World Series of Poker, and WPT Championship Flashback

Bling-Bling

By the time you read this, I hope to have added some much needed "bling-bling" to my WSOP-naked wrists.
Although I have no clear-cut objectives for this year's WSOP, my intention is to perform even better in the main event than last year's 61st-place finish, and to score at least a final-table finish in one of the 10 other tournaments I am playing.

Everybody is in town, and there is a good chance that I will work out a couple of "last-longer, must-make-final-table" bets with a few of the other "egos."

The Final Hand of the WPT Championship

I promised in my last column that I would take you back to the final table of the World Poker Tour Championship to discuss yet another of the crucial hands leading to my second-place finish. Here, I am going to focus on the very last hand of the tournament.

At the start of the hand, I had 11,550,000 in chips, and David Chiu had about 4 million more than that. I opened from the button for 750,000 with the 10 8, and David elected to call with the A 9.

The flop came A 10 8.

David checked, and I decided to bet 900,000 with my bottom two pair. Again, David just called. At this point, there was 3.35 million in the pot.

The turn card was the 5, and now, suddenly, David led out with 1.2 million, a rather small bet. I moved all in for 8,675,000 more, and after some consideration, David decided that this was it, and called.

The river card was the A, and it was all over.



Post-Hand Analysis

So, what really happened?

Preflop: My opening raise was very optional, but David had been playing pretty tight preflop throughout the heads-up session. I don't mind my raise one bit. As for David's call, I personally prefer a reraise, but I guess calling fits his style very well.

Flop: It was basically a monster flop for both of us. David had to think that his pair of aces, medium kicker had a good chance of being the best hand, and I was convinced that he was down to very few outs. He checked, and I was testing whether he hit the flop or not. I didn't know if he was setting me up here, but his call out of position very much seemed like a trap play.

Turn: I like his lead-out bet, but not the bet size, unless he was leaving himself room to get away from the pot (which eventually he didn't). The thing is, if he believed he was too strong to fold to an all-in move, why not make a substantial bet to be sure that all the money went into the middle regardless of what happened? Or, if he was unsure, afraid of being up against a better ace, 1.2 million was the right bet, but the following correct action would be to fold. Against a better ace with no spade, he would have a 27 percent winning chance -- which is never enough to call 8.675 million more to win 14.425 million, or 5-3 pot odds. Obviously, it should be factored in that his call could end the tournament, winning him twice as much as second place. All in all, it was probably close. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that I would fold in this spot. On the other hand, if he folded, he still would be in contention with slightly less in chips than me. But he decided to gamble and found himself up against his dream scenario -- a 36.4 percent winning chance. The rest is history.

My all-in move is pretty standard. I was very confident that I had the best hand, and I wanted to make it very pricey for David to call. I put him on a good ace -- that is, A-J -- giving me a 4.5-1 advantage. I frequently use the overbet in spots in which I don't want my opponent to call, and that was the impression I wanted to give him. Needless to say, the only thing I was unhappy about was the brutal A showing up on the river.

Lessons Learned

Besides the lesson of always taking the bad beats with the good (I had come from behind a few times at the final table), my final move in the tournament was really all about mixing up my play. If people think you are always overbetting with draws or inferior hands, you have to remember to stick all of your money in when you have the goods to back them up!

Gus plays online exclusively at FullTiltPoker.com. Be a part of Gus Hansen's poker community at www.theplayr.com, where, among other cool things, you can check out Gus' blogs, analysis, poker articles, Gus TV, Tips 'n' Tricks, "Ask Gus," and even play against Gus in exclusive online and live tournaments.