Sick hands, Weeds & Laak On Poker Night In America

Poker Night in America is just about the best thing one could watch in the post-High Stakes Pokerreality of televised cash games. Episode 40 certainly didn't disappoint offering the viewers some big pots, the always entertaining antics of Phil Laak and stellar commentary by Chris Hanson and Joe Stapleton full of quips and jabs at the writer of TV Show "Weeds" Matt "Louis" Salzberg.

Starting With a Bang

The first hand of the night started with a philosophy and physics lesson from Phil Laak discussing the outcome of the old unstoppable force, immovable object dilemma while casually limp/calling with Ah6h preflop. What happened next was a car crash of an epic proportion proceeded by the most deliberate and gentle pump-fake shove in the history of poker.

Phill Lack made the hand much more interesting than it otherwise would have been - which is pretty much what the man does for a living. Unfortunately for him, in a classic battle of a nut-flush draw vs. top pair the made hand prevailed and his opponent, Dan Shak scooped a big 38,125$ pot.

Phill Lack Bounces Back

According to Joe Stapleton, Phil Lack "cracked more kings than inbreeding" and the good ol' AA vs. KK spot was exactly what the doctor ordered for Unabomber given how he was a good few buy-ins in the red.

Again, while most of us would assume that just another aces versus kings ordeal couldn't possibly be that entertaining Laak came to the rescue delivering one of the best jokes of the night (which is no easy task when you're on the show with Joe Stapleton in the commentator seat). Even though in reality Phil had a total control of the hand from start to finish he suggested that :

"It might get out of control because the spaceship is on the other side of the planet Earth and I'm not getting any reception".

That line combined with a giant set of goggles that Laak had on his face during delivery made for one priceless TV poker moment.

A Tale of Four Overpairs

It's pretty safe to assume that the fortieth episode of Poker Night in America won't be the greatest of memories for Matt Salzberg. Between being the main target of Joe Stapleton's jokes and the fact that the guy couldn't win a pot with an overpair to save his life Salzberg has plenty of reasons to be unhappy about his situation.

Even though the writer of the show "Weeds" wasn't exactly card dead being dealt four different mid to high pocket pairs (QQ, 88, 2xJJ) all hitting favorable boards, poor luck paired with one strategic misstep made it so he only managed to win one of those spots.

The last hand of the night was especially painful for him given how his overpair turned top set smashed into rivered straight leaving mister Salzberg (and all the other poker enthusiast replaying similar bad memories in their minds) with a bad taste in his mouth.