No Way in Million Year...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Strategy Snapshot: No Way in a Million Years

Living legend Phil Ivey hits his straight, but gets taken to value town by Hac "trex313" Dang anyway in this edition of the snapshot.

(Hand history and stats from PL.com MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)

Players: Hac "trex313" Dang vs. Phil Ivey

Game: $300/$600 No-Limit Hold'em, heads-up, Full Tilt Poker

Stack Sizes: trex313 $59,400; Phil Ivey $60,599

The Setup

The hand opens with Hac Dang raising off the button/small blind to $1,800. Phil Ivey flat-calls and they take a flop of 5 8 J.

Ivey checks and Dang bets out $3,000; once again Ivey elects to smooth-call. The turn comes down 4 and Ivey checks.

Dang bets $6,800 and Phil raises to $23,400. Dang tanks and then ships for $54,600. Ivey makes the call but his 6 7 for the eight-high straight is drawing dead against Hac Dang's A 3 for the stone-cold nuts. The river is the inconsequential A and Dang is shipped the $118,799.50 pot.

The Breakdown

Dang brings it in for a raise on the button with his suited ace, A 3. It is a super-standard raise of three times the big blind. Ivey chooses to protect his big blind with 6 7. He elects to call instead of reraising, and takes a flop out of position.

Ivey is a great post-flop player and does not shy away from seeing flops in heads-up contests, even the occasional out-of-position one.

The flop comes 5 8 J. Phil checks and Dang makes a continuation bet of $3,000 with the nut flush draw.

A continuation bet is completely standard here with everything from top set to air. Obviously the nut flush draw is more than enough to continuation bet.

He chooses to bet $3,000 into $3,600, a close-to-full-pot bet. Dang chooses the larger bet size because he likely wants to build the pot in case he hits the flush.

Ivey elects to flat-call with his straight draw. This is a fairly passive line for the usually aggressive Ivey. He may have felt Hac had air and was planning on donking the turn as a semi-bluff regardless of whether he hit or not.

Or he may have just decided to take a passive line with his draw. Whatever the reason, he just flat-calls.

The turn brings the 4. Ivey once again checks, although this time he definitely is looking to check-raise.

The 4 completes his straight and he's looking to take Dang to value town. Little does he know Dang has made the nut flush behind him and it is Dang who'll be taking Ivey to value town.

Dang bets $6,800 into the $9,600 pot. Phil springs the trap and check-raises to $23,400.

Phil is likely doing this for value. He believes his straight is the best hand and most of the time in heads-up play it is, even if there's a flush out there.

Dang realizes that Ivey's check-raise commits him to the pot and thus does not slow-play, instead just shoving all-in. Ivey has no choice but to call with his straight. It's unlucky for him that he's drawing dead against Dang's flush.

Just an unfortunate hand that was played well by both players. No way in a million years does Ivey ever get away from his straight on the turn. There are just too many hands his opponent could have.

Straight versus flush in a heads-up game is pretty much just a hand you are destined to go broke with. Unlucky for Ivey, but good news for Hac Dang, as he adds $118,799 to his balance.

To see more hand histories from their session, or more of the Top 100 biggest pots online over the last day, week, month and year, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.

More Strategy Snapshots:

• Strategy Snapshot: The World Is Not Enough
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• Strategy Snapshot: Brother Runs Zig Down
• Strategy Snapshot: Second Nuts, but Second Best