Busting John Hennigan at 2004 WSOP Main Event

[MichaelOar]

--I posted this at RGP yesterday, and I'm reposting here for anyone who may be interested.

I just returned from Las Vegas after having an absolute BLAST playing
in my first WSOP. Although I was pretty disappointed after finishing
around 280th place (with the money within sniffing distance), I feel
like I played the absolute best poker I am capable of playing, and
that with a little luck, I could have progressed much further.
Anyway, for those that may be interested, I wanted to share my most
vivid memory of the event---the hand where I busted top pro John
Hennigan.

For background, I finished day one around 22k in chips. I had been
all set to take 30k+ with me into day 2, until my AKc was beaten by
A6d. Anyway, after a lousy night of sleep, I was ready to play my
heart out on the second day. My first table of the day wasn't too
scary, although pro David Chiu was sitting two seats to my right. He
was running low on chips, and wasn't really pushing anyone around.
This table broke about 100 minutes into round 7, which was the one and
only 120 minute round of the day. I had a good time at this table,
especially since Phil Hellmuth was sitting at the table right next to
us. I even got to hear him complain about "getting run down twice
after being a 10 to 1 favorite!" Anyway, once the table broke, I made
my way to my new home---which was in the number 2 seat right next to
John Hennigan. "At least he is to my right," was the only positive
thing I could think of as I slunk into my seat. I remembered seeing
that he had a lot of chips at the start of the day, but his stack had
certainly dwindled when I sat down. He looked to only have about 18k
in chips. He certainly wasn't playing like he was afraid of going
broke, though. He was moving chips all over the place, and eventually
doubled up on one of the bigger stacks at the table.

Meanwhile, I was playing super-tight. I had managed to work my way up
to around 29k in chips before moving to my new seat. I didn't play a
single hand in 20 minutes or so, letting John steal my BB once when
everyone folded to him in the SB. I was again in the SB for the last
hand of the level. The dealer barely got the cards in the air before
the break was announced. Everyone was quickly folding and getting out
of their seats. All folded to Hennigan who promptly raised the pot.
I decided that he could have almost anything here, and was likely just
stealing since everyone looked so anxious to leave the table. I
decided that I was going to smooth call him, and then bet out no
matter what flopped. I called with my pocket pair of deuces and then
bet into him after the A-A-5 flop, and he mucked. Take that!

After the break, I folded every hand for two orbits. Finally, sitting
under the gun, I saw aces for the first time in the entire tournament.
What to do!? I knew that the other players knew I was playing
tightly, and that an UTG raise would likely signal an alarm in their
heads, but I didn't want to be beaten by a limper with some flukey
two-pair, plus, I figured that a limp my look even stranger than a
raise, so I decided to make it 2400 to go (300/600 blinds and 100
ante). Everyone was throwing their hands away, and I started to think
"gee, maybe I SHOULD have limped," when the action finally folded
around to John Hennigan. I was in my typical tournament pose,
sunglasses on, hat pulled low with my face in my hands, leaning on the
table. From the corner of my eye, I could see John giving this some
thought. After 30 seconds or so, he looks at me and says "You got
aces, kid?" I didn't move, but I was thinking to myself "man, is it
that obvious? What am I doing wrong?" Before I had time to think
any more about it, John said "Raise!" and made it 6000 more back to
me. At this point, I went into full-fledged WPT acting mode---but I
also had a lot to think about! What to do? What does he have?
Kings? Queens? Jack-four off-suit? Do I push now? What about a
call? Should I reraise? Is he going to see right through me? What
do I do!!?? I tried to look really nervous (which was easy because I
WAS really nervous). I contorted my face a little, and asked John how
much he had behind his raise. He told me "about 20K." At this point,
I began unstacking my chips and counting them down. Somewhere in
there, I just put my head in my hands again and rested on the table.
I carried on for about five minutes, until I was sure that someone was
going to call for a clock any second. I decided that I didn't really
like calling in this spot, and I also thought that a reraise all-in
would be too clear of a signal that I had aces. I decided that I
would reraise, and hope that Hennigan thought I was overplaying Kings
or Queens. FINALLY, I cut out 6k to cover his raise, said "Reraise"
and threw another 7k into the pot. Coming into this hand, I had about
32k in chips, and John had about 28k. I knew that he had put about
1/3 of his stack into this pot, but I was pretty sure he was going to
be able to get away from his hand. Hennigan thought for about 20
seconds, and then said, "I'm all-in," right before taking another pull
from his Miller Lite. No sooner had the "-n" gotten out of his mouth
did I say, "I call," and push all of my chips into the pot. John
quickly turned over his Kings, and immediately flipped over the Aces.
The look of disbelief on his face will stick with me for a long time.
He just kind of grimaced and let out a "uhhhhnnnn." The board was no
help, and Hennigan was out. He shook my hand, and said "good luck,
kid," before walking away from the table.

John is a hell of a player and classy guy. I'm sure he would chew me
up 99.9% of the time. But on this particular day on this particular
hand, the PartyPoker amateur came out on top!

Michael

[trillig]

Nice story, thank you!

I missed my shot this year, nice finish considering the field too!

-Bri

[Bataglin]

Nice slowrolling. Don't expekt others to be as happy about that next time you "outplay" KK with AA.

[salty]

nice post great story,well played.

[RowdyZ]

What slowrolling???? he said he flip them over imediately..
IF you meant slowPLAYING his Aces that is a different story and part of poker and there is nothing wrong with it, it can be a very effective weapon when used properly as in this case. It can also comeback and bite you in the ass.

[PITTM]

know what youre talking about before you say things. He said he "immediately called and turned over his aces" you obviously have no idea what slow rolling is. Slow rolling is this. I was in a NL game last week with KQs and the flop came A2K Turn Q, i push all in, i get one caller, the last card is a blank, i immediately say "2 pair, king queen", the other guy says "hmm, well i got one ace" and turns over his first card, i think my hand is good, and then 10 seconds later turns over his other aces and yells at me for dragging the pot early. THAT is slowrolling.

rj