Phil Ivey Runs a Huge Bluff on High Stakes Poker

Word of advice: don’t make moves against this man on High Stakes Poker.

Much like high-stakes online poker has been for the last year, Season 6 of High Stakes Poker on GSN has been all about Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. The two have dominated every episode that’s been aired so far, adding some big hands to their personal highlight reels. And in last night’s episode, Ivey added another televised, top-notch bluff to the list of reasons why everyone fears him at the poker table.

The hand began with Dutch online star Lex Veldhuis under the gun posting a $1,600 straddle. Barry Greenstein decided to get involved, raising to $5,500 in early position with Qc-Td. Then Ivey silently stepped in with a reraise to $18,000 holding nothing more than 5s-2d. The action folded back around to Veldhuis, who read the situation well and decided his Kh-Jh was good enough to put in a four-bet worth $51,600. At least, it would have been a good read of the situation against any other opponent. But things have a habit of going a little funny when Ivey is involved.

Ivey immediately asked Veldhuis how much he had behind. After a quick count Veldhuis said he about $140,000 left. For the next ten seconds Ivey considered the situation, and announcer Gabe Kaplan opined that the world’s greatest poker player was putting on a show just so Greenstein wouldn’t know that he’d raised with complete air. But once that ten seconds was up Ivey did the unexpected and announced himself all-in. That put Veldhuis on the line for his entire $197,200 stack if he decided to make the call.

Veldhuis did exactly what you would expect given the situation – he looked palpably sick and gave a long exhale as he tossed his cards in the muck. “All these super-good spots keep coming up,” Veldhuis remarked. But as Kaplan noted in his commentary, there are no super-good spots when you’re up against Phil Ivey – especially if the venue is High Stakes Poker.