Hellmuth Poker After Dark
Two poker legends faced off this week in a special Poker After Dark: Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu.
Phil Hellmuth Poker After Dark
The turn brought the 7h and the river Ks sealed another suck out for Phil Hellmuth and eliminated both players making him Poker After Dark Dream Table Champion and $120,000 richer. Hellmuth and Negreanu, two long-time friends and rivals, have combined to win 20 WSOP bracelets and have appeared on poker shows such as “Poker After Dark” more times than a CPA could count.
And there was one key head-to-head hand, one that turned the tides and basically handed the win to Hellmuth.
It started with Hellmuth raising to 18,000 chips with a pair of 7s. Negreanu, with a King-9 offsuit, calls. Not the strongest hand in heads-up, but when he sees the flop, he’ll be happy.
Poker After Dark Phil Hellmuth
It’s a King-Queen-7. Negreanu has landed top pair … but he wouldn’t be so happy if he realized Hellmuth has three 7s. After Negreanu checks, Hellmuth — with his chip lead — bets 25,000. Negreanu thinks about it and calls.
The next card is a six of diamonds. Again: A Negreanu check followed by a Hellmuth bet. This time it’s 70,000. Negreanu seems to know something’s up and he looks at his cards. He calls.
The river is … a KING! Negreanu has walked right into a trap. He’s got three Kings, a hand that would be perfect in this situation. But Hellmuth has a full house. Negreanu checks one more time, Hellmuth bets a whopping 220,000 chips.
This is where Negreanu starts chattering, a signature move in which he tries to get any information out of his opponent to help him make a decision. Hellmuth has his fists over his face and doesn’t budge. Negreanu calls and loses all but 5,000 of his chips. Ouch.
Negreanu tweeted about the hand and took us inside his thinking: