The reason we do hand analysis is because poker players can learn something from the triumphs, tribulations, jack assery of what other players have done in the past. Back in the days when Phil Hellmuth was still tied at ten World of Series Bracelets with Brunson and Chan, the big question was which of these guys would be the first to win number eleven. Phil did this in 2007. Ironically he did so by playing the sort of hand that would have driven him into a tantrum had he lost to it.
During Event #15 of the 2007 World Series of Poker, Phil was dealt and mediocre As-3h in the climactic hand this $1500 Hold’em tournament. His opponent, Andy Philacheck, was blessed with Ac-10c. While the suited A-10 gave Philacheck a plethora of options, Phil’s unsuited A-3 would barely have made good kindling for a campfire.
Philacheck, seriously behind on chips, pushed all-in preflop with cards. He rightly saw this as an opportunity to double his stack size. Phil, playing like a donkey, called his bet with the sketchy A-3. The flop didn’t do Andy Philacheck any favors. The 9h-4c-3d that hit the board gave Hellmuth a pair of threes that amazingly held up for the entire hand. The turn was a Qh, and the river was a Jh. Phil suddenly had his eleventh bracelet; a bracelet won on the back of a donkey hand.
While the hand was a loser that was saved by a favorable flop, the move was a good one on Phil’s part. He had a staggeringly large chip lead going into this hand. When he was dealt an Ace, he decided that he could invest the chips into taking a risk. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. With a huge chip lead though, you can absorb the consequences of a risky play. In his case it did workout, and he finished the tournament in one big bet. While playing these cards is usually a bad move, the use of the big stack was masterful. This is something many of us can learn from when playing tournaments.
