$50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

I saw this hand between Sammy Farha an another player last week at the WSOP in a cash game. The table also had Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak. It's a $50/$100 blinds No-limit game. I was trying not to let my mouth hang open as I watched a few hands...especially this one. While I had watched some of Barry G and Daniel N's 7-stud challenge match at the Wynn, this hand stands out above any others from my week in Vegas.

Farha had raised or reraised preflop 3 or 4 hands in a row, and seemed to be picking on one player in particluar throwing a few verbal jabs his direction. The action on this hand, as best as I can remember it:

Player 1 (the fellow Farha has been picking on) is UTG, Farha is two seats to his left.

Preflop:
Player opens for 300, Farha says "you never learn, do you?" and pops it to somewhere around 1500. Player 1 calls the raise.

Flop:
4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Player 1 checks. Farha bets approximately $4,000, slamming the chips around in a real showy manner.

Player 1 calls without a lot of thought. Farha immediately asks him how much he has left in front of him.

He takes a minute to count his chips and finger his stack of $100 bills. "About $55,000"

Turn:
Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Now the board has paired and there's 3 spades for some interesting possibilities.

Player 1 checks, Farha bets around $12,000. Player 1 responds by saying, "I'm all in." What surprised me the most was how fast Farha said "I call" and flips over pocket 44 and Player 1 turns over KQ for full house over full house.

Farha was pretty upset (as I would be too) and the floor manager immediately came over and cleared us out of the area as he matched the all-in.

It was a pretty fascinating hand to watch, especially since I was on my way back to the 1/2 NL game...

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

That's an exciting hand.

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

I almost got sick to my stomach reading that post. Yeah, I guess "jaw dropping" is a good way to describe it. That's a lot of damn money to win/lose in the span of about 2 minutes.

It looks like Sammy thought he had effectively tilted the guy. Guess he was wrong.

Thanks for the report!

Marlow
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

River 4?

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

why would he reraise 44 pre-flop?

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

Because he's looser than Brittany Spears' ..........

Clearly there was some history between these two players and Farha thought that if he hit his hand he would get UTG's stack, unfortunately for Farha and fortunately for UTG, he was up against KQ not AK like he read UTG for (I'm assuming).

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

[ QUOTE ]
why would he reraise 44 pre-flop?

[/ QUOTE ]

About all I can say is that this game was being played at a whole different level. It seemed like it was mostly "What does he think that I think he's holding?" games. Basically if Farha thought he could push someone off of a hand, he was doing it. I can't think of a more extreme example of a LAG then him in this game!

This was one of those hands where it actually had something to do with their cards.

As I was watching the hand unfold, I figured Sammy for any 2 crazy cards until he said "I call" afther the all-in. I figured Player 1 for AQ with his check-call on flop since with AK he would've probably led out.

Can't put him on a flush unless he's playing A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] for a big raise.

KK is definitely a possibility UTG although a check-raise is probably more likely on the flop then a check-call, which is probably why Farha thought he was good.

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

[ QUOTE ]
he was up against KQ not AK like he read UTG for (I'm assuming).

[/ QUOTE ]

A turned flush is a much likelier hand to put this guy on than AK. Something like AsQ would also be a lot more likely than AK.

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

[ QUOTE ]
Can't put him on a flush unless he's playing A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] for a big raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where was the big raise that would keep him from playing AJs?

Re: $50/$100 NL - $140,000 hand w/ Sammy Farha
 

I don't play big bet NL, you're very correct, thinking about it again, AK does not seem like very likely holding from Farha's perspective.