Stu Ungers most famous poker read. This is ridiculous.

[Toddy]

This was in Bostons sports newspaper, "Barstool Sports" this is just amazing!

"One of the most famous poker reads of all time as told by Phil Hellmuth, who was there was a call Stuey made to win the 1991 "4 Queens POker Classic". Stuey was heads up in a $100K NLHE event against Mansoor Matloubi when the following occured: After a flop of 3-3-7 rainbow, Stuey bet 6K of his remaining 60K in chips, which Matloubi called holding 4-5 offsuit. The turn brought a King and both players checked, and on the river came a Queen making the board 3-3-7-K-Q. Matloubi, correctly sensing weakness, bluffed "allin" for his last 32K, a sizeable bet. Stuey, with $54K left, looked "right through" Mansoor and within 10 seconds said, "You have 4-5 or 5-6; I'm gonna call you with this." He turned over a mere 10-9 for 10-HIGH, which beat Maltoubi's 4-5 and won the tournament".

[whiskeytown]

there was another one in Stuey where Doyle made a big bet on the river once in a ring game -

Stuey only has a pair of 2's in the hole - there's 2 or 3 face cards on the board, and he called - Doyle was on a stone cold bluff -

of course, Stuey might have made a few of these calls - we only hear about the successful ones - /images/graemlins/grin.gif

rb

[Toddy]

I Don't understand this part of it.

Helmuth went on to say, "Stuey could only beat 4-5, 5-6 or 4-6 in the given scenario"

[CallMeIshmael]

[ QUOTE ]
Helmuth went on to say, "Stuey could only beat 4-5, 5-6 or 4-6 in the given scenario"

[/ QUOTE ]

I would guess he means: the only hands with which villian would have called the flop.

Though, for example, he could beat 89, villian would never call the flop with 89.

[PokerDork]

"There are stories about great calls Stuey made, but I haven’t heard any about great laydowns." -Barry Greenstein (in his player analyis of Ungar at barrygreenstein.com)

I think this sums up a lot of the romanticism that surrounds Stuey. So, is this really a great read, or just one of the few times he made an atrocious call, and was lucky enough to be right?

[whiskeytown]

I dunno - to me that REALLY takes a lot of guts to call an all in with 10 high - much more so then bluffing your stack away with 10 high - a bluff has a chance for a fold.

I think it was just one of those times he had a read on his opponent and made it work to the hilt - he was famous for putting people on a hand in NL.

RB

[TStoneMBD]

insane story, i love reading stuff like this. something that i find disappointing in modern tournaments is that you never see any of the pros calling an allin bet with something ridiculous like ten high. obviously you need to have a tremendous read to do something like that but id like to believe that some of these pros truly are good enough to be capable of this.

[Tom1975]

Hansen called Antonio's all in with a ten high in one of the WPT events.

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
So, is this really a great read, or just one of the few times he made an atrocious call, and was lucky enough to be right?

[/ QUOTE ]
Great read.

[Python49]

the one hansen called with in.. it was a free roll tourney and just from opportunity cost alone, that tourney was -EV for him based on the pay outs.

[NotMitch]

[ QUOTE ]
the one hansen called with in.. it was a free roll tourney and just from opportunity cost alone, that tourney was -EV for him based on the pay outs.

[/ QUOTE ]

So why did he enter?

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
"There are stories about great calls Stuey made, but I haven’t heard any about great laydowns." -Barry Greenstein (in his player analyis of Ungar at barrygreenstein.com)

I think this sums up a lot of the romanticism that surrounds Stuey. So, is this really a great read, or just one of the few times he made an atrocious call, and was lucky enough to be right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Paul Phillips made a similar point to Greenstein, either here or on his blog.

~ Rick

[pzhon]

[ QUOTE ]
insane story, i love reading stuff like this. something that i find disappointing in modern tournaments is that you never see any of the pros calling an allin bet with something ridiculous like ten high.

[/ QUOTE ]
Calling all-in preflop with T-high doesn't count, but Kirill Gerasimov called a substantial river push with T6 unimproved.

WPT forum thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2664251&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&vc=1)

Good commentary by limon on this angle. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2919325&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&vc=1)

You dont win 3 world championships making these calls when you are wrong!

[PokerDork]

Yeah, I actually looked for it, because I believe Paul Phillips said it a bit more emphatically than Greenstein, but I couldn't find it. Nonetheless, I think it's safe to say that many respected people in the poker world think that Stu Ungar being the greatest caller of bluffs is pretty much total bunk, and is more or less a direct result of his incapacity to fold. And I don't remember the exact quote, but Doyle also said about his 1980 WSOP victory, that had he run into a hand that beat top pair, he'd have never made it to the final table.

[Shandrax]

[ QUOTE ]
Hansen called Antonio's all in with a ten high in one of the WPT events.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just like Stuey I have never heard from any great Hansen laydowns either. The guy always seems to call when he has more than zero outs.

Just about every pro who watched Stuey play says that he was unstoppable when he was getting cards, and awful when he wasn't. An aggressive, unbluffable player will do well in tournaments, but poor in cash games. This is a pretty good assessment of Stu Unger's career.

[nervous]

[ QUOTE ]
Hansen called Antonio's all in with a ten high in one of the WPT events.

[/ QUOTE ]

He called with 8Ts preflop when I believe he was pot-committed and the chip leader.

[tdarko]

if you want that story plus tons others and an incredible read i suggest you check out nolan dolla's book on stuey that just came out. its fantastic and addicting, you will read it in one sitting. the hand you mention and whiskeytown mentioned are both in the book.

[Shaun]

Actually, it was a cash game, which makes it even more bad-ass. He was playing a 50k$ freezeout against the guy.

[Shaun]

[ QUOTE ]
"There are stories about great calls Stuey made, but I haven’t heard any about great laydowns." -Barry Greenstein (in his player analyis of Ungar at barrygreenstein.com)

I think this sums up a lot of the romanticism that surrounds Stuey. So, is this really a great read, or just one of the few times he made an atrocious call, and was lucky enough to be right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Greenstein's ridiculous ego probably fueled that statement. It's tougher to hear laydown stories since no hand is shown down often times.