Polk vs Hellmuth

High Stakes Poker, Season 8, 2021 · Seven-Handed

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Two big personalities at one table

The Hand

10♦7♣PolkCovers
Q♠10♥Hellmuthabout 98K
2♣2♥Bordabout 97KD
Blinds 200 / 400
J♠9♠8♦Pot 3.5K

James Bord, Doug Polk and Phil Hellmuth. Blinds 200 / 400.

Before the Flop

  • Blinds 200 and 400. Bord has the button.
  • Two other players fold.
  • Hellmuth raises to 1.1K.
  • Another player folds.
  • Bord calls.
  • Another player folds.
  • Polk calls.

The Flop

  • Polk checks.
  • Hellmuth checks.
  • Bord bets 2K.
  • Polk raises to 7K. Why

    Polk. A straight on a flush-draw board wants value and protection now.

  • Hellmuth raises to 97.2K and is all in. Why

    Hellmuth. The best hand on a board that can change on every card: get the money in now.

  • Bord folds.
  • Polk folds. The famous decision

Play Polk vs Hellmuth, decision by decision

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The flop

The Famous Decision

Polk. Hellmuth checked the flop, then shoved about seven times the pot over a bet and a check-raise. From a tight player that is almost always queen-ten or a set with redraws. Polk said, "I think I’m dead a lot."

Polk folded the second-best straight and kept about $90,000.

The Result

Hellmuth wins the pot.

Why It Is Famous

Doug Polk folded the second-best straight to the best one and saved about $90,000. Gabe Kaplan called it the best laydown in the show’s history. Polk told the table, "Phil, I’m considering making a very big laydown here."

What to Take from It

When the line mostly means the one hand that beats you, and the price is high, even a straight can be a fold.

Sources

What the sources do not say. The suit of the eight on the flop is disputed (diamonds in the PokerNews recap, hearts in two other reports). The PokerNews cards are used throughout. Bord’s pair of deuces is shown as clubs and hearts; the sources dispute the suits, and the chances change only a little. Bord had about $97,000 (PokerNews, "$97,100") and Hellmuth about $98,000, which is his all in. Polk’s is only known to cover them (the recap lists $200,000). The table has seven players, so only the three named players are drawn. The pot is given as $12,900 in one report, but the listed bets come to $12,500.

Make all three decisions, then see what really happened

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