Antonius v. Tilly

Youtube poker clips are crack for poker fans. With knowledge of each player's hole cards, you get to see how the pros handle various situations. Sometimes though the actions surrounding the game are more interesting than the hand itself, as in this clip.

Jennifer Tilly is married to Phil Laak, a well-known poker pro, and has a fair amount of tournament experience herself. She raises from the button with pocket jacks and Patrick Antonius, an extremely formidable high stakes player, calls with 10-8 suited from the small blind. Jennifer Harman folds 2-4 in the big blind, joking with Antonius that he would have played the hand. "Button raises," responds Antonius, "never anything." This is his idea of a zany joke. His actually reasoning is that in order to get involved heads up with Tilly, by far the weakest player at the table, he needs only a remotely playable hand, and 10-8 suited fits the bill.

The flop comes J-10-7, giving Antonius a pair of tens and a gut shot straight draw (a 9 will give him a straight), and Tilly a set of jacks. Antonius checks, Tilly makes a pot-sized bet, and Antonius calls. The turn is a king, Antonius checks again, and now is where the hand starts to get weird. Tilly, her chest heaving visibly, checks back three jacks, an absolutely monstrous hand. The river comes another king and Antonius checks again. The second king gives Tilly a full house, which means she is now beating any straight that Antonius might have. She can only lose to a better full house. Antonius has now checked three streets in a row, giving no indication of strength whatsoever. Tilly's obvious play is to throw in a big bet and hope Antonius has something he can call with. But she just checks again and flips up her jacks.

"Full house?" blurts out Antonius. He hadn't failed to notice that Tilly appeared to be losing her shit, and may have thought he had the best hand. The first reaction of the table to seeing Tilly's hole cards is several seconds of stunned silence. Then, in a brilliantly edited sequence, the camera cuts to each player in turn and you get to see their reactions evolve.

Jennifer Harman, who despite her harmless appearance is one of the toughest and most seasoned live game players in the world, looks down at the table in what seems to be disappointment and embarrassment for the other woman in the game.

Erik Lindgren, who may be a bit of a smartass, turns and shares a smirk with Phil Ivey.

Ivey, who is notorious for being inscrutable at the table, has his chin resting on the felt. After a moment he regains his composure and you can actually see him rebuild his poker face from the bottom up.

The common thread between all three reactions - Harman's embarrassment, Lindgren's derision, Ivey's disbelief - is the care the pros take to hide them from Tilly, as soon as they recover themselves. Only a play as surreally bad as Tilly's could have induced them to break character at all.