WSOP Hand of the Day: Mitch Schock vs. Rodney Brown

World Series of Poker / Short-Stacked Shamus / 25 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

Mitch Schock (left) and Rodney Brown (right), heads up for the bracelet in Event #39 (Photo credit: PokerNews / WSOP.com)

While luck certainly plays a role in deciding which players make it to the final tables of World Series of Poker events, more often than not those who have outlasted the field to put themselves in position to claim the biggest payouts have demonstrated their skills along the way, too. Such was certainly the case last night at the final table of Event #39, the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/Pot-Limit Hold'em mixed event eventually won by Mitch Schock. Amid the many fine hands played at that final table last night came one in particular between Schock and eventual runner-up Rodney Brown that seems suitable enough to discuss here as Friday's WSOP Hand of the Day.

According to Chris "Homer" Hall's report of the hand over on PokerNews, Schock had the chip advantage with about 2.6 million to Brown's 1.8 million when the following hand took place.

They were in the PLO round of Level 25, where the blinds were 12,000/24,000. Schock opened from the small blind/button with a raise to 56,000, and Brown called from the big blind. The flop came 6d-Kd-4h. Brown checked, and Schock continued with a bet of 80,000. Brown responded with a check-raise to 210,000 -- about two-thirds pot -- and Schock called the raise.

The turn was the 9c and a bet of 410,000 from Brown. Schock again made the call, making the pot a little over 1.35 million.

The river brought the Qd, a card which would complete any possible flush draws, as well as potentially filling a king-high straight. Brown gave up the initiative and checked, and Schock took that as an invitation to bet the pot and thus make Brown decide whether or not to call with the 1.1 million or so he had left behind.

Brown took several minutes to make his decision. The scary Qd clearly hadn't completed a nut flush for him, but he obviously held a hand that he believed might be strong enough with which to call.

Finally Brown did make the call, showing Ac-10h-4d-4c for a bottom set of fours. Schock acknowledged Brown for making a good call, tabling his Jc-5h-3d-2c and showing his busted low wrap draw. Brown came away from that hand with the chip lead, having scored a 3.5 million-plus chip pot to give him a better than 3-to-1 advantage over Schock.

When calculating whether or not the river Qd had helped Schock, Brown had to consider which of three different draws Schock might have been on -- a diamond flush draw, a high-card straight draw, or a low-card straight-draw. All were possible, and indeed Schock could well have been on multiple draws, too.

In the end, Brown must have decided that Schock's call of his check-raise on the flop made the low-card straight draw more possible than the high-card one (which took runner-runner to get there). Also, the fact that Schock didn't reraise there suggested he hadn't flopped a better set. And perhaps the one diamond in his own hand helped convince Brown that it was slightly less likely Schock had two diamonds in his.

Whatever the reasoning, it was a gutsy call. As Hall writes in his post, "Whatever happens after this, both players have shown they're capable of making big plays if they need to." Ultimately Schock would overcome the setback to take the Event #39 bracelet and $310,225 first prize.

More events are happening each day. Yours truly will be covering Day 3 of Event #40 today, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event which will begin today with just 20 players, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, and Shane Schleger among them.

Check over at PokerNews live reporting for updates from all of the events, as well as WSOP.com for live streaming of every final table.