Two Black Nines - Layne's Style!
By Layne Flack

This is the first Hand of the Week that Mr. Hellmuth has allowed me to write 100 percent on my own. How fitting it is that it involves pocket nines, because we all know to whom this hand really belongs – right, Phil? (The Black Nines Room is the official name of Phil's website: philhellmuth.com.)

It was the 2002 World Series of Poker (WSOP). I had won the first no-limit hold'em tournament, which had 449 players in it. Now, the second no-limit hold'em tournament had 528 players in it, and I found myself in contention to win another bracelet.

We came to a close on the first day, and after a hard day of playing and drinking – these tournaments require solid focus; hence, the drinking – I looked up after paying little attention to the other tables to see how tough the road to victory was going to be. I mean, how much worse could it be? I already had Johnny Chan to my right and Erik Seidel to my left! (This tournament really showed me again that no-limit hold'em brings out the best players at the WSOP, and they do rise to the occasion.)

On the second day, I was one of the chip leaders, picked up two red nines, and lost a coin flip and half of my stack. A while later, I picked up black nines and won all of my chips back, plus some. This set the tone for the hand I will soon tell you about, so hold on.

As we reached the final table, I noticed there were many great, and I do mean great, players there: Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Carlos Mortensen, and Chris Bjorin, to name a few.

By the way, this Hand of the Week could have been about another hand that came up at the final table that day. It was an unbelievable hand that featured my quad tens over Phil Marmorstein's quad fours!

Anyway, it was now down to Chan, T.J., and me. The chip counts were about $320,000 for T.J., $280,000 for me, and $170,000 for Johnny. I picked up two black nines again, with which I had already won one big pot that day.

With $2,000-$4,000 blinds and a $500 ante, I raised it to $12,000 to go, and T.J. moved in for more than $300,000. What do you do here? Without hesitation, I called all of my money. Was I silly or wrong? Did I have correct odds? For the record, I do think it was probably a close call.

So, why did I make the call? History, of course; after all, they were the "black nines." Remember that I won with black nines earlier and lost with the red ones. I'm just kidding; that wasn't even close to the reason why I called!

The real reason that I made the call was simple. T.J. had moved in over the top of many of my raises all day long. Then, he would show the table an ace – not A-K or not A-Q, but one ace only. This led me to believe he had a rag card with it. Once in a while he would flash the A-K, so, granted, this was a risk for me.

The biggest factor of all, really, was this: I made a raise earlier in the day and T.J. reraised – but before he did, he stopped, thought, counted his chips, and finally put in a teasing or thoughtful raise. There were no callers, and he showed Q-Q; on another similar occasion, he showed A-A. But where was that pause and teasing raise this time? Ah, thank you for the read, T.J. I picked up on it very quickly and was waiting for my opportunity to take advantage of it.

Also, it flashed through my mind as T.J. moved all in quickly that he may have one of three hands. First, he may have ace-rag, and I'm a big favorite over that hand. Second, he may have an ace with a 10 through a king for a kicker, and then it would be a coin flip. Third, he may have an overpair, and then I'd be a 4-1 underdog. With the read I just mentioned, I felt he didn't have an overpair, so it was a simple decision: call.

One other thing was this: I was playing against T.J and Johnny Chan, and no one said it was going to be easy! No one said that it wasn't going to take a big risk for something to happen against two of the world's greatest no-limit hold'em players.

By the way, he had A-K, and I flopped a 9 and filled up. I went on to capture my second no-limit hold'em victory at the 2002 WSOP. This was my favorite, because I gained a lot more respect for my no-limit game because of the field and the players I had to beat. Afterward, I felt great, and I do mean great. My hat's off to T.J. and Johnny; they are truly two of the all-time great champions, and it is an honor and privilege to play with them.

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