Russ Said Later, 'Phil, What'd Ya Do to Me?'

You see, we came back from break to $1,000-$2,000 blinds, and right before the first hand started, Dewey Tomko (in the small blind) said to Russ (in the big blind), "What would you do with pocket jacks right now?" Russ laughed and answered, "I don't know." On the first hand dealt, I made it $7,000 to go (I started the hand with $17,000) with A-7 from three off the button. Then, R.A. Head moved all in from the button for about $18,000, and I thought I saw both blinds fold. So, I flipped up my ace to show that I had a legitimate raising hand, and was about to fold when, much to my horror, I noticed that Russ hadn't folded his hand yet! In my defense, I cannot remember doing that in many, many years, but I clearly acted prematurely and the damage was done.

Russ was just getting ready to fold, and set his hand near the muck so that he could show Dewey his pocket jacks and laugh. When I all of a sudden made it clear that I was folding (by showing my ace, which killed my hand), Russ looked at Dewey and said, "Darn it, I've got that hand (J-J) we were just talking about! Now what do I do?" You see, at first Russ was going to fold, but when he saw that I was folding, he reconsidered, and finally decided to call the $18,000 (he had started this hand with $28,000). It turned out that R.A. Head was bluffing with the Q 10, and Russ was in great shape, until the flop came down K 9 4. Now, Russ had to dodge not only a queen, but also a flush draw and a straight draw - and he didn't want to make trip jacks, which would give R.A. his straight. After a safe turn card, the river card was the 8, giving R.A. a flush, and now Russ had only $10,000 left.

Poor Russ went from folding his hand and keeping his $28,000 in chips to losing a $46,000 pot in which he was a 2.5-to-1 favorite and ending up with only $10,000 in chips - all because of my mistake. (To Russ' credit, he never mentioned the hand to me until I brought it up later.)

Although anyone could have won this tournament, Russ had just won two events the week before in Aruba, and Scotty had won one and split one. Also, they finished 1-2 in the championship event in Aruba. Therefore, I fancied their chances in Costa Rica, but it wasn't to be for them or me.

Three hands later, I moved in my last $10,000 from under the gun with A-10, and Jamie Ligator called me with A-9 and hit a 9; bye-bye, Phil, 14th place. Two hands later, Russ moved all in from under the gun for his last $16,000 with 4-4, and "Don" Luis Milanes called him with Q-J. It came all rags until the last card, a queen; bye-bye, Russ, 13th place. Within minutes, Scotty finished 12th. So, the three former world champions went out bang, bang, bang! All three of us were so close to the final table - and, more importantly, to the final six and the WPT TV coverage - yet so far.

"Red hot" Humberto Brenes also finished at the last two tables, as did his brother, Alex. I noticed this because Russ and I had a $1,000 charity "last-longer" side bet with Alex and Humberto (they gave $500 to the "Children's Fund of Costa Rica" and $500 to the "Jack Slatter Fund" - the poker floorman who is well-loved in the poker world, and needs a heart transplant and cannot work right now). It's worth mentioning that top-three finisher and club owner "Don" Luis and eventual winner Jose Rosenkrantz were playing tough poker that day as well (congratulations, Jose).

Although my mistake ended up costing Russ lots of chips, I had teamed up with him in a two-man golf scramble the week before in Aruba, and together we won more than $10,000. Russ and I decided to name our victims to needle them a bit: European poker star Ram Vaswani and "Tilt Boy" Phil Gordon! Russ and I won because of his fine putting stroke and my majestic drives - from the ladies tees! I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: Play $4-$8 limit hold'em with Phil Hellmuth at UltimateBet.com, table "philhellmuth." For more info about Phil or more Hand of the Week columns, go to PhilHellmuth.com.