One of the great things about the hit NBC poker show National Heads Up Championship is the teaching that goes of for the viewer. Not only can the viewer follow along with the action because of the hole card cameras, but in this format they get a chance to see hand after hand of heads up poker, one of the more important stages of winning a poker game. In this hand, in the 2009, round of 64 Spades bracket, with the featured table sporting Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth and Mike “the ambassador of poker” Sexton, viewers got a lesson of great play before the flop.
Mike watched as Phil, holding:
raised it up to $800. This, as commentator Ali Nejad pointed out, was a pretty liberal raise with that hand and considering how Phil normally played.
Unlucky for Phil, Mike woke up with a bit hand, holding on to a pair of ladies:
and he raised it up to $2,400. With $1,600 more for Phil to call, the poker brat went into the tank to think
He leaned forward, hands on chips, as he counted out the $1,600. In fact, it actually looked like he was about to make a move to try and steal, but in the end he folded.
The lesson, as Nejad pointed out, was that it was better to let go of the $800 than to loose $2,400.
