Poker on TV: Phil Hellmuth Defeats Online Wizards Polk and Jungleman

Poker Night in America showcases 4-way duel for $200,000

Poker Night in America brought more exciting televised poker to our screens this week, as Frank Kassela and Phil Hellmuth were joined by notorious online pros, Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk and Dan ‘jungleman12’ Cates. In the competition which was dubbed ‘King of the Hill’, each player put up $50,000 in a winner takes all format.

Phil Hellmuth vs Jungleman

With Phil Hellmuth drawn against Doug Polk in the first round, a slightly drunk looking Polk struggled against Hellmuth, who ran well and left Polk facing some difficult spots.

Junglemanmanaged to overcomeKasselawithout too much trouble, setting the stage for what was to be an electric finale.

Jungleman vs Hellmuth

Hellmuth managed to take the first in a best of three match against Jungleman, despite having a 3 to 1 deficit at one point. Jungleman then levelled things up by taking the second match, in which Hellmuth fired off plenty of failed bluffs, before the players faced off for one final match to decide the event.

The third match saw Hellmuth pick up where he had left off in the previous match, playing loose and aggro, bluffing off a big chunk of chips with the nut low. He seemed to be sliding inevitably towards defeat, as Jungleman hoovered up pot after pot. It all seemed to be over when Hellmuth slid to less than $6K chips to Jungleman’s $194K, but somehow, Hellmuth managed to fight back.

In what was probably one of the strangest hands ever seen on television, Hellmuth then made a big bluff on the turn, before putting his last $9.9K in on the river, giving Jungleman 6 to 1 pot odds on a call. To the shock of the commentary team, Jungleman quickly, and angrily folded trip 10’s on a 10,2,3,10,9 board with three diamonds on it, allowing Hellmuth back into the match.

With momentum on his side, Hellmuth’s chipstack only moved in one direction from there, and he eventually closed the match out, winning the $200,000 and championship belt.