most memorable hand

weecheez1

are there any hands you have played that stick in your mind like your first big bluff or your first royal flush

NChanning

 Hi Weecheez...You might think that being an old geezer who has played a long time there wouldn't really be one but there is.

 In 1999 I mostly played the tournaments around London. I was playing five or six nights a week and they ranged from £40 freezeouts to £20 rebuys to a monthly £100 freezeout and some £250 freezeouts. I would sometimes go to Birmingham or Southampton and play a £500 event and I think the biggest I'd tried was £750. There was no EPT and the biggest event in London was £1500 which happened once a year. I had been to the WSOP but never played an event as these started at $3,000 and that seemed crazy.

 One day a tournament was announced and it was to take place on the Isle of Man and have a £1m 1st prize. The buy-in would be £6,000 and it would be called the Poker Million. I was determined to win a seat but I failed after spending about £800. I decided I just had to go and went anyway taking about £9,000 with me. I played a satellite when I got there and still didn't get in so I coughed up the money.

 My starting table terrified me. There was Surinder Sunar (a legend in those days), Layne Flack, (a young up and coming hotshot), Hamesh Shah, (who I considered the best player in London), Johnny Chan, (Johnny fkn Chan!) and Phil Hellmuth.

 I played fairly tight but pretty aggressive and I hit a few hands. In those days it was uncommon to 3-bet and a 4-bet almost always meant QQ, KK, AA or AK...with 1010 or JJ players would always call and with less than that they almost always folded. I hadn't played too many pots with Hellmuth who was over the other side of the table. This time I raised with 89 off and he 3-bet. I thought for a while and 4-bet for about 30% of my stack and he had to choose whether to commit or not. He had me covered.

 He talked a bit to himself and told an older Irish guy that if it was he who had raised the chips would have been in by now.

 He mumbled a fair bit and after a while he folded telling me he had a massive hand. I looked massively nervous which I was.

 At the end of the day we both bagged chips and the players were all excited to be in the bar watching the first ever episode of Late Night Poker which was being shown for the first time. Hellmuth came up to me to say hi...I was quite proud. He said he thought I'd played very well and solidly and I told him I'd been nervous to be on the Table of Death. Finally he asked me what I had in the hand. I replied...

 "Phil, you know I am a newer player and you are the World Champ and there are only three hands I could have had to make that bet."

 He looked very pleased and clenched his fist to say he made a great lay-down...he told me he folded queens and he knew I had either AA or KK as he had QQ.

 I decided not to mention the third option was 89.






 AI played tight but aggressive and hit a few hands.