Hellmuth is never happy when he loses and this was no different as he lets it all rip. It was a quick demise after this poker hand which saw Jason Koon winning the $1.6 million match, all the while leaving Hellmuth furious at how bad he runs!
Read About the Heads-Up Match Between Hellmuth and Koon!
Let’s examine the hand in this PokerNews strategy column. The action kicked off with blinds of 3,000/6,000/6,000 and Hellmuth limping in on the button with K♥2♥ with a stack of 187,000 for around 30 big blinds. Jason Koon then raised to 24,000 in the big blind with 6♦4♦ and a stack of 1,400,000. Hellmuth called.
While some players may be surprised by Koon’s raise with the six-high, the GTO strategy in this scenario is for Koon to raise with both his best hands and junky suited-connector hands. Those are hands that will do very well against an opponent’s limp-calling range.
The flop landed J♦J♣J♥ and Koon continued for 30,000 as Hellmuth called with his king-high. Koon is going to have a lot of good pairs in his range, so I like his decision to continue here for around two-thirds pot. This is a scenario where Koon is going to have a big range and nut advantage.
Hullmuth’s call with king-high and a backdoor flush draw may look a little loose but I think it’s probably fine. However, Hellmuth could have a difficult time realizing his equity if he expects Koon to continue barreling on the turn or river.
Koon slowed down and checked on the Q♣ turn and Hellmuth checked back. The queen is an interesting card because I don’t think Koon is going to have very many queens in his range since he will mainly have ace-high, underpairs and junk. Hellmuth has an easy check-back with his king-high, since he is probably always beat if he bets and gets called.
The 4♠ river completed the board to give Koon a little full house and he elected to lead out for 36,000. Hellmuth paid him off and went on a signature tirade after losing the pot thanks to an unfortunate river card.
What would you do in Hellmuth’s situation?
- Fold
- Call
- Raise
I like Koon’s small bet size after making the full house since his hand is good but not great and he is looking to get called by a hand like ace-high. I thought Hellmuth played the hand well and got pretty unlucky on the river.
The very next hand, Koon raised with Q♣8♦ and Hellmuth three-bet with A♦K♣. Koon wasn’t buying it and four-bet to put Hellmuth all in. Hellmuth called before the board ran out 4♠10♣Q♠10♦3♠ to win Koon the match.
For more on this hand check out my breakdown in the following video:
