The Laptop That Hellmuth Bought
by ZeroesqueInstead of YABBS (Yet Another Bad-Beat Story), this one always puts a smile on people's faces.
Trolling the tables of UB late one night, I happened to find myself 3-handed and sitting next to the "Poker Brat" himself, Phil Hellmuth. Since it was short-handed NLH for decent stakes, I decided to play "Super System" style: aggressive! After a few minutes of watching how my opponents were playing, I stole a few pots with some pre and post-flop betting in the hopes of getting some action when I would eventually pick up something nice. That hand came sooner that I expected.
Sitting in the Big Blind, with Hellmuth in the Small Blind, it folded to us. I was looking down at 5d 3d, which won't stand too much heat pre-flop, but Phil decided to simply limp-in. I got to see the flop without another dime and it was a beauty: 4d Ad 9h. I had a gutshot straight-flush draw!
Phil was first to act and tossed-out a pot-size bet. I wanted to call him, thinking I had decent implied odds here if he had a piece of the flop and was reading me as a "gambler" like I intended. As you might imagine, I would be hoping for any of my outs to come, but I really just wanted to make a straight (deuce, no diamonds). That way, I'd have the nuts, it would be well hidden (Trey-Five???) and the board wouldn't scare away any action by showing a possible flush (which gamblers love to go for). I called.
The turn brought my card: 2s! Phil again tossed-out a pot-size bet and now I was left with the wonderful task of figuring out how to get all of the money in the middle. Looking at his stack size, I knew that if he had anything at all, he was practically pot-committed at this point (especially if he viewed me as a gambler), so I raised him by his bet amount and he quickly shoved-in. I called Phil Hellmuth's all-in with the nuts!
The 6s on the river couldn't have helped him and left me with the nut straight to take down the pot (and all of his chips!).
What was Phil dancing with? He flipped-over Qc 9c for middle pair on the flop. Since I had been rather aggressive during the session but hadn't raised until the turn in this hand, Phil correctly assumed that I didn't have the Ace or a higher pocket pair (he even had a decent kicker for shorthanded play). If he had played that hand a thousand times, he might take the money against random big-blind hands, but that's a debate for another time. Oddly enough, the normally chatty Phil left the table immediately without saying a word. It made me laugh to imagine him stalking around just ranting about the hand as we've all seen him do on TV.
I took Phil's $824 and bought a new laptop to replace my aging dinosaur that same week. To this day, people still ask, "How's the laptop that Hellmuth bought?"
We're doing just fine, thank you.
Thanks, UB (you too, Phil)!
Zeroesque
