw. Flack bets $600 which knocks out Laak, but everyone else remains in the hand. The turn is J ♥ and Flack bets $1,300 which is too much for Failla, who folds, leaving Elezra to call, which he does. The river is 10 ♥, which prompts Flack to bet $3,500 and Elezra promptly folds, giving Layne Flack the first hand of the evening.

The legend speaks, part 2

This episode features part 2 of the four part series of Nolan Dalla interviewing poker legend Doyle Brunson. And in this episode the Godfather of Poker recounts some of his run-ins with the shadier side of poker.

In the first story, Brunson tells how at a poker game at a farmhouse outside Austin, Texas, the game was robbed by men armed with shotguns. The robbers smashed the windows and came in through the windows. Because he was a “big guy” they focused their attentions on Brunson, trying to get him to name who was running the game. After a couple of hits with a shotgun, what convinces Brunson to give up the name is the gun being cocked and pointed at his forehead.

It’s hard to top that story, but only seconds later Brunson tells of how he was robbed at his home in the middle of the night, when it was just him and his wife at home. The alarm company called and Doyle’s wife, Louise, answered the phone and gave them a false code, tipping them off that something was wrong. The robbers got wind of this and threatened to kill Doyle, but Louise stood in between the robbers and Doyle, telling them, “Shoot me, not Doyle.” The robbers were so perplexed by her act of courage and instead of doing anything rash, simply handcuffed the couple together and run off with the money in Brunson’s pockets before the police arrive.

So to recap: in the first installment, Brunson told of playing hands for millions of dollars, and in this episode he tells of being held up at gunpoint, twice. Who knows what will be in the next installment?