Layne Flack’s “Two Black Nines”

This is the first time that Mr. Hellmuth has allowed me to write up a key hand 100 percent on my own.  How fitting that it involves pocket nines, as we all know; and I mean, we all know who this hand really belongs to.  Right, Phil?  [Yes, Layne! I won the World Series of Poker, in 1989, with two black nines, when they held up against Johnny Chan’s As-7s for a $1.2 million pot.]

            It was the 2002 WSOP (World Series of Poker). I had won the first no-limit Hold’em tournament, which saw 628 players or so.  The talk was, “Oh, Layne won anther no-limit hold'em, yada, yada, so what,” right?  Then came the second no-limit tournament with549 players, and I found myself in contention to win another bracelet.

            We came to a close on the first day, and after that had day of playing poker card games and drinking-these tournaments require solid focus, hence the drinking- I looked up, having paid little attention to the other tables, to see how tough the road to victory was about poker to be.  I mean, how much worse could it be! I already had Johnny Chan to my right and Erik Seidel to my left! (Once again, this tournament showed me that no-limit does bring our the best at the WSOP, and people do rise to the occasion.)

            On day two, I was one of the chip leaders, and I picked up two red nines and lost a “coin flip” (my opponent had A-K) and half of my stack.  A while later, I picked up the black nines and won all of my chips back, plus some.  This set the tone for the real hand I will tell you about.  So hold on.

            As we reached the final table, I noticed that it seated many great, and I mean great, players; Johnny Chan, T.J.Cloutier, Carlos Mortensen, and Chris Bjorin, to name some hold'em poker game!

(By the way, it’s funny that my story isn’t about another hand that came up at the final table that day-an unbelievable hand featuring my quad tens over German player Philip Mamorstein’s quad fours!)

Anyway, it was finally down to me, Chan, and T.J.  The chip counts were about $320,000 for T.J. $280,000 for me, and $170,000 for Johnny.  I picked up the two black nines, which like I said had a history that day, because I’d already won one big pot limit omaha with them.  [Phil Hellmuth note: The Black Nines Room is the official name of my Web site, www.philhellmuth.com.

With $2,000-$4,000 blinds and a $500 ante, I raised it to $12,000 to go.  T.J. moved in $300,000 more.  What do you do here?  Without hesitation, I called all my money.  Was I silly or wrong?  Did I have correct odds?  (For the record, I do think it was probably a close call.)

So why did I make the call?  History, of course.  After all, they were the black nines.  (Just kidding; that wasn’t seven card stud close to the reason why I called!)

The real reason I made the call was simple to me.  T.J. had moved over the top of many of my raises all day long.  Then he would show the table an ace, not A-K, not A-Q, but a lone ace limit stud.  Once in a while he would flash the A-K; granted, this was my risk.

The biggest factor of all, really, was this fact: I’d made a raise earlier in the day and T.J. reraised, but this time he stopped; and he though; and he counted his chips; and finally he put in a teasing or well-thought-out raise.  There were no callers, and then he showed Q-Q, and on a similar occasion, a-A.  But where was that pause and the teasing raise this time?  Ah, thank you for the read, T.J. I picked up on it quickly and was waiting for my opportunity to take advantage.

It also flashed through my mind, as T.J. moved  all-in quickly, that he might have one of three hands.  First, he might have A-rag, and I’m a big favorite over this hand.  Second, he might have ace high with a ten through a king for a kicker, which means it’s a coin flip.  Third, he has an overpair, and I become a 4-to-1 underdog card games.  Now what do you do?  With the read I mentioned above, I felt like he didn’t have an overpair, so it was a simple decision: call.

One other thing was this: I was playing T.J. and Johnny Chan, and no one said that it was going to be easy! No one said that it’s not going to take a big risk for something to happen against two of the world’s greatest no-limit players.  So the calculated risk just went way down then, I believe-just ask me.

By the way, T.J. had A-K and I flopped a nine-with a J-9-8 flop-and “filled up”  (made a full house).  I went on to my second no-limit victory at the 2002 WSOP, but this one was my favorite, since I gained a lot more respect for my no-limit game because of the field and who I had to beat.  Afterward, I felt great, and I mean great ladies world championship, and it is an honor and a privilege to play with them.