Noel Furlong vs. Huck Seed at the 1999 WSOP Main Event Final Table

A truly spectacular hand was played between respected pro player Huck Seed and amateur businessman Noel Furlong at the 1999 WSOP Main Event final table. At the time, Huck was arguably the best no-limit hold'em player in the world.

With only six players remaining in the championship, Huck doubled his original stack to more than $800,000 in the first ten minutes of play. It appeared that he was well on his way to the most prestigious title in poker.


With the blinds $10,000/$20,000 plus a $3,000 ante, Huck limped-in and Noel raised $80,000 from the button making it $100,000 to go. When the action returned to Huck, he calmly declared, "I'm all in."

Wow, Huck reraised a whopping $700,000, and Noel immediately responded with a call!

"Good call," groaned Huck Seed. The hands were turned face up. Huck had Jd-8d and Noel had Ah-3h.

Who would play such trashy hands for such big money at the final table of the WSOP Main Event? What the heck happened here?

Well, one unknown fact was that Noel had played on Huck's left for three straight days and never let Huck make a move. Huck was just waiting for Noel to make a mistake that would let them play a big pot against each other. These two were clearly the most aggressive players at the table.

At first glance, Huck's play seems pretty lame. Why risk all your chips against a loose cannon like Noel, especially with such a weak hand? But on the other hand, Huck was absolutely correct -- Noel was weak, too.

In fact, Noel's hand was so weak that it was really Noel who made the terrible call for $700,000 and it was Huck who actually made the great play by shoving all-in! Huck just didn't realize that Noel's read on him was just as good as Huck's read on Noel.

Really, why call a mega-reraise with Ah-3h? You'll be dominated whenever your opponent has a real hand - about a 2 1/2-to-1 underdog if he has any pair over deuces, or if he has A-K or A-big. The standard play is to wait for a better situation to shove your chips in the middle.

But Noel somehow sensed that Huck was bluffing, and that he might not get a better spot to play a big pot against him. He took advantage of the one opening he had against one of the best players in the world. Noel simply made a great call.

I wouldn't have called Huck even if I knew he was on a bluff. My objective would have been to get down to the final two or three players before deciding to play any huge pots, especially if I had the biggest chip stack at the table.

Look, I don't mind laying down the best hand because I'm one of the premier players in the game. I know that I'll get another chance to win the tournament later on but that wasn't the case for Noel. He thought he might be a 3-to-2 favorite over Huck for all his money so he jumped at the chance to get rid of him right there.

I was really impressed with the way Noel moved his chips around during the last two days of play. He played with incredible confidence. By the way, Noel Furlong went on to win the 1999 WSOP championship and $1 million first place prize money while Huck Seed had to settle for a sixth place finish.

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