One Tough Poker Game

Date: 2006.10.16 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

A few weeks back, I was in Aruba in a $5,000 buy-in no-limit Hold ’em side game with $20-$40 blinds. As I was leaving the game I witnessed the following hand. This hand involved poker pro Eugene Todd, “Masters of Poker” DVD producer and UBT (“Ultimate Blackjack Tour”) producer Houston Curtis, and 1992 World Champion of Poker Russ Hamilton. I happened to be standing behind Todd (who was in the nine seat) and Hamilton (in the one seat) and saw both of their hands. With a flop of 5s-6s-8s, Curtis checked, Todd bet out $400, Hamilton made it $1,000 to go, and Curtis then made it $4,000 to go, after having checked to both players.

Now Todd gave his hole cards a long, careful look, showed them to me (he had As-Kc), and then folded. He had the nut flush draw, and simply folded his hand without incident. This is a rare case indeed, where someone actually folds the nut flush draw, especially on the flop! Hamilton then called the raise, the Qc hit the board, and Curtis bet $8,000. Hamilton now closely examined his hole cards, showed them to me (he held 8h-8c), and then folded his hand. This lay down, too, was rare, since Hamilton had top set, although I can see him folding here in this situation. By the way, Hamilton had ten wins (three fives, three sixes, three queens, and one eight) vs. 34 losing cards (assuming that we have not seen Todd’s hand), making Hamilton a 3.4-to-1 underdog to win the pot with one card to come.