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Ivey Versus Booth

This is a hand between arguably the worlds best poker player - Phil Ivey, and high stakes cash game player Brad Booth.

It displays some of the great thought processes involved in high stakes poker, where all the players know that they have to be creative and to mix their game up to be successful.

David Williams raises jack nine off suit, which is just a standard attempt to steal the blinds. Brad Booth re-raises with the two four of spades, obviously hoping to take a flop in position with a hand that can flop a monster. Phil Ivey wakes up in the big blind with pocket kings and puts in a standard re-raise - probably with the intention of narrowing the field by knocking David Williams out of the hand, as well as building a pot with his big pair.

David Williams quickly folds, seeing that his hand is far too weak for the situation (jack nine off suit plays awfully on nearly all flops in deep stacked poker), but Brad Booth realises that Phil Ivey must have a big hand and elects to call with his little suited connector. He does this for two reasons in my opinion - firstly, he knows that if he hits a big flop he may well be able to stack Phil Ivey; and secondly, by asking Phil Ivey how much he has behind before calling he tells Phil Ivey (through needing to know what implied odds are on offer) that he has a small pair or small connector - enabling him to bluff any board that hits these sorts of hands.

The flop is a perfect one for Booth - connected, low and with a flush draw. This is exactly the sort of flop that could have hit his hand hard, and he knows that Phil Ivey knows this is true. Phil Ivey leads out with a standard continuation bet and Brad Booth moves in on him. This is a horrible spot to be in when playing deep stacked cash, and one Phil Ivey is all to aware of. Because Phil Ivey plays so many hands, he is usually the player cracking other peoples over pairs with small connectors and pairs - and I bet after Brad Booth's raise he is thinking of all the monster pots he has won off people who just couldn't fold there over pair when he had hit an unlikely looking flop.

So many of the hands that Booth could have he is behind. A set of threes, sevens or sixes, two pair with either six-seven, six-three or a straight with four five. He is also in bad shape against many of the drawing hands out there. His hand plays very badly against hands like a pair and a flush draw, an open ended straight and flush draw, or the nut flush draw (due to the ace as an over card and therefore extra outs). In light of all this Phil Ivey decides to fold after a good long think.

This is a classic "I know that you know that I know" situation in poker - Brad Booth picks up what Phil Ivey has, gives him a vague clue what he does, then ruthlessly piles on the pressure when he sees the low flop.

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19 August 2008 / About Marcus Bateman