The blinds are a staggering 150,000/300,000 at the WSOP Main Event final table when American Dennis Phillips is dealt Ah-Kc under the gun with all nine players remaining and decides to limp. It’s folded round to Russian Ivan Demidov who raises to raises to 1.025 million with Ac-Qc . The action passes back to Phillips who executes a limp reraise to 3.525 million. The limp-reraise is not usually a great line to take in no-limit hold'em – unless you can move all-in with it. With deep stacks his problem is Demidov can call and play the hand in position – also unless he’s doing it with a very wide range he makes his hand range very, very tight; basically J-J+ and A-K .
Demidov decides to remain in control by reraising to 8.225million as essentially a semi-bluff. He knows Phillips’ range with this move and is making this bet to get him to fold Jacks (or any weaker hands) and possibly A-K. If Phillips raises again Demidov can safely fold, albeit at a chip loss. If he’s called his hand can improve or he can win the pot after the flop.
Out of position with Ace-high
The raise puts Phillips in a horrible spot. There is 12.56 million in the pot, it will cost him 4.7 million to call and he has a total of 22.58 million behind. What would you do? He has pot odds to call and hit an Ace or King – however, that assumes Demidov doesn’t have the Aces or Kings he’s representing. Phillips stated that he knew Demidov knew he limp reraised non-Aces and Kings so could put a move on him.
If he thinks Demidov is weak or has a hand he can fold here he must shove. If he thinks Demidov is strong and has the range he’s representing he can make a tight fold. Instead he elects to call – the worst of all options.
The flop comes Js-Tc-8d making Phillips’ life a whole lot worse. He decides to lead out 4.5million into a 17.26million pot. He has stated this was supposed to represent strength but it’s a horribly weak bet. If he had just flopped top set why wouldn’t he check to the reraiser? He has two problems; his opponent has flopped two overcards, a double gutter and a backdoor flush draw, and his opponent is one of the best breakthrough hold’em players around who knows weakness when he sees it. Demidov shoves for Phillips’ last 13.4 million and forces him to fold the best hand.