Tunica Again

Date: 2007.01.29 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

The World Poker Tour (WPT) recently visited to Tunica, Miss., and so did Phil Ivey and I. There was a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament being held at the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino, so Ivey and I charted a jet out of Los Angeles. The night before the buy-in, I was at Barona Casino in San Diego playing an Ultimate Blackjack Tour tournament. At 6 p.m., whilst debating whether to fly home, I felt compelled to go to Tunica. I’m not sure why I was pulled toward Tunica, but once the tournament began, I knew why I needed to be there. I was on top of my game, finally! I hadn’t been on top of my poker game since the World Series of Poker (WSOP) ended in mid-August.

Day 1 started a bit rough for me, as I was tired and sloppy with my chips. (I was playing too many hands.) The blinds were $100 to $200, and I was sitting at around $18,000 — we started with $20,000 — when the following hand came up. One player limped in under the gun, Player A limped in with 9-9, Player B — immediately to my right — made it $800 to go with Ad-As, and I looked down at 10-10. I called, and took a flop with three other players. The flop was Kd-10d-9c, and Player A bet out $2,000. Player B made it $7,000 to go, and I moved all-in for $17,400 or so. I told Ivey and Daniel Negreanu, who were sitting at the table next to me, “This could be the end of me.” I wasn’t kidding. I could not beat a straight (Q-J), or three kings, or I could have been at risk of losing to a flush draw. Player A called me quickly; Player B studied a moment, and then folded while showing the table his Ad-As. I now told Negreanu and Ivey, “Never mind, my opponent has only one win in the deck.” When the next two cards were 6d-4s, I became one of the early chip leaders with almost $45,000 in chips.