I wanted to start a new thread about the hand that Chief raised involving Phil Helmuth at the WSOP.

Just to recap. PH has AK. He raises before the flop, and his opponent re-raises with AA.

The first four community cards are A 4 4 Q.

Helmuth checks in the dark on the flop, and his opponent checks behind him. Pretty standard stuff so far.

Helmuth checks in the dark again on the turn. How would you play the hand from here to maximize your win? For the purpose of this discussion, assume that there is about 7,000 in the pot, and both players have healthy stacks. Also, assume that the river card is blank (not something like a K or another Q).

Personally, I would check the turn, too. If Helmuth checked in the dark again on the river, I'd be incline to bet half the pot on the river to try and induce a raise.

Finally, how would your play of the hand differ if your opponent was not Phil Helmuth, but just some other solid player?

Originally Posted by mxp2004

Finally, how would your play of the hand differ if your opponent was not Phil Helmuth, but just some other solid player?

I'd have remembered how I played the queens against him, and play this hand differently. The guy practically put up a sign that read "I have aces, run for your life", but it would be easy to put him on AK, KK, or QQ (maybe even JJ or TT) as well.

First off, I'd have stared at the flop for a while, like it didn't help me (unless I had pulled this before). Phil knows I'm not playing 44 or A4 or some crap like that, so I'd probably have led out here with a bet of 1/2 the pot like I had KK, QQ or some such hand and I was trying to find out where I was. Because I had checked the flop with the QQ's, I would do the reverse here. Although Phil might be expecting that, there's only credible hand he's losing to, and I think he at least calls the 1/2 pot bet on the flop, even if he folds on the turn.