Two Plus Two Older Archives - Hellmuth laydown of AK aces up hand

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Hellmuth laydown of AK aces up hand

This hand was discussed at the time and the board was initially reported incorrectly.

Preflop Hellmuth raises to 1500 with AKo and amateur reraises to 3000 with AA. I am not sure about position. I think Hellmuth open raised, but the amateur may have limpraised.

Flop comes A44,r. Check/check. Turn is a Q. Amateur bets 10000. Hellmuth folds.

Amateur's minireraise was a mistake and a typical low buyin online play. If amateur had made a standard reraise, it is possible Hellmuth would have made a third raise. There might be some hands Hellmuth would have where he would have folded to a standard reraise but called the minireraise. However, the minireraise warned Hellmuth that amateur might have a big pair.

The check the flop and overbet the turn is also a common low buyin play with the nuts. A half pot bet on either street would almost certainly have been atleast called. It is hard to see how the overbet could work better than a normal bet whatever Hellmuth's cards.

The queen hitting helped Hellmuth get away from the hand. Before that, he was really only worried about AA. AA, QQ, and AQ are all standard reraising hands that have him beat. He is of course tied against AK.

The amateur talked freely after making his turn overbet and his relaxed manner did not indicate someone who was bluffing or not sure he was ahead.

It was remarkable that Hellmuth got away from this hand with such a small loss. The main reason for this was the amateur bet in ways that gave way too much information to a world class tournment player. Also, Hellmuth is good at making laydowns.