{"id":35414,"date":"2026-10-02T17:52:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T23:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/?p=35414"},"modified":"2026-10-02T19:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T01:51:59","slug":"the-greatest-bluff-in-poker-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/?p=35414","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Bluff in Poker History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poker is a game of incomplete information, and a bluff is the purest form of it: representing a hand you don&#8217;t have and getting a better one to fold. The place to study it is <em>High Stakes Poker<\/em>, the televised cash game where the pots are large and the decisions are shown to the audience.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"High Stakes Poker Best Bluffs of All Time\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r20XIqdBJs4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The stage<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>High Stakes Poker<\/em> is a long-running televised cash game, now streamed on PokerGO. The video above is PokerGO&#8217;s compilation of the show&#8217;s best bluffs, featuring players including Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Brad Booth, Bill Klein, Lex Veldhuis, Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The bluffs people argue about<\/h2><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Brad Booth against Phil Ivey.<\/strong> Ivey folded the best hand to Booth&#8217;s bluff, which many fans rank as the most memorable bluff in the show&#8217;s history.<\/li><li><strong>Tom Dwan, Season 5.<\/strong> Dwan&#8217;s pressure forced Barry Greenstein and Peter Eastgate off their hands, and some call it the greatest bluff ever televised.<\/li><li><strong>Phil Ivey against Lex Veldhuis, Season 6.<\/strong> Ivey&#8217;s bluff reportedly took down a $256,000 pot.<\/li><li><strong>Sameh Elamawy against Humboldt Mike, Season 13.<\/strong> An $800,000 bluff from a recent season, pulled off over multiple streets.<\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What makes a bluff great<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It isn&#8217;t the size of the pot. A great bluff tells a believable story from the first bet to the last, and it works on a player skilled enough to know better. The best ones make the audience realize, only at the reveal, what was really on the line.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which is the greatest?<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s no official answer, and the argument is half the fun. Watch the compilation and make your own call.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources<\/h2><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r20XIqdBJs4\" rel=\"noopener\">High Stakes Poker Best Bluffs of All Time, video (PokerGO)<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/High_Stakes_Poker\" rel=\"noopener\">High Stakes Poker, Wikipedia<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/high-stakes-poker-season-13-episode-9-47089.htm\" rel=\"noopener\">Season 13, Episode 9 coverage, PokerNews<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardplayer.com\/poker-news\/29419-watch-high-stakes-poker-triple-barrel-bluff-for-800-000\" rel=\"noopener\">Triple barrel bluff for $800,000, Card Player<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2026\/01\/biggest-bluffs-in-poker-history-50340.htm\" rel=\"noopener\">Five Biggest Bluffs That Changed Poker History, PokerNews<\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High Stakes Poker has produced some of the boldest bluffs ever filmed. Here is what makes a great one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sweat_hero_quote":"","sweat_youtube_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r20XIqdBJs4","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"post_template":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-35414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poker"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35465,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35414\/revisions\/35465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35414"},{"taxonomy":"post_template","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_template&post=35414"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesweat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftop_category&post=35414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}