You knew the last night of the season was going to set off fireworks and it did not disappoint. From the first hand to the last, money and cards were flying like few sessions we have seen this season. Dwan and Minieri continued to mix it up and the bluffs continued to fly around the table. 9 of the eleven hands that were shown went for over $100,000. The day started with a $387,000 pot and finished with a $514,000 pot. They once again proved that you have to have thick skin and strong stomach in order to play High Stakes Poker.

The action started on the very first hand. Dwan looked down at 55 and immediately raised the pot to $5,000. He got three callers with both Brunson and Meltzer sitting on A8 and Elezra with a Q2h. The flop came out AcJh8h and Meltzer led out for $20,000, Dwan folded and Doyle pushed it to $95,000 and then after Elezra folded, Meltzer pushed all in and was immediately called by Brunson. A lot of early anxiety, but the pot of $387,000 would be split.

The next two hands did not provide much action. Both were rather small pots and the second of them had Minieri getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar again. He made a move on a pot against Peat and ending up donating $17,000 as he had to let go of his 8h7d after posturing for a couple of seconds. The table had seen enough of his aggressive play. He has had the same style the entire time at the table and it was finally catching up to him.






Baxter continued his slide on the next hand as he went into a 5 way pot that had Dwan slow playing AA. Dwan hit a set on the flop and fired $2,200 into a pot that had never been raised pre-flop. Baxter came right over the top with a flush draw (to a board of Ah7h3c) and Dwan tried to push him off of his flush draw with a $19,700 bet. The turn was a 5c and for some reason Dwan did not bet and allowed Baxter to catch a free card going to the river. The play would end up working out in his favor as Baxter hit a K on the river and called down a $33,400 bet. The hand was worth $111,800 to Dwan and managed to get him some of the money back that he had lost during the last session.

This season has been very untypical for Laak as he has had some bad reads and made some unorthodox plays for his style. He continued the slide when he pushed all in for $128,000 on an open ended straight draw and fell short to Elezra’s two pair. They ran the board twice, but Laak failed to catch. Elezra won a monster $269,600 pot and Laak called for more chips.

Brunson would benefit from the aggressiveness of Dwan in the next hand. A 6 way pot found Doyle and Dwan isolated after the flop. Dwan had hit top pair and Doyle was on the nut flush draw. Dwan led out for $8,700 and surprisingly, Doyle just called in a situation that he had raised in several times prior. Doyle hit the turn as an As hit and Dwan fired again for $24,100. Doyle continued to let him have the lead and when another A hit on the river, Dwan assumed Doyle had missed his flush draw and fired $47,800 at the pot. Doyle took few minutes and finally called and won $177,800 with is trip aces.






Baxter got beat on a bluff again in the next hand, but at least it did not cost him much. Peat fired a quick $25,000 into a pot of about $35,000 when the flush draw popped on the river. Baxter immediately believed him and walked away from a winning hand.

Minieri took another hit to his stack courtesy of Melzer in the next hand. Both players hit a K on the flop, but Minieri was badly outkicked. Melzter started the action with a $8,200 bet and Elezra, who also hit his K with a 6 kicker, came over the top and made it $17,000. Minieri stayed with his aggressive style and as the third man in, made it $50,000 on an 8 kicker. Meltzer made the call and Elezra folded. Both players checked down the turn and river, but the KQ of Meltzer held and he won the $134,500 pot.

The next hand would spell the end of Minieri. He looked down at AA pre-flop and was obviously hoping to get some of his cash back. He made it $9,000 to go and as Peat was already on the straddle, he put the extra in to see a flop with 8-10d. We was rewarded with a flop of 5s10s10h. Minieri threw out a bet of $11,000 and when Peat made it $30,000 Minieri went all in for $111,700. He was disappointed when he saw that Peat was not on a flush draw, but had instead flopped trips. The $245,400 in chips went over to Peat’s stack and Minieri was felted.

The next has was a quick one, but saw Dwan take yet another hit to his stack as he was playing every hand trying to get something back before the last hand of the season. He made a move on Meltzer, but had the unfortunate luck of running into KK and had to fold after throwing away another $29,600. This had him down over $200,000 with only one hand left to play.

On the final hand, Laak was dealt 55 and made it $3,100. Dwan made it $14,000 with Jc10s and Meltzer managed to catch KK again and made it only $30,000. While Laak folded, Dwan called the almost min raise. Meltzer would quickly regret not putting more out there to take the hand down right there. The flop was Ah3h10d. The worst thing that could have happened for Meltzer was that Dwan hit that flop. He fired a small $30,000 bet and Dwan quickly called. The dream card came on the turn for Dwan as a Jd hit and game him the lead with two pair. He led out with $46,200 and after some though, Meltzer made the call. The river card game Dwan a full house with JJJ1010 and he made an over the top bet of $146,800 and was all in. Dwan had done this before on a move and it paid off as Meltzer called him down and looked like astonished that Dwan had called not only his pre-flop raise but also his flop bet. All in all, the pot was worth $514,400 and put Dwan up about $40,000 for the seession.

It was a great year and while Minieri was felted, Dwan’s aggressiveness all season paid off on the final hand of the year. He needed lady luck to be with him, but after abandoning him from the first few sessions, she returned at exactly the right time. He got rewarded for some very questionable play, but he is the one walking away a winner. Another season is behind us and with all of the young players hitting major scores in tournaments this year, you can only expect more of the same when they start it back up again next year.