Tom Dwan Dominates Play on High Stakes Poker Debut

The fifth season of the Game Show Network’s “High Stakes Poker” made its debut on Sunday night. The $200,000 buy in cash game was originally filmed at the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Las Vegas in December. The season premier featured a host of rising Poker Stars Tom “durrr” Dwan, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Peter Eastgate facing off against big name Poker Stars that included Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra and David Benyamine.

Straight from the first hand, Dwan and Eastgate begin dueling at the table. Eastgate raised preflop with 8-9 of clubs to 5,000 to which Dwan re-raised with k-9 of hearts to $16,000. Eastgate made the call. The flop then came off K-5-4 rainbow. Dwan checked and Eastgate quickly bet $20,000 with Dwan promptly calling. The turn came the jack of spades and the action going check check. The river came off the 10 of clubs with neither player betting. Dwan took down the first pot of the night that aired which set the tone for the type of play that would dominate the rest of the evenings play.

Dwan continued to be the most active player at the table, seeing the flop in almost every pot that was shown. The largest pot during the show also involved Dwan and Eastgate. Both turned a set of sixes though Dwan held 7-6 and Eastgate had A-6. Dwan bet $20,200 after the turn which was about two-thirds of the pot. Eastgate called only to see the river show a king. Dwan again led out and bet $53,900 which Eastgate simply called, raking in $175,200. New episodes of High Stakes Poker on GSN air at 9 pm EST Sunday nights.