Phil Ivey’s A-Q At The WPT Championships

In the first WPT (World Poker Tournament 2002 ) $25,000 buy-in Tournament Championship in April 2003, Phil Ivey was just cruising along for the first four days.  In fact, within the first hour, he had run his $25,000 starting stack up to $80,000 in chips.

  When Ivey hit the final table, he won a key hand against Alan Goehring, with his Q-Q against Alan’s A-K. That was the only pot that Phil really needed to win up until that point in the tournament.  Early on day four, Phil reached the final six, and they broke for the day; the final six would appear on the World Poker Tournament’s show on the Travel Channel.

            After Doyle Brunson and Ted Forrest were suddenly eliminated by Alan in the same spectacular hand, Phil found himself among the final three players.  First place was to be $1 million, second place was $500,000, and third place was $250,000. Not too long afterward, the following hand came up.  With the antes at $3,000 a man, and the blinds at $15,000-$30,000, Kirill Gerasimov opened the pot on the button for $100,000.  Alan then called the $100,000 bet.  As it turned out, Alan’s call sealed Phil’s fate, because Phil had A-Q.

            You see, when Alan called, Ivey felt very strongly that Alan was weak, and that he couldn’t call a $750,000 reraise.  It turns out that he was right, because !lan had a 6-3 off suit (more on that later).  So by moving in here, Phil reasoned, he would win $250,000 without seven card stud having to show down his hand! His plan was to have Kirill and !lan fold their hands, and then he would collect Kirill’s $100,000 bet, Alan’s $100,000 bet, and the $30,000 in front of him plus the antes.  Again , Phil  says he felt sure that !lan was weak; he also knew that Kirill couldn’t call the raise with very many hands.  Kirill had to have a big hand for Phil’s plan to fail.

            Phil had $850,000 in chips in front of him, Alan had about poker $3.2 million, and Kirill had $1 million.  Phill said that he didn’t really have a read on Kirill during this hand, and it was very likely that A-Q was the better hand here, so he moved all-in.  moving all-in seemed much better to Phil than raising the pot $300,000 or so, because he would have to call the reraise anyway.  Why not commit himself?  Then perhaps Kirill would lay down 7-7, 8-8 or 9-9.  Whereas if Phil raised $300,000 or so, Kirill might well have moved all-in on Phil, and forced Phil to call.  Unfortunately for Phil, Kirill had A-K, and called Phil quickly poker high low.

            Phil said, “If I’d more chips, then I may have raised $300,000 or so, or perhaps merely called Kirill’s raise pot limit omaha.  Then perhaps I would have been able to fold when Kirill reraised me before the flop, or when I missed the flop.  If I’d fewer chips, then I would have moved all-in more quickly than I did.  In regard to Kirill: he is a very talented player, and he may be around for a long time.  Alan is very difficult to play against, because he puts a ton of pressure on you, raising and reraising all the time; and he has no fear.  Someone like that is a handful at times.”

            The rest of the story is this: the flop came down K-6-3.  As it turned out, Phil lost the pot and was eliminated from the Tournament Championship.  But the story doesn’t end there, because Alan would have flopped two pair, which would have busted Kirill (Kirill hit his A-K on the flop).  Until the hole cards became exposed in 2003, a player couldn’t gaze that far into the future hold'em poker game!

            Phil says, “Now I know that if I had just called Kirill’s raise, Kirill's raise, Kirill would have been eliminated, and I would have won an additional $250,000 [at least $500,000, or perhaps $1 million], and played Alan heads-up for the title.  Oh well, that’s poker for you.”

            Phil Ivey is a very talented young player, one we will hear about for years to come.  I have played with him a lot, and he has handled himself with both class and dignity.  You cannot help yourself, you have to root for the guy.  Even if he may eventually break all of my World Series of Poker million records, I say, “Good luck, Phil Ivey.