Tournament Poker Edge Analyzes Three Flush Draws Played By Phil Hellmuth In Player's Championship

Card Player has teamed up with the great minds from Tournament Poker Edge to bring you top-notch hand analysis from key hands during the World Series of Poker.

At one point in the 2011 WSOP Player’s Championship, Phil Hellmuth was enjoying a nearly 6-1 chip lead over his heads-up opponent Brian Rast. Hellmuth was applying pressure and Rast wasn’t finding much to work with. Most of the hundreds watching from the rail and the thousands watching from home assumed it was just a matter of time before Hellmuth was holding up his 12th career bracelet.

Just 30 minutes later, Hellmuth was eliminated, settling for his third second-place finish of the summer. Rast had managed to fade three different flush draws, all with the title on the line. It was his second bracelet of the summer and it earned him $1,720,328.

Here’s a look at all three of those pivotal hands.

Event — Blinds/Antes	WSOP Player’s Championship	60,000-120,000 with a 30,000 ante
Player Names	Phil Hellmuth	Brian Rast
Chip Counts	16,300,000	2,900,000
Hole Cards	9 6	A K

Hand No. 1

Phil Hellmuth limped on the button and Brian Rast raised to 400,000. Hellmuth called and the flop came down 10 4 4.

Rast bet 345,000 and Hellmuth put him all in. Rast called with A K for ace high and was up against Hellmuth’s 9 6 for two live cards and a flush draw.

The turn and river fell Q 2 and Rast doubled up.

Street By Street Analysis

Preflop

Action — Hellmuth limped, Rast raised to 400,000 and Hellmuth called.

Analysis — A lot depends on the dynamics of the heads up match to this point because we don’t know if Hellmuth has been limping a lot of buttons or not. In a vacuum I’m not a fan of limping buttons but Hellmuth tends to play a trapping style of poker so it may be what’s best for him. Hellmuth does limp the button with 9 6 here and gets raised to 3.3x by Rast. Rast raises rather large and is for just under 1/7th of his stack so we have to assume he has a rather large hand here. Playing Hellmuth’s style of limping buttons it basically enables him to call raises and keep the pot smaller as opposed to playing an opponent who will three bet him a lot and be forced to play bloated pots.

Flop

Action — The flop came 10 4 4 and Rast bet 345,000. Hellmuth shoved with a flush draw and Rast called off with ace high.

Analysis — On the flop the hand basically plays itself. Hellmuth flops a flush draw and Rast has to think he has the best hand here a lot of the time. With the stacks the way they are, and the way the hand played pre-flop the chips are going to get in the middle here everytime on this flop.

Turn and River

Action — The turn and river fell Q 2 and Rast doubled up.

Event — Blinds/Antes	WSOP Player’s Championship	60,000-120,000 with a 30,000 ante
Player Names	Phil Hellmuth	Brian Rast
Chip Counts	14,400,000	4,800,000
Hole Cards	10 8	K 7

Hand No. 2

Hellmuth limped his button and Rast raised to 405,000. Hellmuth called and the flop fell K J 4.

Rast bet 375,000 and Hellmuth raised to 900,000. Rast moved all in and Hellmuth called with 10 8 for a flush draw.

Rast showed K 7 and it held to double him up when the turn and river came K 6.

Street By Street Analysis

Preflop

Action — Hellmuth limped and Rast raised to 405,000. Hellmuth called.

Analysis — Just as in the hand before Hellmuth seems to continue with limping his button and he does it with 10 8 here. Rast seems to be combating Hellmuth’s button limping by making his raises sizes even larger. It’s in essence doing the same thing as if Hellmuth was min-raising the button and Rast was three betting persistently because it’s bloating the pot and putting a lot of pressure back on Hellmuth to call large raises. Rast does it this time with K 7 which seems perfectly fine.

Flop

Action — The flop fell K J 4 and Rast bet 375,000. Hellmuth raised to 900,000 and Rast moved all in with K 7. Hellmuth called with 10 8 for a flush draw.

Analysis — Both players hit this flop pretty hard. Rast decides to lead with his top pair which I feel is the most optimal line here as this is a pretty draw heavy board and Hellmuth can’t necessarily give him credit for a big hand here. When Hellmuth raises the flop he commits himself to calling a shove from Rast. The only time Hellmuth is really in trouble here is when Rast has a bigger flush draw.

Turn and River

Action — The turn and river brick for Hellmuth and Rast doubles up yet again.

Event — Blinds/Antes	WSOP Player’s Championship	60,000-120,000 with a 30,000 ante
Player Names	Phil Hellmuth	Brian Rast
Chip Counts	9,315,000	9,885,000
Hole Cards	8 2	K Q

Hand No. 3

Hellmuth raised to 400,000 on the button and Rast called. The flop came down J 10 9 and Rast led out for 500,000.

Hellmuth moved all in and Rast immediately called with K Q for the flopped straight. Hellmuth turned over 8 2 for another flush draw, but it failed to connect when the turn and river ran out 5 8.

Rast won the tournament and Hellmuth settled for second place for the third time at the 2011 WSOP.

Street By Street Analysis

Preflop

Action — Hellmuth raised to 400,000 and Rast called.

Analysis — The stacks have now evened out and both players are rather deep. Hellmuth decides to raise the button and raises to 3.3×. I’m not a huge fan of his sizing as it is really large with a really weak hand in the 8 2. Rast defends his big blind with K Q. Rast could put in a three bet here but Hellmuth already raised rather large and he doesn’t want to have to three bet/fold a really strong hand heads up here.

Flop

Action — The flop came J 10 9 and Rast bet 500,000. Hellmuth shoved with his flush draw and Rast called with the nut straight.

Analysis — On the flop both players hit it huge. Rast makes a just over half pot continuation bet when he flops the nuts and Hellmuth decides to super overshove the pot by shoving with his flush draw and open ended straight draw. Rast’s continuation bet is completely standard here. I’m not really sure what Hellmuth was trying to accomplish by overshoving this flop. He ran into the worst case scenario as Rast has the nuts and Hellmuth’s straight outs that he thought he had he doesn’t have.

I think a better line would have been for Hellmuth to just call the flop here. Then depending on the turn you have more options. By overshoving the flop you are getting a lot of hands that Rast is leading with that he might fire the turn with to fold on the flop. By calling the flop and possibly shoving over another bet by Rast we are going to get more dead chips the times Rast two barrels and folds. Rast also might two barrel a 10 or 9 here or even ace high and fold when we shove over his turn lead and its not as awkward stack wise. Hellmuth ends up bricking another flush draw and Rast ends up winning the bracelet

Turn and River

Action — The turn and river bricked yet again for Hellmuth and Rast picked up his second bracelet of the summer.

The Tournament Poker Edge Perspective

With any heads-up hands it’s difficult to really get a feel for table flow and ever shifting dynamics because they are constantly changing. As far as these three hands go Hellmuth got really unlucky to brick all three draws but he didn’t have to get himself in those situations if he had taken different lines. I think Rast played all three hands perfectly fine but Hellmuth’s sizing in these three hands left a lot to be desired.

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