Hellmuth Plays Himself Right out of the WSOP

Posted by pokerguru on July 13, 2009

Regardless of who the player is, it is almost gratifying when you see them get knocked out trying to put a ‘fancy move’ on the table. Hellmuth did exactly that and instead of chasing down his next bracelet, he will once again be watching the final table of the Main Event from the rail. Hellmuth got a little greedy with his AA and he paid the dearest of prices in elimination.

Mourshaki was in early position and fired out a raise of 22,000. It folded around to Hellmuth who was in late position and he flat called. This is all hindsight of course, but just calling gave everyone behind Hellmuth, including two blinds, the odds to make the call regardless of what their hands were. With the amount of money he had left, the move here was for him to push all in and try and get heads-up. Instead, he wanted as many people as possible in the pot and that never bodes well for AA.

Once Hellmuth called, 3 more players joined the dance to a flop of Jc10d5c. This is precisely the type of flop that you do not want to see with AA. Flush and straight draw on the board and someone very well may be sitting with J10. Hellmuth was about to find out the hard way that he made a mistake and it was going to cost him the tournament.

Once the flop hit, Jenkins was first to act and immediately pushed all in. The original raiser and the one person that Hellmuth would have more than likely been heads-up against, Mourshaki, folded his hand and then Hellmuth pushed the rests of his chips into the pot (110,000). Gomez let his hand go and Hsiung made the call putting both players at risk for elimination.

The cards were turned and Hellmuth saw his worst nightmare come true. Jenkins had flopped an open ended straight and was holding 89h, Hellmuth of course had AA with the A of clubs and Hsiung was holding the winning hand at the moment, Jh10c. The turn card fell and gave Jenkins the lead with a 7d. Hellmuth was drawing dead for the outright win at this point and Hsiung was down to 4 outs. However, he had Hellmuth covered so Phil had a small shot at the rest of the board pairing or possibly hitting one of the remaining two A’s to get a small piece and survive. Neither happened as the river was a 3s and Phil was shown the rail. If Phil had pushed all in preflop, he probably would have been able to get Mourshaki isolated and would more than likely have lived to see another day.

While Hellmuth was being shown the door, Ivey has continued on and is not one of the chip leaders of the tournament. He now has 1,276,000 and if far and away the best of the remaining 400 or so players. The overall chip leader is Matt Affleck who has accumulated 1,819,000. It will be interesting to see how he holds up as the numbers get lower and he starts to face off with the likes of Ivey. Other notables that are still alive are Dan Harrington, Joe Sebok, Antonio Esfandiari, Kenny Tran and Vitaly Lunkin.

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Filed Under: WSOP 2009

Tags: Antonio Esfandiari, Chip, Dan Harrington, Gomez, Hellmuth, Hsiung, Ivey, Jenkins, Joe Sebok, Kenny Tran, Mourshaki, Preflop, Vitaly Lunkin

WSOP Player Profile: Dan Harrington

Posted by James on October 18, 2008

Who’s the person that everybody looks to when asked about the most tight or aggressive player? I’ll give you a hint; he started as champion backgammon and chess master. Still not sure? Well I guess I’ll tell you then. It’s Dan Harrington, just ask anybody who knows anything about poker. He started his poker habits at New York’s Mayfair club and in the 80′s earned a little more experience. During that time he played Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, Jay Heimowitz, and Steve Zolotow.

Harrington finished sixth at the WSOP in 1987, which was when people really began to notice him. You might remember this as the very same year Johnny Chan managed to win his first title. It was 1995 before Dan won the NL Holdem Event for $2,500, taking home his very first WSOP bracelet. Later in the year, he walked away with his second bracelet and the $1 million prize pool after winning the Main Event. Harrington at different points of the final table tried to talk players into accepting a deal but they would not agree and he ended up walking away with all the money.

Even though that prize pool and the title would be considered a major feat for most players, Dan Harrington managed to top himself. It was the year 2003, and Harrington had again went to the Main Event. This time, he finished third. This was when Poker really boomed because of the unexpected win of Chris Moneymaker. The very next year, there was a huge increase in the number of people that showed up. There were 2,576 people on the field. It was a new record! There were so many people there that Harrington had to work to find his way to that final table. He failed to win the tournament, and received only fourth place, but his achievements was is still considered one of the greatest in the history of poker.

Harrington doesn’t only have his accomplishments in the World Series of Poker. He’s also made two final tables in the World Poker Tour. He took second in his first final table at the Doyle Brunson North American Championship winning $620,730. When WPT made the decision not to randomly raise limits in 2007, Harrington made the final table for the Legends of Poker. Harrington managed to win his very first WPT title, which ended up being the longest final table in the entire history of WPT.

Dan Harrington won well over 6.5 million dollars in tournaments. While winning his poker tournaments, he wrote books and worked as real estate as well as a stock investor. He wrote five different books dedicated to poker. They were Harrington on Holdem: volumes 1 through 3, all of which focus on tournament play. He also wrote two books entitled Harrington on Cash Games, both of which keep their focus on ring games.

Though it may seem boring, if you want results, Dan’s tight and aggressive approach is the way to go. Even if it is in business you want to go, having his solidness and business smarts will help you become a winner.