The Poker Brat and the Poker Kat
Both players checked a flop of , with Hellmuth donning his trademark sunglasses after the flop was already out. On the turn, Hellmuth's opponent tried a lead of 6,000. Hellmuth double-checked his cards and then called.
The river was the . Hellmuth's opponents hands got very antsy, suddenly shuffling chips and cards as if he couldn't decide whether or not to bet. He finally checked and Hellmuth checked behind quickly.
"I just have nines," Hellmuth's opponent said, ready to muck his hand. After all, what hand could 9s possibly beat on that board?
"Nines?" Hellmuth replied. "They're good. Nice hand." His opponent opened to collect the pot.
Hellmuth, true to form when he's being beaten out of a pot, started muttering about what a "big hand" a pair of nines is. Liebert then piped up that Hellmuth really isn't supposed to have a hand there that can't beat a pair of nines.
"Even if you bluff-raised you probably can beat nines there," she said. "There's really only one hand that you can have."
"Well, if I raise with something like ace-queen of hearts or ace-jack of hearts..." said Hellmuth, his voice trailing off.
Hellmuth retains 25,000 of his starting 30,000-chip stack.