Kassem 'Freddy' Deeb's Laydown

by Phil Hellmuth | Published: Aug 16, 2002

The diversity of poker was evident in a big way at the final table of Bellagio's $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament at the end of May. In the spirit of soccer's World Cup, here's a quick summation of the action. First, Vietnam (Scotty Nguyen) was eliminated by Denmark (Gus Hansen). Then, Switzerland (Chris Bigler) was eliminated by Denmark. Then, the United States (John "World" Hennigan) was eliminated by Indonesia (John Juanda). Denmark then took out Lebanon (Freddy Deeb) with the "magic" Q-10 against Lebanon's A-K. Finally, Denmark won the tournament (and the $560,000 first prize) when his K-K held up against Indonesia's A-J. Congratulations to Gus Hansen (Denmark) for winning the first World Poker Tour event.

Somewhere along the way, with the blinds at $5,000-$10,000 and the antes at $2,000 a man, the following hand came up between "Freddy" Deeb and John "World" Hennigan. John had just raised or reraised eight out of 10 hands (and I had mentioned in my TV update that he was speeding down a highway going 90 miles an hour and would win the tournament if he didn't get a speeding ticket) when he opened for $35,000 under the gun. Freddy raised it $100,000 more with 10-10, and when the action got back to John, he immediately announced, "I'm all in." Freddy had only another $130,000 left at the time. So, he called the $130,000 raise getting 3.2-to-1 pot odds, right? No. Freddy "read" that John had an overpair, and that he was a 4.5-to-1 underdog, so he folded his hand.

What?! You don't like his fold here? Neither do I, unless John has an overpair to Freddy's 10-10. John may have A-K, A-Q, or A-J (unlikely), or 9-9, 8-8, or possibly another smaller pair. And the fact that John was playing so fast made it more likely that he would reraise Freddy with a hand that Freddy could beat, because John was expecting someone to reraise him with almost any hand, due to the fact that he was playing so fast. In other words, John had a loose and fast "table image," and was expecting someone to reraise him soon. When John later confirmed that he did indeed have an overpair to Freddy's 10-10, I was pretty impressed. It's not easy to fold 10-10 when half of your money is in the pot and the antes and blinds are so big. Freddy's great laydown allowed him to move up from fifth place to third place and pick up an additional $60,000. Also, it kept him in the game, and gave him a chance to win the tournament and the $560,000 first prize.

Well done, Freddy! I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: You can play $4-$8 or $5-$10 limit hold'em with Phil at UltimateBet.com, table "philhellmuth." For more information about Phil or to read more Hand of the Week columns, go to PhilHellmuth.com.