Tournament Poker

I had entered the $2000 NHL Tourney at WSOP in 2007. With about 90 players remaining, Phil Hellmuth was moved to my table and as usual, like a top shot he shook hands with everybody before sitting at the table. I was a huge chip leader at my table and as I looked down at my hole cards to see AJ, and made a standard size raise. Everyone folded, and it came down to Phil in the big blind who after a little bit of thought re raised me and said “This is not a trick, I have a strong hand". I figured for a while and thought that why would he say something like that if he really had a very strong hand like aces or the kings? So I decided just to call at take a look at the flop. The flop came 432 and Hellmuth fired at the pot with a decent size bet, and I sensed some weakness and thought an ultra aggressive play might make Phil fold his hand as I easily had him covered, so I went all in on top of him.

Phil got into a think tank and started contemplating and trying to get a read on me and I was just my normal and relaxed style. He got into an argument with another player at the table when he called clock on Phil. Anyways, he kept thinking and thinking and I just got a little bit concerned. The trick is the more time you take in making a decision on your hand, the more tells you can get out of an opponent. He kept looking at me and just when I was about to ask " What do you have that its taking you so long?", he might have picked up on an expression on me and he said " I call". I knew I was in big trouble and I had just given out a tell. I said "nice call" as he bragged and boasted about his reading abilities. He turned over his had to show 99, I still had a lot of outs as I had two over cards and a straight draw based on which I had made my aggressive play. And yes, the turn brought me a dream 5 and now Phil was drawing dead. He fell down on the floor and his tall body was rolling on the carpet and he was like crying....oh no! oh no! ( This is not an exaggeration, but he was laying flat on the ground and crying.... I could not believe that). He started cussing me out and started calling me an idiot and making a whole big scene. I told him, hey....... "I was the one who went all in and made a move.....you are the one who called!"

I called the floor and complained how can they just allow him calling me names and create a scene like that. Ok, now everyone must be thinking that he made a correct call.....that is true, but the thing was if he had just gone all in after the flop, he would not have initiated a move like that from me and put his tournament life at risk. Tournament is just not about taking the right decision, you also have to calculate the luck factor as it is very easy to get drawn out, so a world class player knows how to avoid confrontations and keep the luck factor at its minimum. He decided to put all his money without knowing me with two 9s and he was easily drawn out.

Anyways, he came back later and apologized to me for his misconduct and I did accept his apology. I finished the tournament in 10th place and my natural aggression was the culprit as I had lead the entire tournament for the most of the time. With 10 players remaining, I had AQ suited in my big blind and the button, who was raising almost every other hand raised. I gave him no credit for a big hand because of his raising trend and decided to go all in with my AQ. He called and showed pocket queens and I got no help from the board and I was crippled. A few hands later I decided to go all in with my A2 on the button when everyone folded to me and got called by 22 in the small blind which held up and suddenly I was out of the tournament. I later found out that I was also the TV bubble. I always face criticism for my AQ play saying that I was playing for big money first place and I should have been more prudent with my approach. I had outlasted over 2000 players and it was due to my aggressive style of play and it did not work out for me at the very end.

I hope you have enjoyed the sharing of my thought process during the hands and get an insight of my point of view. Good luck with your poker adventures! below is the press version of the incident