NBC National Heads-Up Championship - More Aggressive Wins

  A pro poker player once said that heads-up poker was the purest form of the game - it might have been Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, and he should know. During the fourth season of the popular poker show on NBC, the National Heads-Up Championship, Doyle got a chance to play pure poker with one of the biggest high stakes players of the day, Frenchman David Benyamine.  These players knew each other well, and used that knowledge to their advantage. In this hand it was interesting to see who would wind up taking the pot as they had identical starting hands, except of course for the suits. Doyle had: ... while Benyamine had: ... Doyle called the small blind, completing up to $600, content to see a flop. David had other plans, however, and raised it to $5,200, four thousand dollars over the big blind. Doyle made the call. The flop hit the board: ... the kind of flop that meant, with the pocket cards the players held, whoever showed the most aggression was likely to take it down. Seeing as he made such a big raise pre flop and was under the gun, ready to act first, it made sense that David would put in a big bet. How much was the question, with $10,400 already in the pot (each player started the game with $80,000 in tourney chips.) In the end he settled for around 80% and bet $8,200. Doyle could do nothing but fold, and so he did.