Phil vs. Jesus-- Greatest TV hand ever??

[oaktoon]

I was one of the 100 or so folks privileged to watch the Hellmuth-Ferguson best 2 of 3 final late last night at the Nugget. I'm sure there is a separate thread about this match-- and particularly the extraordinary hand that turned the second game in Chris' favor, but I have to say that in many many years of watching all kinds of sporting events in person-- including Game Six of the 1975 World Series-- this was right up there in terms of drama and excitement.

The most fascinating thing about that hand was the way Ferguson came to his ultimate decision to call-- Phil, leading 1-0 and thus able to play loose and try to fill out a gutshot straight, had a pretty easy time of it, but Chris, sitting on two pair and trying to regain the advantage without risking all, had an excruciating decision to make as the hand built. When Phil went over the top on the turn, Chris said later he figured he had hit the straight. Why then did he still gamble??

Well to begin with from Chris' perspective there was probably as much chance that Phil was holding 6-3 as A-3, and a 3 in 4 shot that even if Phil held an ace it wouldn't be a heart, thus making Chris' 9 of hearts the winning flush hand in case a heart came on the river. So as far as he knew he had 13 outs, not 4. Second there was a chance that Phil was bluffing given the game situation. Third he was plenty pot committed-- in fact to lay it down would have left him fairly crippled for the rest of the way.

The other thing about the match that probably isnt getting the attention is the way Phil came back from the dead in Game Three. To begin with he clearly tried to shake up the mood and direction the table was taking as Chris kept firing away at him and grinding him down by starting to joke with Gus Hansen about not being able to play Gus' hands-- I don't think it unnerved Chris but he did seem a bit put off by the hijinx at one point. Second his decision to go all in with Ax vs. Chris' KQ proved to be the beginning of the comeback. When he followed that up with an allin move on AQ with Chris holding AJ the comeback was complete. I think each player played those two pre-flop calls right-- luck ultimately turned out to be on Phil's side.

And it was a nice gesture for him to buy us all champagne-- including Chris, who received one of the first glasses-- it was a truly memorable three or four hours.