#525 – London 2008 #32 – Million Dollar Cash Game – Phil v. Phil

OK, here’s a hand you will (or would) love seeing on TV. If you use just a tiny bit of imagination, you’ll be able to visualize it as I saw it.

Phil Ivey live-straddled. Everyone folded around to Phil Hellmuth, in the big blind. Hellmuth had 2-2, so he raised. Ivey found out he had Ad-Jh and called.

The flop was Q-Q-J. Hellmuth checked, Ivey checked.

The turn was a seven. Ivey bet $12,000 and Hellmuth, thinking it over for awhile, reluctantly called. (By the way, for you folks who like analysis and strategy, this is just like the situation Chris Ferguson found himself in with Patrik Antonius. Raise, call behind. Pair on the flop but better hands out there. Check, check. The player in position bets second pair on the turn. Very reluctant call. See a pattern?) [Thanks to the reader whose comment appears at the bottom. I had mistakenly, in the original version of this post, described the board as Q-Q-J-5-5. It was Q-Q-J-7-5.]

The river was the five of spades. Hellmuth checked. Ivey bet $32,000. Hellmuth thought it over for a long time, very, very, very reluctant. And then he called with his deuces.

Ivey shows his A-J and Hellmuth mutters, “Great bet on the river.”

Then the Phil Hellmuth Show starts. “Beats me and beats me and beats me. Sucks out and sucks out and sucks out.” This stuck Phil H. about $50k for the day and got Mike Matusow into the act. While Hellmuth comtinued mumbling, Mike bellowed, “You just trapped the great Phil Ivey!”

Lost in all this was the most remarkable thing of all: on the next hand, Chris Ferguson put in a live straddle. But that hand got even better after that ….

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