This week of poker witnessed a hectic, but rather exciting WPT in Paris. All the stars were there; Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Lodden, Willie Tann, John Kabbaj, Dave Colclough, Surinder Sunar, John Gayle, and so on, the list truly was endless. There were also a few eye-opening hands too, three of which have made it into my latest edition of 'hands of the week'.
Hand 1
"This hand occurred in the very early stages of Day 1A. Considering that they'd only been playing for half an hour, this was a monstrous pot that shot EPT head John Duthie (left) into the chip lead. In fact, I'll shut up and lead you into the more reliable words of our intrepid reporter, Miss Jen Mason...
Hugely Monstrous Massive Hand News Now -
An early Double Takedown by John Duthie:
On a 
board, the action went bananas - John Duthie betting, Marc Goodwin calling, and then an all-in from Henrik Olander. Call from John, and a head-in-hands kind of dwell from Marc. A huge huge pot already, made huger when Marc called all-in too!
Showdown:
Henrik showed 
John showed 
Marc showed 
Wow - and Marc's not the happiest of bunnies, saying he could have got away from it as the river was the pairing four of spades, but the reraise with the Queen flush made him take that ultimately fatal decision to call for all his stack."
Hand 2
It's not often we are honoured with an exit hand as descriptive as Rob Yong's. But, on Day 1B, he took the time out to share his thoughts on the hand that ended his WPT venture. A pretty intersting read, I think you'll agree. This is what he said...
"Not the best day of my life - I missed my plane this morning due to leaving my passport at home and had to get a taxi to Birmingham, tried to make myself feel better and bought a 1st class ticket only to find out that that the plane had no 1st class seating when I boarded - how does this happen?
After these 2 mishaps I was over the moon to have 30,000 chips after level 2, double average. Anyway, how ironic is this. I'm just having a debate about A-A with a guy who raised 6,000 pre-flop v a 300 raise, I was telling him what a plonker he was and he was saying that he didn't want A-A. Guess what, while still in this conversation I look down on the BB and find 2 red Aces - what a coincidence.
The hand went like this:
A rock UTG raises 300, Mr Fish (playing any 2 cards out of position flat calls).
Now, Mr Fish has 31,000 after busting a guy in the most horrible way, so I decide to only raise 1200, as I know that he will pay me off if he hits top pair. UTG Mr Tight has passed to every RR so far so I'm prerry condfident of playing my A-A heads-up V Mr Fish - who I know will call. I'm giving him about 2-1 pot odds - 900 to win 1800. The hands I put him on are K-Q, K-J, K-T, Q-J, Q-T, J-T or maybe A-rag / small pair 9s or lower.
Flop 
. Now, I have the Ace of diamonds and the Ace of hearts. I dont want to check raise him as the it's unlikely that he won't take a free card on that flop, and I have bet every time that I am the raiser, so he would be suspicous if I checked - so I lead out 2,500, about 85% of the pot. I want him to think I have pair, but no diamond, and am protecting my hand V the turn, I also dont want to give him a free card if he has Q-J. Basically, I want him to RR me so I can move-all in.
But when I bet he annouces all-in immediately. I rifle my chips and think a bit, but at the end of the day, I'm just not passing this hand to this player in this situation becuase:
1. Worst Case: If he has 3-3 or T-T I still have 7 outs (why would he move all in with a set, he would milk me, he's that type of player, plus he knows I cannot have a made flush as the King of diamonds is out there (A-Kd is the only hand he is scared of, so an all-in move means no set in my book.
2. 2nd Worse Case: If he has K-T I have 14 outs (+an extra 3 on the turn). Now this is a big possibility, the MUG would call with this hand as he doesnt care about care about being potentially dominated. (I'm only calling him a mug cause he is, not cause I'm bitter, if he calls with 6-7s I have no problem, but K-T is very dominated by a reraisers probable hand of A-K or K-K). But, if he has this hand, I don't mind gambling to get 60,000 chips anyway, I came to win, not grind.
3. Most Probable: He has K with the Queen of diamonds or Jack of diamonds and stick it all in without thinking, its a big hand for him, and a big move - THIS IS THE HANDS I PUT HIM ON
So, I called and he had K-T offsuit, missed all my outs, It was pretty much an even money shot but hey, bad things come in 3s, so the rest of the day should be okay.
C'est La Vie. Rob"
Hand 3
It's all well and good reporting interesting hands where three people went all-in with huge cards, but the really big hands are the ones that potentially altered the entire result. One of which occurred with just 1 table remaining and included Kenneth Strandli, brother of Monte Carlo finalist Alexander, and eventual winner Christian Gruntdvig. Christian was the man all-in, and Kenneth just needed his Aces to hold up to get his mits on a very chunky pot indeed. This must have felt worse than a firm kick in the testicles. It just goes to show the luck that is required to win one of these things..."Christian Grundtvig Wins Big Pot News Now -
Kenneth Strandli is down to the felt after a brutal
which was cracked by Christian's King-hitting 
.Despite someone saying they'd folded a King, the board came out
. Ouch"