Poker Night in America – Season 2 Episode 2 Recap – Super Selbst

The second episode of Poker Night in America picks up where episode one left off, with Ladies Night! But it might be unfair to call it ladies night, since Vanessa Selbst dominated the episode, it would be more fair to call it Selbst’s Night.

In the first hand of the episode starts off with Selbst going head-to-head with Jessica Dawley, who has K ♦ Q ♦ against Selbst’s 9 ♣ 9 ♥ . Selbst checks the flop, which is 10 ♦ 3 ♦ 10 ♣ , so Dawley bets $425, which Selbst calls. The same play repeats itself on the turn 7 ♥ , with Dawley again betting after Selbst checks. Chris Hanson remarks that “Vanessa just simply not believing Jessica’s story and will make another call.” The river is a 10 ♥ and both players check, giving Selbst the $3,200 pot.

But Selbst was just getting started. Lauren Billings fans probably cringed while they watched the next hand. Pre-flop betting had Selbst with J ♠ J ♥ , Lauren Billings 5 ♣ 5 ♦ , and Lily Kiletto had 6 ♠ 6 ♦ . The flop is 5 ♠ 3 ♣ J ♦ and Selbst checks, so Billings goes on the offensive with a $600 bet. Kiletto checks but Selbst raises to $1,300, which Billings calls but Kiletto decides enough is enough and folds. The turn is a 4 ♠ , and again Selbst calls. Billings bets $2,000 and Selbst calls all-in and Billings calls. They decide to run it twice and the first time the river is a 9 ♠ and the second time it is the 7 ♥ giving Selbst the $14,925 pot .

Running it twice doesn’t help Billings

 

After the hand, Selbst analyzed the hand that knocked Billings out of the game, saying that she couldn’t fold. There wasn’t any card on the board that would have saved Billings money, it was just “lights out.”

A different perspective?

The film critic Roger Ebert once said that, for him, films are empathy machines, giving him a way into somebody else’s life for a while. Ladies Night on Poker Night in America has an added benefit aside from getting to know a few of the best female players in the world, it also gives the audience a glimpse of what’s it’s like to play as a woman in a man’s game (at least according to the numbers: as stats show that 80% of poker players are men).

Ebony Kenney tells a story of a man being unreasonably angry with her and threatening to fight her. She called over the floor (security) and they let the man stay. Jamie Kerstetter was cursed out by a man for check-raising him on the river, security came over and asked her if she wanted him kicked out. She declined, saying, “He still has money left.” Which just shows that despite it being called Ladies Night, everyone around the table are poker players first and foremost.