Hand of the Week: Pocket Aces in the Main Event

Date: 2012.10.23 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

In the 2009 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in Main Event, 6494 players competed and 648 finished in the money.  The so-called November Nine, those players who made the final table and had to endure eight strenuous days of poker, were: Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, Eric Buchman, Darvin Moon, Joseph Cada, Kevin Schaffel, James Akenhead, Antoine Saout, and Steven Begleiter.  Beating that many players is truly an accomplishment.  By the way, the ultimate winner, Joe Cada, earned a whopping $8.5 million, and even ninth place played $1.2 million!

I was still in the hunt late on Day Four with about 450 players remaining in the tournament when the following hand came up.

With the blinds at $3,000/$6,000 and a $1,000 a man ante, I peered down at pocket aces.  An aggressive opponent with almost $1 million in chips opened for $22,000.  I was sitting three spots to the left of the button with $135,000 in chips.