WSOP Hand of the Day: John Hewitt vs. Badih Bounahra

World Series of Poker / Short-Stacked Shamus / 20 July 2011 / 2 Comments

A tough end of the night for John Hewitt, 10th-place finisher in the 2011 WSOP Main Event (Photo credit: PokerNews / WSOP.com)

Play has ended for the summer at the 2011 World Series of Poker, with the Main Event's November Nine having finally been determined around 2 a.m. this morning. Martin Staszko of the Czech Republic will be the tourney's chip leader for the next four months, with Eoghan O'Dea of Ireland in second and WSOP Player of the Year points leader Ben Lamb also making the final table. Just missing the final table was John Hewitt of Costa Rica, and it was a hand between him and Badih Bounahra on the final table bubble that serves as our last WSOP Hand of the Day of the summer.

Once they'd gotten down to 11 players last night, we were seeing lots of action on both of the short-handed tables, with many three- and four-bets preflop and the short stacks finding themselves having to shove all in frequently thanks to the huge blinds coming around so quickly. In fact, there was one moment when there were all-ins on both tables at once, suggesting the possibility that they could reach the November Nine without ever having to go to a ten-handed table. But such was not the case, and when Khoa Nguyen of Canada was eliminated in 11th the remaining ten redrew and situated themselves around the not-quite-final final table.

At ten-handed the action slowed considerably, with the short stacks Badih Bounahra and Matt Giannetti folding their way through the next couple of hours as the others mostly remained cautious to avoid any big confrontations. Finally in Level 36 (blinds 250,000/500,000, ante 50,000), Giannetti managed to double up two different times with pocket jacks, once through Hewitt and again through Lamb, to climb out of the danger zone.

It was at that point that Bounahra found a hand worth shoving with, thus setting up our WSOP Hand of the Day. The 49-year-old Bounahra had well established himself as the tightest player among the final two tables' worth of players, seeming very unwilling to mix it up with his younger opponents. He rarely played hands, and when he did his opening raises before the flop were often 3x or larger (utterly unique at this stage of the tournament).

Indeed, earlier in the evening when the blinds were 150,000/300,000, Bounahra had opened for 1.1 million, forcing folds all around. Lamb then offered the man from Belize a handful of $100 bills to show his hand, and Bounahra obliged, revealing his Ad-Ac!

All of which is to say, when Hewitt opened for 1.1 million from middle position later on in Level 36, then Bounahra reraised all in for 9.3 million from the cutoff, chances were quite good that Bounahra was holding a premium hand. As Donnie Peters reported on PokerNews, it folded back around to Hewitt who eventually called the reraise, tabling Kc-Qs. Meanwhile, Bounahra had the monster many expected to see him turn over -- Kh-Ks.

The board ran out 9d-2h-2d-Qh-8d, and Bounahra earned a double-up to nearly 20 million. Meanwhile Hewitt, who began the hand with about 13.6 million, had become the severe short stack at the table with just over 4.1 million (just over eight big blinds).

Many of those reacting to Hewitt's call brought up a failure to calculate the math involved, referring to how the amount of chips Hewitt stood to win didn't justify the risk in calling. With 1.25 million worth of blinds and antes in the middle, plus the 1.1 million Hewitt had put in with his opening raise and the 9.3 million from Bounahra's reraise, there was about 11.7 million total in the middle. To call would require about 8.2 million from Hewitt, meaning he was getting roughly 3:2 to call.

In other words, strictly looking at pot odds, Hewitt might think if he had around a 40% chance to win the hand, the odds might dictate a call. Of course this is a tournament -- not a cash game -- where the risk of losing two-thirds of your remaining chips and falling into the extreme danger zone chip-wise relative to the other players should be a significant factor when weighing such a decision.

Also a factor here, of course, was Bounahra's tight image, which strongly suggested a hand like Kc-Qs would be dominated. Against pocket aces or kings, Hewitt would be down around 1 in 10 to win, and against A-K and A-Q, he'd only be 25% or so to suck out. Against Q-Q his chances would improve to a little over 30%. Only against hands like A-J, worse aces, or pocket pairs from J-J on down would Hewitt's chances with king-queen off-suit compare to the 3:2 he was getting to call.

But again, this was the November Nine bubble. A 10th-place finish awarded $607,882, but meant missing out on a shot at the $8.71 million-plus awaiting the winner four months from now, not to mention all of the extra money-making opportunities that potentially await the final nine.

Unfortunately for Hewitt, a 10th-place finish was his fate as he'd soon be forced to push with 3s-3c and lose out when Eoghan O'Dea drew a straight with his Ks-Jd. Hewitt was all smiles afterwards, though, congratulating the others as he departed to join his justly proud supporters on the rail.

It was a tough finish for Hewitt, but provided yet another dramatic highlight for fans of poker, one of many we've seen all summer at this year's World Series of Poker.

Comments (2)

1. Anonymous | 25 July 2011

   I thought Bounahra might have been tired,he was always leaning down laying back,or can he not setup? Just wondering

2. Christy | 02 November 2011

   He live on an island in Belize. Which makes him a layed back kinda guy