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This week’s episode of “Poker Night in America” featured the sixth and final segment of high-stakes action filmed earlier at Maryland Live! Casino. Initially recorded back in March 2015, the poker game took place inside at the Rams Head Center Stage, which is customatily used as a popular entertainment venue. Well, the entertainment certainly continued on this final broadcast.

Most recording sessions include approximately 8 to 9 hours of poker playing. Estimating that about 20-25 hands are dealt out per hour, that’s roughly 225 poker hands filmed each day. Since so many interesting hands take place, it’s often difficult to decide which ones to show on our telecast. Some hands have great player banter and provide lots of entertainment value. Other hands might not be as entertaining, but are far more interesting from a strategic point of view. At PNiA, we recognize that our viewer likely want to see a bit of both. We look for fun hands which show what it’s like to play among the world’s most accomplished poker players. However, we also like to intersperse hands which reveal the complexity of the game and might even serve as a learning opportunity.

One of the show’s most interesting hands took place late in the day when four heavyweights got involved in a pot, with a surprising outcome. Matt Glantz, Layne Flack, Tom Schneider, and Greg Mueller played the hand out as follows:

Matt Glantz: Q — Q

Greg Mueller: 5 — 4

Tom Schneider: 5 — 4

Layne Flack: K — 3

Glantz made a pre-flop rise to $400 which was called in three other spots.

The flop came: 6c — 3d — 2c

Schneider, with a straight, was one of two players to catch a perfect flop. As he’s known to do, Schneider didn’t slowplay the hand even for a second. He bet out $500. Flack, thinking his small pair might be good, snapped called the $500. Glantz, with the overpair (queens) made what seemed to be a reasonable decision, to try and win the pot then and there, with a club flush draw and faced with the posisbility that plenty of dangerous straight cards existed. Glantz raised to $1,800. Next, Mueller did a little acting holding the nut straight, and left with just $6,000 in his stack, declared he was “all in.” Action came back around to Schneider, who must have thought he was dreaming. Scheider moved “all in” as well. Flack, who realized his pair of 3’s wasn’t good, folded. Glantz, just moments earlier thinking his overpair was good as gold, realized it was fools gold, and also folded.

When the cards were turned face up, Schneider and Mueller both realized they had identical hands, except that Schenider also had the 4c, which gave him a freeroll. The players decided to run it twice, and the next minute or so was a nightmare for Mueller, who couldn’t believe his eyes:

First Row: 6c — 3d — 2c — 9c — Qc

Second Row: 6c — 3d — 2c — Jc — ?

Schneider somehow managed not only to make a club flush on the first board, he was within a single card of catching yet another club on the second board for what would have been a scoop, and one of the worst beats of the season on PNiA. However, a red 9 fell on the river, giving Meuller a sigh of relief, but only a quarter of the $17,000 pot. Tough spot for Mueller to flop a straight, only to see another player with the same straight, then have to seat for what amounted to a quarter of the chips.

Action at Maryland Live! wrapped up with winners and losers from the two-day session.

Biggest Winners:

Matt Glantz: +$26,425

Layne Flack: +$14,500

Tom Schneider: +$11,925

Biggest Losers:

Robert Williamson III: -$16.350

Greg Mueller: -$15,525

Russell Thomas: -$8,575

The comeback award goes to Shaun Deeb, who was into the second day of action a total of $50,000 (down $39,000). Yet, he somehow managed to leave the game a small winner.

Thanks to everyone at Maryland Live! casino, especially the staff and everyone who came out and watched the action on what was one of the best expereincs we’ve enjoyed on the show. The Maryland sessions capped off a busy week of activity where cameras went to the nation’s capital, interviewed federal lawmakers about pending poker legilsation, and even managed to film a private home came made up of members of congress and their staffs. Outtakes from some of these shoots are expected to be released at the PNiA website. Also, special thanks to the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), and especially director John Pappas, for all his help while we were in the national capital area.

Up next, PNiA will be showing six episodes from the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. These show will feature more exciting poker action, with Hollywood actor James Woods taking his seat at the table in front of the television camers for the very first time, a place he’s quite comfortable. We also welcomed film critic Richard Roeper back to the game on PNiA for the second time. Woods and Roeper sat down together, shared some wine, and dissecting memorable poker scenes in the movies. We’ll be showing those highlights over the next six weeks. We’ll also be updating viewers and readers regualrly with reminders of what to expect on poker’s hottest weekly show on CBS Sports.

‘Til next week….

 

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