PreviewTo set the scene, one of the world's best poker player's, Phil Hellmuth, faced off against a young poker star named Tom "Durrrr" Dwan. Phil is ranked in the top 10 in net worth among poker players. He has 15 World Series of Poker championship bracelets. He is also known as pokers biggest brats. His nickname is actually "The Poker Brat". He has gained this reputation through years of big blow-ups at the poker table. He has cursed many poker players out after losing hands. He has a massive arsenal when it comes to insults to players who he feels don't deserve to be at the table with him. He felt no different going up against Tom. Pre-FlopIt is the third hand of the first round of the National Heads-up tournament and Phil looks down at pocket aces. Aces in a regular game is a very strong hand. However, in a heads up game the strength only increases. He sets a trap an only calls the big blind to induce a raise from Tom. Tom looks down and see's pocket ten's. Phil has successfully trapped Tom. He did exactly what Phil wanted. So Phil re-raises Tom, to try to get more value out of his aces. Tom does not necessarily believe that Phil has him beat. He could just be trying to say that he can not be pushed around early in the game. Now with this in mind, Tom shoves all in just three hands into the match. Phil snap calls and shoves his chips in the middle. Before the flop, Phil is an 80% favorite to win the hand and the match. Tom needs a lot of help from the poker gods to pull this one out. The FlopThe flop comes deuce, king, seven. This flop would be good for pocket tens, if they were not against aces of course. This drastically increases Phil's chances of winning the pot. It went to 80% to 92% chance of winning the pot. Tom did not even gain any draws from this flop so his only saviors are the two remaining tens in the deck. The TurnAs he will tell you himself, Phil Hellmuth can not lose to anyone because of skill, the only way he can lose is just pure bad luck. The dealer puts down the turn and it is of course a ten. This gives Tom a set of tens and the new best hand. You can almost see the exact moment Phil's heart split in half. However there is a glimpse of hope for Phil. He has the ace of spades in his hand. There are now three spades on the board giving him the nut flush draw. If another spade hit, he would take down the pot and move on to the next round. Phil has roughly a 20% chance of this happening. The RiverThere is a glimmer of hop for the great poker brat. He calls out to the dealer to put down a three of spades to give him the flush. However the three of spades never came. Instead the dealer puts out the nine of diamonds. This card is no help to Phil and he loses on a hand that everyone would agree he should have won convincingly. Tom asks for a chip count to finalize the hand and move on to the next round. Phil being the fantastic sport that he is had to let Tom know how poorly he played the hand. Tom was being incredibly professional while Phil barraged him with insults. One of my favorite quotes from Phil came from the result of this hand. He tells Tom he does not think that he will even be around in 5 years. However Phil would be wrong about that as Tom is now known as one of the best poker players in the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2019
Categories |