Amir's Big Call

I have a lot of respect for the way Amir Vahedi plays poker. In fact, for a while, I was taking a piece of his tournament play, and I ended up winning money while I backed him. Unfortunately for me, I stopped backing Amir immediately before he won a ton of money, including a World Series of Poker victory that paid $280,000, and a nice finish in the "Big One."

Also, although Amir occasionally gets a little testy while playing in tournaments (not nearly as testy as I do!), he showed a lot of grace and class in defeat on many occasions that I witnessed in 2003. For example, at Bellagio in July, when he was leading both tournaments he was playing in (which is really remarkable in itself), he busted out of both within minutes of each other and left with a very positive attitude and, believe it or not, a big smile on his face.

In Bellagio's Five-Diamond Poker Classic World Poker Tour (WPT) $10,000 buy-in championship event, the following amazing hand came up late during day No. 2. By the way, I have seldom seen a hand like this one in all of the years I've been playing poker.

The first raise was $3,500 to go by Player X, and Amir made it $10,000 to go with pocket tens. The man right behind Amir, Player Y, then moved all in, and then Juha Helppi (the WPT Ultimatebet.com champion) studied for three minutes before going all in from the big blind for $35,500 total. The first raiser, Player X, then moved all in, and the action was back to Amir. Three people had just moved all in, and now it would cost $25,500 more for him to call – and he had $30,000 left. Amir studied and studied, and finally pushed in the money to call!

What the heck was going on here? Juha flipped up A-A, Player X had Q-Q, and Player Y had A-K offsuit. The flop came down J-10-2, then a 9, followed by a 7, and Amir won the monstrous pot with three tens.

How did Amir play the hand? I like his reraise before the flop, making it $10,000 to go; that is pretty standard, although sometimes I just call here. I hate his call of $25,500 more, but he was getting laid 4-to-1 on the call. You're arguing with me; you're saying he was only a 4.5-to-1 underdog here and had "pot odds" for the call. Not exactly. Amir had to know that at least one person had an overpair in this spot, and it was more likely that two players had an overpair by the way the action came down. Did anyone doubt that Juha had A-A or K-K? Of course not; he slid in his last $35,500, with only a $1,000 big blind invested, after a raise, a reraise, and an all in. In my mind, it had to be A-A, although K-K would be believable. And how about the hands that players X and Y held? Player Y moved all in after a raise and a reraise, and Player X moved all in after a reraise, an all in, and another all in. Why should Amir cripple himself (he would have had only $5,000 left if he'd lost) with 10-10 in this spot? The way Amir plays poker, he had enough money to fold and still easily get to the $140,000 mark that he ended up with after this spectacular hand.

How about Player X's play with his Q-Q? With only $3,500 in the pot, it would seem like an easy fold for him after a reraise, an all in, and another all in from Juha (we have discussed why Juha is likely to have A-A or K-K). Unless Player X had only $10,000 or less left after his initial $3,500 raise, it was a bad call. Of course, if Player X is inexperienced, perhaps he should put the money in and try to get lucky for the "pot odds."

How about Player Y's play with his A-K? Because Amir reraises a fair number of pots, it would seem OK to move all in over the top of him with A-K here. Of course, I wouldn't want to make the same move against a tight player who reraised before the flop! I also will say that folding A-K in this spot against Amir would be OK, as well.

How about Juha's play with A-A? Of course, he had to move all in with A-A to protect his hand, as there was a lot of money in the pot already. However, I don't like the stall tactic that Juha employed here. It is one thing to try to stall with A-A against one opponent (although the top players will see right through it anyway), but as Juha would learn soon enough, aces don't always hold up. I would have moved all in instantly, thus sending a message to everyone that I had A-A. Why stall around trying to pick up extra money when the pot was already so big?

What a great hand, and what a great tournament that Jack McClelland, the WPT, and Bellagio put on. With 314 players and a first-place prize of $1.1 million, poker is on a roll! I hope you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.

Editor's note: Phil's book, Play Poker Like the Pros is available through Card Player. Read more of Phil's articles at www.philhellmuth.com, and play poker or chat with Phil at ultimatebet.com.