Katie Cut From The Poker Star

It was week five of the Joe Hachem hosted poker reality TV show The Poker Star, as we were down to our final seven competitors all gunning to win the chance of a lifetime as a professional poker player and title of “The Poker Star”.

Each week Joe’s code teaches the players a valuable life lesson, and this week the theme was “Recall“ – the ability to pay attention to detail.

“Nothing is ever what it seems,” pondered Shane as the contestants exited their limo and awaited the arrival of Hachem and co-host Lee Nelson, for their next challenge. Shane’s words couldn’t have been more fitting as the producers threw a very nice little curve ball.

As the group waited on the street for some direction for their next challenges, they were witness to a series of events ranging from a courier van delivering packages, to pedestrians carrying balloons and finally to a hit and run car accident right in front of them.

Most players appeared to be wise enough to realize the incidents were something to do with their instructions to “pay attention”, so it was no surprise when Joe and Lee emerged and informed them they were about to be grilled about the series of events as part of their recall challenge.

Amanda struggled as Josh was declared the loser of the challenge as he failed to recall much of the details. Donna once again proved to be a strong competitor but in the end it was Katie who emerged victorious as she was judged to have recalled the most detail. Katie was rewarded with dinner with Joe, Lee and a group of family and friends were she enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Joe on a more personal level.

The players then went to their weekly poker tournament where $3,000 in cash was up for grabs. The start bank was increased to 60,000 to give the players a little more game time as they were reminded to play quickly – last week one hand of Josh’s took over eight minutes!

Chris was once again the first player eliminated in a typical blind-on-blind battle with Katie. Chris re-raised from the big blind with his {Ac}{Qh} and Katie shoved with {5h}{5c}. Chris made the call but fell behind on the {5s}{Ad}{8c}{2d}{2h} board.

Ben was next to go after he shoved {As}{4h} on the button but Donna woke up with {Qc}{Qs} in the blinds and made an easy call. The board was spread {9s}{Td}{Ks}{9d}{7h} and Donna’s queens held up to send Ben to a rare early elimination.

Soon after, a strange hand came up between Katie and Josh in a battle of the blinds. Katie looked down at {Qd}{2d} in the small blind as Hachem commentated, “She’s definitely got to raise or fold here”. Well, Katie decided to take the third of two options and flat-called. Josh moved all in from the big blind with {Ac}{6d} and bizarrely Katie instantly made the call. Josh cringed, as he feared another bad beat on its way but it wasn’t to be on the {Kc}{Ad}{Ts}{4c}{2c} board as Katie regretted her brain implosion.

Interestingly several weeks ago Ron was criticized when he called Donna’s all in with pocket threes. This time Donna was on the other side of the coin flip, when she called her last chips with {3c}{3h} to be racing against Josh’s {Ah}{Qs}. An ace from space landed on the river to eliminate Donna from the tournament.

With play three-handed, Josh looked down at {Ah}{4c} on the button and put in a small raise. Shane then squeezed {5d}{5h} and decided to make a conservative fold – one that he would be criticized for later on by Joe and Lee. Amanda was prepared to gamble with her {Kc}{td} and despite pairing up on the {5s}{Ts}{9s} flop, Josh once again found an ace on the {as} turn. The river was the {6d} and we were heads up!

Josh continued his good run when he pushed with {Qs}{3h} to find himself dominated as Shane made the call with {qh}{Jc}, but the poker Gods were on his side as the board fell {7h}{Ks}{6s}{3c}{6d} to hit his three-outer for the win!

Chris and Katie were sent to the elimination room, and despite winning the tournament Josh joined them after his very poor performance in the challenge. In the end, Katie poor results combined with her major error in this tournament ultimately led to her elimination from the show.

Katie was a spirited player but few moments of lost focus that resulted in overly-aggressive play were eventually her downfall. Katie will head back home to grind online, comforted in the knowledge that she is an improved player for the experience.