PokerStars Big Game Week 7

Following a short break to recharge its batteries, the Poker Stars 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.

The amateur player making his bow this week was Russell Harlow from Connecticut. The bakery truck driver works the graveyard shift, delivering all manner of delicious bready goods in the dead of night. He also plays a lot of PC and Mac Poker online. Clearly a big win on the Big Game would make a huge difference to his circumstances. Back home he and his wife have three lively kids to take care of. Going into the contest, Mr. Harlow seemed upbeat. He confessed to having a specific target amount. If he were to finish above $100k without hitting that mysterious target, he would come back again and have another shot at reaching it, rather than retreating back to the cash games at top texas holdem sites.

Russell was going to have his work cut out for him. Up, as he was, against some of the finest minds in the game. Representatives from the most popular us friendly poker sites were out in force. Isaac Haxton, Jason Mercier, and Antonio Esfandiari were at the table, along with two famous loudmouths Phil Hellmuth and Tony G. And so it proved, going into the final episode, with the Loose Cannon still down $7,000. 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 had been running over the table. He had more than $100k over his nearest opponent. With Russell struggling to get into the black, Jason took a back seat and waited for his chance to pick off some loose play. Jason is a member of the PokerStars Bonus Code sponsored team. Hogging centre stage was, unsurprisingly, 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. Holding KQ, he made a raise preflop and saw Phil Hellmuth come of over the top. The duo saw 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. This time he wasn’t about to wait around and pushed all-in with just A-high. It was a snap call for Russell, who dodged Phil’s few outs and racked in a big pot. Phil would have been dying for some PokerStars Rakeback after that hand.

That win left Russell with just over $100k. He now had a decision to make about whether to take his profits home or come back for more. 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)