Duel With T.J. Cloutier at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

So far, everything was going pretty smoothly, as I was able to get past both Evelyn Ng and Greg Raymer on my way to my third-round matchup with T.J. Cloutier. My confidence was at an all-time high, and I felt great about my chances going toe-to-toe with T.J.

This wasn't our first meeting by a long stretch. Back in 1997, I was heads up with T.J. in a limit hold'em tournament at Foxwoods, where I went on to win the Best All-Around Player award, winning back-to-back limit hold'em tournaments.

The match against T.J. came immediately after I'd won a large-field $100 buy-in tournament that gave me enough of a bankroll to justify playing in the $1,500 limit hold'em event the next day. With three players remaining, it was me, John Hennigan, and, of course, T.J. Cloutier. I went on to win that tournament, too.

Several years later, T.J. and I found ourselves at another limit hold'em final table together. This time, it was at the Hall of Fame tournament. With 10 players left, I was the short stack, but managed to battle my way back to yet another heads-up duel with T.J. I won that one, too.

Let's fast-forward a few years, and wouldn't you know, T.J. and I found ourselves heads up at the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, this time playing pot-limit Omaha. I won that one, too, which gave me a nice boost of confidence going into this match on NBC.

Things started smoothly for me, as I was able to chop out to a healthy lead of about $120,000 to $40,000. T.J. finally picked up aces, though, and doubled through me, so the match was dead even with the blinds at $3,000-$6,000.

Now, I've read some of T.J.'s books and also have a ton of table experience with him, so over the years I've picked up on a few of his tricks. In the following hand, I suspected that T.J. was trying to pull one of those tricks:

I limped in from the button for $6,000 with J-9, T.J.'s favorite hand, ironically. T.J. announced a raise and threw in $15,000 more. I felt like he was just looking to pick up the pot here with a trash hand, so I called in position, hoping to flop a pair or possibly take the hand away from him. The flop came 10-7-3, giving me a gutshot-straight draw.

T.J. checked, but there was something eerily suspicious about his check. I couldn't pinpoint what I saw, but my subconscious was on guard; I checked.

The turn card was my "gin" card, the 8. This gave me the absolute nuts, and if T.J. was slow-playing his hand on the flop, I knew that this could be it. T.J. took the lead, betting $20,000. We had started the hand dead even, so my dilemma was whether to raise it now or wait until the river.

If I raised now, I felt there was a chance that T.J. might fold. However, if I just called his bet, he might choose to bluff on the river. I hemmed and hawed for a little while, feigning weakness to entice T.J. to follow through on the river if a blank came. I'd seen T.J. bluff the turn and river before, so I wanted to give him every indication that I had a very difficult, marginal decision on the turn.

The river wasn't exactly a blank, but it appeared to be a safe card - a 3. T.J. didn't hesitate, and fired in his last $39,000. I virtually beat him into the pot, calling instantly. "Oh, no; did you hit the 3 on me?" T.J. asked.

I told him that I had his favorite hand, and instantly he knew. Even more ironic was that T.J. flipped up my favorite hand, 10-7 offsuit! He was planning on letting me bluff at the flop and then pounce with a check-raise.

Had I gone ahead and bet the flop, I would have lost the pot and been behind in the match for the first time.

Obviously, I was very lucky in this hand, and T.J. was cold-decked when that flop came. Having said that, there was a little more to the hand than that.

First of all, there was my preflop read. I had T.J. on a rubbish hand, and was right. The other key element of this hand was the flop. It was literally a make-or-break decision to either play aggressively and pick up what was in the middle or take the free card and avoid the trap.

Finally, the last decision I faced was yet another genuine dilemma. As it turned out, there really was no dilemma, since T.J. was committed to the hand anyway. But, of course, I couldn't have known that at the time. When deciding what to do, it's extremely important to factor in your opponent's tendencies. In this case, I knew that T.J. was capable of getting away from monster hands, but also had the guts to fire it all on the river with nothing.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan in the tournament. I can honestly say that I was totally in the zone and felt unstoppable. My mind was as clear as it's ever been, and that didn't bode well for my next opponent, Sean "Sheiky" Sheikhan.

Read about that quarterfinal match in the next issue.

You can read Daniel's blog or play poker with him at www.fullcontactpoker.com.