Full House vs. Full House

My opponent’s hand (what a beautiful hand!)

Recently when I won a 500+ BB pot in the cash game, I played a hand that was almost exactly played in televised poker 2007 in the million dollar cash game in London between Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius (you can see the video clip below). Like in the video, it was the biggest pot for the night and it came late, maybe a half hour before the end of the game!

So when you watch the video below just replace Antonius with the Swiss Rock and the turn card from the 5 to the 10 but other than that all of the cards were the same (both hands were made before and on the turn).

The hand I was dealt!

I was holding A-10 and was up against J-J (which I did not know at that time, of course). Then the flop came A-A-J, giving me trip aces and my opponent jacks full. The pot grew constantly, since there was betting before the flop, and then on the flop, but not as heavy since my opponent wanted to trap me and I wanted to keep the pot small with a paired board, despite the fact that I had trip aces (little did I know that I was so far behind at that point).

The turn was the bingo card, a 10, giving me aces full and it did look harmless to my opponent, who held jacks full.

The river was a blank, and the money went all in, after a betting, raising and re-raising.

What a flop for my opponent and what a turn card for me! Unfortunately there was not more money on the table than about 200BB per player (the ceiling in this 2/5 game is 200BB. The pot was about 500+BB since I had already won a considerable amount before that hand, and so did my opponent, so it was also the clash between the 2 biggest stacks at the table. Hence, like in the video) .

At the end having aces full and playing an opponent that has jacks full – what a dream to have boat over boat! Sure enough the money goes all in, as it was below in the video clip and in my game, but only at the end so there was betting on every street and by the river I threw in all my chips, got called with the rest of what he had in front of him and scooped…

Had Patrick caught his 10, he would have gotten Phil’s money… but as you can see, no one can fold trip aces… let alone folding a full house. Those are hands when destiny decides the outcome, and one player goes broke, no matter what. Those type of hands are why we play the game…

Here’s the video of the million dollar cash game in London between Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius: