My $220,000 Pot at the World Series of Poker

After remaining positive throughout a pretty dismal World Series of Poker (WSOP) – the one big highlight being my second-place finish to Johnny Chan in the gold bracelet match-play event – I was ready to win the championship event and the accompanying $2 million first prize. The first two days of the event, I played as well as I could, and caught lots of big hands, as well. I smoothly (Cadillac smooth) went from $10,000 right up to $127,000 without ever being low on chips or even close to going all in. I really thought moving from 130 players down to 45 players on day No. 3 would be a walk in the park for me.

Hello, Meng La! Wow, I had never met Meng "Over the Top" La before, and he was seated to my immediate left on the third day. Believe me, this guy makes Stu Ungar look like a slow player! On the first hand, I opened for $4,000 with the A Q, and Meng raised $10,000 more. Had I known how wild and crazy he plays, I would have stuffed his remaining $25,000 into the pot, pronto! Instead, I made a very easy fold, and the game was on. Meng proceeded to raise or reraise me 12 times throughout the rest of the day, and he raised, reraised, or moved all in almost 20 times in the first two hours. He never folded a hand once he put in a chip! How he survived those first two hours playing that fast is a mystery to me. Usually when someone plays that fast against me, I bust him by about the fifth move-in. Be that as it may, I was pretty certain that I would eventually bust Meng; all I needed was time. He was a thorn in my side, but eventually his chips would look pretty rosy in my stack.

Despite Meng's onslaught, I still had $117,000 with 60 players left when the following hand came up: A player I had never seen before, Robert Varkonyi, came to our table. Immediately, I had a good read on him, and I knew whether he was weak or strong (reading people is my biggest strength in poker). With the blinds at $1,200-$2,400 and the ante at $400 a player, Robert raised the pot to $8,000 to go, and I looked down at A K. I thought Robert was weak, so I raised it $17,000 more. Then, Robert immediately announced, "I'm all in." I asked for a count, and it turned out that he had $81,400 more ($106,400 total). So, I had a decision to make, but my mind kept screaming, "He has nothing; you have to call because you know you have the best hand." It was almost as if I really did know that he had nothing, and one part of my mind said, "Now is the time, when you're a 2.5-to-1 favorite (I thought he had A-something)." After less than a minute, I called, and he flipped up the Q 10 like he was proud of his hand! For the $220,000 pot, I was only a 2-to-1 favorite; what had I done? I had avoided all big pots for three days, and now I was only a 2-to-1 favorite for the money. If I had kept that $81,400 (plus the $11,000 I had left after the hand), I believe I would have easily made the final 45 players, and probably without playing a big pot. In fact, I may have flopped a set against someone with top pair and been a huge favorite in a big pot, or perhaps I would have made a flush and had my opponent drawing dead.

So, here's the final analysis: I made a bad call, even though I was sure he was bluffing. But where do you draw the line? Do you fold when you're a 2-to-1 favorite and the pot's laying you 7-to-4? My call was bad because I still could have won the tourney very easily without making it (because I had about $93,000), and losing the pot to Robert would make it very hard to come back from $11,000. On the other hand, my call wasn't that bad, because I was getting 7-to-4 when I was a 2-to-1 favorite.

As for Robert's play with Q 10, my wife tells me that whatever I have to say about his move will only sound like sour grapes, so … I just deleted the next paragraph.

I love the fact that anyone can play in the WSOP each year. I love the fact that it is an open field, but with open fields come more obstacles to winning. For the third year in a row, I was the last former world champion remaining in the WSOP, but that doesn't pay anything. I do see a nice pattern here, though: In 2000 I finished 65th; in 2001 I finished fifth; in 2002 I finished 61st; and in 2003 I'll finish …! I only wish that I had waited until I had someone drawing almost dead before I committed most of my stack to a pot. I only wish that the flop hadn't come down A-Q-10 for Robert to beat my A K with his Q 10. I only wish that the WSOP wasn't so hard to win!

Editor's note: Phil Hellmuth often can be found playing $4-$8 limit hold'em at ultimatebet.com at table "Hellmuth." Log on and play with him in a low-limit game. For more information about Phil, go to philhellmuth.com.