When A Good Idea Goes Bad… Then Good
So I was watching ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker last night and ran across this hand. It’s the final table of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event and Grant Hinkle and James Akenhead are heads up. Hinkle holds a slight chip advantage of $6,515,000 to Akenhead’s $5,320,000.
Hinkle is on the button and raises to $350,000 (which is just over a minimum raise) with a: 
Akenhead raises to $1,200,000 with: 
. Hinkle thinks about it for a moment and moves all in with his ten high! Akenhead calls immediately and we’re off to the flop.
I suppose I can justify a raise from the button with a suited T4 heads up, but when your opponent comes over the top there I’m thinking you’ve got to let it go or at the very least just call. Moving all in when you’re a slight chip leader is just crazy here in my opinion. Now I will say that I obviously wasn’t at the table and I didn’t see all the hands being played so maybe there was something more to Hinkle’s raise here, but it seems REALLY risky.
The Flop
Talk about a perfect flop for you hand. When they turned over their cards prior to the flop Akenhead asked if Hinkle had a pair — Hinkle kind of dropped his head and he flipped over his cards showing that he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. After this flop you could just see the defeat on Akenhead’s face and Hinkle immediately apologized. At this point Akendead needed running Aces or running Kings to give him a victory. Unfortunately neither would come.
The turn came the 
and the river came a 
giving Hinkle four Tens and his bracelet.
I suppose this is an example of how being aggressive at the poker table can pay big dividends. Personally I would have gotten rid of my T4 long before all the money went into the middle — perhaps that why I’m blogging about it and they’re playing???
See you after the flop!!!
Yeah, saw that one on TV. It was such a lucky break, and seeing Hinkle actually apologize for “playing such bad poker” really makes you wonder, with all the criticisms players make of other players choices, what does it really all come down to? Who won? I’m watching the main event lately and it’s amazing how hostile the pros are to the amateurs (a lot of them anyway) and I think, wait a minute, thanks to all these first-timers with $10k to spend you now have the chance at a $9MM dollar prize vs. a $400k prize. So, guys like Phil Hellmuth should just quit his bitching and quit belittling the newbies and adjust his game to all the “loose, crazy, internet players” and roll with it.
Madog
2 Oct 08 at 1:31 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more. There’s a quote floating around somewhere from Doyle where he talks about NEVER telling someone they are playing bad. What good does it do you? If they take you seriously they’re either going to A: start playing better (which is bad for you) or B: stop playing all together (which is bad for you too cause you can no longer take their money).
admin
2 Oct 08 at 3:08 pm