I’m a Lucky ‘Bad Boy’

Date: 2007.11.12 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

Recently, I played on NBC’s “Poker after Dark.” One of the episodes was called “The Bad Boys of Poker,” and featured Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Gavin Smith, Bobby Bellande (the poker player on “Survivor”), Sean “The Sheik” Sheikhan, Sam Grizzle, and I. One thing was for sure about this lineup — it was loud!

When we hit three-handed, Bellande, Sheikhan and I were left battling. With the blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Sheikhan folded on the button, I looked at A-4 in the small blind and moved Bellande all-in for his last $18,000. Bellande called with A-8, and I was a 2-1/2-to-1 underdog to win the pot. Bellande spent a full minute chatting about how unlucky he was, and telling the world that I would win the pot. The flop was 8-6-4, and Sheikhan said, “See bro, you can’t lose this one now.” Bellande said, “With my luck, I could.” Amazingly, the turn card was a four! Now Bellande needed an eight to win the pot, and found himself a 22-to-1 underdog (22 cards for me and 2 for him). The river was a seven, and Sheikhan said, “See bro, you brought it on yourself. You have a bad attitude; you expect to lose, and then you lose.” Brutal, it is bad enough to lose like that — to a two-outer — but then Bellande had to listen to Sheikhan! Still we all knew that trash talking was going to be a big part of this show. I have no problem with the way this hand was played by either of us, when the blinds get big enough, then ace high becomes a strong hand.