Ungar vs Strzemp
World Series of Poker, Main Event, 1997. The final hand.
The 1997 world title, heads-up
The hand
Stu Ungar and John Strzemp. Stack sizes from this hand were not published. Blinds 10K / 20K, ante 2K.
Before the flop
- Blinds 10K and 20K. Ungar has the button.
- Ungar raises to 60K.
- Strzemp calls.
The flop
Strzemp bets 120K. Why
Strzemp. Top pair with a fair kicker heads-up is worth a bet. It is ahead of most hands that called before the flop, and it charges the straight draws on a low board.
- Ungar moves all in. The famous decision
Strzemp calls all in. Why
Strzemp. Top pair with an eight kicker beats every weaker ace and every draw Ungar could be pushing, and he is the much bigger stack. Folding gives up a hand that is often ahead.
Strzemp was ahead until the river deuce gave Ungar a wheel.
The turn
The river
The flop
The famous decision
Ungar. Ace-four is top pair with a weak kicker and a gutshot to a wheel. All in ends the hand against draws and weaker aces, and even behind a better ace it still wins with a four or a deuce.
The result
Ungar wins at the showdown with Straight, Five high.
- UngarA♥4♣Wins
- StrzempA♠8♣
Why it is famous
The final hand of the 1997 Main Event gave Stu Ungar his third title. John Strzemp led into him on an ace-high flop with a better ace; Ungar moved all in with ace-four, and the deuce on the river made him a wheel. In CardPlayer, Phil Hellmuth asked of Strzemp’s bet: "Since he was going all the way with this hand on the flop, why bet it?"
What to take from it
A raise all in hands the hardest decision to the other player, and a weak top pair with outs can still make it.
Sources
What the sources do not say. The stacks at the start of the hand are not documented. The sources give 2.5 million to 600,000 at the start of heads-up, about 2 million to 800,000, and more than 2 million to less than 1 million. Ungar’s raise is to 60,000 in two accounts and to 40,000 in a third. The size of Ungar’s all in is not given.
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