Polk vs Hellmuth
High Stakes Poker, Season 8, 2021. Seven-handed.
Two big personalities at one table
Why it is famous
Doug Polk folded the second-best straight to the best one and saved about $90,000. Gabe Kaplan called it the best laydown in the show’s history. Polk told the table, "Phil, I’m considering making a very big laydown here."
What to take from it
When the line mostly means the one hand that beats you, and the price is high, even a straight can be a fold.
The hand
Bord 2♣2♥
Polk 10♦7♣
Hellmuth Q♠10♥
Before the flop
Blinds 200 and 400. Bord has the button.
Two other players fold.
Hellmuth raises to 1.1K.
Another player folds.
Bord calls.
Another player folds.
Polk calls.
The flop
Board J♠9♠8♦
Polk checks.
Hellmuth checks.
Bord bets 2K.
Polk raises to 7K.
Hellmuth raises to 97.2K and is all in.
Bord folds.
Polk folds.
Hellmuth wins the pot.
The decisions
- Polk. A straight on a flush-draw board wants value and protection now.
- Hellmuth. The best hand on a board that can change on every card: get the money in now.
- Polk. Hellmuth checked the flop, then shoved about seven times the pot over a bet and a check-raise. From a tight player that is almost always queen-ten or a set with redraws. Polk said, "I think I’m dead a lot." Polk folded the second-best straight and kept about $90,000.
What the sources do not say. The suit of the eight on the flop is disputed (diamonds in the PokerNews recap, hearts in two other reports). The PokerNews cards are used throughout. Bord’s pair of deuces is shown as clubs and hearts; the sources dispute the suits, and the chances change only a little. Stacks other than Hellmuth’s all in are not documented, and the table has seven players, so only the three named players are drawn. The pot is given as $12,900 in one report, but the listed bets come to $12,500.
Sources
Practise it in 5 minutes Play this hand, one decision at a time.
Quads is for adults, 18 and over. It teaches with play chips only: there is no real money, ever.