Best Damn...Ultimate Bet poker Challenge with Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth

Anybody catch this show? I did and I liked it. I want to talk about three different things that the pros talked about but did not go into great detail about...I will try to.

The first example was the first elimination. I am going off of memory so bear with me. The format is six players at the televised table and at anytime the pros, Annie and Phil, will come out and eliminate a player. Around the televised table are four or five other tables playing but also waiting for their chance to not become eliminated. It seemed like the pros wanted people to play good poker not bad poker. If you played bad and were still a winner, still not good. This leads me into my first example.

Older gentleman, Rich, I believe, is in the small or big blind...early middle raises, hi jack seat calls and Rich looks down at 3 5 diamonds. Now Rich is the table chip leader he has hit two flops earlier with Q 10 suited and Q 10 off. According to some of the players and the pros his calls with those two hands were bad.
Okay, so Rich looks down and has 3 5 Diamonds and he calls the raise. What is the problem here? Okay, he is first to act into a solid raise, and a solid caller. The call with a weak hand by an amateur is wrong, there is no read of weakness by either player and the only thing you can do here is flop the nuts. My only thought is that Rich is a lunchbox and saw two suited small cards, figured that those two called with big ACES and if he his his hand they would have no idea.

The flop is, 2 4 6, with a diamond deep left draw (card card for a flush). What does Rich do? HE BETS into the raiser! Even if his thought process was what I talked about above, you DO NOT BET THE NUTS INTO THE PRE-FLOP RAISER, you let him bet which, with that flop will possibly be a continuation bet and the solid pre flop caller may also call so more money to take down.
Well he bets, like I said, and they both fold their hands. Annie and Phil run out immediately, explain what he did with that hand and the other two hands and elimanate the chip leader. They did a good job explaining what it was but lunchboxes just do not comprehend. He walked out but was upset because he was the chip leader! Thank you Phil and Annie for trying to explain to a lunchbox that though you have the chips now, the way you play they will be gone later.

My second example was Annie's boyfriend raises with AA he gets two calls, late middle who had KQ, I think and cut-off with 10 10. Now I like the play by smooth calling, no need to squeeze here at all. The flop is 10 high! Aces bet a nice bet, about 1/4 the pot, KQ folds, pocket tens calls. UGH!!!! WHY? Do you agree with the call? I do not, as Phill and Annie did not also. Why? Okay, what does the raiser have if you smooth call, you do not really know! 10 high, he could be making a continuation bet to try and take the pot there and now with your call, he gives up if you bet the turn, but if you do not bet the turn and he hits a miracle you are S.O.L.! If he does have the over pair and you just call he now has the chance to catch up without grief. If your plan is to push on the turn why not here on the flop? Find out where you are, if he does have the overpair your plan on the turn just happened a little earlier. If he does not have that over pair he will check you may bet and he folds. Put 'em to the test early because if it is an overpair they will call 8 out of 10 times.
Well they got it in and aces got cracked. He was not eliminated because it is hard to get away from that hand, plus the format is good play, boo to bad play. The pocket tens was not a bad play but I believe pros would have played it much better.

My final example was the quickest elimination. Under the gun raises, early middle re-raises. The button, a lovely lady, looks down at AK suited and folds. On the button with AK suited and folds! YES i repeated that statement. AK suited, though it is overated this is a great hand six handed, is either minimum call maximum push all in. What are you scared of? The UTG pushing after the re-raise and call? Gotta be aggressive with that hand especially on the button!

Well Annie and Phil run out and eliminate her for that bad play. Her arguement was that there was a raise and re-raise and she felt that her hand was losing. Okay, maybe but you HAVE THE BUTTON!!! See what happens and re-evaluate after the flop.

Can't wait until the next episode...Phil and Annie get after each other and Annie walks away pissed...there were a whole lot of bleeps too.

Until next time...stay nice as rice and mello as jello!!!