Phil's Terrible Stud Play at Foxwoods

A quick sad note before I begin: I was saddened to hear of the death of European poker player Hemish Shah at the young age of 33. Hemish won several tournaments over the last year, including the $5,000 buy-in limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker, a Taj Mahal event (he also made the championship event final table), and a Late Night Poker tournament in London this year. As great a poker player as Hemish was (he may well have won 10 WSOP tourneys if he was around long enough), he was a greater person. More than 75 poker players attended his funeral in London last week, and everyone had great things to say about him. I extend my condolences to Hemish's friends and family; we all will miss him.

I love seven-card stud! It is a game of great skill and finesse. Knowing where you are in a hand and making the proper call, raise, or fold is very important when you play stud. It took me 12 years to learn how to play stud at the level that I do now (and many people think that level isn't very high!).

There are a few stud tournaments that I would love to win, including any stud tournament at the World Series of Poker, the big stud tournament at Foxwoods, the big stud event at the Taj Mahal, and, finally, the European Championship in Baden. Last year, I won the European Championship (I will be defending my title Oct. 4-7), so at least I have won one of these events.

Unfortunately, I have never won a stud tournament on U.S. soil, and finishing second to Daniel Negreanu in the Legends of Poker seven-card stud event in August really drove that point home to me. However, I have made the final table in stud at least once at the WSOP, once at the Taj Mahal big one (when John Bonetti won it two years ago), and twice at Foxwoods when it was Foxwoods' championship event. One time at Foxwoods, I finished fifth to Mike Sexton (fourth), John Bonetti (third), Mansour Matloubi (second) and Herb Bronstein (first). Two years later, when it was Foxwoods' championship event again, Sam Grizzle won it and I finished in fourth place.

During that event, I managed to play the following hand very badly: With four players left and the limits at $1,000-$2,000, I opened the pot for $1,000 with (A-J) J and Sam called me with his "low card" 6. I had $14,000 left and Sam had about $22,000. The next card brought an ace for me for (A-J) J-A, and Sam caught an 8 for 6-8. I now had aces and jacks in four, which is a very powerful hand in stud. I bet out $1,000 and Sam called me. On the next card, I caught a 3 for (A-J) J-A-3, and Sam caught a 9 for 6-8-9. For some reason that I'll never quite understand, but probably related to the fact that Ted Forrest had cracked my aces up about an hour earlier and Sam acted pretty interested in the 9, I checked my hand and then just called the $2,000 bet that Sam made. The next card, I caught a 5 for (A-J) J-A-3-5, and Sam caught a 4 for 6-8-9-4. Again, I checked and called Sam's $2,000 bet, even though I sensed that betting out or check-raising Sam was the better play. On the river, I decided to check in the dark, but then opened my big mouth before Sam had a chance to act and asked the tournament director if that check was binding. The tournament director said, "Yes, you already checked, and it is, of course, binding." Wow, what a donkey (Pug Pearson's word, as in, "Son, these donkeys keep carrying money on their backs to us poker players here in Vegas!") I was here! I checked and then showed strength! Sam then sensed my strength, or maybe he had only one pair, and checked behind me. When he checked, I knew that my aces up were good, but to add insult to injury, I caught an ace on the last card to make aces full of jacks. There I sat, knowing that I should have won at least another $2,000 on the hand, and maybe much more, since Sam claimed that he had two pair on fifth street. If Sam had two pair on fifth street, he would have raised me if I had bet out (as I was supposed to do), and then I could have reraised (putting $6,000 apiece into the pot on fifth street alone) and wound up winning $12,000 to $14,000 instead of the mere $6,000 that I won. Imagine the swing; if Sam did have two pair, I would have left him with a mere $8,000-$10,000 in his stack instead of the $16,000 he had after that hand. After that, I misplayed at least one more hand and wound up finishing in fourth place.

The great thing about all of the tournaments that I have blown in my life is that at least I learned the hard way how to improve my game. Unfortunately, I blew a lot more stud events than were necessary "the hard way" before I learned how to win one. I hope that you enjoyed this Hand of the Week.

Good luck playing your hands this week.Editor's note: You can often find Phil Hellmuth playing poker online at www.ultimatebet.com. To read more "Hand of the Week" columns, go to www.philhellmuth.com.