Phil Hellmuth (@Pokerbrat) | Posted 3 years ago

Back in 2011, this hand came up in a $5K tournament at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Dutch Boyd’s raise was standard and my call was appropriate. I normally reraise with a premium hand like KK, maybe about 70% of the time, but I’ll also occasionally three-bet with a weak bluffing hand. Why? Because on those rare occasions when I do, my bet will seem pretty strong.

When I don’t reraise with a premium hand like KK, I’ll just smooth call. Sometimes I just don’t want to announce the strength of my hand to the entire table. Also, the fact that Dutch opened his third pot in a row suggested weakness, another factor supporting my decision.

I like the big blind’s smooth call with JJ because he was out of position and might have read Dutch or me as strong. However, had he read us as weak instead, he should have three-bet to try to win the pot right there.

I like the big blind’s check on the flop though Dutch’s check was questionable. Dutch was attempting to trap both of us and keep the pot size small but he could have made a continuation bet with his QQ in this situation without revealing the strength of his hand. That would have been the standard play.

I don’t like my check on the flop even though it limited the pot size, and as it turned out, actually kept me alive in the tournament. Still, there’s a time to play it safe and a time to go for it, and with KK on a flop of 5d-3d-2s flop, it was definitely go time. I should have bet about 60% of the pot and maybe even more.

On the turn, the big blind’s $19,000 bet was alright. Dutch’s smooth call was okay but I would have raised it up to about $75,000.

Once again, I hate my smooth call. The truth is that I decided to call simply to preserve my tournament life. I should have raised it up to $80,000 or maybe moved all-in.

On the river, I like the big blind’s $33,000 bet. His smallish bet size virtually assured that Dutch and I would pay off his hand. We might have folded if he had bet any more.

So, did I get unlucky in this hand? Possibly, but I was really set up to win this hand if I’d only played it more aggressively. A pre-flop reraise likely would have knocked out the JJ and might have earned me about $150,000 in chips from Dutch. Or, had I bet big on the flop, I could have moved all-in on the turn, in which case the JJ would have almost certainly folded.