Hellmuth's AK hand

[SossMan]

Without the context, this looks like some amazing read and world class laydown...and I do have to admit that not losing a dime w/ AK postflop when you flop an ace on a rainbow board isn't the easiest thing in the world, but in context, this really is pretty easy.

Blinds 250-500 (prob w/ antes of 50, i'm guessing).

Hellmuth opens from what looks like EP w/ AK.

Seemingly tight 150 year old Italian guy perks up and min-reraises to 3k total. I'm just guessing, but I'm sure that this is the first time since the carter administration that this guy has reraised preflop. AND HE'S RERAISING PHIL FREAKING HELLMUTH!!

Hellmuth calls.

Pot is 6k plus antes. Call it 6500.

Phil checks in the dark.
Flop is A44.
Corpse coffeehouses and checks behind.

Turn is the Q (saving hellmuth's tournament)

Phil checks and folds to the guy's 10k bet.

So, if he puts him on a relatively wide preflop raising range of AA-JJ, AK, AQ, he is now beating exactly two of these hands (KK/JJ). I'm sure that the guy's check behind on the flop, overbet the turn line doesn't really jive well with KK/JJ, so he either is tied or well behind.

That's about as standard as it gets as far as laying down TPTK w/ deep stacks. That also indicates why you should be reraising with more hands than the nuts when deep.