My Clash With Dutch Boyd at the World Series of Poker

I came into the 2006 World Series of Poker with high hopes of winning a bracelet, and things looked good early on, as I found myself deep into the $2,500 buy-in shorthanded no-limit hold'em event. Down to the final eight players, I was sitting on close to $400,000 in chips, with only one player in the tournament having more - Dutch Boyd.

Since it was the shorthanded event, that meant that we'd be playing at two fourhanded tables. Dutch was on my immediate left, which isn't the spot you want to be in when you are near the end of a tournament. Nonetheless, I was doing very well in my altercations with Dutch. In fact, I think I beat him in almost every single pot we played. That's basically how I amassed so many chips. Dutch would bust somebody, and then I'd beat him out of a pot.

I didn't have to show Dutch the majority of those hands. Aside from the first double-up - in which I raised with 6-6, he moved all in with 9-5, and I called - I was able to keep him guessing. We routinely got involved in pot after pot.

The key hand came when I had right around $390,000 in chips to Dutch's $400,000, with the blinds at $4,000-$8,000 and a $1,000 ante. I looked down at a pair of aces and came in for my standard-sized raise of two and a half times the big blind - $20,000.

Dutch called from the button and we took the flop heads up. It came 7-3-2 rainbow. I decided to bet out, hoping that Dutch might raise me with a hand like 8-8 or 9-9. I bet $28,000 and Dutch called. Now I was hoping that Dutch would make a play at me on a later street out of frustration.

The turn card was a 6, and I decided to get tricky. I'd been checking top pair or better to him a lot, hoping that he'd bluff, and he had been betting out pretty consistently, so I decided to check once again. Dutch "bit" again, this time betting $60,000.

Now, in past hands, I had been check-calling him to death with the best hand, but one thing I hadn't been doing was check-raising. I thought to myself that if I check-raised here, he might see it as an out-of-character bet and deem it a bluff, so I called the $60,000 and raised it $100,000 more.

Dutch called, which worried me - but frankly, only slightly. The river was a jack and it was up to me. I had about $200,000 left, and at that point I felt pretty committed to the pot, so I announced, "All in." Dutch quickly called, which was a bad sign. He turned over pocket sevens, and I was a little shocked to be out after playing so well and amassing a good stack of chips.

As I went to collect my eighth-place money, I couldn't help but go over the hand again and again in my head, wondering if there was something I could have done to avoid going broke in that situation. The only way I could have avoided going totally broke, I think, would have been to just check-call the turn and check-call the river. Dutch probably would have bet anywhere from $100,000 to $120,000 on the river, which would have left me with close to an average amount in chips with eight players remaining.

The problem is, that thought never genuinely crossed my mind. I wanted to get all of my chips in, because I thought it was more likely that I could get Dutch to call with the worst hand than him having a hand that beat mine. The thing is, Dutch could have been "trapping" me with K-K or Q-Q, and it would have been very difficult for him to get away from it.

The real reason I don't think I could have gotten away from this hand, though, had nothing to do with the hand at all. I was "trapped" into this hand because of the recent history between us. I was just killing him, literally winning about 10 consecutive altercations. That is enough to frustrate any player, and I know that Dutch isn't immune to a little tilting, either. Getting away from my hand against the other chip leader in a situation in which I believed he was is in a relaxed mental state would have been easier. I'm not necessarily saying that I would have folded the hand, but there was an opportunity to save some chips. Yet, since Dutch was visibly frustrated by the previous 90 minutes or so, it actually convinced me to make a riskier play than I might normally make.

After winning that pot, he cruised to his first bracelet win. The pot we played gave him about half of the chips in play.

Normally, if I make a big mistake in a tournament, I can be very hard on myself, but I didn't lose any sleep over this hand. It was a tough hand to get away from under any circumstances, but especially considering the history, I stuck with my game plan and it just didn't work out.

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