The Finals: Chris Ferguson Vs. Phil Hellmuth - Part III

In my last two columns, I discussed the finals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which pitted Chris Ferguson against me. In Part I, I related the beat that had me literally falling on the floor, Chris hitting a four-outer, and in Part II, the great bluff that Chris made with J-10 against my J-J. I also noted that we were playing a best two-out-of-three format in the finals, and were in the deciding match.



After Chris pulled off the aforementioned big bluff – which left him with a chip lead of roughly $900,000 to $400,000 – his next tactic was to raise lots of pots before the flop, and I responded by folding a lot. After a while, I made a stand when I reraised all in with A-3. Chris called me with K-Q. The first four boardcards were 9-3-2-5, and the last card was a jack, which got Chris to jump a bit, as he momentarily thought that this facecard was a king or queen. This marked the first time in the finals that I had been all in with a chance to lose the match.



Just five hands later, I raised before the flop with A-Q. I hadn't been raising too much preflop (maybe seven times in all three finals matches), but I thought this might be a good time. Boy, was I right, as Chris moved all in and I called him in an instant. Chris had A-J and I had that "dominated" (he was drawing to a jack). At this point, I was about a 2.5-1 favorite to win a $1,040,000 pot; there was $1.28 million in chips in play. The cards came out 10-2-2-9-7, my A-Q held up, and for the first time in the "rubber" match, I had the chip lead.



The very next hand, Chris moved all in with 2-2, and I called him with 6-5 because of the size of the antes and blinds.



The flop came down K-Q-6, and with an 8 on the turn, I was now a 20-1 favorite to win the match. It was going to be all over, finally! I was about to win the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC and $500,000. Then, the dealer did the unthinkable and turned up a deuce! Suddenly, the place erupted with screaming and cheering again – just as it had done when Chris hit the four-outer an hour before this. What the heck was going on here?!



This time I didn't fall over, or lose any focus at all. I told myself before the flop, "It is even money, so if he wins, do not panic, complain, or even move. If he wins, pay him $120,000 and remain focused on winning this thing." After the audience noise level died down a bit, I calmly said, "Nice hand." (This was quite a different reaction than when I fell out of my chair onto the floor and stormed out of the tournament area.) Now was not the time to lose my cool. After all, it was an even-money hand, I still had the chip lead, and I had some unfinished business to take care of.



I limped in three times in the next eight hands, and Chris moved all in on me twice. Finally, I picked up Q-Q and limped in again, hoping for Chris to move all in. When he reached back to push his chips all in, my heart leapt and I had to contain myself for a few seconds until his chips were in the pot before I reacted. When they were, I jumped up out of my seat and said, "I call," while flipping my hand faceup.



Chris turned up the K 6, and I was more than a 2-1 favorite to win the pot and the title. But I had been down this road before, and I honestly believe that almost everyone in that room thought that Chris would outdraw me again. I said to the dealer, "Please don't do it to me again." The flop came J-10-6, the turn was a 10, and now I had to dodge three kings and two sixes (39 winning cards for me and five for Chris) to claim the title.



I was nervous, but hoping for the best. Finally, the dealer turned up the last card; it was a 9, and the match was over. I had won the National Heads-Up Championship, and $500,000. The relief I felt from finally winning another poker tournament was awesome! It had been since the 2003 World Series of Poker – where I won two events and had the chip lead in the main event for much of the first three days – with many close calls along the way.



One reflection of the fact that I hadn't won for a while was this: I was about 20th on the odds sheet before this event began, out of 64 players. Being 20th, after winning nine WSOP titles (all in hold'em), rubbed me the wrong way (even if this was 64 of the best players in the world) and lit a fire under me to show the world what kind of poker player I really am. Did everyone forget who I am and disrespect me because I hadn't won in 18 months? Apparently, yes.



The rest of the story was that I bought the crowd 15 bottles of Dom Perignon. As Golden Nugget CEO Tim Poster, Chris Ferguson, and I imbibed, we simultaneously poured glasses for the crowd for 30 minutes until the DP was all gone. NBC filmed us doing this, and the whole thing turned out nicely. I even sent my manager to DP to see about sponsorship. Relief and redemption was pretty sweet – finally!