“Celebrities and Mentors” week brought together three well-known celebrity poker-playing amateurs in actors Jason Alexander and Don Cheadle along with MLB great Orel Hershiser, competing against three pros who have coached them at one time or another in Barry Greenstein, Phil Gordon, and Gavin Smith.  At stake: the $120,000 winner-take-all first prize and a Poker After Dark title.

It didn’t take long to lose one of the players.  Midway through Day 1 with the blinds at 100/200 Don Cheadle limped into a pot with 9h 8h and Gavin Smith raised to $1100 with Ad Kc.  Action folded to Jason Alexander, who called with As 10s while everyone else folded.  The flop was 5c Ah 2c, and Alexander lead out for 1200, which Smith called.  The Kc on the turn meant that Alexander was drawing dead, but again he lead out for 2000.  Smith raised to 6500, and Alexander called for most of his remaining chips.  The meaningless 2s on the river prompted Alexander to check, and when Smith announced he was all in a pot-committed Alexander called and became the match’s first casualty.

On Day 2 with the blinds at 300/600, Orel Hershiser limped in with Ah 9h and Don Cheadle called with Kc 10d.  On the button, Gavin Smith made it 3000 to go with Ac Qc.  Action folded to Hershiser who raised to 9000, prompting Cheadle to fold but Smith to push all in.  Hershiser made the call only to find himself in bad shape, especially after the flop of 4d Qs 6s, meaning he needed running 9s to stay alive.  But the turn was the 7d, and Smith extended his chip lead while eliminating Hershiser in 5th place.

With the blinds still at 300/600 on Day 3, a short-stacked Phil Gordon pushed his remaining 5800 chips in the middle with 5h 6h, but Smith called with pocket 7s, a hand he also had twice earlier in the day.  The flop came 5s Qd 10c, giving Phil some hope, but the turn and river blanked sending Gordon home in 4th.

Smith now had 81k of the 120k chips in play, having knocked out his first three opponents.  But a few hands later, Barry Greenstein doubled through Smith to put them in a virtual tie for the lead.  From that point on, however, Greenstein saw his stack go south while Smith consistently chipped up to open a decent-sized chip lead, and then took a huge pot off of Greenstein to push his chip total near the 100k mark.

Then with the blinds at 400/800 on Day 4, Greenstein found pocket 5s on the button and shipped in his remaining 9700 chips, only to be called by Smith holding Ah Js.  Smith outflopped Greenstein when the flop came Qc Ad Ks, and faded the two remaining 5s in the deck on the turn and river to send Barry to the rail in 3rd place.

Heads-up play between Cheadle and Smith began with Gavin enjoying a 5:1 chip lead, and it only took him a couple of hands for him to capture third Poker After Dark title.  On the final hand, Smith limped in with pocket 3s, and Cheadle checked with 10s 7s.  The flop was Js Qh 3s, giving Cheadle a flush draw but Smith bottom set.  Cheadle led out for 2000, and Smith raised to 5500, which Cheadle called.  The Ad on the turn also gave Cheadle a gutshot straight draw, and again he lead out, this time for 5000, and Smith immediately went all in.  With half of his stack already invested Cheadle made the call, but the 10d on the river wasn’t one of the outs Cheadle needed and Gavin Smith became only the second player in PAD history to knock out all five opponents en route to his victory.

Dennis Oehring serves as the Public Relations Coordinator for the firm POKER PROductions.