After a brief hiatus, the PokerStars Big Game returned for it’s seventh week of televised cash game excitement. 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 can eke out a profit from the 5 pros around him, he has the choice of keeping the winnings and heading home or coming back next week to try to win even more.
The amateur player making his bow this week 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. Clearly a big win on the Big Game would make a huge difference to his circumstances. He had three kids and a wife cheering him on. Going into the contest, Mr. Harlow seemed upbeat. He also revealed that he had a secret target profit. 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 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. 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. Russell Harlow was shoved further into the red by the all-time leading bracelet winner. With 15 hands left he rivered a full house to leave the Loose Cannon down over $40k.
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. Just a few moments before, the table had been in an uproar as Phil took over 10 minutes to make his mind up about calling the Loose Cannon’s all-in. 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. 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 top money 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)
