NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship — Round Four

The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship concluded not long ago on NBC, and you can catch all of the matches that you may have missed at NBC.com. In the last few issues, I have written a series of columns about my matches. In the first round, I got lucky and beat Mike Sexton (my A-J vs. his Q-Q), and in the second round, I beat qualifier Jeffrey Ishbia. In the “Sweet Sixteen,” I beat Internet sensation Tom “Durrrr” Dwan to advance to the “Elite Eight,” where I faced off against poker star Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier for the right to play in the “Final Four.” Recently, ElkY was on the cover of Card Player, and he made the final table of the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship. He has performed impressively in both online and live tournaments. He is just 25 years old, and figures to be a threat for years to come.

Before the match began, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow called me to tell me how much ElkY liked to bluff. I do not like scouting reports on my opponents, as I would rather sit down, carefully observe my opponent, trust my instincts, and then develop a strategy to counter whatever my opponent is trying to do. On the very first hand, with 160,000 in chips apiece, and blinds of 1,000-2,000, I limped in from the button with 8-5. The flop was Q-8-7; ElkY checked, and I checked. The turn card was a king, and ElkY bet out 3,700. There were two spades on the board, as well as some straight draws. My pair of eights figured to be the best hand, so I raised, making it 10,000 to go. He reraised to 24,000 to go, and I called. The last card was a 7, and now I couldn’t beat anything except a busted draw. If he had a king, a queen, or a 7 in his hand, he had my pair of eights beat. He bet 33,300, and I began to wonder why he bet so much. I mean, I didn’t think he had three sevens, or just a queen, so he had to have something really strong or a busted draw. I kept thinking about my scouting report that he would bluff, so I called. But ElkY was far from bluffing! He had K-Q, and I felt like I had made a mistake. I lost too much — in the very first hand of the match.

Still, I am a pro, and I know that an early lead doesn’t mean that much. The next hand, ElkY raised, and I reraised with nothing (5-2 offsuit) and won the pot. Now I was down only 50,000, and I felt a little better. On the eighth hand of the match, I raised it to 6,000 to go with Q-Q, ElkY made it 17,000 to go, and I moved all in for 110,000 or so. ElkY called instantly and turned over A-A; it was a cooler! The board came down 10-3-2-10-8, and I was sent to the rail. Even if I hadn’t moved all in before the flop, I would have lost a lot of chips on that flop.

I take great pride in the fact that I make the toughest folds in the poker world, and one of my most famous lines is, “I can dodge bullets, baby!” This was a great opportunity to fold Q-Q before the flop (or on the flop if I had just called his reraise preflop) and show the world my mettle — and I blew it! If I want to stay at the top of the poker world, I need to continue to make great folds that others cannot make, simply to give myself one or two extra “lives” in each tournament that I play. But let’s get real; wasn’t it nearly impossible to fold those queens? Yes, but I should have folded them, because I can dodge bullets, baby!

Learn more about Phil by going to his website, www.PhilHellmuth.com, and visit his webstore at www.PokerBrat.com.