The Mark Lawrensons Of Poker

I have been watching the WPT Series 2 DVDs, and over the course of a month have just about made it all the way through. Just one correction, having now seen the entire Reno tournament I retract previous statements about how well Michael Kinney played. 4 of the episodes have "pro commentary". Negreanu and Lindgren were excellent, and Esfandiari and Laak were quite entertaining if not quite as good technically.

Having reached the end though I am now confronted with a panel of faces dissecting the $25K Bellagio final. Surprisingly, this turns out to be Negreanu, Duke and Hellmuth acting all buddy-buddy. Surprising to me because I certainly thought that both pairs of Negreanu/Duke and Hellmuth/Duke loathed each other, but still. I'm not all the way through it yet and I might not even bother. There's something not right about professionals talking about "blunders" and "donkified" plays without ever acknowledging that they can see all the cards, which makes matters somewhat easier.

If I do stick with it I am promised expert revelations on the subject of tells. I can't wait. His eyebrows twitched there, that means he has KQs. See ? No doubt it won't be that extreme but the point remains. One final point, there's also a lot of talk about the pressure of playing for $2.5 million dollars, and how a lot of people can't deal with it. True enough, but one might consider the context of this question : what is the largest amount of money that Duke and Hellmuth have ever won in a single open tournament ? Have a guess, the answers might surprise you, in the first comment.