In Spherical 4 of the Excessive Stakes Duel, Phil Hellmuth battled last-minute opponent Scott Seiver for a staggering $800,000. This poker hand highlights precisely why Hellmuth ought to nonetheless be thought-about one of many best poker gamers ever.
Time and time once more in these heads-up matches he has come from behind and defeated his opponents. Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan and Antonio Esfandiari have all felt the painful losses to the poker brat.
On this hand, Hellmuth goes into zoom-zoom mode on the river when he check-raise bluffs Seiver who has simply hit a pair.
Did he use his well-known white magic as soon as once more and make the proper learn? Or can Seiver work out this bizarre line and make the right name?
Examine Hellmuth’s Spherical 5 duel towards Jason Koon!
The hand kicked off with blinds of two,000/4,000 and Seiver finishing on the button with . Hellmuth within the huge blind then raised to 29,000 holding . Seiver known as.
Seiver’s limp is a high quality technique enjoying 29 huge blinds efficient, particularly if you happen to assume your opponent will transfer in on you generally while you increase. Since you actually do not need to increase after which should fold a hand like nine-eight suited. Hellmuth then makes a regular increase and Seiver makes a high quality name together with his suited connector.
The flop landed to overlook each gamers and Hellmuth checked. Seiver guess 18,000 and Hellmuth known as.
Jonathan Little examines a hand Phil Hellmuth performed on Excessive Stakes Duel
Whereas some gamers might imagine they need to continuation-bet each time they increase earlier than the flop, that’s not the case. Particularly from out of place, you want to combine in some palms as a verify. And a few of these palms embrace these that may confidently check-call, together with ace-high palms with a further overcard. So I like Hellmuth’s verify right here.
I like Seiver’s small guess together with his backdoor draw that has no showdown worth, as a result of if Hellmuth folds Seiver wins the pot and if Hellmuth raises Seiver can simply fold. And if Hellmuth does name, he can proceed bluffing if he turns a draw.
Hellmuth checked once more on flip and Seiver checked again, which I feel is the precise play as this card utterly misses him. He ought to verify with the intention of folding if Hellmuth bets the river or probably going for a river bluff if Hellmuth checks.
The landed on the river to present Seiver the perfect hand with a pair of eights and Hellmuth checked. Seiver guess a small 30,000 to place Hellmuth in a tough spot.
What would you do as Hellmuth on this spot with ?
If you happen to stated increase, that is precisely what Hellmuth did as he bumped it as much as 110,000. This places Seiver in a troublesome spot on the river as a result of gamers who check-raise listed below are normally going to have one thing like a straight. That stated, does Hellmuth’s vary actually embrace the random seven-six on the river after check-calling the flop?
On this state of affairs, I feel Seiver’s blockers to the straight do not really matter all that a lot. As an alternative, I feel Seiver desires to dam random two pairs at any time when he calls. However there aren’t a variety of two pairs that will make sense for Hellmuth on this board, so I feel the perfect palms Hellmuth would have listed below are aces, kings or ace-queen.
It is a bizarre spot the place Seiver has to determine if Hellmuth has it. And if you happen to’ve watched any of my movies or prepared my technique columns, you already know that opponents normally have the products once they check-raise the river.
Seiver ended up folding, which I don’t fault him for in any respect on this state of affairs. Hellmuth reveals us as soon as once more why he isn’t a traditional participant by discovering the river check-raise and getting a fold out of Seiver.
Scott Seiver
Hellmuth received the pot and continued working scorching to win the the heads-up match for $800,000 and to increase his Excessive Stakes Duel document to 9-1.
For extra on this hand take a look at my breakdown within the following video:
Jonathan Little is knowledgeable poker participant and creator with over $7,000,000 in stay event earnings. He writes a weekly instructional weblog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Signal as much as be taught poker from Jonathan at no cost at PokerCoaching.com. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
