Poker : Pretty Lady Bailout

By Phil Hellmuth and Ub Poker. Visit Phil and UB Now.

It seems the whole world is talking about bailouts. Well, here's my bailout story.

At the recent World Poker Tour Championships in Las Vegas, I got lucky and hit an ace on the river to propel me into Day Three. And with only twenty minutes remaining to play on that day, I finally got involved in an enormous pot.

With the blinds at $3,000/$6,000, pro player JJ Liu, sitting immediately to my right, opened for $18,000, and I just called with a premium hand pocket queens. The player on the button called, and then another pro, Andrew Lichtenberger, made it $50,000 more to go from the big blind.

JJ folded, I smooth called again, and the button folded.

The flop came 6-5-4. This time, Andrew tossed in $75,000 and I called.

The turn card was a jack and Andrew moved all-in for $161,000. It was a critical decision for me. With only $172,000 chips in front of me, I knew that a bad call would place my tournament life at risk.

I deliberated for a while before finally making the call.

Andrew turned over K-K. Ouch. But before I even had a chance to utter a single word, the dealer burned and turned a beautiful lady. Bam! What a card for me!

So, how did I play this hand?

I smooth called JJ's $18,000 raise for two reasons. I wanted to induce the loose and aggressive player on the button to enter the pot, or even reraise. Also, I felt that disguising my power in this situation was the best play against JJ, who I had covered.

I love the $50,000 raise by Lichtenberger in the big blind. The raise wasn't quite pot-sized but that's why it was so perfect. Why purposefully drive everyone else out of the pot when you're seemingly in control of the hand?

My $50,000 call was standard. Had I had some sort of sick read on Andrew, maybe I could have folded, but obviously, in this case, I didn't.

Lichtenberger's $75,000 bet on the flop was right on the money. An all-in move probably would have convinced me to fold my hand, and he certainly didn't want me to lay down a big hand like pocket queens, jacks, or tens in this spot. He could have checked but that would have given me the chance to hit a free card to beat him.

Bottom line: Lichtenberger's $75,000 bet protected his hand yet didn't scare me away from calling with Q-Q.

On the turn, Lichtenberger's $161,000 all-in bet was perfect. My call, however, was a little weak but still borderline acceptable.

Look, there are a lot of crazy internet players out there that constantly make wild and unsubstantiated bluffs. That's why I just called all the way through this hand -- I was trapping, baby!

I knew there were a range of hands that I could beat that Lichtenberger would naturally bet, hands like pocket tens, nines, eights, sevens, treys, deuces, or A-K, A-Q, A-rag, or even 8-7, 8-6 and 5-4. It would have been great to pick up an amazing read on Andrew. Had that been the case, I would have realized that I was beat and gotten away from my pocket queens.

Too bad I only brought my B-Game to the WPT Championships this time around.

It's always pretty cool to hit a card on the river, especially when you're lucky enough to do it two days in a row. But good fortune doesn't last forever. Next week, I'll discuss another hand from the WPT Championships where I was a bit unlucky and should have known better than to commit so many chips to the pot.

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