Deadly Doctor Hands Bitter Pill to a Poker Player as High Stakes Poker Returns

What do get when you put Hollywood starlet Jen Tilly at the same table as Andrew Robl, Japanese online viral star Masato Yokosawa and some very rich newcomers? High stakes poker! The popular series returned to PokerGO with a Season 13 opener that was one for the books.

A Star-Studded Line-Up

While there was one notable omission from the roster going into Season 13 – the still much-missed Gabe Kaplan – the former Welcome Back, Kotter star’s replacement, Nick Schulman was back in his seat to provide more memorable witticisms alongside original host and TV poker legend AJ Benza.

At the felt, Season 12 crusher Andrew Robl was joined by Hollywood star Jennifer Tilly, Dr. Sean Dempsey, Japanese poker vlogging sensation Masato Yokosawa, financial exec Sameh Elamawy, Justin Gavri and Bo Brownstein in the opening episode, with the promise of Phil Hellmuth to come not far down the line.

Playing the traditional limits of $200/$400, with a big blind ante of $400 too, the action got underway. Very early, it was clear that Andrew Robl, who crushed harder than anyone in the previous Season 12, was not going to have it all his own way this time around. Taking on newcomer Sameh Elamawy, Robl led for $10,000 on the turn of a board showing K-K-J-T with just queen-six offsuit.

Elamawy, who only held seven-four offsuit himself, called and after a brick landed on the river, made Robl pay, betting big to win with the board playing! Robl threw away the best hand, albeit trash, and took a five-figure ‘L’ in the very first hand as Elamawy showed the bluff to laughter from the table.

Tilly Takes a Big One

Robl was clearly a little riled up after that opening hand defeat and fought back, only to lose another pot to Elamawy. Once again, a big bet on the river was made by Elamawy, but although he missed with a straight flush draw, he put his full belief behind just a pair of fives to back his read and correctly predict that Robl had nothing himself. That proved correct and this time it was a six-figure pot that the financial executive was pulling in from a shell-shocked Robl.

Jennifer Tilly isn’t just an award-winning Hollywood actress but a highly accomplished poker player. The Chucky and Bound star got involved in a big pot with Masato Yokosawa, but the High Stakes Poker regular lost out. On a board showing Q-T-6-5, Tilly’s queen-jack was strong enough to call both flop and turn against Yokosawa’s barrels with nine-eight suite. A rivered three did nothing to help the Japanese player’s hand, but his $20,000 bet with just nine-high was strong.

Sadly for him, it wasn’t strong enough to elicit a fold from the WSOP bracelet winner Tilly as she correctly called with top pair and raked in a big one.

Doctor In the House

The latter stages of the opening episode were dominated by another unknown player, however, as Dr. Sean Dempsey, an anaesthesiologist specializing in pain medication, was all too happy to hand out some excruciating beats to his fellow players. Elamawy was the player who largely lost his chips to Dempsey, starting with a six-figure pot where the good doctor prescribed a three-bet to $11,000 with pocket jacks pre-flop.

Justin Gavri called with pocket tens on the button and Elamawy did likewise with ace-king. A flop of J-9-4 was a crusher for both Elamawy and Gavri but they didn’t know it and Gavri’s bet of $16,000 on the flop got two callers. The turn of a king was a nightmare for Elamawy if he had have known it, but three check led to a bet of $71,000 on the innocuous looking eight river. Elamawy made the call and Dempsey swept in a massive pot worth $272,400.

If Elamawy thought the pain ended there, he was ‘sorely’ mistaken. This time, there was $222,000 in the middle, with Dempsey holding the ace-king and Elamawy having the pocket jacks. Sadly for the latter, there was no shot at revenge as the king on the river was (literally) what the doctor ordered and he scooped another huge six-figure pot.

What will happen next week? This season of High Stakes Poker already looks packed with heart-pounding poker in each hand!

If you’re a PokerGO subscriber, you can watch all the action in the season-opening return of High Stakes Poker right here.