This summer's World Series of Poker saw many sick hands, but the question is if this wasn't the sickest of them all!? In the hand, which occurred during Day 3 of the main event, 2 players (Henry Tran and Benjamin Alcober) bluffed each other until the river where Henry Tran finally hit a pair of deuces and made a hero call. What makes this even more amazing is that the hand was caught on [...] Read more » 2012 WSOP's Sickest Hand?
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 1277
Pretty insane that the pot ever got that high preflop.
Then i think it was actually a little obvious that Alcober was bluffing, he was firing out too fast and when he checked the 9 on the turn his hand probably smelt of Ax, Kx.
Once it got to the river I think Alcober was living dangerously with absolutely zero in his hand to ever take it down - a lot of opponents would have folded yes. But a very good call to take it down, bet Alcober regretted that for the rest of the tourney before he busted out.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
This guys must have full concentration to get to this point of the tourney, both with lots of chips (although one of them had clearly more than the other) and play such a bluff like this. If it was me, even if i would have commited the crazyness of going to the game with any of those hands, i would automaticaly fold after geting a raise at the flop. This is why they are so much better players than me, knowing how to handle and play with eithr good and bad hands. "It's not what you have in your hand, it's what you make others think that you have".
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 46 (M)
Posts: 48
indeed a sick sick hand, bit late on here though i watched it last week. actually starting to really like van tran after seeing him at wsop. i think the jokest thing though is after the hand is tabled the guy on the left's face when he works out what just happened lol.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
kinda strange hand, especially pre-flop- lots of chips in with kinda garbage hands, considering whats at stake...post flop was all about one guy overplaying/reading opponent. when the pair of 9's was on board and river 2 came- i think the call was a logical one- even though not the easiest one
Joined: Dec '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 707
ouch a very sick hand indeed.and the worse thing is that they played their hands like that knowing it was going to be watched all around the world...i would have been embarassed!
but i also wonder did they play it like that because it was a tv table?
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 46 (M)
Posts: 48
this shows us the difference between no limit and other types of poker, where so much is about playing the player and not the cards. the level some of these players play on is just something else to behold.to the uninitiated it looks like some serious donkfest but to those that know its a masterclass in live reading of your opponent. they both knew neither of them had anything, which is why van tran knows its likely to be a good call at the end .
Joined: Jun '10
Location: Belgium
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1457
I am wondering if we can classify this under crazy play.
Any rational player would not raise so high preflop with such cards (for both players) What makes it really weird that Tran (with a real bad hand) still makes a reraise postflop. He s just lucky to make a pair on the river. If that s called professional play (not in my opinion)
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Germany
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 154
I think the sickest hand gotta be the muck from the hungarian Koroknai, when he didnt realised that gaelle baumann raised before him and he mucked his hand after he moved in and the BB folded. She had KK and he just had to pay her raise(which was 60k,2BB at that time) instead of calling his own all in. the sickening thing about this is that she got's knocked out in 10th place as the finale table bubble boy (girl) by the very same player
this hand has got to be hunting you in your dreams
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And this is WSOP, not micro stakes table...
